The end of our trip...

Rested, Sunday night was our final family get together before we returned to Cyprus.  At the wedding ceremony Matthew had worn my grandfather's gold watch which Dad had given to him - we had also brought with us Dad's second gold watch (his long service watch from Westlands which had been temporarily in John's safe-keeping) which was intended for Michael but which had hidden itself in one of Dad's shoes and so on the day of the wedding could not be located.  In packing for our return it made a fresh appearance and so Dad got the opportunity to give it to Michael (complete with his crutches) in person and I was pleased to see that he wore it that evening.  The watches were special to Dad and he wanted them to be a special gift to his grandsons but nowadays people's tastes in watches is so different who knew whether or not they would garner the same enthusiasm.  It would appear that they have which is great.

There had been talk of a boat trip this evening but with some ardent Tottenham fans in our group and some fairly majorly important matches on this afternoon we settled for a traditional style Sunday afternoon pub lunch with some pretty large screens showing the footballl.  This is not easy in Dubai but Matthew booked us into a place called the Reform Social and Grill which is located on a gated community at the Lakes and which is billed as a 'True Gastropub' and was about the closest thing to an English Boozer that you could find here in the United Arab Emirates.

We were there for footie and happy hour - thank god for happy hour as otherwise I might never have got Dad home in one piece - the shock of the prices would have been just too much!!!  The place is famed for its traditional Sunday roasts but I opted for one of the burgers which came beautifully presented.  I washed it down with two small bottles of elderflower (??) flavoured cider - what ever is wrong with just Apple I wonder???  Anyway Mum had a burger and some water and Dad had a pork dish and a couple of glasses of wine and our share of the bill was the best part of £140 - wowser that was a bit of a shock!!!  Still in fairness just about everything else that weekend had been funded by the wedding party in one form or another so I really couldn't complain - but I will never balk at paying €5 for a kebab ever again!

We said our goodbyes and returned to our temporary home, suitcase at the ready for the final bits and pieces and alarm set for our early start the next day.  Our limo was to arrive at 9.00am for the 40 minute trip back to the airport - at least I hope it will come - in all the excitement of the last couple of days I could not find the paperwork - it probably ran away and hid with Dad's gold watch!