Turned out he’s a hotelier whom I meet every now and then at conferences but never in Singapore where we both live. 

“I heard you pounding away and then saw it was you,” he said. “You’re really hard on those keys.”Well, at least, it got me noticed. I knew my Air would be good for something other than work.

Anyway, we strike up a conversation about gadgets. It’s an easier topic than politics or sports and who wants to talk about the hotel business anyway.

I am sure he was looking for a respite from shop talk given that throughout the flight, he had been perusing charts and figures on his highly ancient laptop.

He hands me a magazine called T3. “This has everything you need to know about gadgets,” he said, “although I don’t understand why they always have a babe on the cover.”

This particular issue had a model dressed in a black mini dress with black stockings, popping a bottle of champagne. She’s as skinny as the Air and looks, to me anyway, not as sexy as the iPad. 

It’s clearly a magazine for boys which makes me wonder why. Girls are as much into gadgets these days and I wonder if I should launch a similar publication but always have a hunk on the cover? Would it sell, do you think?

Anyway, I like the magazine because it gives the Air excellent reviews, calling it an “object of desire”.

Checking in with my “object of desire” into the Park Hyatt Dubai (pictured) though, I realized I had a problem. I had forgotten to bring the USB adaptor to Ethernet which my IT butler had said I would need because most hotels do not have wireless in the room. 

Malcolm was right. The room only had cable Internet. I called up the reception to explain my problem. Two men from the IT department came but they couldn’t understand what I needed. 

“Is there a Mac store in Dubai?” I asked, thinking it might be possible to buy the adaptor. They nodded but meant no, they didn’t know.

I asked to speak to their manager. Bingo. Johannes, who is from Jakarta, said because I was staying for a few days, he would set up a private wireless network in my room. All I had to do was sign a guarantee that I wouldn’t destroy the equipment. 

He tells me that more guests are making such requests due to new devices such as the tablets. 

So this is the first time I’ve stayed in a hotel where I have my own wifi network and guess what, it’s free. Wow, it almost makes me feel like I am at home.

Now that’s hospitality.