Getting into the Xmas spirit ...

I am four days away now from being on holiday (hoorah!), but locally they're not even off for Xmas day. However, we are still managing to get into the Xmas spirit of eating, drinking and being merry - having survived the office Xmas lunch (turkey and stuffing?! really?!), we sidled off today for champagne brunch at one of those lovely five star hotels in town. Wow ... as you can see, a balanced meal, with all of the major food groups represented (red, brown, yellow etc, and surely there's at least two of my five a day?)

Life in the Fast Lane

Muscat may be a capital city, but it's got a lovely village feel to it. It really is teeny tiny compared to other great capitals of the world, and it's practically stone age compared to the neighbours in Dubai, where I had the dubious pleasure of making a short visit this weekend ...

From sleepy little Muscat ...

... to the Big Smoke of Dubai

Actually, there was nothing really pleasurable about it - in fact, downtown Dubai is my idea of hell on Earth. Flashy consumerism, great hulking piles of glass and steel, and most of all no soul to speak of, no history or culture of its own has had time to develop, just reflections of some far away vision of wealth and success.

OK, so the Burj Al Khalifa is pretty amazing - 164 floors, half a mile high and weirdly organic in the way it points its crooked finger skywards. I was suitable impressed, it was too big to even get into a single photo ...

But then turn around and it's Dubai Mall, the faux mud walls of Souk Al Bahar, too much Louis Vuitton and not enough Middle East for my liking. And the people - hordes clutching their designer shopping bags and munching on fast food as they waddle or totter on inappropriate footwear from air-conditioned mall to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned home ... although the setting sun did manage to give it all a slight air of romance, it was just too artificial for me, too clean and shiny and stuck in shades of silver and charcoal.

I'm sure I'll go back at some point - a girl needs to dance every once in a while, and there are apparently the world's fastest flumes - but it'll be a calculated dash in and out with friends. A quick taste of the high life in the fast lane, and then hightailing it home to little old Muscat ...