Overheard in the newsroom: Cat bite edition

I've had 5 rabies shots and I still don't have rabies. It's not working. 

Overheard in the newsroom: Relationship edition

Men do have a self-sabotage button.

Welcome to the world's largest book, now on display at Al Wadha Mall

I don't think anywhere in the world is more obsessed with Guinness World Records (there is no 'book', it's a common mistake) than the UAE. For example, 2017 kicked off with this largest tin of caviar in Dubai. 

When travelling: Make a list, and then check it twice. And then check it again. And then grab your passport. Because you forgot it, you idiot

I've been to more than 30 countries in nine years in Abu Dhabi - just add the Maldives, where I am now. And sometimes I think that between all those airplanes and airports, and hotels and guesthouses, I've actually gotten worse at travelling.

I hate packing and always bring too much, except for one or two things I don't have that drive me nuts the entire time. I always forget the most obvious things (which is how I found myself paying US$35 for a bottle of sunscreen at Baros Maldives this week and borrowing nail polish remover from the spa at One&Only Reethi Rah) and beat myself up about them later.

But this trip I made the motherload of travel errors: I forgot to take my passport to the airport. How, you ask? Don't ask me. It's been a rough couple of weeks and my mind has been scattered. But still.

Kim Kardashian and Scott Disick in Dubai

I finally got around to watching the two episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians where Scott Disick and Kim Kardashian visit Dubai with their crew. I'm still sort of blown away with this family as a cultural phenomenon. A couple of years it didn't seem possible for them to be more famous, and yet here they are, more and more and more. 

Anyway, it was scintillating viewing and not at all fake. Here are a few takeaways:

Overheard in the newsroom: Pie edition

You shouldn't even call shepherd's pie pie. It's got no pie component. 

Overheard in the newsroom: Eat your veggies edition

Editor A: Cauliflower is the most flamboyant vegetable.

Editor B: Cauliflower doesn't even have any colour!

I liked to write: I interviewed Dev Patel today

Dev Patel in Lion.

You can read my full Q&A here or turn to the print edition of The National on Thursday for a write-through. (Please keep in mind I only had 10 minutes to speak to him. This is de rigeur for celebrity interviews but it always gets my heart racing a bit. And don't even get me started about how much I worry that I'm going to erase the recording - you simply can't do notes when you've got so little time.) 

I can report Patel is as handsome as ever, very tall (6'2, he said during a group elevator ride at the Four Seasons DIFC in Dubai, where the interviews took place), thoughtful, fun and very polite. 

Overheard in the newsroom: Movie star edition

One of the pleasures of Ramadan is seeing Steven Seagal films in the cinema.