How Much??

It seems that since their arrival in Dubai, the Kilners and sidekick Sophie possess a natural ability to generate a new tale for my Blog everyday and last night was no exception!  It's short and sweet and involves coffee!  I've written about coffee recently when we were in Kona, Hawaii but that post pales into insignificance alongside the excesses of last night!  And talking of pale, that's how Paul looked this morning when he arrived at the Marshals base! I thought he must have seen a ghost!
Quite simply, they went for a coffee in their hotel last night and Amanda fancied something a little different and so ordered the Blue Mountain Americano.  Ok, it's a coffee that was dressed up a touch but fundamentally it was an Americano.  Additional to this slightly unusual brew were three more coffees which one might call normal.
Very nice they all agreed after finishing their drinks and asked for the bill which unlike last night had to be paid by them.  It was only 215 Dirhams which might not seem a lot but when they did the conversion, it came out at £47.75 with Amanda's Blue Mountain topping the bill, if you will pardon the expression, at a mind blowing £23.33!  Perhaps this is a potential new and lucrative market that Starbucks and Costa should be investigating in the UK?
I swear that Amanda doesn't just do it for the experience, she does it to try and upset the equilibrium of her loved one Paul but this never seems to work.  He remains calm in all circumstances and I can never ever imagine him losing his cool.  Mind you, I have a plan to test him out with the 199 Dirham Mcflurry which contains extra gold coloured M&Ms!  Dubai really is something else.
 It has been a very hot day on the Earth Course but I was fortunate to find myself early out with Group 7 consisting of Joost Luiten and Japan's Hideto Tanihara.  Hideto, although speaking very little English, appeared to appreciate my regal two handed bow and a greeting of konnichiwa as he walked onto the first tee!  I had been practicing Japanese into the early hours for "don't knock it in the bunker" but decided it was a little inappropriate.  Instead I thought it was better to engage him in discussion about our very recent visit to Pearl Harbour and the Pacific conflict.  I was fortunate that there is a very good local hospital near by which was able to extricate his 7 iron from my person and return it to him before it was needed!!
I thoroughly enjoyed the four hour walk although neither player distinguished themselves and certainly won't be in the mix to try and win this tournament come Sunday.  The people who will be in there though include both Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood together with Tyrrell Hatton who shot an incredible score of 63!  That is 9 under par for you golfers reading this and I understand that it could have been better.  Can he repeat those fireworks tomorrow?  Apparently, young Tyrrell has a fiendish temper and a habit of slamming clubs into the ground but when I spoke to him earlier on this week, he was charm personified.  Whatever his temperament at the moment though, he is one of the hottest properties in golf and great to watch.
Tomorrow, I find myself out with better performing players although at this stage I'm not sure which ones.  It will be hot, dry and dusty and with Friday and Saturday being the weekend here, it will also be a lot busier.  It's a great experience walking down the middle of the fairways with these talented individuals and I would recommend anyone with an interest in golf to try the volunteer experience.  I might well write a little more about that tomorrow.
As usual, some photos to paint the picture here in Dubai.

The Blue Mountain Americano!

Nearly £50 for 4 Coffees!  Would You Leave a Tip?  I Bet Paul Did!

Haithan - My Company For The Day

My Home For The Week

It's Huge Inside

With Martin Kaymer

And Thorbjorn Olesen

With Tyrrell Hatton Who Shot 63 Today!