This is really mental, even for Dubai

Habtoor Grand Resort & Spa in Jumeirah Beach has hired this contraption, where apparently you can have dinner at great elevation while strapped into your seat. Wine, spirits, tempting gourmet cuisine served by a chef popped up in the middle of the table (although, not that I can spot it, an easily accessible toilet) are all part of the experience. Launches Oct 1 and runs until May.

Quit playing games with my heart, BBs

This is for real. I'm going - and not ashamed to admit it.

No wonder everyone smokes here

I just watched someone buy three cartons of cigarettes (talk about buying in bulk) and for 36 dirhams – or a cool $10.43 Cdn.

My first (and hopefully last, as it is almost over) Ramadan misadventure

There was a story in the Gulf News today about three people who were arrested and jailed for consuming food and drinks in public during the fasting hours of Ramadan. How dumb do you have to be, I wondered to myself upon reading it.

I mean, I've only just returned from vacation and I can remember not to chow down in front of hungry others, went the thought train. If you've been here the entire time, well, as my favourite character on Fox's old show Arrested Development used to say, "C'mon!"

Flash forward a couple of hours. It's 5:59 pm, and several colleagues have encouraged me to become excited that the Gloria Jeans kiosk in the lobby is about to open, despite the evening call to prayer signalling iftar time being a half-hour away.

As we waited for the coffees we would still need to consume in the "Ramadan" lunch room, one of them offered me a piece of her chocolate cookie. I proceeded to much away, utterly unaware – until we gasped and remembered – that I had become among the clueless few. It all kind of reminds me of this.

Dubai Metro launches, I feel slightly less jaded

The long-awaited driverless Dubai Metro launched last night to much pomp and circumstance, with passengers taking to it in excited droves today. Check out this, basically one of my favourite pictures of the year.

So there were some glitches, but overall the thing works and even better, people seem to love it. Entire families turned out yesterday to ride the thing. People snapped tons of pictures. And as one of my colleagues notices, passengers did something strange for the UAE: they talked to each other, even though they don't know each other.

Quote of the day

"Most men ask that a woman's height be between 155cm and 170cm, and they want her to have a fair complexion and be young. But I am against such conditions because I am looking to marry off women who have become spinsters. And I cannot promote something unless I have tried it myself. Three of my wives were spinsters when I married them and they are not even that pretty."

-Jaser al Ghanem, a matchmaker in Jordan who promotes polygamy as a solution to spinsterhood

Say it ain't so!

One of the "don'ts" listed in an advertisement produced by the UAE Ministry to help combat the spread of swine flu is the traditional Emirati nose greeting.