Another day in sandy, hot Dubai. Have come to terms with this place – it’s rich, multi-cultural, and in the process of constructing 500 hotels over the next 3 years!

Am reading Bombardiers by Po Bronson. Edgy satire of Wall Street and the bonds trading world told through the lens of a manic group of salespeople forced to push peculiar financial products. Po is such a gifted writer – even though I cannot grasp the intricacies of investment banking, it is an easy read and great fun. Frantic pace!

Today’s video conference with Jeddah is much clearer as we are hogging all the bandwidth. We’re watching a demo of Uniflow and trying to figure out how to integrate it into our application.

Found a Barista cafe very close to the hotel last night. It sits right next to Starbucks. Hmmm. Will go in and compare prices today.

Have not updated my blog in ages and feel terribly guilty for some inexplicable reason. I can’t get Ejaz Asi’s “not amused” look out of my mind.

Am sitting in Dubai at Unilever’s office in Jebel Ali – feeling surreally like I did sitting in Unilever’s Karachi office in May 2003 – discussing wireframes for the first time! I love it when the “lightbulb moment” occurs, when people actually figure out the magic of wireframes.

Anyway, it’s fun to be blogging again. Yesterday, we went to City Centre – pretty close to the Sheraton. Our cab driver was Pathan and has been in Dubai for 7 years. The bill came to 11 dirhams and he didn’t charge us a penny.

Had to change 2 pairs of shoes from Aldo for someone – did that. The mall is HUGE and as with all big places, the Floor Plan was absolutely useless. Kept going in circles.

Have never been into IKEA before, in my life. I was blown away completely. Even if I speak hyperbolically, I cannot express what that store did to me. Every single item, literally, was a marvel of beauty, simplicity, and value for money. By the end (the store was massive) I was experiencing heartburn. Wanted everything.

Video-conference with Jeddah about to begin – more later …