My Sunday Photo Week 129 P is for......

........Packing, Penguins, Presents and Polish.

I dragged Peter round Dubai Aquarium yesterday for my birthday treat. I'll be in the UK next week for my actual birthday. He bought me a cuddly Penguin as a gift.

Today I finished packing my suitcase and had a manicure and pedicure and new polish, then had to reopen my case to add my birthday present and card Peter bought for me after work.

The Aquarium and Underwater Zoo at Dubai Mall with #AnimalTales and #HDYGG

The kids keep promising they'll come with me when they are over in Dubai for their holidays, but then we never seem to get round to going so I decided to go to the aquarium on my own.

Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo is located in Dubai Mall, the world's largest mall, so there is no surprise then to discover that the aquarium holds many records also.

The most fascinating one being that the view below contains the world's largest single piece of acrylic panel which weighs 45,000kgs and measure 32.8 m x 8.3 m and is 750 mm thick.

It is also the world's biggest indoor aquarium. The tank is 51m x 20m x 11m and contains 10 million litres of water and has 33,000 aquatic animals from over 200 species.

You can view the aquarium from the outside from 3 floors. 

And from the back on the 3rd floor

I opted for the Researcher ticket at AED 100, which gave me access to the tunnel, behind the scenes and the underwater zoo. I also got to see King Croc and the feeding of the penguins. There is an additional charge to feed the fish, watch King Croc being fed, take a glass bottom tour and many other things.

You could watch the penguin feeding for free

I felt incredibly sea sick when I walked through the tunnel and surprised at how short the tunnel was as it seems much bigger from the outside. On exiting the tunnel, I had to leave the area and go up the escalators next to the rain forest cafe and discovered I could see the other side of the tank for free on the floor, which will be a nice thing to show future visitors who may not want to actually visit inside.

I was disappointed with the 'behind the scenes' area, there was little information available and we were ushered through each area, as we were passed from guide to guide.

The underwater zoo though was lovely and I was free to take my time and wander around, there are coffee and gift shops inside, loads of information of the fish, but not actually as many fish as I thought I would see compared to other aquariums I've visited around the world.

I loved the glass walk ways and especially loved watching the other visitors actually walk around them rather than on them, I did the same up the CN tower earlier this year, I'm more than happy to walk on the glass as you can see.

I was impressed with the decoration of the Underwater Zoo, despite the plants and flowers being artificial it was rather life like and made me feel like I was actually in a real environment, especially with the rope bridges in the jungle area which led to the bat and insect caves.

 Of course the underwater plants were real 

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and World of Birds. Cape Town.

I travelled to Cape Town in August 2014 with my teenage son. He moved back to boarding school in the UK the year before and we'd never got round to taking him to CT when he lived here. Having made a 27 hour journey by train, the last thing he wanted to do was get on a bus and tour the City. He did come out with me on the 2nd day and the 3rd day we hired a car and drove to Hermanus to whale watch and see the penguins at Betty's Bay on route.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are located at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town and is one of nine National gardens with five of the six different biomes in South Africa. Founded in 1913 to preserve the unique flora.

I visited on a very wet and windy day. I bought a two day pass with City Sightseeing on the Hop on Hop Off bus. Kirstenbosch was my first stop so I took a photo of the time table at each stop. Unfortunately I confused the photos and ended up waiting an hour at World of Birds.

The newly opened Centenary Tree canopy Walkway or Boomslang, meaning tree snake, is 130 m long and 12 m above the ground, and has wheel chair access is a fab way to view the scenery.

Kirstenbosch contains many plants, including my favourites the Protea, the national flower of South Africa and the Strelitizia regainae 'Mandela's Gold' or more commonly known as the Yellow Bird of Paradise. It symbolises liberty, magnificence and good perspective.  


Returning to the entrance, I'd just missed a bus, so I opted for a walk round the gift shop and a coffee.

Hopping back on the bus, my next stop was World of Birds, it was still raining and the attraction did have some shelter from the rain with the trees. I was overwhelmed by the smell and wasn't too impressed with the hygiene and the layout. Also there were peculiar combinations of birds in the enclosures and chickens seemed to feature in large numbers. 

There was also a monkey enclosure and other animals. However I didn't want to go in there, again due to the smell. There was a large school group in at the same time and the air was filled with teachers yelling at the kids and blowing whistles. 

I walked round to reach the exit to discover I'd misread the timetable for the bus and waited for 30 minutes in the bus shelter, it's not somewhere I'd be visiting again in a hurry.

Fascinating facts about Penguins

In 2000 in Cape Town 19500 penguins were treated after the Treasure Oil Spill with a 90% survival rate and 19000 penguins were trucked some 800kms to Port Elizabeth and released back into the sea.

It took the penguins between 10-20 days to swim home just as the clean up crew had removed the oil spillage from the area.

Some more fascinating facts about penguins.

The yolk of a penguin egg is blue.

A baby penguin sheds it's down on the first 4 days of its life.

When a penguin twists it's head from side to side it's not being inquisitive, it's getting ready to give you a nasty bite.

Penguins have unique black spots on their chest, just like fingerprints.

When a penguin sneezes it is to expel crystalized salt it has extracted from drinking sea water.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

This is the first year I've seen the TV adverts for John Lewis and Marks and Spencer. I've heard all the hype from the previous years but because I'm currently in the UK I've watched to see what all the fuss is about and I've been very disappointed.

Seriously, do you really think the John Lewis #montythepenguin is a tearjerker? I thought the story line was rather lame and not an advert for the magic of christmas but just another marketing idea to sell penguins.

Why not make a sponsor a real penguin rather than buy a soft cuddly toy? Having visited SAMREC  in Port Elizabeth and cuddled a real penguin, let me tell you, they are not soft, not cuddly and geez they don't half stink.

And the Marks and Spencer advert? Magic and Sparkle? It looked like something a Year 6 class put together for an end of term project and I certainly didn't feel the Magic and Sparkle when I visited a branch in Manchester last week.

And as for the Debenhams advert, I'm not sure it's the best message to be sending out that it's ok for a group of unsupervised children to be running freely around a department store, helping themselves to what they want for christmas, do you?

At least with Argos and a couple of other chain stores, they're actually advertising the products they want to shift for christmas and not fooling you into believing the message is all about the spirit of christmas when it's clearly all about making a profit.