Hi from the warm, multicultural, English-speaking, desert city of Dubai!

Here are a few ironies and coincidences surrounding the Emirates flight from Istanbul to Dubai:

a) The chicken (as opposed to the lamb) dinner was very popular on the plane. Popular enough for Emirates to run out of it. In Turkey, the flight origin country, people hardly touch chicken due to bird flu paranoia.

b) The plane flew over Adana, the city I originally flew from to catch this flight.

c) A saw the Australian film Moulin Rouge for the first time ever. This journey will eventually take me to Australia.

d) In Istanbul Airport duty free I bought Danish vodka. I did not make the Danish cartoon controversy connection until I read about the burning of the Danish Embassy in Beirut on the in-flight television.