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Good times rolling on and getting bigger, as Ol'blighty calls, fish and chips on the menu

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Hedonistic times rolls on. Partying, buffets and free flowing travels adding to the rollicking mood with gay aplomb.  Caution gets thrown to the wind in such times, everyone thinking that partying and moneymaking will never end. Gaiety is in the air. Everyone is talking big. Visions are exploding megafolds.Dubai is transforming to be the next Manhattan, Monte Carlo, Singapore and what have you. Talking mundane is so offputting. Deals are being cut and dealmaking is just rudimentary, it happens naturally, no prerequisite skill is mandatory. Whoa! Those heady days. Just sit in an upmarket plaza and you have dealmakers, investors, business agents, mortgage financiers and lenders coming from all corners of the world. You have a professional from Singapore, a businessman from South Africa, a Londoner couple who just used their house as ATM to release a chunk of monies...all with a single minded pursuit of wanting a slice of action, a slice of Dubai. I too had a foot in the local reality...
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Career bump up, leisure, dinning out and Chinese food

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Time and again the pendulum oscillates between the worst and best of times.  Perhaps, I hit the purple patch going into 2006, as Tajik Air plane landed on the Dubai airport tarmac. I had arrived with my completing half and the oh-so-lovely, irresistible bundle of joy.  Its time to begin afresh after climbing over the worry wall of the disrupting, previous year. My new assignment at this fledgling organisation that we had setup, was as a profit centre head, generating my own business and income in the ratio 3:4 in my favour. Fair and equitable.  I thrust myself for the company, considering it as my very own venture. At that stage, I had two huge life insurance cases that could supplement me for the year. Unfortunately, both were turned down by the insurance providing companies, considering the cases beyond their risk limits. Six months of perusing down the drain. However, another vertical striked me. A call from the Ol'Blighty! Marketing with an English associate for real ...
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Disruptions and a discovery: changing the game

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Many a disruption have often changed the face of humanity, mine being no exception, as the new year rolled by. After a quieter year, I was again set for a new disruption, which proved tumultuous and conflicting, but had a sweet ending. What looked benign, raked up a massive storm that violently rocked my little boat out in the open sea. I went on calmly in my routine business affairs, and got a leg up when the Middle East head of a leading Isle of Man based insurer, awarded me a direct agency of his company. I immediately went on a marketing spree, roping in as many sub-agents as possible.  Simultaneously, I had requested for a no-objection certificate from the brokerage firm whose employment visa I held. Consecutively, this became a conflict of interest situation, and the bosses at the firm came to know of my varying positions. They instantly turned vengeful and devoted all their negative energies to put me under a labour ban after ejecting me out of the country. It was a woefully...
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The gymming experience: reconstructing the halcyon days

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Resurrecting a supposedly ideal past is a nostalgic yearning, long cherished by the subconscious mind, which refuses to believe what's gone wasn't the epitome of perfection.  The gym experience from the halcyon days of late 80s was a key element in reversing the weighty cycle, turning my body into the likable figure that was the pride of my living existence in those idyllic days.  Flash forward to over a decade and half, and we find the scouting for a peice of the modern gymming experience. Finally, zeroing on to an ideal setting in the corner of the road facing the corniche, we find a reasonable type of gym, nestled on the first floor of this corner building with ample parking space in the front and side. I walked into this area, fronted by a burly looking coach who showed me around the gymnasium.Apart from the free weights, treadmill, elliptical rides and multigym machines, the space also had shower, steam bath and sauna facilities that my university gym lacked. I thought I ...
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Trying to regain past glory: jogging, long business trip and entailing disruptions

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Forlorn hope is an overpowering desire, compelling many a men and women to go out there and just do it.  Just do it! Despite the oddities of trail and complexities of traditions, searing challenges have to be faced and overcome in an unrelenting pursuit of glory or regaining the former glory. The crown that adorns the head of the wearer, is simply too enticing, and probably worth it. Its this flame of desire that fires the imagination to try out just that little extra or the little something new, unique and the uneasy.  Passionate fires ignited, I flashbacked on how I was able to pull that splendid feat of slashing down 25 to 30 kgs weight in a few good months. To secure those glorious heights, I planned to do the same rerun, taking a whole chapter out of my late 80s book. Yes, it was over a decade and half, yet the squeezed window of effectiveness is still overwhelmingly enticing. A supreme prerequisite for reenacting this splendid chapter is open field, and a big one too for...
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The rhapsody of home break, movability and career progression on the weighty end

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Living is a struggle, and a big struggle if you are striking the dead end of the wall in your movability, career and comfort. Something truely marvellous has to happen to break the rut, otherwise you happen to think being stuck in its neverending nothingness. Sometimes, you need to break the mould yourself, and just get out of the revolving door.  We decided that it was time for a break from the same rigmarole of getting up to chase clientele and business, while my sweet half and the sweeter addition, longed for a spacious existence. The futile attempts at getting the country's driving license fuelled further pent up frustrations. High time to crack this regime.  Moving our residence outside the city and commuting by sharing taxis, remained the only conclusion against a dwindling range of options. So, we took the plunge in shifting lock, stock and barrel to a reasonable and quite affordable, one bedder apartment. Space wasn't a constraint now. However, something else began to ...
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