Ok, so I finally made it onto the streets of Dubai last night. One word: hilarious! The last time I roller-skated properly I was about 14 - there was that time I got the girls together for a roller disco for a birthday but that was only an hour so doesn't really count. Not only was 14 a long-ish (ahem) time ago, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Including a skiing holiday where I spent most of my time on the ground and on blue runs..any I digress. The point is, it's been a while since I was a carefree teenager scooting around the roller disco rink at high-speed.
Given that much of the downtown area is a building site we had to pick our starting spot carefully. And then we were off! D hadn't revealed to me that she's actually a dab hand on wheels (she chose rollerblades) the result of many summers roller-blading between friends' houses in LA, apparently. The first few minutes were a bit hairy (watch out for drains, joggers, and errant bits of gravel getting stuck in your wheels) and culminated in me falling flat on my backside in spectacular fashion. I had a full audience consisting of: construction workers, a queue of cars waiting to do a u-turn, and one very hot male jogger who was right behind me when it happened. D finally stopped laughing enough to help me up and then we were off again.
The verdict: great fun but not as easy as being inside on a rink - lots of dodgy terrain to navigate in Dubai. But if we'd been inside then there would have been no warm breeze, no gazing up at the world's tallest building, and no taking a rest whilst watching the world's largest fountains. Yet another "this is why I live in Dubai" moment. Downtown pedestrians: watch out!
No comments:
Post a Comment