CATCH UP: sheikh, rattle and roll...

What a weekend! It’s gone so quickly, but I can safely say I’ve seen a side of Dubai that I can live with. There are some parts of this city that take your breath away – a glamorous, special side that dazzles you with the glitz of Vegas, the promise of Manhattan and the rough and ready charms of London. It might seem a tiny bit fake, some of it, but everywhere I’ve been this weekend, I’ve been struck with an awesome sense of how much could be mine for the taking, whether or not I can afford it right now. I’ve landed in a place that’s being built around me, and for me, and anything I can add to help it grow will probably be welcomed with open arms. (Unless it's a beer selling brothel).

On Friday T and I finally met Rick for our first Dubai brunch at Waxy O’Connors. Inside it was much like any Irish pub you might encounter in the UK, only, like the ugly sister overshadowed by its beatiful sibling, this dirty hole is atttached to the side of a posh, 5* hotel. Waxy's is renowned for offering “the booziest brunch in town” and may I add that it’s got nothing to do with the pub of the same name in Leicester Square, in which I once had a rather unfortunate encounter with a box of magic mushrooms and a homeless woman on speed. But that’s another story.

We paid the equivalent of eight quid for an unlimited brunch and five drinks of our choosing. Bargain!

When the air became too thick to breathe and the expat engineers too much to handle, we got a cab to Rick’s place in the marina. The view is to die for, although if I’m honest, you have to look beyond a million cranes, bulldozers and dusty, vacant building foundations to see the sea. His place is lovely too – it’s a two bedroom flat , oh, but when he moved in, not only had it been furnished, it had all been laid out like a show room. The dinner table was set as though he was expecting six guests. It was a bit like walking into Ikea. Still, I’d love to live in a place like that, where you can literally watch the marina grow around you. It’s going to be beautiful when it’s finished.

What happened after that is a bit of a blur, but we cabbed it to Hard Rock Café for some cocktails – something I would never even dream of doing anywhere else. It was sort of surreal, drinking a mix entitled ‘snog on the beach’ (I’m assuming ‘sex on the beach’ was banned, along with my blog?) at a giant guitar shaped bar, as the waiters nervously performed some sort of YMCA dance on cue, every 30 minutes or so.

It was there that we managed to recruit two blokes from the Navy – lovely guys who then joined us for a karaoke venture at a place called Harry Ghatto’s’. This place, with a name like my favourite dessert, is a teeny little bar in the Emirates Towers, which starts pumping karaoke at 10pm. I’ve never seen anywhere like it in my life! Imagine walking into a shopping mall, up an escalator, past designer stores all dripping in gold, past Starbucks (outside which, entire Arabic families are sipping iced mochas) and then through what looks like a built in wardrobe on the top floor.

Harry’s was so small that by the end of the night I felt like I knew everyone in there - and I'd sung duets with most of them, too! There were even some arabs in full traditional dress drinking pints and checking out the song-book. Who says sheikhs don't rock and roll?

The no-crime thing here is great too, I’m getting used to it now. I had my bag on the floor by the bar all night as I wandered around talking to people, and didn’t worry about it once. In fact, here, if you hold your bag close like you have to in London, you get a funny look, as though you’re the one who’s shifty. The words “there’s no crime in Dubai” echo around every single place as women leave their bags open on bars and cameras on coffee tables. One bloke even left his laptop next to us in Starbucks in the week, when he popped to the loo. I can’t see it staying that way forever, but it’s definitely refreshing.

Anyway, needless to say T and I felt like shit this morning. I slept till almost 2pm, and then B, another friend of a friend came to meet us. We all got a cab to the Madinat, which is one of those buildings you just can’t help but gasp at. It’s a huge, palatial sort of affair that’s built to look old-fashioned. It's got shops, souks, bars and restaurants inside, not to mention the most spectacular view of the Burg Al Arab. We got late lunch in a trendy bar called Left Bank... then went for a glass of (very expensive) wine and watched the sun set over the sea from the terrace at the Bahri Bar – such a gorgeous place. It was brochure-like, actually. You know the kind of bar you see in the posh books and magazines, filled with honeymooners? It wasn’t full of honeymooners though, just standard Dubai residents enjoying the way of life they’ve become accustomed to.

I could definitely get used to this. I feel like I’ve had a mini holiday, and actually, I don’t even mind that I have to work tomorrow. I do have to start the house-hunt though... I've a feeling that's not going to be so glamorous.