8:55 AM – Wake up after half an hour of snoozing my alarm.
9:25 AM – Head to the door, sulking cuz it’s impossible to find a cab in Ramadan and I’m gonna be late for work (officially at 9:30 AM) only to find my brother at the front door and he offers me a ride to work 
9:35 AM – Arrive at work, decide to visit the ATM machine downstairs first, wait in line, finally its my turn..machine rejects my card for security reasons…ponder sarcastically about the ridiculous UAE bank fraud recently.
9:45 AM – Up in the office, read emails and make a list of today’s to do list. A number of critical things on the list, 2 of which have to be done before 12 PM – one is hand delivering a pitch document for potential client HA and the other is chasing for an ad approval due today to the media, which the real estate client BY still has not decided on the image to be used.
10:15 AM – Email client BY to remind them that the special Eid ad they want is due today to the newspapers and they need to decide on the artwork ASAP cuz we still need to buy the stock image they choose! Sent the same client 3 emails for other urgent, pending print jobs that need to be finalized in the next 24 hrs. Wonder who the hell scheduled Cityscape Dubai the week right after Eid holiday; definitely someone who didn’t think about all these critical print & production deadlines.
10:30 AM – Print and bind pitch presentation for client HA and collect A3 creative printouts.
11:00 AM – Say bye to office boy whose leaving for good to India. He begs me for the millionth time to find a job for his son who is a graphic designer…poor guy.
11:30 AM – Taxi stand. 4 people before me. Midday heat. Wonder if I’ll make it by the 12 PM deadline.
Highlight of the day: Indian lady at taxi stop offers me to stand under her umbrella. I say no its ok thanx but she insists and comes and stands next to me with her umbrella. Random acts of kindness make me smile 
12:30 PM – Back to office. Edits to the pending items for clients BY. Still no word on the Eid ad. SMS boss whose at a meeting to chase the top guy at client BY for a decision.
1:00 PM – Finally, approval for the Eid ad. Instructions to studio manager to buy the image IMMEDIATELY to make the newspapers deadline. Convince him to ignore the finance paperwork for the moment due to urgency.
2:00 PM – Eid ad still stuck in my outbox…IT problems when you least need them :@
2:30 PM – Eid ad left outbox to media. Work with graphic designer on banners, glass door wraps, and other exhibition space bought for Gitex for client T. I’m liking this particular campaign.
3:00 PM – More back on forth on edits for other pending items for client BY.
4:00 PM – Brochures for BY approved. Put on FTP for urgent transfer to Dubai where they will be finalized and printed. FTP down. Try random big file sharing websites. Should have been home by now.
4:30 PM – Update estimates and invoices list and leave those for tommorow.
5:00 PM – Files still not going through to Dubai. Decide to go home and upload files from there.
5:20 PM – Walk through the door, mum’s tense preparing Iftar and ma3joo2a bekhayalha and needs help. Great, what I needed Set the table quickly. Promise to help more later. Rush to room and switch on laptop.
6:10 PM – first file sent. Second file transferring slowly.
6:15 PM – Iftar time. Eating and going back and forth to room to check on file transfer status..extremely slow. Try other file transfer website.
7:00 PM – Progress unlikely on this website. Find another website and hope it works. Back to dining table. Take a few bites. Back to laptop.
8:00:00 PM – ATLAAAASST. Files sent. Back to dining table, continue my meal which is now cold.
8:25 PM – Take a deep breathe and collapse on the sofa for a while.
