Why Emaar call center operators remind me of stinky fruit

So here I sit in the hotel lobby of the Al Khaleej in Deira, Dubai. It is 1:10am, and the temperature is a chilly 29 degrees Celsius on this mild Winter's day. The space bar works intermittently, but I keep going back to fix it. I do this for you, my beloved reader.

I have been in Dubai almost exactly a week. In this time I have managed to do exactly nothing to further the cause of the bureaucrat. I have not got my residence. I have not got my health card. I do not have a place to stay. I have not even got an access card to the building I'm working in. I have bought two new ties, and tried on a pair of pants.

Yesterday I called a company called Emaar. Emaar build big blocks of apartments and then sell them. Also they rent them out to the poor or risk averse. I asked them to rent me a place. This is not the first time that I have called them, nor the first time that I asked them for a number or a clue as to how to rent from them. The phone call went like this:

Me: Hello. I phoned two days ago to rent an apartment. You gave me this reference number.
Them: According to my records, you called at 11:30 this morning.
Me: It is 11:30 this morning.
Them: It will take 48 hours for them to get back to you.
Me: That's what you told me 48 hours ago.
Them: According to my records, you phoned at 11:30 this morning.
Me: Also,I phoned you two days ago, and the day before that.
Them: According to my records, etc.
Me: Well, can you giveme their number, so I can phone them?
Them: Sure. (Gives wrong number)

I was unaware that Emaar call center uses the same method to get rid of men as a pretty blonde in a room full of balding fourty somethings, but it was pretty effective.

I like the supermarkets here. They have lots of cool food imported from all over. I swear I saw a durian the other day. Hmmm, that's some good garlic custard flavoured eating.

And so, to bed. Like sands through the hourglass...