Shadow of its former self

Today I applied for a permit to venture out further than I've been in over four weeks and was thrilled when I received the approval. So, I got all my things together (recycling etc.) and G walked down with me to the car. It was her first time leaving the flat in nearly three weeks! She said she loved feeling the sun on her skin!

Sadly, we are not allowed to have more than one person in a car, so she couldn't come shopping with me. I went to Carrefour in Festival City, our preferred place to shop. I'm so glad I went because they had loads of offers/bargains and more choice than Lulu. I had to stay focussed because the maximum permitted time is three hours. I got everything done within two and stopped briefly to take this phone shot of a very empty mall. Carrefour, Dubai London Clinic, two pharmacies and a money exchange were the only businesses that were open.

I was intrigued as I entered the hypermarket with their timings for Ramadan which is due to start tomorrow. The Mall timings are 10-7 but Carrefour's timings were 10 am to 12 am. "That's weird," I thought to myself, especially as no-one is allowed to be out from 8 pm to 6 am. Well, I've just read this article online - almost at the end of the evening. AT LAST! I have to admit, I am really pleased. It has felt at times that the lockdown will never end. We keep hearing of second waves and third waves etc. The UAE's official figures are under 9,000 CV cases with less than 100 deaths. One thing they have always done here is given the figure of people who have recovered. That is around 1650.

It is Thursday and the end of the workweek. This always makes G hugely happy, so we had a treat in the form of pizza - delivered to us. It arrived within half an hour. Some of the evening was spent watching videos of the Awana's kids reciting their memory verses and also singing along to the worship videos we sent links to. The old classic "Give Me Oil In My Lamp" has gone down really well. Amazing.

I was saying to a friend in Canada today, we seemed to have been given the gift of time to get our houses in order - physically and spiritually. Have a great weekend!