Sunset over the Persian Gulf in All Good Things

It's my last night in Dubai. My flight leaves in nine hours, it's after midnight, my suitcase is packed.

I'm exhausted. The last few days have been hellish thanks to a Swiss tribunal chairman who himself described the proceedings as 'anarchic' when he thanked me afterwards for putting up with them. One of the American attorneys asked me jokingly last night if I was getting hazard pay for this job. That's how bad it's been.

But I really enjoyed working with Nicole. It's so rare that I get to spend any time with another steno writer (she was editing for me because she couldn't find anyone else to come at such short notice), and it was wonderful to work with someone who understood what I was going through. Editors have no idea how much harder steno writing is than editing, both physically and mentally. Nicole was having a breeze, loving taking it easy for a change.

That's something I can never talk about with Annette, who is an editor and has never been a steno writer. She thinks her job is tough physically but she hasn't a clue how easy she has it in comparison and takes offence if I ever even imply such a thing.

My wrist pretty much held out until today when it started blazing like unholy fire again, but amazingly we actually finished a couple of hours early, early enough for Nicole and me to finish the transcript and then go up to the pool area of the Radisson hotel where we were working and have a couple of drinks watching the sun go down over the sea. Other than a dinner we shared in Hong Kong about seven years ago we've never spent much time together so it was nice to have an opportunity to chat before she had to leave for the airport and her flight to Hong Kong. It turns out we get on really well and have a lot in common.

It was one of those perfect moments in life as we sat there bathed in sunset colours relaxing with delicious white wine after a bitch of a case.

Like my unexpected day off on Monday that I spent at the beach, soaking up the hot December sunshine, playing in the tumbling waves and feeling like life was perfect.

I'm so glad I came on this trip. Dubai has definitely become one of my hometowns now,