Thursday, March 30, 2006

National Bird of Dubai

The Guardian claims that Dubai has 20% of the world's cranes. Given the size of Dubai relative to the entire world, I doubted this claim; however, one of them just nested next to my window.

My view was formerly of a dirt carpark. Farook told me some time ago that he was trying to sell the dirt, and I believe him. Farook knows most of what's for sale in Dubai (and Sharjah) and tries to sell it, like the school mentioned in an earlier posting (the owner really wanted €9,000,000, but Farook thought she wanted €3,000,000, so he told me I could have it for a mere €6,000,000 cash, handed over to Farook). That he actually sold the carpark I rather doubt (he didn't have any luck at all with the school), but someone did.

When I moved into my apartment, there was a large, paved carpark out front which was never more than about 3/4 full, and the dirt lot was mostly empty, except for people dining at a cafeteria right next to the lot. My apartment building had a large 'For Rent' sign in front. Rent was €500 a month.

Now the 'For Rent' sign is gone, since my building is full with a waiting list. Rents are €1,500 a month. The carpark is always full. And the crane is hovering above the old dirt lot.

My hope is that, when the building is finished, my window will look into the window of an apartment inhabited by several attractive young women who don't like wasting money on curtains, but I live more in hope than expectation.

***

Meanwhile, the fire alarm in my building was going off all last weekend. There's a short somewhere, so one of the sensors (no one seems to know which one) is saying that the first floor is on fire. So they turned the alarm off. Solved the noise problem. As for actual fires, I guess the tenants will just have to sniff for smoke.