I am a huge nerd

A casual comment to Helen this weekend got me thinking. We were driving past the fabled Mall of the Emirates, home of the little ski slope that got lost in the desert. I said, 'Sweety, don't you think the Mall of the Emirates looks like the Starship Enterprise?' Now, we could spend an hour less commercials with Dr Phil examining what this says about me, but let's not and say we did.

Instead, let us ponder the striking truth of this statement and its wider application as a metaphor. Bear with me here. The thing is, in several important ways, not all of them amusing, the whole of Dubai is like a season of Startrek, viz:

• We seem to be on a five year mission to go where no man has gone before, to build buildings no-one ever thought would be worth the money, or to get to work through Sheikh Zayed Road traffic.
• All the culture I know and understand is foreign to this place, because I am the alien.
• I nonetheless think I own the place.
• Everything seems to run poorly until the Captain fixes it.
• Communications with my home planet are difficult and expensive, with lots of special effects static on the line.
• The communications officer doesn't really do anything, but still gets to sit on the bridge.
• All the little anonymous guys running around doing all the work are expendable extras.

On the other hand, I get danger pay and I get to see the universe unfold before my eyes. So who's complaining?