Author: Amy

It’s only been 3 weeks but it feels a lifetime. Christmas has come and gone, as has the New Year. We are watching the chaos of Washington DC unravel from afar. Here in Dubai – it is life as normal. The news of DC was on the front page of the Khaleej Times (the local paper), but otherwise – business as usual. Vaccinations progressing quickly – supposedly the UAE are only second behind Israel in getting their citizens vaccinated. The “at risk”, front line workers and older age groups have all been provided an opportunity to be vaccinated in large field clinics set up that gets people through in about 15 minutes. They are now down to those 18 years of age and older. What does that mean for the Thybergs? More on that later.

We had an interesting Christmas brunch. I think I mentioned Friday brunch is THE thing to do in Dubai and the fact that Christmas fell on a Friday made it all the more reason to “brunch your heart out”. Off we went, to the Movenpick Hotel. How did we pick a place? What was on the menu. Turkey and prime rib on was this local watering hole and it was pretty darn good. What was interesting was when we arrived there were tables of people (all appropriately socially distanced) who were digging into plates of main courses and when we left about 50 minutes later, those same tables were STILL going on with more main courses. The hostess appeared distressed that we were leaving so soon. It looks like the thing you do is to sit, eat a bit, drink a little, eat some more, digest, eat some more – and on and on for the entire afternoon. I simply don’t have that kind of patience I suppose. It was really tasty but once I’m done, I’m done. I was happy to go home, get into my Tommy Johns and turn on Netflix. Which is what we did.

New Years Eve in the UAE is a different tale. They are all about firework spectacles. I thought Las Vegas had the bragging rights to that one but I was wrong. They really know how to do fireworks here. Our story is quite sad on this one, actually. I can’t remember the last time I went out for a NYE, and we did not change that up this year either. I cooked a turkey breast, stayed in and we were trying to stay up until midnight to watch the fireworks which were going to be livestreamed on TV from the Birj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building). We were in bed by 9:30PM. So much for staying up until midnight! The Birj fireworks, however, were only one of the many places they were going on around us. There was a show out on Palm Island at the end of a huge Kiss concert, some off of Jumeirah Beach (right behind us) – basically we were surrounded. At midnight I woke up to a deafening roar from a dead sleep – Jim said it sounded like it was being in a war zone and after two tours in Iraq he would know, except this war zone was filled with the most amazing fireworks. They were in every direction. I was out on our balcony and it was great to see all the neighbors in the buildings next to us outside as well. We could see glimmers of the show from the Palm and Jumeirah Beach. The next morning we watched the Birj Khalifa and Ras Al Khaimah shows on You Tube. Really fantastic. Google Birj Khalifa fireworks – you may enjoy it!

We have also made out first visits to the dentist in Dubai – but we cheated. We decided to go to the “Swedish Dental Clinic of Dubai” – a homage to both our Swedish ancestry. It was fairly close and when picking a dentist amongst those with 5-star ratings, how do you pick? Jim had a cracked tooth and I had a wiggly implant (front tooth). Jim ended up with a crown and I ended up getting the wiggly implant fixed – after a bit of a delay to get the proper screwdriver ordered and delivered. The implant was put in around 2007 I think – the dentist wanted to know the brand and type. Geez? I am not sure I can even remember the name of the oral surgeon. I could get to his office in Cary, NC. Sure don’t remember his name and bet, based on his age when he did the procedure, he’s not in practice anymore! So successful dental visits in Dubai.

We rented a car and took a trip to the Emirate that is the furthest north – Ras Al Khaimah, or RAK. This Emirate is known for tourism. It has mountains for mountain biking and four-wheeling, desert for wadi wadi, and beautiful beaches on the Arabian Sea for everything water related. The pace of life is slower there than in the Dubai Marina, where we currently are living. We enjoyed it. When we returned we kept talking about how much we liked it in RAK and got in touch with the leading real estate developer, who is running a promotion that provides a 12 year investor visa and business license with the purchase of a property. We made another trip back just before the New Year and decided to buy an ocean front apartment on Marjan Island in RAK on the Arabian Sea. The apartment currently has a tenant through November 2021 and she will likely want to stay through November 2022, which would be perfect for us, given our plans to take the Around the World cruise starting in January 2022.

When Jim and I got married I walked down the aisle to him to the song “Feels Like Home to Me”, because being with him gives me that important sense of peace and contentment. I think on Marjan Island we found that same kind of “Feels like Home to Me” sense, and we both knew right away that this would be a good place for us to spend time in the coming months and years.

Since the New Year we have been getting back to our routine of working out in the morning (Jim swimming, me on my treadmill) and then taking on the day. We have become invested in a Netflix series, “The Money Heist”. It’s clever – lots of episodes though – so you need to decide to go all in for this one! We watch a few each day and enjoy it. We have found new walking paths amongst the sky rises, some that go across them and make it easier to get to the tram. The exploring continues!

Above all else, we continue to feel grateful for this opportunity we have to spend time in this country. The most positive people live in our building. We met a man who lives here who told us that he gives negativity 5 seconds. After 5 seconds he snaps his fingers and asks himself what “that” was supposed to teach him and moves forward. He shared this all between the Ground and 12th floor – he was passionate! And happy. I leave you with passion – and happiness!

One of my goals in being in Dubai is to practice moderation. I am failing. Miserably. I went to the dictionary to look up the definition – the practice of avoiding extremes. In the fibromyalgia world practicing moderation is huge. At Mayo I remember attending a great talk by a wonderful Nurse Practitioner where she demonstrated the art of moderation using test tubes filled with colored water. Feel good and use up all your colored water in one day and the rest of the week you have no more colored water….duh! Feel good and only use up 20% of your colored water and you have so much more the rest of the week. No kidding. I sat there nodding, yes, I understand the concept, yes, I think I can do that. Reality? I suck at moderation.

The practice of moderation has been SO frustrating for me, especially since coming to Dubai. I start to feel better, and then BOOM, I go a hundred steps backward. I have gone from being able to walk 10 to 20 minutes to 2 miles. Yeah me! But the next day? I can still walk – just not even 1 mile.

For my birthday we had a lovely staycation at the Sofitel at Dubai Mall. Jim was doing his best to remember moderation (he is my biggest support and cheerleader) but even with his best, the largest mall in the world is still the largest mall in the world and it takes a bit to get back and forth from your hotel! We went over to look at the skating rink as I had it in my head I wanted to ice skate on my birthday and that ended up being about a 5000 step walk alone! On my birthday we were very cautious with the steps. We went to the gold souk in the morning (lots of gold, all kinds of forms, amazing) and got back for a bit of a rest. We had the shuttle drive take us to the entrance of the mall closest to the ice rink. Smart eh? Put on the skates – it was awful. The first pair of skates had something wrong with the blades and at first I thought it was me – but then decided that even if I hadn’t skated in 15 years I couldn’t be THAT bad. After one lap around I came back in and switched skates. The second pair confirmed it was indeed the skates, however, skating was simply too much. Should I have done it? I don’t know. I wanted to do it or at least try. F’ing moderation. I stopped and we were off to a lovely dinner and I tried to forget about all that.

When I worked full-time there was never any moderation. It was a crazy schedule of non-stop work and movement. I was texting with my niece Nicole and mentioned I was having trouble with moderation and she sent a “LOL” and said – “It’s a Keller thing”. Yes – it is a Keller thing. But I know so many others have this same issue. Mothers who work full-time and then take care of families. People who work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Those in school and also working. I know I am just one little person with this “moderation thing”.

In my Mayo group, now meeting every 2 weeks, we end our session by stating the goal we will be working toward until we meet next. One of mine is always moderation. Looking back, it probably should have always been moderation. Better late than never!

We made it through our first week unscathed! No accidents. No major cultural faux paus (I think). Our jet lag is just about sorted. And we have yet to even had an argument with each other. I call that success.

What have we accomplished? We celebrated Thanksgiving – Dubai style. My every intention was to make reservations somewhere – but when I saw what restaurants were charging for Thanksgiving dinner I couldn’t stomach it. It was stick it to the ex-pats. So we went to Waitrose (my GSK colleagues will know this store – UK supermarket type) and found a turkey breast, and then found a very nice young man who found everything else I needed! Honestly, I couldn’t find a thing in that store. I would show him the picture of what I wanted on the store app and he would run and show me where it was. I bet he was glad to see me check out! As we were leaving Jim asked if we even had a pan big enough to roast the turkey breast – I had no idea. When we got home it turned out we had just enough pans to cook the dinner – and it was delicious. Enough left overs for hot turkey sandwiches the next day.

We figured out the Dubai Metro system by taking a ride over to the Emirates Mall. This is the big mall that has Ski Dubai in it. This slope does not look very challenging but does look fun. They are all decked out for the Christmas holiday and definately getting into the season. I find it a bit odd that in a predominantly Muslim country it is much more “Christian-friendly” – that is, no political correctness concern about saying “Merry Christmas”. Refreshing. The Emirates Mall also has a Tim Hortons – which I was delighted to find! I simply cannot pass up a Tim Hortons – the coffee was great, but the donut was better.

There is also a tram system that covers the immediate area and connects to the monorail that goes out to the Palm Jumeriah. We tried that just to get a gander at the Palm. The last stop is the Atlantis Resort (like the one in the Bahamas). The place looks wonderful (and huge). There is still a lot of building going on everywhere, including the Palm.

Our apartment is in the middle between the Marina Promenade and what is called “The Walk”, which is by the beach. We’ve done some exploring on both. On both there are a variety of restaurants, services (think professional offices, massage type, salons etc) – you name it. If there is a type of cuisine you are interested in, you can be assured it’s here somewhere. We have found a couple of charcoal grilled chicken places that are pretty darn tasty. And yes, they deliver!

Speaking of delivery – we’ve been using the grocery delivery apps and having our heavy groceries delivered. Why haul that when you can have it delivered!! The Thybergs are slowly but surely getting the hang of this Dubai living!!

Here are some interior shots of our apartment:

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And I am slowly but surely getting the hang of this blog thing. I need help with the photo insertion, but will get there!

We have settled into a routine for our day. We get up around 6am. Jim does his tai chi watching the sunrise while I sort through my emails. Jim is off swimming at 8am and we usually take a good hour walk a bit after 9. That gets us back home before the heat of the day.

This is a national holiday for the UAE – National Day. All the flags are out and the locals have a 5 day weekend. They are quite patriotic. On this coming Friday they will be allowed back in the mosques for the first time in 8 months (due to COVID-19). There are 766 mosques in Dubai alone. They have been talking about the social distancing that will be required. Since we overlook one of the main mosques in the area I am actually looking forward to seeing how this works. The call to prayer used to wake me but now I find I sleep right through it. More on that later.

We are both in need of some dental work. One of my implants is wiggly and Jim cracked and chipped a tooth right before we left SODAK. There is a branch of the Mayo Clinic here that has a dental clinic so I think that’s where we will head. That’s on the agenda for the week ahead! I’m seeing a dermatologist today as I’ve come down with some nasty eczema in the last two weeks and despite trying everything I can think of it’s just getting worse. When I talked to the clinic they asked me where it was located and I informed them if was on my trunk (back and chest). They were very careful to inform me I would require an appointment with a female dermatologist. I forget I am in a very different culture here!

So – Week 1 – we are loving it! Bring on week 2!

When we started planning this trip to Dubai a couple of our friends asked why in the hell we were going to the Middle East. There are a few reasons. A few of you know we were supposed to be going on an Around the World cruise, departing in January of 2021. That isn’t happening! I had cleared my calendar of work so we went looking for other options.

No matter what happened with the election we thought it may not be a bad idea to try a new “venue” for a while – but where could US citizens travel where the COVID numbers were reasonable? Dubai fit the bill. Jim had traveled here extensively during his career and I knew I loved the airport (LOL!).

My health check-up at the Mayo Clinic in August encouraged me to incorporate more balance in my life and I have spent the last 3 months learning some pain management techniques from Mayo via what else – Zoom! Prior to COVID I would have spent those months at Mayo but one advantage of this nasty virus is we have all learned to incorporate Zoom like processes into our life for all kinds of things. My headaches are dramatically improved and I am hopeful moving forward. I have 3 more months of Zooming with my Mayo group – but can do it here from Dubai! My colleagues will be joining in the morning and it will be night for me, yet that will be just fine.

• Dubai
• Dubai – General

Finally, if all goes well, we start a month long cruise of the Middle East that goes down through Oman, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, the Greek Islands and Turkey in mid-March. It leaves from Dubai. We just showed up a little early to adjust to the time zone! If that cruise doesn’t go…well because, you know how those cruise ships are working (or not) these days….we will figure out Plan B. Or C. We are keeping it flexible, which is what you need when you are global travelers, eh? More later – am off to find a turkey breast to cook for Thanksgiving! I think I spotted one at the local Waitrose in the Marina Mall. Wish me luck! Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! Much love –

Well, we made it. I am getting older, and am definitely out of practice. In the old days I could work all day, jump on a flight to London, go to the office, work all day, have a work dinner and hit the bed at night. Let’s just say – these are NOT the old days.

We left Rapid City Friday morning on a 6AM flight to Dallas. First problem – the American Airlines gate agent refused to check our bags through to Dubai. I was not impressed. I huffed and puffed and informed her that she absolutely could check our bags through. She huffed back and informed me they could be picked up in London and moved to the next person. She didn’t check our documents (and we went through a whole bunch of crap to get those COVID tests and visas done!) – just sent us on our way.

At the gate when trying to board, our passports required scanning. Then the fun began. Our passports would not scan, we held the line up, people were not happy. Lucky for us the new General Manager for American for Rapid City, Rhonda (my new best friend, but that’s another story) was behind us in line. She jumped out, helped us and informed us our flight from London to Dubai had been cancelled. So yes – the gate agent checking our bags was absolutely correct – she could NOT check our bags to Dubai as we didn’t have a flight. No one had bothered to inform us – including her! Of course, the next problem was the plane had a mechanical, but that just gave Rhonda more time to help us sort out our next steps with the cancelled flight in London. Rhonda worked the American side, I was on the phone with American Express (we had used them to book the ticket) and by the time the flight took off we had assurances that it would get worked out. In DFW, it did – we were on a flight to Dubai that left 8 hours later, so a 6 hour layover turned into a 14 hour layover but being upbeat I reminded Jim we were still on our way!

In Dallas we rented a Minute Suites on the D Concourse of the International Terminal. We had a 6 hour layover and I viewed it as a place we could go, take off our masks and relax. They supposedly had satellite TV (but it was out when we were there) but it was comfortable and directly across from the Admirals Club where they were sorting out our cancelled flight issue.

We arrived at our boarding gate for Heathrow about an hour prior to departure. We didn’t check in – we had boarding passes. Then we hear the dreaded..”If you haven’t checked with the desk, please come up as you need to complete the UK COVID entry form, available by QR scan”. I say dreaded because there were a number of people trying to do this. It was a bit of a cluster. Jim doesn’t have a QR scanner app on his phone – so I was doing both. There were people arguing they didn’t have to do it, others trying to do it for large families, just a mess. In the middle of it all I tripped over one of our carry ons and have a huge swollen knot on my knee…but I kept on typing!! The goal of completing the forms was to receive a form with your name containing a PDF bar code. I got mine – Jim had yet to receive his and we were waiting for it when some American Airlines supervisor came to the gate to see what the hell was happening with the flight only to find all these people trying to get this done. She looked at us and told us to board. No one ever looked at this form. You can imagine the words I wanted to say.

The flight to London was great. Plane was maybe 35-40% full? Great service, slept well. Landed in London early and made it to the British Airways desk where we were able to get our boarding passes for the later flight and then had to go through immigration to get our bags. At immigration we were the only two people there. The only two people. In all of immigration. As we cleared immigration (touchless – all electronic now, that was new to me!) I asked the two Immigration Officers I saw if we could leave the airport to go to the Sofitel at Terminal 5 and get a Day Room to sleep. They said it would be oK. We had put in our UK Government form we weren’t leaving the airport so I didn’t want to get picked up for lying – there was a big fine involved. Got our bags rechecked, a room at the Sofitel and passed out.

The Sofitel at Terminal 5 is great! If you ever need a place to crash between flights this is a wonderful option. We both needed showers and for the 12 hours we were there it was fabulous.

Our next challenge was getting checked in for our Dubai flight. Heathrow was empty. In all my years of traveling through Heathrow I’ve never seen it like this. Very eerie and disquieting. On a good day it could take you at least 25 minutes to get through check-in. It took us 5. Off to the BA Lounge and then boarded the flight. This flight was full, likely because they combined our earlier flight and this flight. Once dinner was over I was asleep and we woke in Dubai!

My first impressions of Dubai are I feel like I am in a very clean, modern, large city. We are getting to know our own little corner of the world here. We have found our little corner convenience store (5 minute walk), the grocery story (8 minute walk), and the pharmacy (across the street). The local Marks and Spencer Food Hall is across the Marina so I’m thinking that might be about 15-20 minutes? That’s my plan for today, to check that out.

Our apartment is great. We are on the 31st floor and overlook the Marina (pictures soon!). Directly across the street is a large mosque, and the call to prayer occurs about 6 times a day. It’s actually quite pretty and keeps me on my toes about the time. The people who run the building are very friendly and couldn’t be nicer. Everything runs on an app. If you need anything you just request it on the app. Microwave oven? Punch it on the app. Hangers? Punch it on the app. It is here in minutes.

As our hours are still off and we are sleeping in odd cycles, we’ve ordered dinner in the last two nights. Again – call “1234” and the food is delivered in about 35-40 minutes. First night – pizza. Last night, grilled chicken breast, hummus and some fries. Really yummy. We have a full kitchen and I need to make use of it!

We are happy to be here and start this adventure! Let’s see where this journey takes us.