Dubai
As soon as we got off the plane, after an overnight flight via Amsterdam, and having checked into our hotel at 7am we decided to have a wander into town and our first port of call was the fish and veg markets which are always good for an early morning wander. We'd decided this was a better idea than sleep due to the fact that within only a few hours it might be too hot to go outside in the heat and it was our last chance to see something before we melted!  Needless to say it was a surreal introduction to the city but one which I can highly recommend especially if you get talking to the traders themselves who we had great conversations with like 'where in England you from?'

Una Paloma Blanca
Paloma Faith is one of 2009's success stories, with her debut album 'Do Yo Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful', and the packed out O2 Academy loved her on Tuesday night.  You can see from the photos that the girl makes an effort on stage thought it's not without a bit of local help! Apparently the pipe cleaner headdress creation she's wearing was made by a Liverpool designer who's name escapes me but over on backing vocals is future legend Jetta who is the d

Madinat
Madinat is the brand new shiny Arabic style souk that's virtually it's own mall though it's no doubt got a hotel within it's grounds/resort because as well as the shops, fake creek, boats to take you from one side to the other and all kinds of places to eat, you can also drink along the waterfront and being able to drink somewhere in Dubai means that somewhere within the business there's a hotel as that the rules of the drinks license.  The preconception before going to Dubai was that you could only drink in hotel bars but the reality is that you can drink in bars all over the place but they are always in the grounds of a hotel and hotels can have numerous bars

Kasabian
A few years ago whilst working on a fashion shoot in Puerto Banus, I was having a late drink in some dodgy cocktail bar full of plastic gangster expats, with make up artist friend Jayne Moore, when we encountered a man wearing black leather gloves. We couldn't see him as he was sat behind a large pillar and could only see the reactions to him from his over glamorous friends who fawned away and laughed at his jokes and then every now and then as he reached out his hand from behind the pillar to pick up his drink we caught a glimpse of the black leather glove . Anyway, since then I've never been able to take anybody serious who wears them and when Kasabian took to the stage at th

Pretty Flamingos
After 6 days in Dubai you start to get the feeling that nothing is real or at least nothing is natural.  We were even in confused discussions as to who had been to the real souks as there is a replica brand new modern Arabic style shopping mall souk with a creek and boats as well as an original 'old' souk (could go as far back in ancient history as the 1970's) which is less 'authentic looking' but it also has a creek and boats. The point being that they seem to be getting rid of anything pre 1990 and building a nice new shiny modern version of it just along the road like history has to be gotten rid of and replaced with a fake history 'cos tourists like it.