Covid-Situation in Dubai

The last two weeks were a bit tens in our household but during the last two, three days relaxation set finally in. Mostly because we feel like we dodged a bullet this time.  

On August the 6th my husband had a business meeting. The meeting was not long, under two hours and my husband didn't think of it anymore except for when he was having a follow-up call with the person in question. To his surprise, the person was being sick, having shortly after their meeting come down with Covid - despite being fully vaccinated.  

Since we are not fully vaccinated yet (paper works were dragging out in time and only full residents get vaccinated with a couple of weeks between the two shots) and we just on the day of the follow-up call started to all get a soar throat and that day was precisely four days after the meeting, we were definitely a bit panicked. 
Now, a soar throat or very slight cold symptoms of any sort are nothing unusual here, viruses get distributed via the AC, the temperature differences between outside and inside give the body extra work to adjust but normally it will go over within a couple of days. But in context with that meeting we say enough reasons to worry.

Despite lingering on for the better part of at least a week, the symptoms slowly vanished without ever going beyond soar throat and slight headache and since a couple of days we felt like we could really let the thought of a possible Covid-infection go. We of course kept ourselves at home and did not meet up other people for the first ten days after the meeting. 

This was the first time in Dubai that we had such a close call and it is a good reason to give an update on the Covid situation here. All in all the situation seems to be under control. The UAE is holding the number one spot in Covid vaccinations. Children from the age of 3 can have the Sinopharm vaccine in Abu Dhabi, from the age of 12 BioNTech-Pfizer in all of UAE. BioNTech-Pfizer is also offered as a booster shot but whom can take it and  when depends on the emirate you are in. 
Cases are currently lingering around 1,000 daily which is "okay" considering that everybody is moving freely and restrictions have been lowered significantly during the last weeks. It is a bit hard to get number on severe cases here in the UAE but they do of course exist. 2009 people have all in all died - compare this to the over 14,000 cases in Sweden that has roughly the same number of inhabitants. 
What has been communicated though is that people that are not vaccinated are more likely to be hospitalized and die. So we are a bit in a hurry here. 

A little bit about this and that....

Today: miscellaneous.

So yesterday my husband and I finally found the time for our walk around parts of the Marina together. It has been a couple of weeks and after 15 min. into the walk I also understood why. It was late afternoon/early evening and the sun was still up. Like every day. Very hot. Merciless.
Since we are close to the ocean it also generates a considerable degree of humidity. Hanging out clothing on the balcony has them sometimes become very "sticky" with a humid, salty layer covering them if one doesn't take them in fast enough. 
We had our two youngest with us so our tempo was slower then usual. But it was nice to walk the now familiar way, stopping occasionally for some triceps dips and push-ups which we all did together - age appropriate of course. Since it was around early dinner time I took the chance to drop into "Baker's Kitchen" for the sake of the boys and to get them a light dinner before we would eat at home.  

"Baker's Kitchen" is a German bakery on Marina Walk that also incorporates the only German bookstore "Lesekidz" in the UAE (even if the physical store "only" comprises roughly two shelfs, it covers the basic needs for literature and language learning). I occasionally drop by to get some materials for the kids but was for a long time unaware of the awesome food offerings that go far beyond bread and pastries. The place is obviously run by somebody with a deep love for his art and also pushing the boundaries as it tries to educate not only about German sourdough but healthy food in general. 

It is therefore no wonder that not only the German community loves this place but also vegans of all sorts, as they have all sorts of vegan breakfast items and Bistro-offerings as well as homemade vegan and non-vegan hamburgers and even pizzas. You will even find keto-friendly food items on the menu. Also the choice of vegan pastries is impressive and many have a very hearty German touch to it, just as you would expect from a solid German craftsman.  Maybe it is because I was in Sweden for so long that I pick up especially much of that lovely, familiar vibe of my home country as it really cannot be compare to a normal "café". Even Swedish bakeries only get half-way there. 
Unfortunately it took a bit longer than expected to get a loaf of bread and the snacks for the boys and we ended up eating all something but we were additionally consoled with getting some extra free breads with us which made for a great breakfast this morning.

With a bit of a delay we took of towards one of the two outdoor gyms in our proximity to do a bit of body weight exercises. It was to no surprise that all four of us were soaking wet of sweat until we got there. I didn't check the numbers but going on feeling, it was still around 40 degrees C and the humidity was enormous, the air felt as if it could be cut as there was no wind at all. 

Once back home I made a large jug of fresh lemonade and while everybody was occupying the bathrooms to shower, I inspected my latest delivery from Kibsons, an online supermarket that seems to be the only place with a complete offering of vegan items. In the beginning I was close to despair as non of the supermarkets seems to have a complete sortiment of vegan food items (Willy's, Ica, Hemköpp: I miss you and your well-organized sortiments and shelves!!!) - or they are so overpriced that it is not worth shopping them.

On the positive side I dove deeper into vegan food making and learned to adapt certain foods in a way so that I would not need a ready-made vegan cream for example. On the down-side I was constantly running around between the three big supermarkets in the area to get what we basically needed for food-making at home. It is a continuous hunt that takes a lot of time and planing.
On a side note: I suspect that the service personal in our apartment tower thinks I am a bit strange anyways as they see me going out, coming back with loaded grocery bags, carrying water and t-paper and all. Also, we utilize a lot of public transport and walk a lot, lol. I am not sure that this is totally common around this area, most people here will gladly rely on their car, their maid or have everything delivered. I do not really see the need yet: we live fairly central or at least in a well connected neighbourhood, not one of the villa areas further off. 
But considering the vegan food supply I was happy to have found Kibsons and even got hold of spelt flour again. A triumph of sorts. 

The one thing bothering me considering all those marvellous delivery services here in Dubai is the amount of packaging used for everything. My collection of solid cardboard boxes which I started for the not so far day when we will move from the apartment is slowly but constantly growing. I also did not have to buy any containers for food so far. Turns out that many of the food delivery services use pretty solid plastic containers that are even microwavable and although it might seem odd esthetically - throwing them means that they will most likely end up in a landfill. The problem of plastic packaging becomes much clearer in a place where one cannot pretend that it will be recycled, albeit efforts being made to catch up with the problem. But let's not kid ourselves, even in Europe, we are not as great as we are made to believe in actually recycling plastics - most of it is burned, which is the lesser evil than putting it into a landfill but still. (The plans for a waste-to-energy facility here in Dubai seem to be underway but delayed).

As we had been running late and two thirds of the family had not yet eaten, I decided to run to the nearby Carrefour to get some food. I was lucky to still get something from the Carrefour kitchen, namely Lamb kofta and Chicken Byriani and Manakish. Yes, you guessed it, this was for the children that also eat meat and since we non-animal product eating peeps already had something delicious at the bakery, I thought they were in for a treat. 

I do love Manakish, especially with Zataar and lucky for me, you can also get a variation with vegan cheese in some places. And yes, these two plastic boxes are now gracing my collection of one-way plastic that is durable enough to be reused. What can I say.

Having had the illusion that I still would be able to squeeze in an express work-out at home, I called it quits at around 11, after sitting for around ten minutes undecidedly on my yoga-mat, contemplating if I had the energy for another 20 minutes of sports to then finally took my well-deserved shower and call it a day. 

Dubai and the Master Plans

For the outside onlooker Dubai is the city that arose miraculously from the desert sands, developing from a little spot on the map into a sparkling metropolis in the mere span of roughly 60 years. Today the city of Dubai has roughly 3 million inhabitants.
It is not quite as simple though and I was astonished when in April the new Dubai Master Plan 2040 for urban development was announced to the public, since I had never heard anything about it.  This led me to dig a bit and I was surprised to find that this was already the seventh Master plan all in all. 

But first a bit of history, since the outside world often likes to overlook that Dubai did not only come into existence with the building of the Burj Khalifa and the Palm Jumeirah and the onslaught of influencers who seemingly can not get enough glitzy shots in front of even glitzier interiors. 

Dubais history goes back to at least the 1820s when the now sparkling city really only was a mud hut town. But obviously it fast became important as a mercantile city in the region and started growing already then, soon being of interest for the British to keep the trade in the region under control. By 1920 the sheikhs signed a contract, declaring that upon oil discovery, concessions would only be extended to British entities. This happened in 1966 and the British sought cheap labour from India and Pakistan, adding to the diversity of an already astonishingly diverse city population. The British then left the power over to the sheikhs by the end of the 60s due to anti-colonial movements, rather keeping a positive relationship with the emirates and thereby not risking the profitable exploitation of oil. This enabled the foundation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. So in short, this is a story of economical success, first of being an important trading town and refuge for many immigrants from Persia and Afghanistan, among others, and then due to the discovery of oil that the Europeans were so keen on exploiting.
I recommend reading the concise summary in the OpEds from Dubaization. 

These developments lead however to the idea of developing the town with the help of Master plans. The first of its kind was presented 1960 and developed by John Harris on the initiative of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (John Harris - Dubai's Master Planner 1960s-70s). The goal of the plan was to establish an infrastructure of roads but also facilities like schools and hospitals. On a positive not it did not aim to obliterate the historical districts of Shindagha, Bur Dubai, Al Faheidi and Deira but rather expanded the city with new areas, designated to specific uses like industry, commerce and residential quaters. Still today there is indeed a constant thrive visible in the city to keep a connection to its history and heritage alive and present. But the plan soon proofed to be insufficient as it could not keep up with the actual growth of population. New plans followed and especially in the The Dubai Structural Plan also incorporated concepts for green corridors, connections to the water, and other sustainable features (The failure of the Master Plan). Again, the city grew faster than anticipated, making the plan in parts obsolete. This also lets Dubai still be a socially highly segregated city despite at least in theory aiming to become more integrated. 

The Master Plan 2020 was presented in 2011 and addressed part of the challenges for a modern city. It aimed to improve walkability and possibilities for cycling as well as putting greater emphasize on public transport. The Dubai Metro is constantly being build out, Dubai Marina features a convenient tram system and is graced with a paved walk way, the bus system is actually also quite convenient. Still, one cannot overlook the smaller and bigger misses in the planing of these facilities and the constant priorisation of cars. Having lived here for six months I do have a certain sympathy for the preference of cars. There is indeed nothing more convenient in 40 to 50 degree Celcius heat than going from your ac'd home to your ac'd car to then deboarding it elegantly and unsweaty at your equally ac'd destination point.
But at the same time - coming from Stockholm, were the interconnection of different transport systems as well as the equal accessibility for both cars, walkers and cyclist (though there is much left to do for cyclists) to the city is quite good, Dubai undoubtfully has flaws and is very car-centric. The distances to the Metro stations are enorm and so far they are not conveniently connected to bus lines or other means of public transport. While I adore the long, air conditioned skywalks to and from the stations and the ever clean and convenient trains by themselves one is still missing that last hint of convenience and time-effectiveness when getting to and from the stations.  
Also: climate change and the need for modified urban spaces!!! 

Now the Master Plan 2040 promises to solve all this and even more. It promises the improvement of resource utilisation, to provide sustainable and flexible means of transportation, and enhance environmental sustainability. What excited me the most was the ambitious goal to let nature reserves and rural natural areas constitute 60 per cent of the emirate’s total area and that the length of public beaches will increase by 400 per cent. Again, coming from Sweden where nature is accesibel to everybody by the Right of Public Access (Allemansrätten, at least so far), accesiblity to natural environments indepentendly from your income status are a basic human right in my opinion. So I really hope that the Emirate of Dubai will be able to fullfil its ambitious goals and does not once again get outpaced by the exponential growth of its population. 

Falling of the horse...

 ... and getting back on again. 

Since we arrived in Dubai I had the luxury of reducing my work load significantly. This gave me finally the time and space to look a bit after myself, mainly by slowly starting to work-out again. The last 7, 8 years (ugh) I was only able to every now and then squeeze in two or three weeks of regular training until the next wave of workload, family activities or some sort of stress was putting me off it again. 
And while I always enjoyed a rather slim frame, I am not going to ly to you: muscle loss above the age of 35 is real! 

Now, for me, when I want to keep my shape, it is not at all about weight. I ditched looking at the scales nearly twenty years ago and pretty much rely on my body feeling. Having gone through some very light weight shifts and four pregnancies during my life, I know quite precisely how much I weigh just by looking at the mirror. But what normally gives me more of a headache is when I loose my muscle toning. And I am not talking about very visible muscle toning, just a normal, healthy balance between muscle and fat. Besides this,  it is mostly about staying fit. Fit in the sense that I want to be able to do the bicycle tour with my kids, go on that hike, be able to climb up on something or put in a spontaneous sprint whenever needed without dying after a mere fraction of the activity because of lack of force, endurance or flexibility. In short, I want to be a physically functional person and the older you get the more effort it takes to keep these abilities. 

Additionally to all that I am hopeless when it comes to putting myself first. The curse of a traditional upbringing, so to speak. I will put everyone and everything in front of my needs in the hope to then have the "freedom" (read: time) to do something for myself. It is no surprise that it does not work like that, sometimes some things have to give. 

After a successful start with quite regular "training" - which could consist of a sharp, long walk (I despise jogging, sorry, always did), some weight lifting, some light yoga and some short HIIT-workouts at home, I managed to step up my game for nearly a months with the help of an online plattform that I discovered, specifically targeted on women. The workouts are pretty tough and a challenge but also very effective and I was doing great progress for three weeks. And then it happened again! Despite  having a lesser workload, lesser extracurriculum activities to take care of for the kids (since they are mostly incorporated in school) and in general a more relaxed life, I felt stressed out, had some hormonal roller-coaster going on, bad sleep and - stopped training for a good 10 days.
The last 3 of these 10 days I managed to put my schedule in such a way that - despite wanting to start again - it was literally impossible because I had planed times so badly for meals and activities. Talk about messing up for oneself. Nagging in the back of my mind was the fear that all the work I had put in so far would be in vain and I had to start over - again. It needs a good level of fitness to keep the results for a longer time without working out in my age and I am not there yet. Actually, I will have to put in a year of constant training to be able to put in a longer pause without loosing any of my gains. 

But yesterday I managed, I rolled out the yoga mat, put my dumbbells and my laptop in front of me, a big water bottle close by and started again. I did an express core workout of roughly 20 minutes, added some leg and gluts and arms and then I was done. And yes, I felt the pause of those 10 days but still the feeling of having gotten over all those hinders being back at it again: priceless. 

Vegan Versus Plant-Based

 This one has been going around in my head for a while now, especially since I recently dived into information and advices from different nutritionists and dieticians. One nutritionist caught my attention since she put so much effort on emphasizing PLANT-BASED over VEGAN, complaining that many of her clients were former vegans with major nutritional deficits and/or intestinal problems due to not eating enough fresh produce and the right balance of nutrients needed. 

This made me think about two things: my own use of the word "vegan" and it's true meaning. I would like to start with the true meaning. 

It should be commonly known that "Veganism" not only refers to a diet - because, ultimately, veganism is a certain diet - but that it extends to a whole lifestyle. A person who is vegan is in the classical sense somebody who avoids all animal products. This does not only encompass food and drinks but also clothing, cleaning products, health and beauty products, any sort of tools, appliances, utensils, in short: everything. A person with a vegan lifestyle is in the majority of cases heavily motivated by animal welfare and does not want to harm or utilize animals in any way. Also, classical vegans are in my experience very aware and conscious about the need for wholesomely cooked food, utilizing fresh produce over convenient/processed foods or even anything canned.
And this was were I got irritated about above mentioned nutritionist until I understood that during the last ten, twenty years being "vegan" has become such a trend, that people might dive into it without knowing or giving themselves the time to learn exactly what to do and how to do it. 

"Plant-based" referes in general to people who prefere eating fresh produce, plants, non-animalistic foods over the normal carnivore diet. This includes everything from people eating fish, beef and poultry to a lesser extend but quite regularly to people who might only eat seafood OR beef OR poultry once in a while but clearly in lesser amounts and intervalls than in the "average western diet". It also means to avoid processed foods as much as possible, cooking from scratch with a wide variety of produce. 

Now, with all the hype around meat replacement products, many people obviously do believe that they can continue eating as they are used to and simply replace animal products with some soy- or other plant-based replacement. I am sorry to break it to you but that is not how it works (of course). Doing that will mean that you deplete yourself of necessary nutrients really fast because it is very likely that your diet will lack diversity. I am now 1,5 years into my vegan diet and I am still learning about new foods and how I can heighten the intake of useful nutrients by varying our diet as much as possible with different grains, plants, pulses, mushrooms, and so on. It is highly interesting to me and at the moment I am a bit obsessed with the usage of silken tofu that can not only mimic a good scrambled egg but also works wonderfully as a base for sauces or -  cake frostings! Or the different mushrooms that give certain meals the chewy kind of texture and the umami-taste that one normally strives after when longing for a nice piece of meat while I am also looking into foods for gut-health and balancing blood-sugar levels and so on and so on...  

Lastly that made me reflect on my own usage of the word "vegan". 

I normally say that I am vegan which is sloppy.
I am on a vegan diet and although  I do strive to terminate all animal products I do still own (and buy) leather goods, for example. Why? Well, frankly, I do not see the point in replacing leather goods with non-biodegradable, mineral oil-based plastics because that is what many "vegan leathers" are made of. There are more plant-based vegan leathers coming onto the market, like cactus- and corn-leather. But one has to be carful that they are in the end also bio-degradable otherwise I am just continuing the vicious cycle (well, actually it is not a cycle, more a one-way street) of raw-material extraction and waste.
So, in correct terms I would need to say that I am on a plant-based diet instead, albeit one that excludes all animal products. Exceptions are made for my family: my husband sometimes craves the odd bite of seafood when eating out (like once every three months, if at all), my oldest daughter and two oldest sons will choose dishes with meat when at the restaurant, one of the sons has a metabolism in overdrive and is a picky-eater so if I only can make him eat a certain dish with adding some pieces of meat to it to make it more appealing, I will. My youngest though eats no animal-products at all (not only at home, so to speak) and thriving. This approach works for us.
Most importantly, I try to skip as much convenient, processed food as possible and the longer I am following this path, the easier it gets. It is a constant process of learning, understanding and then implementing. And it is extending to other things, having me brought to wanting to reduce drastically our use of plastic, chemicals and so on. The last think I kicked out of our household? Liquid hand-soaps. But that is another story. 

The View Today

There was rain in the desert today. But not here in Dubai - or at least not in our part of town. But Abu Dhabi obviously had some serious rainfall and to be honest: I was hoping it might rain here too. But it didn't. And while I do not like dark, cold rain, I do love me some rain in warm temperatures. Maybe another time. 

The temperatures are in the meantime creeping up the scale of the thermometer and we are nearing the critical line of 40 degrees Celsius during day time. 

But back to the rain - so even if it didn't rain right in front of our door, the air was nonetheless much clearer than for many weeks now. As a matter of fact, the last time I could see so clear and far into the horizon must have been shortly after we moved here.  And so I have some pictures and videos I want to share with you in the hope that these will do the scenery some justice. The morning started dramatic, with strong winds and a rainy grey-scale.

The early afternoon then graced us with bright blues and a rare view on the shipping port. Actually, one could see the huge tankers coming in from afar today but my camera, the quality of the Zoom made it a fruitless task to try and capture them as they were far out on the horizon. 

And now, in the very early evening, the drama was back on again with sun beams, clouds, scales of grey and blue, shadows and still a gorgeous view on the shipping port as well as lovely contrast out towards the Palm Jumeirah. 

Ramadan Kareem!

"Ramadan Kareem': Blessed Ramadan is on everybody's lips these days and like every festive season, it brings a joyful flair with it. 

The moon- sighting committee of the UAE had gathered on Monday evening to sight the crescent moon and determine the exact beginning of Ramadan. It was announced that the holy month of fasting was to begin today, Tuesday. But Ramadan has been in the air already the last week. Lamps, crescent moons and green plants have been put out as decoration, the offering of Iftar buffets in restaurants don't know any limit, regulations and does and don'ts have been communicated at least for a week, opening times for authorities and school schedules are adjusted from today on. 

I enjoy thoroughly being guest in a country and have the roles changed: now I am in the minority and get to experience Ramadan in a society in which it is the norm. So I keenly look for any opportunity to wish "Ramadan Kareem", just as I like to wish and hear "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Easter" when I am celebrating these holidays. 

There are by the way nine catholic churches in Dubai with the oldest being established in 1967 (I am catholic, albeit not practicing). Other religions that are being practiced here In Dubai with their own places of worship are Hinduism (by far the biggest religious group after Muslims), Sikhism, Buddhism and even Judaism with a synagogue in Dubai. 

The View Today

 Inspired by my last blog post I thought I might try to every now and then share the view from the balcony with you. It changes much more than one would expect, might it be the light or things happening far away or weather conditions or just because I am once again bedazzled by its beauty. So under "The View Today" I will from now on post pictures when I think it is worth it. 

Today we saw sand blowing over the ocean coming from the desert (the brownish stripe at the horizon) and a second cruise ship arriving at the dock right in front of us. I am not sure if there are people on it, but we are closing in on Eastern so travelling might - unfortunately - catch up again. 

 

High Rise Problems

About a month ago I stumbled upon this news article about the highest residential building in the world from the New York Times and could not stop smiling about it:

The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks 

As you might remember we are for the moment still living in a high rise building. According to this Wikipedia article we have now been pushed from rank 2 to rank 5 in the list of highest residential buildings. Obviously New York really could not let the fact that Dubai had outdone the Big Apple stay true (just look at the table in  the article) and had to catch up in the competition for the highest residential building. I still did not really manage to calculate how many meters above ground this exactly is but it is high enough to let people on the ground below shrink to the size of ants. 

Tallest residential buildings in the world in 2015 

 As I mentioned before, I wouldn't like to live here forever but it is an exciting experience for a couple of months. Living so high above the ground has its own challenges, quirks and perks. 

I can for example attest that the wind in the hallways and the whole apartment during stormy days sounds like a really loud whistle and at night times it can feel like living in a haunted house. There is also a small water leak in the wall between the master bedroom and the en suite bathroom but nobody seems to feel like opening the wall and checking it out for real. Instead the real estate agent sent a worker to paint over the water stain. Maybe they want to fix it when we moved out in a months or two, since it doesn't seem too dramatic (yet). But since we are only renting it,  I see my role reduced to simply report any damages that I detect and hope for the best. Something more that is rather annoying is the dark hallway leading up to our apartment. With no source of daylight, the functioning of the electric light fixtures and motion detectors is crucial. But somehow the ones in front of our and a neighbouring apartment are not functioning properly, despite several attempts of the maintenance team to fix this. So when standing in front of the door, I am mostly fumbling in the darkness or with the flash light on my phone after the keys in my bag. Sometimes when I step out of the apartment, all the lights are magically on. But I so far could not figure out from which direction a person came to work that kind of magic or whatelse might have caused the motion detectors to function. Light switches are also no where to be found. A fact that is rather bemusing since every single electricity outlet in the apartment has its own on-/off-switch. Not sure what the logic was there. 

Another thing that makes me marvel is the balustrade on the balconies. Once more a situation in live where I am decidedly happy to not be too tall. The balustrade/railing reaches up exactly to my chest with the minimum height recently being raised again. A fast internet search showed that in 2013 there were still fatal accidents with children falling out of windows and from balconies because the railings were rather low, reaching up only 90 cm. Now it should be around 1,40 m,  which feels really secure. But I do not envy anybody taller than me, having that balustrad/railing going lower than chest height on me would definitely be a reason not to live that high up. Or utilize the balcony. Primarily of course because of the children but secondly also because I am not that fond of heights. Or - to be more precise - standing close to edges of great heights. Just looking straight down from the balcony makes me go dizzy and uncomfortable. And righteously so: looking at the above picture we should be about 275 meters up, living on floor 75 from all in all 97. But as long as you look straight ahead it's a marvellous view. 

The view straight down on the street below from our lower balcony.

It also fascinates me how the human mind works. Every time I enter the elevator I do feel completely safe. Never mind that I am on my way up 275 meters or am already dangling 275 meters above a narrow abyss hanging on a couple of steal cables, fully confident that they will not fail. I occasionally wonder what I would do if I got stuck - or worse, the cables would rip. I must have watched too many action movies with faulting elevators and people climbing around in lift shafts. Oh, and don't forget to clear the pressure on the ears around floor 40 on the way up!  

People are often mindless and so complaints about noise and disruption are regular. Not from us though except for once when a bunch of younger people decided to have a spontaneous dance- and sing-out at two in the night on the balcony to the left, one floor above our sleeping rooms. In this case I solved it the good old German/Swedish/European way with the aimed usage of clearly understandable expletives to emphasize the lack of my enthusiasm. A better idea would have been to talk to the security guards but that idea struck me only the next morning. Actually under normal circumstances I would have hardly noticed it or cared for it but it had been a bad night anyway, with kids waking up because of bad dreams and some other things going on that were stressing me. In this case the party was the last drop and definitely keeping me from sleeping again. 
But there are also things being thrown from balconies. Not such a good idea since the wind will push things thrown down towards the house again and whatever is flying down is certain to land on a balcony further below. The most recent announcement in the elevator (I forgot to take a picture) was highlighting an incident with a glass bottle (!) that landed and subsequently broke in pieces on a fifth floor balcony next to a playing child. It is about there where it stops to be funny in my opinion. 

There - I fixed the foto. But since I was in a hurry, it's a bit blurry. And a rhyme. ;)  

Last but not least: one time two of my sons had to wait for an empty elevator on their way down for quite a long time (there are restrictions on how many people are allowed to be in the elevator at once due to Covid). I was not with them (I was waiting downstairs) and they thought - hey, why not give it a try and go the stairs. Well, it took them around 25 minutes to get to the ground floor, they were soaked with sweat and suffered from severe muscle soreness the days afterwards. Mind you, they usually play football (as in soccer) two to three times a week, not counting the matches. 

Expo 2020 Dubai

Expo 2020 Dubai is the world exhibition in the UAE that was originally planned to run from October 2020 through to March 2021. There is no need to explain in great detail what happened in 2020, with the emerging of the pandemic, the preparations and construction of the exhibition site came to an abrupt halt. 
The event is now planned to take place from October 2021 to March 2022. This collides with the cooler winter months so that visitors can actually enjoy the exhibition without melting in the summer heat. 

One can question the meaning of world exhibiton's - or "Expos" as they are called nowadays - in a time when information is easily obtained online. I found a good article from 2019 published by Forbes that might explain the UAE's incentive for the event quite well. But maybe during the pandemic we all realized how much we sometimes long for the ability to physically visit places and live through them without an intermediate device separating us from the actual experience. The success of these exhibitions varies greatly and on a personal level I only vaguely remember a one day visit to the Expo in Hannover 2000. Funnily enough what has mostly etched itself into my memory was the rather traditional pavilion of Yemen that so vividly brought the country's culture alive. 

But back to the Expo 2020. By the end of January the first pavilion of three thematic pavilions opened up after completion for a "preview" until the beginning of April and we gladly took the chance to go and visit "Terra - The Sustainability Pavilion". The other two are the "Opportunity Pavilion" that is meant to focus on future of humanity and the "Mobility Pavilion" which focuses on mobility in the future and the past.

 Our first obstacle was to get there which was a bit of an adventure since by then I still had little orientation of directions, distances and what would be the best means of transport. So we tried to get as far as possible with the Metro. A new line was build out to the Expo site and cost-free shuttle busses are to be in service from the new station as soon as the event is open but for now, the new Expo Site station is not frequented. So I roughly had to guess which would be the closest station, jump of there and hail a taxi. After a bit of an odyssey with the taxi we finally made it to the site of the pavilion. 

We had to pre-book our tickets online for a certain time slot which is a clear attempt to keep the spread of Covid-19 down. As soon as a time-slot has the maximum amount of tickets booked, it will not be available anymore. I choose a Wednesday, early afternoon, assuming that most people would be at work/school and with that the numbers low. We first had to pass this gigantic steal construction which looks much less impressive on this photo due to my mediocre skills and mobile camera:

 Afterwards we went through the security check, got our temperature taken and until we made it to the pavilion itself our tickets were checked at least five times. Everything with a smile and in an attentive manner as everything here in Dubai is about attentiveness. The first view on the pavilion is impressive:

The roofs and sun shading are all solar panels generating the electricity that is need to run the extensive pavilion. Before entering the actual building one is guided through "the past" highlighting basic but vital facts about life in the desert as it had been in the UAE traditionally. This is also something I like about Dubai/the UAE. Despite being an extremely young country there is always the attempt to reconnect to it's beginning and roots. Archaeology, history, tradition and the traditional way of life are always referred to and give a frame to the constant and rapid development of especially Dubai. 

One then emters into a gigantic interactive play-area that gives a loos introduction to the topic and already here I was happy. Happy because the questions asked in these games are spot on and don't shy away from tackeling even the wholy grale of economics. As it was explained to us the whole pavilion will be utilized as an educational centre after the Expo, for schools and other interested groups to come visit and educate themselves about sustainability. 

Some of the games can only be played with two people cooperating, a simple but oh-so-clear message that nothing will be achieved in the future if we do not collaborate.  Then it was finally time to get into the main building that is divided into two main areas: "Under the Forest" and "Under the Ocean". We choose "Under the Forest" first and I soon realized that the 45 minutes walk-through calculated by the organisers would never be sufficient. Only this part took us about 1,5 hours and we could have easily stayed longer. Overwhelmed by the exibition, taking fotos became also a bit difficult. There was just too much too see, discover, read and do and think and talk about. 

One first gets an impressive introduction about the interconnectivity that characterizes forests below the ground. The aim clearly being to make us aware of the great web that all life on earth is. Only this delivered incentives and stimulations, questions and facts that one teacher easily could fill a whole year of lessons with. I was in awe.
After that we entered the "Hall of Consumption" where exactly that was demonstrated and reflected very clearly. Having read one or the other book about climate change and sustainability and humans relation (or the lack thereof) to nature during the last years I was happy to see this. Because this is a clear educational effort to install awareness into every single visitor. And also here the questions were right, balanced between showing individual but also responsibilty as societies. I like especially the fact that this Expo might reach cultures and people that for so long do not have these questions primarely on their mind. People from all corners of the world that might live through a fast development of industrialisation and could benefit from having a common knowledge to maybe make better choices than Western countries did in the past. [Yes, I am an idealist. Albeit a realistic one ;) ]. 

Still now, weeks after our actual visit, I get excited thinking back to the exhibition and how well constructed it is as a whole. 

We then came into the "Laboratory of Future Values" where the vistiors learn about possible solutions.  Throughout the whole exhibiton the visitors are also invited to reflect about their own values, the importance of these values and last but not least their sustainability. 

From then on we went into the part "Under the Ocean" but with the younger children's patience starting to fade and everybody getting increasingly hungry, we rushed through it in mearly half an hour, 45 minutes maybe. Definitely a reason to go back and explore this in greater depth before it closes on the 10th of April. But this part of the exhibition is equally as impressive and important. Overall the concept is the same as for "Under the Forest" but I like that this pavilion tries to educate and sensitize its visitors for two of the worlds most important ecosystems and the interconnectivity of nature. Not to mention that I was extremely thankful having a whole afternoon for one pavilion only. When the whole Expo opens, we will want to visit several times, in the hope it holds an as high standard. 

Oh and yes, we did not have any problem keeping distance to other visitors, it was luxuriously spacious to move around, all the attractions available to use without any waiting time and hand sanitisiers at every single interactive station and many more inbetween. We used them everytime before and after having touched anything. Of course everybody wore face masks too. It thus felt completely secure and since nobody got sick afterwards it seems to have worked - at least for this time. 

 If you are interested in seeing more pictures, please visit the following websites: 

GulfNews.com

and

WhatsOn.ae

 

  

Cockroaches

It just happened. Since we got here, I was waiting for it to happen: I saw my first cockroach! 😱

Now, I don't like hysterical reactions in general but there are two crepy-crawlies I loath: spiders and cockroaches. And while I still can muster some admiration and acknowledgment of the spider's importance in the world of insects, cockroaches to me are just 🤢. 

There is a reason of course. Cockroaches in Brazil tend to be larger (around 5 to 10 cm), they are incredibly fast ... and they can fly by spreading out their wings. And they are everywhere, plentiful. 

Since we got here I was a bit on the lookout for cockroaches wherever I went but to my surprise they kept themselves well hidden so far.

So when I just saw this little darling in the changing room to the indoor pool: 

I was rather bemused. With roughly 2 cm in size it has nothing on what I am used too. But I won't let my guard down, I am ready for the big, flying ones too..... 😉

It's the small things in life

 Our youngest son just made the most amazing discovery today..... 

Our friendly neighbourhood supermarket has a SECOND floor with all the stuff that I had been desperately trying to find, wondering why they did not have it on offer in just this store.

Now really, for having been in this supermarket almost daily to get fresh croissants or bread (bread tends to evaporate into thin air faster than one can blink in our home. Same goes for apples, even if one buys buckets of them) I totally had missed the stairway to my personal heaven of a complete grocery shopping experience. 

And most frustrating .... they even offer affordable, okay-quality yoga mats for only 20 dirhams!!!! 

This after I have been running around the whole neighbourhood (and it is not a small one) trying to get ok-looking yoga mats for a reasonable price. And I thought I had found them - in lime green for 30 dirhams. Nothing against lime green but lime green and yoga mats .... Well, I even bought a second one - in lime green!!! - so my husband and I could yoga together in complete colour harmony: 

So much for my first world problems and the day-to-day miracles of new spaces here in Dubai. 

Sunday = Monday

 Sunday is the new Monday. 

A fact that needed some getting used to and that caused some confusion because even consciously knowing that Sunday is the first working day in the UAE it was hard to convince the inner clock to accept this new fact. I still can get confused about what weekday it is because somehow one can feel around Wednesday that the weekend is very near while at the same time wondering why the working week (counted the western way from Monday on) was "so incredibly short". 
Many islamic countries start their weekends on Fridays, until some years ago (until 2006 in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia until 2013) Thursdays and Fridays accounted for the weekend. To facilitate the cooperation with non-Islamic countries this has been adjusted and now it is Friday and Saturday that officially make the two-day weekend in the UAE. 

A couple of weeks I tried to adjust by calling Friday "little Saturday" and Saturday "little Sunday" but that did not really work out, also because it is not correct. It took a while longer until it had sunk in that actually Friday is closest to what we know as Sunday in terms of resting day. Saturdays many people are back at work at least half-days, it is Fridays that is seen as the "holy day" of the week. 

This by far does not mean that anything is standing still in Dubai, as it is the case on Sundays in Germany where everything is closed. But practitioners, schools, offices, authorities will be closed on Fridays, the streets seem to be less trafficked and the shopping malls and parks are crowded. For us it still is a slightly confusing feeling to start the week "a day early", especially now when I have to communicate a lot with European instances because of schools and so on. So naturally today we visited a school and tomorrow, when Europe merely is getting started, the working week here will be on in full steam already.  

February, 27th 2021

 Managing to have nearly precisely one month of radio silence on the blogg was not what I imagined when I started this again. They say, time flies when you have fun.
Well, time flew and to be honest, not everything was fun. 

I really have to get better to write even when I feel stressed otherwise this project will never take off. But I have always been awfully bad in sharing my worries especially in a more public manner. And what could be more public than an open blogg on the internet. 

My dearest husband had to leave for his first business trip roughly four weeks ago. This is a long and complicated story but to make it short and simple: the whole trip was already a bit delayed. Then he got to his destination and things took time. A lot of time. And they got stalled. And complicated. And when one part was solved surely enough another part was putting up new hinders again. So he has basically been gone for a much, much longer time than planned and me and the children were left to our own devices. 

During this time we were on trips, which I will report on, we had lazy days at the beach and at home in mass, we painted, we read, we had a short stint in a hospital and we were school hunting. We were also a lot on our own and this was not always fun. 

Things got tense when our oldest son developed a strange stomach pain which led to a nightly visit in the ER with the fear for an appendicitis which led to an ultrasound that showed swollen lymph nodes in the abdominal area which led to discussions with the health insurance until we could get a CT scan which led to sleepless nights because I really, really got worried which led to a long Saturday in the hospital with admission for one night until we finally got to know that it was "only" a bacterial infection that could be treated with antibiotics. This took roughly two weeks from the first symptoms until the clearance and prescription of medication. And as you might have guessed - that is the part that was not so much fun. 

Now he is well again and since we all now gave up the idea that my husband will be able to make a precise prediction on what day he will be home (it could be anytime from today up until another week or two), we all just get along with it, with many, many Zoom calls and continuing to exploring our new home and fixing our lives here. So next up is school but for now I will take you on the trips we made within Dubai. 

Coffee-Fix

Here you can see me getting myself a treat. I have to admit that over the years I have become one of those awful persons who do like to drink a Latte when in town and when under time pressure or on the way to the park, I even like to take them with me. We all have our weak spots, I guess. 🙈

Getting a decent Latte had proven to be more difficult than expected... After all I am in the Middle-East... and of course you find that well-know huge American Café-chain whose name I shall not mention on every corner here but I have to admit, having lived with Swedish coffee- and "fika"-culture for 12 years, visiting manydelightful Caés in Stockholm, I have become a coffee-snob of sorts. So that was not an option. 

After weeks of trial and failure (actually I had given up after the awful coffee in the hotel and two other trials to get my beloved energy kick), my husband finally remembered to point out this place on the way to the beach. And what should I say - instant coffee heaven. 

So today when taking the kids to the beach, I took advantage of this opportunity. 

Fog

Besides Corona, fog was all over the news this week and I thought I share with you some pictures I took yesterday from our home high up in the sky...

Enjoy!

Early yesterday day morning it looked like this:

No ocean to be seen, only a thin veil of mist and some sky scraper sticking out. I honestly thought that was it, as the fog normally lifts during the morning.

But the afternoon held some more surprises. I couldn't even see the street below is, we were engulfed in a salty smelling sea of white fluff.

The evening made for some beautiful light:

 I was afraid that the views might get boring over time but so far there is always something to discover. 

More "UAE in fog" pictures can be seen here: 

https://gulfnews.com/photos/readers-pictures/photos-readers-share-pictures-of-foggy-weather-in-abu-dhabi--dubai-and-sharjah-1.1611211442441

The Emirates, Covid-19 and we

So, the Corona-virus and Covid-19, the sickness it causes, have determined almost everybody's life during the last year in one way or the other. And our little family is of course no exception. I had the outbreak of the virus quite early on on my personal radar, simply because I am a news junky and always on the outlook for events that could have impact on my surroundings, my family and myself. 

Living 2020 in Sweden was quite painful for us. Not because we could not stand the restrictions or had to change dramatically - in contrary, I finally got to enjoy the perks of being an introvert with only the occasional need for larger gatherings and the fact that we hardly had extended family around us. In the sense that we are used to see our families only every now and then. What made it hard for us was the fact that the Swedish approach of doing as little as possible became very apparent from the start and that we were definitely not agreeing with it. If you want to shrink it down in a one-liner, our motto in this case would be: "Better be safe than sorry". 
Now, my husband is over 50, I am in my mid 40s and we have a kid with asthma. None of us is keen on testing if we would get away with a mild infection or not. None of us is keen on the chances of long term consequences. Also, to us it was apparent that Sweden was badly prepared for a situation like this. Lack of educated staff in hospitals, lack of materials like PPE and equipment like ventilators and especially in Stockholm a health care system that has been privatized and reduced to an absolute minimum during the last ten years did not make us more confident.  Only this would warrent a whole blog post or more.

But then my husband had to be in the UAE during September and October and was delighted by what he saw. Everybody wore masks, everybody and everything gots disinfected, distancing rules were enforced strictly, people could only enter to the country with negative PCR-tests, tests had to even be conducted in parts when traveling within the UAE, public life was restricted, there was no lack of health care capacities, staff in hotels, restaurants and other establishments got regularly tested, case numbers were low and death numbers even lower. What was more, authorities were not shy in enforcing these rules, giving out hefty fines to establishments and tourists when not following them. Since around Christmas the Pfizer and Sinopham vaccines are available for all citizens and residents. This sounded really good, actually so much better than everything we had seen in Sweden so far. So under that aspect the decision to go and live in Dubai for a good while was really easily made. Other personal factors played heavily in of course but I will talk about that in due time.

Then came Christmas and Dubai that depends not only but to a large part on tourism, started to open up. Restrictions like social distancing, wearing masks and certain demands for how to disinfect publicly shared places remained. But with the influx of tourists a raise in case numbers was expected. I myself did not really enjoy the beach pictures posted by wanna-be celebs and influencers all over social media (not that I follow any of these but the reporting on it was hard to miss).

Three days ago the AP press then published a report that was picked up by several international news outlets. I quote the text from AP press: 

„Masks off the minute you step inside. Bars packed and pulsing like it’s 2019. Social media stars waving bottles of champagne. DJs spinning party tunes through multi-hour brunches.Since becoming one of the world’s first destinations to open up for tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has promoted itself as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. [...]
Now reality is catching up to the big-dreaming emirate. With peak tourism season in full swing, coronavirus infections are surging to unprecedented heights. Daily case counts have nearly tripled in the past month, forcing Britain to slam shut its travel corridor with Dubai last week. But in the face of a growing economic crisis, the city won’t lock down."
(https://apnews.com/article/dubai-party-haven-coronavirus-6edff7b2ecc2a94b1ca0cbeea0de1b32)

While all true, the tone is quite malicious and the overall text not very nuanced. Now, AP press is not alone in failing to report in a nuanced matter. Over the years I found that news outlets all over the world seem to have a problem with reporting in nuanced manner. I can find this in reports about Brazil and Sweden. All is always described very black and white, something I find very tyering to be honest. But it did only take a couple of hours until this was contradicted by the UAE in a statement:

“The Dubai government has reiterated its efforts to maintain the highest level of protection against the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring the full compliance with preventive and precautionary measures.Reacting to a story by the Associated Press (AP) about the COVID-19 situation in Dubai, the Dubai Government’s Media Office issued a statement rebuffing AP's claims.“
(https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/dubai-slams-rumours-about-covid-19-situation-in-emirate-1.1611077426903)

This also is true. Still all measures are in place, people adhere to it and if somebody is not, some attentive staff is not far away to remind you of it. If one has “bad luck“ it might be an official fining you for overstepping the rules. But it was also apparent that this sort of control became naturally harder to maintain with the raising number of people moving out and about in public spaces and establishments. But since yesterday, restrictions on several levels have been tightened again, one example here: 

“Dubai: Entertainment activities by performers, live bands and DJs at restaurants and beach clubs have been put on hold after the authorities uncovered several violations by some establishments, a top official of Dubai Tourism told Gulf News. [...] He said over 3,100 inspections were carried out across the city over the last three weeks, with more than 200 violations being identified.“
(https://gulfnews.com/uae/what-entertainment-activities-have-stopped-in-dubai-and-why-1.76654891)

There was more information coming out during last evening and this morning regarding other areas of the pandemic and day-to-day live. 

Why am I listing this up here ? Because compared to everything I have seen and experienced as a Corona-response in Sweden, heard from other countries this is FAST. And it is consequent because it is also being reinforced. It is added to an already established base of measures that never have been taken back in full.  We still as a family keep our social distance, we for now and as long as necessary refrain from visiting touristy spots in danger of being overcrowded (since living here we can chose days and times when we know it will be far less people) and we hardly go to restaurants or other establishments and if we do, we sit outside, socially distanced in an rather empty spot were staff has been disinfecting the table, wears masks and gloves and so on. 

All will stand and fall now with the new variants of the virus and their spread, namely the ones from Britain (that is already proven to be here in the UAE), South Africa and a new discovery from Kenia. But the response of authorities here has been in large competent, swift and consequential and so far I do not have to worry that one of my family-members or myself will not be treated (for anything) because there is no capacities left in the health care system. This is the de-facto situation since March in Sweden, were the list with pushed-back treatments of all kinds is immense. In Sweden, going to the hospital contains a risk of contracting the virus at the moment, also something that hardly is mentioned. The information flow is slow and numbers on cases always delayed. So you never really now what the situation actually is. 

So whenever you see some photoshopped bikini-/bathing trunks-clad picture of some minor celeb and influencer visiting Dubai or read a sensationalized news report you might want to keep this in mind.

What happened before on "Hinter Schwedischen Gardinen"....

 I warned you I would write a recap. And here it is.

As I already "spoiled" in my previous entry, we got Dubai the 4th of January in the middle of the night. 
I unfortunately do not have any pictures from the airport but it was awesome. For the first time in 12 years I could smell and feel humid, warm air the way it only smells and feels in countries that are much, much closer to the equator than Sweden. I was ecstatic, to say the least. 

We spent the first three days in a very comfortable hotel with an incredible breakfast. So incredible that I broke my principles and enjoyed some salmon and Egg Benedict in the mornings. What principles you might ask yourself? I have started to eat only plant-based food well over a year ago and am intending to keep on doing so. But the Eggs Benedict were just too perfect and I am a former lover of soft cook breakfast eggs and .... well, I land only once for the first time in Dubai in a nice hotel, so the moment had to be seized. Now I am back to plant-based. 

Jetlag hit us much harder than I had expected and so did the change in weather. During the first days I was constantly very tiered and very dizzy. I could have sworn that the floor under my feet was rocking gently like a ship in a calm sea. The days flew by in a haze and we were soon busy trying to find a first apartment. We had originally planed to get here before Christmas which was not possible due to organisational matters and by now a constant stream of tourists from Europe had found it's way to Dubai, causing a raise in prices and grazing the housing market empty.

This was not making us happier, also because we had hoped to come here and find relative "safety" regarding the pandemic but with the influx of tourists the case numbers in the UAE are also on the rise. Abu Dhabi for example has harder restrictions than Dubai, but is also not as dependent on tourism as Dubai. Dubai on the other hand, with the duty to wear masks, to keep a certain distance and staff that is constantly disinfecting all kinds of surfaces, a high rate in vaccination being rolled out for all citizens and residents ( I think right now second after Israel) as well as the fact that all staff is quite regularly tested for Covid, feels still safer than Sweden. But it remains to be seen how the opening to tourism will effect Dubai during the next weeks.

But by searching for a place to live we made our first friends here, two real estate agents from Uzbekistan who did everything to get us a four bedroom apartment that was not overpriced. We in the end chose a three bedroom from somebody else but have still good contact with them.

Our apartment is now in the second highest residential building in the world - on the 75th and the 76th floor. The views are amazing, looking right over the Jumeirah Palm, the JBR beach to the left and towards Burj Al Arab to the right. The apartment is spacious and comfortable with a fully equipped kitchen, three bathrooms, a nice dinning and living area and will be more than all right for the first two months here. During this time we will have to fix paper work to really establish us here and look for an apartment with one more bedroom so that our two oldest can have some more privacy.

In the meantime we are enjoying something that resembles half a vacation, half trying to establish our lives and navigating day-to-day live while my husband is already working (albeit from home for the moment). We spent some time at the beach and some time exploring the city, getting used on how to move around, what to do, what to avoid. The children love it so far and soak up the new surrounding with a calm and joyful curiosity. Everybody is enjoying the light and the warmth and the comfort of our temporal home that offers - as do all residential buildings here - an indoor and outdoor pool.  

A real shock were the food prices at the supermarket I thought I was used to sometimes hefty food prices from Sweden but Dubai beats this easily. During the first trips to the supermarket I actually did not want to buy anything at all, everything seemed ridiculously overpriced with each item costing around 3 times more than in Sweden. Now I found better supermarkets that are somewhat "cheaper" and am also slowly getting used to it. 

In contrary to Sweden there are people ready to do every kind of work. People who pack your groceries at the cash register, somebody to weigh your fruits and veggies, somebody to carry the groceries to the car and then - this was a real shocker to me - somebody at your residential building who will load your groceries on a hotel-style baggage cart and drive them up to your apartment and even unload them there INTO your apartment (the rest one has to do oneself of course). In short, coming from an egalitarian country like Sweden this is a culture shock. And I will probably get into that at one point or the other.