No sooner do I get back to Dubai last night, stay up until 3 AM unpacking all my stuff, roll in to the office exhausted and jetlagged at 8 AM, and sit down at my desk to start sorting through emails, then I hear that a Kind of a Big Deal $he!kh was killed in a helicopter crash last night and there's a chance we may have the next three days off work as part of the official mourning period.
It's always an adventure out here, I tell you. At any rate, the news and speculation have rendered today useless to the point of farce, harkening back to the will-we-or-won't-we anticipation over Bush Day back in January. Who says you have to lose those butterflies in your stomach about the possibility of a snow day when you grow up and moved to the desert?
For those who are interested, the match-up is as follows: the $he!kh in question did not have any formal government role and was more affiliated with Abu Dhabi than Dubai (two points in the "con" column for us getting a mourning period) BUT was the son of $he!kh Z@yed, founder of the UAE, and the brother of $he!kh Kh@l!f@, current president of the UAE (two points in the "pro" column). So it's going to be a horse race!
And with that, I'm back to obsessively reloading the GulfNews.com home page and sending out a further barrage of "Have you heard anything yet?!?!??!" SMS.
Only in Dubai...
