Dubai goes RED

(28/11/21)
Another day, another back-blip!

A good, relaxed Friday. It was just what was needed after such a busy, sometimes stressful week.

We ventured out in the afternoon mainly to do a reccy of the BBQ site that we've used in the past. It is still there - just. There's a lot of construction going on and new houses being built. Even the water reservoir is getting more security. I think this might be the last winter that we can BBQ in this area.

We popped into the Last Exit to buy new face masks. G treated me to a snack and a drink, and I would have loved to have posted a picture from there, except their camera policy is a real turn-off.

G captured this screenshot of the satellite dish lit up in red. Whilst channel surfing later in the evening, she came across the HOPE Mars Mission channel. There was an event being live-streamed from the Burj Khalifa. Sheikh Mohammed and other high profile dignitaries were in attendance. The head of the project gave a great speech which you can watch here (from 51:45) if you're interested. During the broadcast, the dignitaries were transported from Burj Khalifa to the Space Centre, where Mission Control announced that the HOPE probe successfully entered Mars' orbit, making the UAE the fifth country that has gotten so close to the red planet. The tricky part was the probe having to slow down from travelling at over 100,000 km/h to 18,000 km/h. There you go. I wish the drivers on the roads here could slow down the same way when they come off the highway!

I started to do a catch up on previous blips. :)