Uptown Dubai - A super tall tower

Photos taken 6 months and 3 months apart this year and no sign of Covid slowing this development down.

All I can find online is that they are building a super tall tower, with apartments, offices and boutiques.

I'm in Dubai until the end of January and back out in March, will be interesting to see how much more it grows out of the sand.

March 2020 

September 2020

December 2020

January 2021

The building has currently reached 153ms and will be over 300ms tall when complete. It will have 81 floors and is due to be completed in 2022.

Museum of the Future. 3D printed building in Dubai

Located by the World Trade Centre, off the Sheik Zayed Road in Dubai, stands the Museum of the Future designed by South African Architect Shaun Killa. A large part of the building is 3D printed.

I've been photographing the construction of many buildings in Dubai since we moved there in 2014. I find it fascinating watching them grow in such a short period of time. This is one of the few projects that is actually finished and not still being developed.

The Museum of the Future was due to open in September 2020 ready for Expo2020 which has now been delayed till next year, but was only completed last month.

April 2018

September 2018

June 2019

My husband sent me this photo earlier in the week. 

November 2020

For all the other construction photography photos I've been taking over the past few years, please click on the links below.

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower
Week 176 Toronto The CN Tower
Week 177 Nevada The Paris Hotel 
Week 178 Dubai Ibn Battuta Gate
Week 179 A Wedding Our first child got married
Week 180 Dubai The World's Tallest Tower
Week 181 Dubai and Wales Al Fahidi Fort and Chepstow Castle 
Week 182 Dubai New Metro Station in Al Furjan 
Week 183 Dubai Ski Dubai
Week 184 Another Wedding
Week 185 South Africa Life in a township
Week 186 Austria Ski Jump 
Week 187 Dubai Green Plant Bio Dome 
Week 188 Dubai Update on the Metro Station
Week 189 Dubai My view from the balcony changed in 8 months
Week 190 Greece Just how instagramable is it?
Week 191-192 Dubai Before and After. 3 months out of Dubai
Week 193 Dubai Building a boat in the sky
Week 194 An African Sunset
Week 195 Building with boxes Charity work in South Africa
Week 196 UK wedding and a year of travel

Batsford Arboretum - Day out with my dog. My Sunday Photo

Bob and I spent Monday with Mary and her son at Batsford Arboretum.

We spent too much time catching up to focus on taking many photos, but I did snap a few with my phone.

I love autumn in the UK, with the trees changing colour, something that doesn't happen in Dubai. I do miss the Spring in South Africa (same time of the year) and the purple of the Jacaranda trees.

Living in Malvern, most of the scenery has turned yellow and brown, so a visit to an Arboretum is a welcome sight with all the Japanese Maple turning red.

Entry costs £8.50 and obviously dogs are welcome. There was a cafe, coffee shop, clean toilets and good social distancing measures in place. 

Sadly now though there will be no more meet ups or visits for a while.

The origins of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C S Lewis

This is door at Malvern Priory where the choir boys would exit after the service and return to Malvern College.

C S Lewis was a choir boy and a pupil at Malvern College, this is the gas lamp outside the door that he saw when leaving the Priory and it is alleged that this was his inspiration for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Reflections at Croome Court, Worcestershire - My Sunday Photo

Designed by none other than Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 1750's, which was his first large scale commission. He had the village relocated as it was in view of the house, removed the Medieval church and created a new Gothic one.

It took 10 years to dig the lake and river by hand, a system of culverts were installed to drain the marshland with brick built drains under the ground to feed the new lake.

There is also a river, which runs for 1 3/4 miles, that appears to drift off into the distance but actually just comes to an abrupt stop hidden behind plants and trees.

Birnbeck Pier - My Sunday Photo

Did you know Weston Super Mare had two piers?

I didn't and I've visited this area many times up till my late 20's.

I've normally parked on the south beach front as I've had small kids with me and only ever made it as far as the Grand Pier which opened in 1904 and never walked outside of the tourist area.

Birnbeck Pier is a Grade 2 listed Pier and is located to the north of Weston Super Mare. It is the only pier that links the mainland to an island. It opened in 1867 and was finally closed to the public in 1994 and the RNLI relocated in 2015 when part of the pier collapsed in storms.

In February 2020, North Somerset Council started a compulsory purchase order on the pier. The plan is to transfer it to the RNLI to allow them better access for their access to the water. The CPO was agreed in July 2020.

Gloucester re-imagined - Kings Square

I visited Gloucester this week whilst my car was being serviced. As a child and a teenager and most of my adult life, Gloucester has been our nearest City and with child 1 living there also, it's somewhere we still visit.

I don't like Gloucester City Centre and usually prefer to spend my time on the outskirts. But as a teen I would go to the cinema, to the left of this photo and loved nothing more than shopping in Debenhams which is to my right.

Gloucester has seen a lot of development over the years with the docks being turned into shopping, restaurants and apartments and new retail parks being established. There are quite a few empty stores/buildings in the city since the closure of BHS amongst others.

Kings Square used to have seating, water features and I remember the stepping stones over the water. It's been an ice rink, held small funfairs, markets etc, but in 2006 they drained the water after vandalism and this week it looked like this.

The plans as seen below appear to be to reintroduce the water features to the area, but I've no idea of the timescale involved.

This is what it looked like in 1979 photo used from Gloucestershire Live. I've taken my photo from the right of Debenhams department store, looking back this way.

It'll be a while before I go back into the City centre, but It'll be interesting to see how it develops and how long it takes.

Have you visited this area? Do you remember it looking like this? 

Spot the difference. One year on in Dubai.

                                               

                       

The Road to nowhere - My Sunday Photo

This is the road to nowhere. The E44 Al Khail Road just stops here. It's a 12 lane highway.

It crosses over the E311 and just stops.

Social Distanced Visits - My Sunday Photo

I'm rather enjoying the new way of life, getting creative to meet up with family and friends.

I hate shopping and anything that involves me being in side, other than the house, but if I'm honest I'd spend every minute of the day outdoors if I can.

Life in Dubai was lonely and isolating for me and the weather oppressive and I spent most of the time indoors under the air con, so I'm more than happy to be back in the UK, where even when it's raining I can be outside.

Apart from the neighbours and 2 friends who dropped things off for me before I got a car, the first person I met up with when we were allowed to meet one other in a public place was Natalie from @plutoniumsocks.

Next up was door step visits. My nephew and great nephew.

 Door step bacon butties.

Followed by garden visits.

Then meeting up with friends as venues start to re open.

 Bubbling with child 5.

Having other people in your home, but maintaining social distancing. Child 2 and his wife.

Heathrow Airport July 2020 - My Sunday Photo

I collected my husband from Heathrow Airport on July 23rd. We haven't seen each other since March 24th.

I arrived at Terminal 3, parked up and made my way towards Arrivals.

It was closed. Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport was closed. I thought it looked a bit emptier than I'd expected, but closed?

Emirates always fly in and out of T3, Hubbies flight ticket said T3, my ticket for August 18th says T3, my car parking is booked with T3. A quick google revealed I needed to be at T2. I had to pay £4.50 to get out the car park, then pay another £4.50 to go in and out of T2 car park.

I had a mini melt down getting out the lift as people just filed in and not holding back, I yelled at them to social distance. There's a clear one way system set up for the building and masks have to be worn from the car park onwards. Both these rules were broken by a few, but no one challenged them.

I did wonder if Peter would be able to recognise me whilst wearing a mask.

When I got in the car I had to remind him he could take his mask off, he's so used to wearing one all the time in Dubai when driving with someone else in the car.

We're now isolating together for 2 weeks, then a week of travelling around to see the family (social distanced) then I'm out to Dubai for 3 weeks to renew my visa, sell my car and close my bank accounts.

Why is this post box in Malvern painted green? - My Sunday Photo

This post box catches my attention when I walk into town. It's out of service and it's painted green, although you can see flecks of red paint underneath.

Green was adopted as the standard colour for the early Victorian post boxes.

However GR is for the Reign of George V 1910-1936.

Basically I can't answer this question and I've googled extensively. 

The only possibility is that green boxes, usually without a slot are used for the local postman to store letters in on his round to save carrying them all together.

All I know for sure is that this post box isn't used anymore.

My Sunday Photo - Forgetting Aunty Suzanne

Over the past 3 years I've been spending half the year in the UK in the same town as the 3 year old. He's been to my flat, always asks where Uncle Peter is, points at aeroplanes and asks his mummy if I'm up there. He must think I actually live on a plane.

Thing 3 looked at me the other day when his mum opened the door and said 'who that?'

I was gutted, Thing 2 said 'it's Aunty Suzanne' and his little face slowly broke into a grin.

Since they've been born I'd see them maximum of twice a year for no more than a few weeks at a time, we'd keep in touch the rest of the time via skype, face book and letters from me. They'd draw me pictures, we'd take photos.

I've not seen the Things since I was last in the UK in February, 5 months is a long time in the world of a 3 year old, it's the longest time we've gone without one another. Let's hope it's not that long till the next visit and as for Thing 4, she's only 10 months old, there is plenty of time to start to get to know her properly.

Taking his spoils indoors to show the other Things.

*The Things are affectionately named after Dr Seuss 'The cat in the hat' Initially just Thing 1 and Thing 2 so I didn't use their names online.

My Sunday Photo - Thinking about an allotment

There are allotments within a 10 minute walk of our house. I've no idea how one goes about getting a plot and I'm guessing there is probably a waiting list for one.

I really enjoy gardening and for the first time, ever, I've actually been in one place long enough to grow, nurture and harvest peas and strawberries and I have a pumpkin, beans and a cucumber growing. 

Part of my enjoyment with gardening is the fact it's just outside my back door. I can do what I need to do for as long or as little as I like. We don't need or want a showcase garden. We need to replace the shed and we're thinking of having one with a workshop in the back and a veranda out front with a lean to green house.

There are no rules that state a garden must have a lawn or traditional flower beds, so I'm investigating and planning how to combine an allotment style garden into the space we already have. Typically veg patches are at the bottom of the garden, behind fencing, but I'd like to see how we can combine veg patches, herb garden, some fruit trees and little paths meandering around the existing lawn.

It's taken me most of lockdown to restore the garden from a jungle to a relatively flat lawn, reclaim the paths from the lawn and make repairs to the sheds and the gates.

Seeing as it's going to be a while before I can get back to Dubai and the weather being so nice, now may be a good time to start drawing up some plans and researching foods I can grow for next year, when we're back in the UK full time.

I'd love to know if you've done anything similar.

My Sunday Photo - Enjoying a Starbucks

Pre lock down I would go out for a Starbucks every single day of the week. I'd pick a different location each day, whether it was the Souk Madinat with views over looking the Burj Al Arab or a drive through on my way home or to a mall.

I went out everyday for a coffee for 5 years that we lived in Dubai to just get out the house, for the random chat with a stranger and to stop me going stir crazy.

We have a coffee machine like this in the UK and Dubai, but the actual drinking of the latte wasn't the experience, it was the going out. Up until now I've always drunk tea at home.

Since lock down started the day before I arrived back in the UK and I made a 4 hour journey by several trains across the country, without being able to purchase a latte as I would've normally done and without being able to visit the local Caffe Nero stores as I favour in the UK, I had to learn to make my own lattes and quickly.

Since I've managed to get a Starbucks blend from Tesco click and collect this week, I've been drinking coffee from Waitrose, their own blend. I've realised even more it's never been about the coffee, it's been about the going out.

So I've been going out for the past 10 weeks with a take away latte. I've been going out to the garden to sit and read or blog. I've been going out with my take away cup as I've walked to do my food shop or taken Bob on a walk.

During lockdown I've consumed 71 lattes. Each and every time I've made one, I've put £3 in a pot and so far I've totalled  a saving of *drum roll* £213.

I will go back one day to the coffee shops, but from now on I'll steer clear of the big chains (unless I'm travelling), but these visits from now on will be to meet with family and friends, not just to visit for something to do. I'm learning to find things to do that don't involve me spending money and just going out for the sake of it.

My Sunday Photo - DIY in lockdown

There are so many jobs that need doing to our family home after 9 years of tenants, for most of them we hired professionals to sort the major work out, however the decorating and cleaning were of a poor standard. I've spent most of lockdown rectifying this.

Cleaning up the mess left behind.

Changing the screws in the door fittings so so there are actually enough for each hinge and handle.

I was supposed to be back in Dubai this month, to organise the shipping of our furniture so I've had more than enough time to not only finish the decorating but to renovate the garden, clean the sheds and get someone in to sort out plumbing, guttering and re felting the one shed.

Much to the delight of the neighbours I've had time to learn some carpentry and fix the squeaky gate.

I've fixed a flexible curtain track for the bay window and hung curtains

I have new carpets being fitted this week (delayed from the start of April)

I've now run out of things to do around the house, other than read books, blog, general gardening and just waiting for things to (very) slowly go back to normal.