Originally Posted by Millhouse

Why anyone buys a ready meal is beyond me though. Never really understood it, even the posh ones are shit.

Originally Posted by Scamp

Convenience?

I like the fact there are barely any here. Guess they're just replaced with deliveries.

Originally Posted by Made in Sheffield 1

Call me lazy, but I miss decent supermarket pre packed sandwiches.
All you can get are mortadella, chicken tikka and cheese slice ones.

Originally Posted by Scamp

I LOVE a supermarket sarnie. Ham and cheese deep fill? Stop it. Chicken and bacon with a sausage roll chaser? Yes please.

Originally Posted by Dubaiexile

M & S ready meals are really good, although I did see mash potato in there one day and I thought that was taking it a bit far!

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope

like MH's mysteriously acquired haemorrhoids flaring up or IBK's vibrant bed-linen spontaneously combusting in a polymeric inferno etc.).

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope

Beekeeper and Millhouse have been our bored Cassandras (or Chicken Littles, pick your outfit accordingly) for some time now, regularly predicting the next crash. Of course they will be right at some point but so far can only rely on informed speculative analysis and anecdotal portents (like MH's mysteriously acquired haemorrhoids flaring up or IBK's vibrant bed-linen spontaneously combusting in a polymeric inferno etc.).

Having lived through both the run-up to and the aftermath of the last crash here, my sense is that things are quite different now. While there is the usual Dubai silliness, there is none of the extravagant nonsense of 2007/'08, including unsustainable macro-effects like $150/barrel oil. There are plenty of mini-bubbles that expand and pop but none are significant enough to drag the whole economy down. The high footfall/low turnover in the malls, the unrealised expectation of large rental drops, the mass layoffs in one sector or another, the constipated market for property sales have all been with us for some time now. And yet things trundle on.

For one reason or another, there is always money looking for an unfussy home in this part of the world. Dubai and the UAE have been lucky in the sense that there is always something that comes along that contrives to highlight this as a favourable destination for any money looking for a home in the region. One thing after another over recent years continues to emphasise this: Syrian civil war, Egyptian coup-by-any-other-name, 2020 expo announcement, Saudi liquidity crisis, Turkey counter-coup, India demonetisation, Qatar whatever-it-is-that-we're-not-allowed-to-call-a-blockade etc. etc.

So I think there is life in the old dog yet. It is blessedly far from a boom which is why it can sustain. And VAT will affect things but, again, however much of a cluster***** it inevitably transpires to be here, it will probably only serve to underline how much easier it remains to do business here than anywhere else in the GCC.

Originally Posted by Made in Sheffield 1

There used to be a snap van that delivered to where I worked in Sheff.
Brie and bacon baguette or a bacon and cheese turnover? Decisions, decisions!

I like anything with bacon, basically.

Originally Posted by IKnowNothing

Whatever mate, but will you miss Fortnums?

Originally Posted by Irishbeekeeper

you are just jealous of my linen ferociousness
and theres no mystery to MH's acquiral of said items, we all know the story...its just YOU we dont tell it to

ok I concur that I also didnt mean a 2008 type fall in result of the VAT but I do predict quite a few (of the business category that I am in atleast) just winding up and having to leave. Anyone who can weather out 2018 should be ok I guess......till the next fiasco

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope

Well thank f**k that, unlike MH, you twitched with life at least since my entire essay post was simply a vehicle to carry that sentence...

Originally Posted by Millhouse

I'm too busy dealing with other pains in my arse to worry about you right now.

Originally Posted by Scamp

I honestly don't think you have any problems other than the size of portion at Taqado.

Originally Posted by TheShed

A valid point!! I had Taqado yesterday and it has definitely shrunk over the summer