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.