Dubai International Airport

Sat beside a charming 7 year old girl called Kirsty who had dreadlocks and was extremely curious about everything. Spent a long time putting stickers everywhere and annoying her dad, who was HORRIBLE. Her English was as you would expect from a seven year old, so I was shocked when she asked "do you speak shona?" (google tells me this is common in Zimbabwe). I wondered if she had constructed her sentence wrong, then realised she was talking about a language, after which she recited and translated a number of phrases cheerfully: "the power is out", "The power is back". I was very impressed given my rudimentary command of Japanese!

Dubai international airport was modern and soulless and made little sense to a country boy like me.

Bye Barbara