Carpets, gold and pink champagne: Dubai, I'm coming...

Melbourne's Emirates airline lounge is a sea of caramel leather, with bottles of pink Moet on the buffet, alongside bottles of pink Verve, if you're a champagne snob. The dates have had their stones removed so you won't crack your priceless dentures, and it's all just so... soothing.

The lounge is a nice intro to Dubai, which seems to have shrugged off last year's GFC (is it just me or does that acronym remind anyone else of KFC?) and is powering ahead, with yet more celebrity chefs looking for a space to hang their shingle, where champagne brunches are all the current rage, and in true Emirates style, if you don't have a beach, build one.

I'm checking the US dollar rate, the dirham exchange rate and, frighteningly, the current gold rate. Gold and carpets: people, this could prove expensive...