Tuesday, 7th January, 2025

Abu Dhabi Doo!!

First up a quick update on our trip out here to Abu Dhabi. Well, of course it involves a number of spreadsheets and not a few lists, but planning is never wasted – and what joy there is in crossing something off a list. Even to the extent of having unexpectedly done something not on the list, then adding it to the list and then crossing it off.

Val was whisked through the airport, our taxi was there to meet us, the driver was, inevitably, from Kerala, and our hotel, the Copthorne Millennium Downtown, knew who we were and, for a small fee, were able to provide us with an early check-in and a late breakfast. The hotel, it has to be said, is looking a bit past its prime, but then which of us isn’t? The staff are impressively helpful and almost entirely from the Indian sub-continent,

We rested up, venturing out to hunt down a Keralan restaurant for an early supper, about a 9 minute walk from the hotel. Val’s feet are such that we took her in the wheelchair, which proved a bit of a challenge. We ask the front desk if the pavements are wheelchair friendly. The answer came back, oh yes, they are fine. And indeed, the pavements are wheelchair friendly, it is just the curbs at the end that are not. So I would push Val along for a bit, we would reach a curb, she would clamber out, step down, I would lower the wheelchair to the next level, she would climb back in and then off we would go again to until we reach the next curb. Whilst this was not exactly the best of all worlds, what was really impressive was that, every time we had to do this manoeuvre, someone would come and ask if they could help, which certainly restores your faith in human nature.

Now, if you have managed to get to this point, you have done very well and I am aware that there is an awful lot of reading to do and we still haven’t had a photo. So, for the likes of my son Chris, here is a photo of the street on which the hotel is situated.

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We eventually found the restaurant, and though they only served thali at lunchtime, much to Val’s disappointment, we had an excellent Allepey (a place in Kerala) vegetable curry, a very good paneer mango curry, some idli and parathas.

It was then back to the hotel and bed.

Time to post this before starting on our adventures from Tuesday.