As an instructor at Cubair, I would like to thank you for the positive feedback.
I am not sure if I was your instructor or if it was one of my colleagues, but we all feel that the student should be on the controls for as much as the flight as possible - that is what you are paying for after all!
We charge airborne time plus 10 mins taxi time. This seems to be a good way of doing it as it does not put the student or instructor under pressure to taxy as fast as possible or to take off without a proper warm up. You should never be charged for the taxy to or from the fuel bowser as this is not flight time.