Hi,

Had an uneventful Thursday night with not much to see on the people watching front but we weren't going to be late or overdo it as we had brunch on Friday. However, as usual came home earlier than a non-brunch thursday night but ended up with H & I having a couple on the balcony so it turned into a late one anyway!

Friday came & with minutes to spare we made it to Saffron brunch at Atlantis. There were 22 people on the table but we only knew about 6, many were colleagues of Louise & their friends. Now those that know us know Yalumba is our brunch of choice but we have done Saffron a few times. It is a very big brunch with lots of food + drink stations but we always find that although the food always looks amazing it never quite lives up to the look of it. For me, I like real champagne & unfortunately the bubbles they serve is Jacobs Creek sparkly wine which is fine but not anywhere near as nice as the real thing!

It started badly when H went to get a beer but they said they weren't serving beer today! Now this seemed crazy when you think beer is one of the cheapest (use that term loosely here as no alcohol is cheap) drinks. At this brunch they have free flowing jaegermeister, mojitos made with Havana club (not cheap rum like some places), mai tai's served in mini pineapples, pina coladas served in coconuts, huge water melons with vodka in & pipettes with shots of tequila & shots of vodka (various flavours), so no beer made no sense. Anyway H had a moan to a manager & got some beers, & as later there were beers everywhere they obviously had had to give in on the 'no beer today' rule!
Now having seen the above list of alcohol served at the stations including whiskey etc & wine you can imagine the state of many people by 4!

At this brunch there are more of the young set and it has loads of people who are up there own a**e however it is great for people watching especially the women in various states of dress & undress!! Anyone who thinks living in a muslim country is difficult with all the rules needs to pop their head into a friday brunch about half an hour before it finishes!!! (Ok, maybe not in most muslim countries but certainly here!)
One of the guys on our table who is an older nice man unfortunately morphed into a photo mad crazy man, trying to get shots of all the girls in their lack of clothes which was very embarrassing - even the guys were embarrassed however he got his just desserts when leaning across the table to get a not-so-subtle cleavage shot of one girl he knocked a full glass of wine down himself!!!! So he looked like he had wet himself!

By the end of brunch I had a lovely bunch of coconuts (empty ones) on the table!
Another thing we are not so keen on at Saffron is the bouncers. I will at a later date fill you in on my top ten bouncers in Dubai because everywhere has huge array of (usually) black african bouncers that have amazing physiques & I have taken it upon myself to check these out!! Most are more than happy to show off their biceps etc & happily indulge me in a 'chat' & a squeeze (of the biceps!!!) And they usually have a very nice nature too, even when dealing with trouble & I am sure this is why we don't get a lot of aggro from drunk people in the bars here as the bouncers at home often make things worse with their attitude.
However here at Saffron they are usually very miserable, bad tempered
Eastern Europeans & they stand over you trying to hurry you out as you are finishing your drinks.
Atlantis has a nightclub called Ndulge & they have started an afternoon session for the postbrunchers so we thought it would be rude not to partake of the invitation! As it is by the waterpark they provided 'party buses' to take you from Saffron to Ndulge (Atlantis is a huge area with vast grounds). This was great with pumping music, god alone knows what all the people leaving the waterpark thought when buses were turning up at 5ish full of p***ed people falling out!

The funniest thing for us though was as we were waiting to leave the bus a car pulled up & a crowd of guys jumped out, they opened the boot & a young lad got out! Funniest thing I've seen in ages.
We enjoyed our first visit to Ndulge & it still makes me laugh after all this time that you are dancing around & drinking like it is 2 in the morning when it is only 5 in the afternoon.
We left at possibly 7ish but not really sure, we nearly 'lost' Thelma a few times on the way out as she was a bit wobbly but thank goodness H & I did 'catch' her on her the stairs!!!

I am going to assume that is enough rambling from me today and as I have to pack etc will say goodbye. I am travelling to UK tomorrow & will try to blog from there but not quite sure whether it will happen or not but will catch you all up when I get back if I don't manage to while away.
See you soon
Love Jane