1. Excitement

‘Oh.Hmm.Gee only 25 sleeps ‘til my besties comes to town.’ You literally can not wait.

2. Anxiety

Time to get the itinerary sorted and the planning takes military precision. ‘Afternoon tea, beach, dune buggies, Burj… What brunch will we do? How are we going to fit this all in?’

3. Joy

They arrive and it feels so dang good to be reunited. Especially when you get front wedgies on the Atlantis slide and have all the LOLs in the world. 

4. Pride

They loved the Dubai Fountains and you couldn’t be more proud of your adopted city if you had actually choreographed the light show yourself. 

5. Homesickness

Catching up on all the gossip from home, it’s like no time has passed. Gawd, you miss these chats. 

6. Stress 

Day five and you are running out of ideas to keep your guests entertained – especially since they blew half their holiday budget on high tea at the Burj.

7. Impatience 

A week on and having to join the queue to get a shower in the morning is getting old. It takes you all at least two hours just to get out of the apartment. And they want to hit the mall. Again.

8. Embarrassment 

They inevitably get a little over excited at brunch, and you can’t blame them. But don’t they know its unhygienic to slurp straight from the chocolate fountain? 

9. Relief 

They are gone. You have your apartment back and and can stop pretending your life is a non-stop whirl of fabulousness. Normal Netflix service resumes.

10. Loneliness

But now the apartment feels so empty.

11. Heartache

There is a big gaping hole in your heart that even all the holiday banter on your Whatsapp group message can’t fill. Come back soon guys, I miss you.