Dubai

As I lie here in the sun, with a bowl of exotic nuts and a gin and tonic by my side, I'm staring up at the tallest building in the world and I fancy myself as a rather fortunate woman. I kicked up quite a fuss at being sent to Dubai, just a week after my last business trip to South Africa, but it has turned out to be rather wonderful. Just the get away I needed.

This morning I went paddling with a friend of a friend in the salty torquise sea around the Burj Al Arab. We paddled past a couple of luxury yachts, got shoo'd away from the hotel beach by Pakistani "life savers" and continued on our way towards The Pearl Of Dubai - The Palm.

The weather is glorious at this time of year, still and fragrant.

I'm treating this as a kind of holiday, staying at a first class hotel, lapping it up and all thanks to my employer. I'm here to hand-over the reins of the job that's been sucking me dry for the past five years.

More about the job and the new guy later. For now I'm just going to soak it all up and (don't you hate this expression)....Enjoy!

A manly place, and quite all right, if you like
sipping cocktails on the 62nd floor.
And Russian whores with skinny legs
and bed sores
rubbed raw against the cataflaque
that clads the Burj Khalifa.