The royal yacht Rabdan is the first yacht to drop anchor at Yas Marina, AB has just learned. The 73m motor yacht, built by Hanseatic Marine of Australia, has got one of the best seats in the house for the upcoming Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but then you wouldn’t expect any less for royalty.

“The berths in Yas Marina are in close proximity to the race track and will offer those present unique track views at this spectacular inaugural event,” a statement released just now said.

Apparently 5,000 people are expected to watch the race from aboard vessels berthed in the Marina.

If you have a picture of Rabdan send it to us and we will publish it on the blog, maybe even the website proper. Email elsa.baxter@itp.com

The Arabian Business team is a bit tired this morning after all the excitement of the CEO Awards last night.

There was a great turnout with lots of Dubai’s top movers and shakers there – so much so there almost wasn’t room for us to sit down at the tables.

One guest was playing a little game of guess the wealth in the room. He was asking people to put a price tag on how much everyone was worth. Totals ranged from $20bn to $50bn, but it was a bit like playing pin the tail on the donkey, they were really just taking a stab in the dark. Feel free to post your guesses below.

Noteworthy winners were: Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) who scooped the prestigious Man of the Year award for his leadership in the Dubai Metro project; Leila El Solh, the vice president of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, winner of the Businesswoman of the Year award; and Arabtec boss Riad Kamal, who received a special Lifetime Achievement Award.

For more more news and a full list of winners read our story here.

Or see pictures of the winners here.

Highlight: Mr Kamal’s guest speech (and joke).

Low: Getting to Grosvenor House Hotel, what is going on with the road works?

Tonight are the CEO Middle East magazine awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Dubai. The AB team will be there to find out who’s won what, but in the meantime, here are seven facts about the awards.

1. This is the award’s third year.

2. More than 240 business executives and senior government officials are set to attend.

3. There are 15 awards categories up for grabs, including Visionary of the Year; Young CEO of the Year; Businesswoman of the Year; and Man of the Year.

4. In 2007, the Young CEO of the Year was awarded to Mohammed Saeed Harib, CEO of Lammtara Media.

5. While, last year Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan was named Aviation CEO of the Year.

6. The guest speaker this year will be Riad Kamal, the CEO of Arabtec.

7. It is the second best awards ceremony in Dubai. The first is Arabian Business awards, of course…

At what point do you earn the right to link yourself with a particular profession or job title? I have been considering this quandary because, as you may have noticed, I have been doing a bit of writing of late, but not once, when someone has asked what I do, have I told them that I am a writer.

Perhaps it’s a time thing, and I just haven’t been doing it for long enough. But then I have been driving a car for 15 years and cooking for even longer than that and yet I don’t think of myself as ‘a driver’, and, as scores of people will testify, I’m certainly no chef.

Maybe you have to be seen to be good at what you do before you are honoured with a title. No, estate agents the world over disprove that theory.

Being paid for what you do is, no doubt, a key element to how people perceive themselves but that is not a hard and fast rule either. Take philosophers for example, they don’t necessarily get paid. They just sit there, thinking. But how much thinking do you have to do before you can legitimately call yourself a bona fide philosopher I wonder?

When I was a little boy I wanted to grow up to become either a tycoon or an explorer, but it seems that they are tough worlds to crack. I still don’t know what being a tycoon really entails, apart from being rich, tanned and being able to wear floppy linen shirts. ‘Explorer’ is even more vague – just go and get lost, seems to be the remit.

As with writing I figured that the best way to become an explorer was just to have a go one day. So, to test my trainee exploring skills I decided to start small and local – with a visit to the monorail on The Palm Jumeirah. What do you mean that’s not proper exploring – have you been on it? No. Exactly.

The Palm, for the uninitiated, is a man-made, palm-shaped island, the self-proclaimed eighth wonder of the world, and is both absolutely amazing and yet completely bonkers at the same time. A few weeks ago a monorail service opened up which takes paying guests the length of The Palm but which few people have yet tried out. I think I know why.

And it’s not the price. At AED 25 it is expensive but not prohibitively so, at least for a one off exploratory trip. It’s finding the damn thing that’s the problem. I knew that the main monorail station was housed inside a huge great car park. I could see it, but boy was it tricky to get to. There were no signposts. I now know how Edmund Hilary must have felt as he traipsed up that hill.

I read a report stating that 600 people a day are using the monorail. I doubt that – it’s harder to find than the Holy Grail which means that you need the tenacity of Indiana Jones to stand any chance at all.

But find it I did. And it was well worth it but not because it was an efficient mode of transport that took me from A to B. I had struggled to find A and I didn’t want to get to B. But that’s not the point. I wanted to have an opinion so that when people speak to me about the monorail I can speak from experience. And now I can, and, for what it’s worth, this is my opinion:

We can grumble – as we will – about the signage, the price, the unopened stations and the need to connect to a wider Metro network in order to become a useful daily transport link for residents. So it is not perfect, but we need to have a little faith that these issues will be addressed over time.

It’s still early days but it is clearly a modern and slick form of public transport that provides unique overhead views of The Palm Jumeirah and, best of all, it makes you feel like Neil Armstrong, stepping foot where no man has been before.

It’s new territory. Go. Explore.

I realise she is blonde, pretty and under her Barbie-like appearance possibly the world’s most unlikely genius, but why has Dubai all of a sudden gone mad for Paris?

I first heard about her visit from my colleague Damian, who by all accounts is Paris obsessed. Mention her name and a glazed look will enter his eyes, drool collecting in one corner of his mouth.

Upon discovering there might be the faintest chance of him interviewing the plastic princess, he was as excited as a child visiting Disneyland. Sadly for him, the interview did not happen – some other lucky lad stole the prize. Why does he like her? Well, apparently, like her catchphrase, she is “hot.”

Yet this strange aspect of Dubai, which is a place that presents itself as full of glitz and glamour, a celebrity haunt, is that the city possesses no genuine, ‘real’ glitter.

There are few – if any – genuine western celebrities in the emirate, none of which have been produced by the city itself. This might partially be due to the lack of any decent, English speaking, regional TV. It is more likely due to the fact that the English speakers out here, while more numerous than the Emiratis, never really identify themselves as ‘Dubaians.’ They live in the emirate but are still really Scottish, English, Irish, Australian, American or South African.

Even if a person who grew up in Dubai did go overseas and become famous, it is doubtful anyone in Dubai would say “wow, she is one of us.” And, if one is realistic, upon becoming famous, as the UAE has no developed film or music industry, it is unlikely the famous person in question would return for more than holiday.

So, like with everything else, we are forced to import our celebrities, import our TV shows and feel incredibly excited when a –quite frankly awful – international reality TV program deigns to notice us with its flighty star. Despite the fact that the TV show is dreadful and we would probably never even watch it were we still living in our respective countries, now we will be glued the television screens, flattered by the attention of the bimbo socialite.

This is good publicity for Dubai, we think. People will start seeing the city as something other than a giant labour camp. But, let’s be honest, having the city displayed by Paris Hilton – looking for a new Dubai best friend – is probably a worse image.

And what does she do when her new BFF is found? Does she pay for her to come and live with her in LA? Does Paris move to Dubai to be with her new BFF? Or does she take her out for dinner one day at the Burj in front of the paps, before staging a fight and dumping her to avoid these complications?

Oh dear. “Paris has published another Twitter post,” I hear eager male journalists cry behind me.

Here are her tweets from the last few days:

1. I am NOT doing a club appearance at Club Bed tonight in Dubaii. They are falsely advertising it, don’t believe them.38 minutes ago from web
2. Dubaii is amazingggggggg!!! Huuuugeeeee!!!!39 minutes ago from web
3. http://bit.ly/9cjkd Become a fan and watch the pilot40 minutes ago from web
4. http://twitpic.com/7kivn - Just landed in Dubaiiabout 11 hours ago from TwitPic
5. Everyone here in Dubaii is so nice and polite. I feel so welcomed and happy to be here :)about 14 hours ago from mobile web
6. Tthey are advertising everywhere here that I am hosting a club appearance at some club called Bed tomorrow night here. This is Not True.about 14 hours ago from mobile web
7. Dubaii is Hot! Literally Hot! It’s almost 10pm here and its 90 degrees out.about 14 hours ago from mobile web
8. Taking off, speak when I land my Twitter Buddies Huuuuuugeee5:26 PM Jun 15th from mobile web
9. http://twitpic.com/7ia6v - My bed5:22 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
10. http://twitpic.com/7ia22 - Huge5:20 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
11. http://twitpic.com/7i9y6 - So Comfy5:19 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
12. http://twitpic.com/7i9o5 - This Airline is Amazing5:16 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
13. About to take off, so excited!4:45 PM Jun 15th from mobile web
14. http://twitpic.com/7hjh6 - Going to miss my lil Baby Bear, soo much too!!12:45 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
15. http://twitpic.com/7hjgh - Going to miss my Marilyn12:45 PM Jun 15th from TwitPic
16. I hate packing! It takes forever!12:17 PM Jun 15th from mobile web
17. Follow my boy @Dirt_Nasty12:16 PM Jun 15th from mobile web
18. Packing for Dubaii, leave in a couople hours. Excited but sad to leave all my loved oned and pets,12:15 PM Jun 15th from mobile web

I wonder if that is how she thinks Dubai is spelt, or whether she is just trying to sound excited by drawing it out? Twitter – as my colleague says so succinctly, is now the tool of Iranian mass protests and Paris. I wonder which gets more hits?