I might have been more irritable last week — I have come down with terrible flu — but there have been a number of exasperating experiences that have made my temperature rise even further.

It all started with the ending of my holiday in Ras Al Khaimah, when I headed off to the new Iceland Water Park with a group of friends.

So to begin with, not only was it a whopping Dh225 to get in, but two of the biggest slides in the water park were closed, so a discount — which we were refused — was not an unreasonable expectation. Nevertheless, we paid and entered this $100-million (Dh367-million) Iceland Water Park, hoping to still be wowed by some of the slides.

On the contrary, not only were the slides amateurish and lacking excitement — four of us left with cuts all over our hands and legs — but there was paint peeling off some of the slides (a brand-new water park?) and wave pool — well, let us just say I can create more waves in my bath.

What is more, the food court had not even been opened, there were no soft beverages on offer and we had to pay to rent a towel and Dh35 for a locker.

Let me give some credit to the manager here, who gave us one complimentary portion of chips between the seven of us, chips that were most certainly frozen but were declared freshly cut.

The following day, back in Dubai, I trotted off to Dubai Mall to buy Bateel dates for a friend. While one of the ladies helped me choose and put together a box of dates, another lady called Rose, who seemed to be the main manager at the time, evidently ignored me when I was speaking to her, shooting me a few glances here and there just to make a point — what point I wasn't even aware of. I was ready to shout at her. Instead, I decided to jot her name down before leaving.

While there were a couple of other relatively inconsequential incidents in the ensuing days, I was also happy to find that they were balanced in some way, by a unique case of good customer service.

While at Magnolia cupcakes in Bloomingdales, the South African gentleman who was serving me, on noticing my cough, offered to make steamed milk with honey, after which someone else made peppermint tea for me. What is more, when I asked about the tiny bite-size cupcakes, which they apparently only sell by the dozen, he gave me a vanilla-vanilla for free trial. Now that is a breath of fresh air in Dubai.