$11.5 million?????

That is the value of the decorations on the Christmas Tree at Emirates Palace which many of you have read about by now. Emirates Palace is a hotel and a palace that actually lets people like me in there for a film festival, dinner or just to take pictures of an over the top christmas tree.

This is a photo of the front with the fountains going and when I tell you it's only one section of the hotel that's what I mean. It is incredibly huge with separate wings for the Sheikh's and their families when they want to stay there. True opulence at its finest.

This fleet of ten, yes 10, Cadillace Escalades sits on the 2nd level of the garage for use by hotel guests or Sheikh's I guess because the real fleet of limousines sits one floor above these and consists of 15 - 20 white 5 and 7 series BMW's along with a few Mercedes, a Bentley, a Maserati and even a Rolls Royce.

Those are some expensive ornaments in the photo. The ones in this picture have a value of 4,082,000 Dirhams or roughly $1,112,261. That's just the necklace, watch and tiara.

The tree itself stands 20 meters tall or about 60 feet and is in the main rotunda of the hotel. We actually had to go through metal detectors when we entered the hotel tonight, never had to do that before, they usually just let me right in. There are some large fake gifts under the tree, but the jewels that give it its value are hung all over it. The red ropes keep everyone about 15 feet back and there were 3 - 5 uniformed security guards around the tree the whole time. They also have some stands with flyers on them with pictures of the most expensive items and where they are hanging on the tree.

Finally just to prove I was actually there, the obligatory picture of me and all my friends standing in front of the tree. I'm the guy in the white shirt. At least I don't have the blue Boston Marathon shirt on in the photo.

I arrived in the UAE 144 days ago on July 30th. It's been sunny everyday since I got here. I haven't see clouds for more than 2 hrs if that much. Now I'll admit it's been really hot and muggy some days, but it's been sunny.

QOB: Our quote of the blog comes to us from one Marcus Buckingham, social scientist, consultant, speaker and author of The One Thing You Need to Know. "Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it."

Heck, that sounds like a good idea to me.