Never a dull moment

I was dead tired last night so after a really nice chat with my Sweetie, I managed a good night's sleep and this morning I got up feeling great.

On the way to the office, the taxi I was in was rear ended. Luckily just a little "nudge", no damage. After a short exchange of words between the drivers, we were on our way.

The office I now work in is one of the big triangular skyscrapers called Emirates Towers. There are 4 sets of elevators that service different floors. Three sets of elevators are accessed through a common lobby which is accessed through security gates controlled by a swipe card. The other set of elevators have their own lobby and security gates.

I arrived at the building in one piece, got my latte and proceeded through the security gates and to my good fortune, the elevator came right away and I hopped on. Unfortunately, it was going to the 10th through 20th floors and I am on the third floor. I immediately hopped off. In looking around, no elevators in the vicinity were going to the 3rd floor ... huh?! My only option was to go to reception and ask what gives.

I approached the security gate to leave the lobby area but when I swiped my card to get out, it opened the wrong gates. No problem I think to myself, I'll just go around and out that gate. Wrong! Gates close. No problem, I think to myself, I'll just swipe again. Wrong!! When the system thinks that you have already left the area, it will not open the gates a second time. Basically I was trapped!

Lucky for me, there was another lady who was having the same problem but her friend had managed to get out. The friend went to security who then opened another gate and freed us poor captives. I was then directed to the correct elevator that goes to my floor and all was well.

I get to my desk, log onto my computer, read a couple of emails and then *** POOF! *** the power goes out to the whole office! I really try not to be an alarmist but in the back of my mind, I'm thinkin' terrorist attacks! But it was nothing of the sort. Merely a powersurge from DEWA (the government owned/operated utility company) and apparently this happens several times a year. Eventually it came back on and the day continued.

The rest of the day was uneventful.

And just so no one gets worried, this is one of the safest places to be with respect to terrorism. Muslim extremist organizations are not inclined to target Muslim countries.