Happy New Year from Dubai!

"I think I'm going to have a quiet New Year's Eve..." I said to a friend when she asked what we were up to.

Fast forward a few weeks and I'm sat in one of the world's most alive cities about to watch the world's biggest fireworks display. My host is the five-star resort, Atlantis, The Palm, and they are going for the world record of the largest ever fireworks, aiming to beat Kuwait's record which lit up the skies in November 2012 (and cost a rumoured $15 million).

Am I complaining? Of course not. I am rejoicing in my good fortune and availability to go at the last minute.

To be honest, I was only originally opting for a night in due to a lack of imagination but I am about to witness an overload of creativity, indulgence and extravagance in a city that is surely built for such an event.

Here's a video showing Grucci, the US firm responsible for the fireworks getting ready in Dubai earlier this month. The fireworks are being spred along the Palm and the World islands with over 400 experts and staff are managing 400,000 individual fireworks; it's an operation that makes me wince when I imagine the stress levels, but in a strange way these numbers got me much more excited than the photos of previous fireworks at Atlantis, The Palm. There is something about having an insight into the pure hard work and sweat being spent behind the scenes that makes me appreciate a performance much more.

It's also worth looking at this photo to truly understand the scale of Dubai and its purpose built islands. So fascinating... ( Source)Tomorrow I'll return with my photos and hopefully some video from the night, but if you want to, you can watch them online on Dubai One TV channel  here (I hope the link works!). Disclosure: I am in Dubai as a guest of Atlantis, The Palm but all opinions, excitement and indecision about what to wear tonight are all mine.