At the end of every week, our car is covered with a fine layer of dust. In most of the shopping mall car parks there is a car cleaning service. For 15QR (around £2,50) you can get the exterior washed. Quality of the service varies but it is cheap and is done while we are shopping.

Yesterday I left our car in a mall car park where we all met to go on an outing to the desert. I paid 15QR to get the car cleaned. We thought we would be going in someone else’s vehicle, but due to the numbers on the trip we had to use our own car.

So off we went in my shiny clean car into the desert first arriving at the attractively named ‘Singing Dunes’…. so called because they make a resonating hum as the sand moves… that’s not our car, but it gives you a clear view of the steepness and beauty of the dunes.

Although we did not attempt driving on soft sand where a 4-wheel drive is essential, most of the journey was on desert roads and several kilometres off-road on compacted sand.

By the end of the day the car, the outside was covered with dust and the inside full of sand… see how I avoided the cliche of bringing the desert home with us.

This meant another trip to get the car cleaned… this time to the car wash opposite the airport.

For 30QR, the car was cleaned inside and outside and is now ready to collect a new layer of dust this week.