Has 2009 started yet?

So I woke up on this the first day of 2009 sharing a bed that wasn't my own with another woman, sporting a three-tequila headache from just two glasses of wine and wondering when I became the person that brings homemade food to parties (voluntarily!).

A bizarre start to the New Year indeed. Especially the bit about barely having anything to drink.

The hangover was fortunately quick to pass so I headed for the shops as planned and promptly seemed to completely forget that today is New Years' Day. The reason I mention this is that it made me realise why time seems to pass so quickly in Dubai. And believe me - 2008 totally shot by!

As the city and it's drive-fast, party-hard residents dash from one event, holiday, launch or celebration to another there is noticeably very little build up to savour. Events take place and then are tidied up overnight like nothing ever happened. Everything is a mad dash to make it the most spectacular, most fabulous, most bling and biggest, highest, shiniest thing ever...yet the overall experience is like the fireworks so much loved in the UAE - over in a flash. There seems to be a cultural adversity to planning over a longer term, taking time to enjoy the journey rather than dashing head-long to the destination.

Now I'm not exactly blessed with a lot of patience, but I have to admit the pleasure of the traditional build up to a family Christmas, or the anticipation of planning for a holiday. And as much as I approach New Year celebrations with trepidation, it's still nice to fully acknowledge the end and start of another annum.

With New Year plans already muted on order of the Sheikh, and fog blanketing Dubai like a muffler (just in case anyone did break ranks and ring in 2009 with a party popper or two), I was actually quite glad of this morning's disproportionately large headache if only as a brief reminder that something had been celebrated the night before.

Happy New Year!