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.