The conversation was a visiting UK businessman saying the other evening that we in Dubai are unaware of the bad situation we're in. We're not exposed to the truth as presented by the press in the UK so we don't realise that the city's economy has collapsed.
Firstly, we are of course fully aware of what the world's media says - we have access to it on the internet.
Secondly, while there's been a dramatic slowdow it's not the picture conjoured up by sections of the British press. You know the stories, tens of thousands of expats fleeing, schools emptying, a ghost town being reclaimed by the desert.
The two experiences were yesterday evening's peak time which gave us traffic gridlock on Sheikh Zayed Road, on Al Sufouh Road, in Knowledge Village.
Then walking the length of Dubai Marina I was struck by the huge amount of construction still going on. There's the constant noise of generators, machinery, hammering, shouting along the full length of the Marina.
An awful lot of companies are still doing an awful lot of business.
They jumped the gun with the obituaries.
