Dubai makes the rest of the world seem fake.

Visiting The Entrance on the Central Coast recently, I was struck by how many shops had illuminated signs in their windows.

On the first day I visited the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, the fire alarm went off. Visitors were forced to congregate outside in the drizzle while the building was evacuated.

Earlier this year I visited MONA in Hobart, and more recently MONAS (Monumen Nasional) in Jakarta – very different, culturally, but similar in the way they both tell a story about our times through the medium of art.

Underneath the MONAS tower there is a huge hall called the National History Museum. It’s very much of its time, all shining marble and bright lights.

Why New York? Why Manhattan? What is it that makes this place the metropolis?

I’m not the first traveller to spot the similarities between Lisbon and San Francisco but, by coincidence, I visited both places in the space of a month so, for myself, the sense of a double-take was even more pronounced.

It’s a problem faced by many home decorators: how to fill those awkward wall spaces on either side of the fireplace.