a thing in 13 photos
dubai
But before we get to her boss' house, I should probably tell a little back-story so that you'll understand just why I was excited to see it!
As I mentioned earlier, Bernadette and I corresponded for years online before meeting up IRL (that's what an acronym we internerds use that means In Real Life!). Here's the random story of how we met! One day Biba was bored and somehow ended up stumbling upon an entry on this website from one night that I went out with Emma and Hannah Taylor from way back in 2001. She emailed me to say hi and tell me that we had friends in common and after that, we'd occasionally see each other online and chat a bit.
Sometime later, Biba left London and took a job in Dubai as the assistant to a sheikh - because of the NYC-Dubai time difference, she was always online when I was online (because I'm an insomniac and I'm up half the night) so we started chatting pretty much every day. Her new boss is one of the richest dudes in the world (literally) and she'd always have CRAZY stories about her new job and life in Dubai in general.
One night/day we were chatting and she was suddenly like "I've got to go! I'm being attacked by a giant cat!" I thought it was a weird way to end the conversation, so I asked her about it the next day and she explained "My boss likes to raise 'big cats' that he gives as gifts to other sheikhs and dignitaries. But recently, he's started a few of them to the office every day because he loves to see people freak out when they come to his office for meetings!" Since we were always joking around about the excess in Dubai, I wasn't sure if she was pulling my leg, but then a few days later I received an email:
"Hey guys! Just thought I should share with you what I tend to get up to on a normal working day at my office..."
And then when I opened the photos that were attached...
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
See all those buildings across the water? See how there are like 30 or 40 buildings that are each like 40 or 50 stories tall? Philip and Bernadette blew our minds when they told us that when they'd moved into their apartment about eighteen months ago there was only desert across the water from them! Every single one of those buildings you see sprung up in just eighteen months! That's pretty much Dubai in a nutshell.
