"WHERE THE WORLD CONNECTS"
Good morning from...







...Dubai International Airport in the UAE. Perhaps not quite as nice as Singapore's, but a modern oasis nonetheless at the midpoint of a "trip from hell": Valencia-Barcelona-Milan-Dubai-Sydney. Headed there to chair the jury at the Farr 40 Worlds next week. DXB-SYD leg is nearly 15 hours (ugh, in eco -- biz class is chockers), but at least it is on Emirates. Never flown them, but is reputed to be one of the world's nicest airlines. Good to patronize them as they are the title sponsor of Emirates Team New Zealand (no connection to this trip).

Shots above taken with my trustly little Nokia phone-cam upon arrival this morn. The airport is now in the second phase of expansion (since 1997). Costing US$ 4.1 billion, the expansion includes the construction of Terminal 3, Concourses 2 and 3, a cargo mega terminal, Dubai Flower Centre and a major upgrade of the existing Terminal 2. Dubai International Airport at present has the capacity to handle 22 million passengers annually. On completion of the expansion programme by 2008, DXB will have the capacity to handle over 70 million passengers annually.

Been to Dubai a couple times before for regattas, including one trip with Leslie and Meg when she was quite young, but not too young for a camel ride on the beach!

(Soon as I turned on the computer here in the lounge the Skype calls started coming in. Free internet telephony, and anyone who has broadband and does a lot of long distance calling and is not using Skype (free to download at www.skype.com) has more money than brains. Grandma Jan was able to download and install it, and register (also free) in minutes. We now talk with her from Germany-Michigan almost daily. Grandpa Tom is a recent convert as well. And, no, I do not own stock or have any other connection to the company; just a fan of the technology.)



OK, time to check out the vaunted DXB duty-free shopping before the loooong flight to SYD.