Thursday, December 30, 2010

NYE 2011

NYE 2008 was the best party I ever had. Even though I'd passed out by around 12:30am, it was the beginning of my friendship with the people I spend most of my time with now, my friends that have made my life so much happier and better. 2008 was a fantastic year.
My only resolution for the year was to travel, and that's something that I'm still doing(and will hopefully continue to do)!

NYE2009 was terrible. I was in middle of a very damaging, and what now seems like a pointless, relationship. The party that was scheduled didn't take place as we'd expected. About 2 hours before midnight, there was a death in the host's family and we had to shift locations and were so busy finding another house and transporting the drinks and food there that we actually missed the clock striking midnight. Plus, the death of the relative (ailing grandmother in India) put a damper on everyone's spirits even though we didn't know her at all.

NYE2010 was a big party. We'd decided to host one at a hotel, hired the poolside area on the rooftop, decked the place up all nice, sent out invites, charged for entry.. complete club-scene! The party itself was a huge success, but I was in a terrible place in life. Above mentioned damaging relationship had ended, and badly at that. At the stroke of midnight I broke into tears and just stayed that way all through the first quarter of that year!

But 2010 was the year of healing for me. I'm over the relationship, done with it.
I'm still traveling, for which I'm thankful. I feel more mature, but I also feel more weighed down, by responsibilities (mainly bills. most of which are speeding fines. ok, not so mature :P)

I'm burnt-out at work though, and am passively looking for a change, and not liking any of the offers coming my way (obviously!). I'm constantly broke, and constantly worrying about being broke and how I'll be able to afford my next vacation.

So this year, my resolutions are a bit more sedate. (see, I knew there was a reason I felt mature!)

Resolution#1 Save money! Save enough money to have 6 months worth of salary in the bank account by my next birthday.

R#2 Move to another place. I hate the house I'm currently living in. Plus, I think the vibes are bad for me. I need to change.

How I'm going to achieve resolution #1 when I have to do resolution #2 is something I'm not thinking about right now! I know it's going to be challenging, but we'll see where it goes eh?!

#3 Work towards changing my career, start following my passion.

Again, how I'm going to achieve resolution #1 and #2 when I have to do resolution #3 is something I'm not thinking about right now! :P

#4 Fall in love.

I know #4 is not exactly something I can resolve to do, but I just want to put it out there to the Universe. What if something like what SRK says in that movie Om Shanti Om happens - Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri qayanaat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.
;)

I know it's taken from The Secret, but it sounds so much better in Hindi (urdu?)

And then, if it happens, I can say " Itni shidatt se main tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai"

:P

And then you can say wah wah wah! *grin*

Anyway... that's my resolutions list! And it looks like the toughest one I've given myself yet! (even without me having to actively do anything about #4!)

I'm looking forward to new year's eve, and I'm looking forward to the new year.
It's been a difficult year, this 2010, but it's been good too.
So I'm thankful for the good that happened, and I'm hoping for the best for the future.

So cheers!

To hope, love and potfuls of gold! ;o)




Monday, December 20, 2010

Qatar - Do you have what it takes?

So Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup in 2022.

Which is great news for me, as Qatar is one of the territories I'm handling at work and it looks like business will soar for another decade till they're ready to host the world cup.

But what I'm wondering is... will they be able to handle it?
The infrastructure development alone will be a huge task, and while the country is developing in leaps and bounds ( Qatar did quite well this year, I've achieved my sales target!), they are still a long way away from being world-class.

But the other point I'm wondering about is, whether they'll be able to handle the culture-shock they're going to be facing. The World Cup is going to be one Big party. And though the Middle East loves their football, we all know they're not the best party-people.

I was at the F1 races held in Abu Dhabi this year as a marshal, and the people who came to see the races were uber-rich people just looking to show-off and have a good time. My post (from where we monitor the race) overlooked the marina, where all the luxury yachts were docked to watch the races. The party would start in the morning, with music playing, men and women drinking, topless women sunning themselves etc.
I was also at Vettel's after-party for a bit, where they were basically spraying everyone with champagne (even the reporters and camera-men) and just going crazy!

The folk from dxb and Abu dhabi were able to handle this, and though the guys went nuts for the women, they did take it in their stride and obviously, enjoy themselves thoroughly. But the marshals who were flown in from Bahrain almost had their eyes popping out of their sockets with shock and wonder. *grin*

So, the big question for me is, will Qatar is able to handle their country being over-run by the rich and beautiful who want nothing but a good, long party? Will they be able to handle all the wet-t shirts parties and the drunken people walking around their streets?

I've been to Qatar, several times, and it felt like I was in a small arabic town. (Bahrain was worse)! And it was no place for single women, as I kept getting stares even if all I was doing was walking down the street!

For the F1, Abu Dhabi has a different island altogether, away from the city, called the Yas Island, where all the action happened. Not that the city was devoid of action, but it was nothing compared to what was happening at Yas Island itself. And Abu Dhabi is a lot more cosmopolitan than Qatar (though it doesn't hold a candle to Dxb! Dubai rocks even though Abu Dhabi is the capital! :P)

Will Qatar do something similar? Will they build an island and separate the party-place from the prop room? Or will they slowly get their country geared up to face the rest of the world?

What do you think?