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!
