(In homage to my aforementioned favorite trashy new blog.)
Last night...
6:00 PM - leave work, drop car at home, walk the underpass beneath She!kh Z@yed road to Em!rates T0wers for drinks with colleagues at The @gency. Am seated next to my COO, so try to be on my best behavior, but still manage to snarf down the better part of a pot of gruyere/truffle fondue and two glasses of Grüner Veltliner. Several Pakistani colleagues and my Emirati CEO sit quietly in the corner drinking fruit juice, but the drinkers outnumber the non-drinkers - what to do. It is nice that we can still all get along. A Brazilian/Palestinian colleague who I have worked with for 6 months asks me what part of Canada I am from. Apparently he thought I was Canadian because I speak French. Try not to take this as a personal insult. Fail.
8:00 PM - COO pays for everyone's drinks/food (sweet!) and the old folks call it a night. Young 'uns join the team of McSchmancy & Co. consultants working on a project for our company and head back across She!kh Z@yed to the F@irmont Hotel for drinks at C!n C!n. It's a going-away party for one of the McSchmancy consultants who's "rolling off" the project (love consulting lingo), so McSchmancy is picking up the tab. Drink a caipiroska and eat copious amounts of sushi while listening to various, mostly German consultants talk about their impressions of Dubai and telling the whole "how does a blond girl from Tennessee end up in the Gulf" story a few times at their urging. When the conversation veers back towards shop talk, Scottish colleague Di & I graciously thank them for the drinks and excuse ourselves.
10:00 PM - leave Di (who has a big date in Oman tomorrow so is calling it an early night) and walk the 200 yards back from the F@irmont to my building. Stop to scope out a blue Lamborghini with an "898" plate along the way. Head up to my flat and chat with flatmate E over vodka/pineapple juices while I change out of work clothes and into going-out clothes. Debate whether we are at the crucial weather turning point after which I will be able to go out wearing only a dress (no jacket) for 8 months straight, but decide that we're still a few weeks away. Grab jacket. Sigh.
11:00 PM - get into cab to go meet R + his colleagues + his sister for drinks.
11:30 PM - exit cab at Dubai M@rine Resort after sitting in 30 minutes of traffic to travel 2 miles. Sigh. Enter and proceed to Sho Cho, where I spend the next few hours being bought Stoli Raspberri & sodas by R's Syrian boss, who has long insisted that I am CIA because of my random travels/obscure country knowledge. Chat about my recent trip to Syria. Try to convince him that it is nothing that exciting; I am just really that big of a nerd. He remains convinced that if he gets me drunk I will crack. I don't mind. R looks on, amused. Intermittent dancing ensues.
2:30 AM - call it a night. Queue up for a taxi home; call 800 Zaatar to ensure that a falafel sandwich will greet me upon my return.
3:00 AM - arrive home (cf. traffic). Eat falafel, mourn my great foolishness for not ordering two falafels, watch several episodes of The Hills. Contemplate how much better I like Heidi than Lauren. Wonder if that's wrong.
4:00 AM - sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
