Let Start The Party - An Introduction

  Hello there, I thought before we start on this journey of ours, it would only seem appropriate to tell you a little about myself. An introduction of sorts. So lets get right down to it.

  Well, where do we start, I moved or rather was brought here to the land of sand at the ripe old age of around six months old in the late 70's. I really don't have any real way to verify that fact other than that my mother told me so, I didn't have my own passport till I was in my early teens, so we'll just have to take her word for it, I can't imagine a reason why she wouldn't tell me the truth, can you?

  So practically me and Dubai grew up together, as I grew taller so did the towers, wouldn't call them skyscrapers yet as skyscrapers really didn't take off here till after the 2000's but even then Dubai's ambition to be the best was clear, there was the Dubai World Trade Center, the tallest tower in the region at the time. Even today it's still standing...tall-ish after all these years.

Dubai World Trade Center back in 1979.

Pic courtesy by micro urban 

   Then there was the usual kindergarten and schooling, I do thank my parents for a decent education, well at least they tried, although later if I recall correctly it was at my late uncle's insistence that I be put into a British GCSE curriculum school and not the regular run of the mill institutions, like my two elder brothers were sent to. It wasn't some fancy pants type of institution, where the kids of royalty and the rich and famous went to, just, nor could my folks afford to, who were strictly middle class, to enroll me in a fancy pants school as my dad came from a very poor background, forced an education on himself, and the only one amongst his siblings to do so and become a civil engineer. and a small business owner later on.

  I on the other hand never finished my higher education, enrolled in one of the very few places at that time where you could finish your degree without going aboard and even then it wasn't cheap, BUT, I dropped out after the arrival of my first semester's horrible grades! I was never a good student anyways, I barely managed to scrape through high school with just enough to graduate. There was always too much going on outside to get trapped in this world of boring texts books and classes. Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD, perhaps? I have one of those oddly wired brains that need to be stimulated 24/7 and lets face, school wasn't very interesting or stimulating. I sometimes envy the people who can just stare at a wall for hours with their minds blank! I can never switch off my brain, and sometimes find myself, talking to myself, Maybe I'm just a good listener.


  After dropping out of college working I spent most of the time on and off working at my dad's small video rental store, until the time I thought at the time I had found what was my true calling, desert safaris. The better part of the first decade of this century was spent doing just that, and I had a blast doing it, for it combined too of my passions into one. I loved the outdoors and nature and I was pretty much a petrol head. Dubai is a place that nurtures these both.  And I guess it was obvious to other people also as I remember being told many a time by people who had come on a vacation to Dubai and booked a desert safari with the contractor I was working with that I probably had one of the best jobs in the world and it didn't hurt that the money was good too.

  Then during the end of the decade, the real estate boom really took off here, and one of my good friend somehow landed up in it as well, he tired for quite a while to convince me to stop wasting my time running around like a madman in the desert and come to where all the action was, he would hook me up, and I saw how much he was making and how a couple of people he had hooked up were.


  But money was never my motivation to do anything, If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. Plain and simple, I spent almost two years working for free or what you might call an apprenticeship to get my foot into the desert safari world, so money really wasn't a factor, maybe if I was more motivated by money I'd be a rich man today!



  Anyways after almost a decade of presenting Dubai as the ultimate travel destination to people who had come here from all the globe and ll walks of life, I was starting to get a bit bored of it. The industry was starting to get more and regulated regulated and day by day it started to feel more like a job. And I very clearly remember saying to myself. The day this starts to feel like a regular job, I'd quit!

Dubai Marina

 Fast forward a little, lo and behold I was a freelance real estate agent, I won't get into too much detail on this which I did for a very short time because just when I was starting to make or was starting to get the potential to make some solid money the global economy tanked due to the credit crunch crisis and so did the real estate and property market over here. Long story short, it all went pear shaped. Really pear shaped!!

  I'll leave other stories and adventures of my life for a another time, like how I met my future wife...online or how I tried to make it as a music producer in this city and much much more. So that was just tiny slice of my life here in Dubai, now its your turn, do you have any interesting stories or anecdotes you would like to share? Or simply if you would like to know something more about Dubai or if you like to hear about something specific of how it used to be here or how it is now, Leave your feedback, thoughts, questions and stories in the comments section below.