Backchat With Catboy
More wisdom from the radio DJ
II’ve just celebrated ten years in the emirates. And when I say celebrated, what I actually mean is I just said (out loud, in an empty room), “I can’t believe I’ve been out here for ten years!” I didn’t come here for ten years. I’m not that organised. I don’t have a five-year plan. I struggle with the daunting commitment of a five-day plan. If truth be told, I don’t even know what I’m doing for the next five hours. Ten years is a pretty decent stretch. If the UAE were a prison, I’d be called a hardened inmate by now. So maybe I’m a hardened expat. My skin is certainly harder. When I arrived here I was a soft, pink cherub. Now I have the skin (and, some would say, silhouette) of an elephant.
I’m definitely a hardened driver. In the UK I had the occasional bout of road rage if my relaxing journey to the studio was interrupted by the merest of vehicular infringements. My first few years of driving in the UAE were spent like a Tasmanian devil behind the wheel, screaming and gesticulating, with steam coming out of my ears. Now, a decade on, I take the traffic in my stride.
Ten years is also the longest I’ve ever spent in one job. Before this, I didn’t really take jobs with the thought of them being a career. I normally worked for a singular purpose: saving money for travelling or a new guitar amp, so my terrible band could take over the world. Now Dubai 92 feels like a career. Well, actually, it feels like grasping on to the slippery plank of employment for fear of drowning in a sea of debt.
I don’t know if I should be freaked out or proud of this milestone. I guess it’s quite an achievement. To put it into perspective, The Beatles only lasted ten years. Friends only lasted for ten years. OK, Margaret Thatcher managed 11 years, but the woman never slept.
I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen a patch of sand become the world’s tallest building. I’ve seen a patch of sea become a palm. I’ve seen more malls in one city than I’d ever seen in the rest of the world. I’ve seen bubbles grow and bubbles burst.
And from my chair in the Dubai 92 studio, I’ve listened to your stories: your babies growing and going through school, your achievements and failures, your blossoming relationships, your traffic jams, your pre-weekend excitement, your post-weekend regret, your happy hellos and your tearful goodbyes.
And I wouldn’t change it for The World… Islands.