How to be a happy expat

Because a cloud wall makes you want to take a selfie. 

After 10 years living in the UAE, some of that time happy, some miserable and the rest just about everything in between, I finally feel qualified to write this piece.

The answer to the question "How to be a happy expat"?

That time when home feels more strange than away

Me and my dad, Larry, on his birthday. 

There are a million great things that have come into my life ever since I left Canada for the UAE more than 10 years ago – a trip I thought might last a year or two, tops.

I've been aware that the experience has altered me totally and completely for most of the time to varying degrees. (I often liken those first few months to having my personality disintegrate, and then the rest of the year as me rebuilding it into something I could vaguely recognise. It's something else, leaving one life and building a whole other one for yourself.)

I feel like Avengers: Infinity War is getting enough press but Burj Khalifa

Tadweer is recycling in Abu Dhabi: Be still my heart!

Me recycling for the first time in years.

Two days ago I saw two men putting what looked to be recyclables into a dumpster just like the one above, in the parking lot outside the Park Rotana, and I thought, hmmm. Then I spotted two of the same bin outside my apartment and literally, my heart soared.

I still don't know anything about the bins, other than that they are there and I am happy about it, but believe me, I'm looking into it.

I want to lose my heavy baggage next trip with this $1,000 Travelmate robot suitcase

Wouldn't it be fun to walk through the airport with one of these "fully autonomous" Travelmate suitcases, which cost US$1,000 (Dh3,672) and come with a removable four-hour battery that can also be used to recharge any mobile device. There is also a fingerprint lock system, a built-in scale and a GPS to locate it if the absolute worst happens and your flight lands at 3am at Abu Dhabi International Airport and your suitcase is MIA and you have to line up at that little kiosk when you are so tired you can barely see. 

Of course I have also begun to envision scenarios where this robotic suitcase turns on you and refuses to stop at Duty Free, or some similar, or you run out of juice and it just refuses to move, like those petulant three-year-olds I always see slowly killing their parents at airport security. And I question: is it really fully autonomous? If that were true, couldn't it just flat out refuse to make the trip with you, or start spitting your clothes out as soon as you laid them in while packing? I shall never know. My trusty Victorianox looks set to last forever. 

The Travelmate was one of the exhibitors at the inaugural Amaze Expo 2018, which featured an array of high-end lifestyle products at the Dubai International Financial Centre's The Gate and wrapped over the weekend. 

Travelmate was one of the exhibitors at the Amaze Expo 2018 

Image of the day: Instagram bait galore in the INDEX Dubai's Off the Wall feature

Belgian "street luxury" artist Pablo Lucker. 

I've been seeing these all over Instagram lately and now, Dubai. It's worth a trip to the 28th INDEX Dubai, on at the Dubai World Trade Centre until Thursday March 29, for lots of reasons. But one is to get a shot like this in the Off The Wall feature. 

The side-ways room was created by Dubai-based interior designer Sharon Jutla and features furniture and décor worth an estimated Dh1.4 million from US designer Jonathan Adler. 

Overheard in Abu Dhabi at #MediaMondaysUAE – #ToroToroAD edition

"Please don't take my picture. My image is worth money."

My heart always soars when I see AEDs (not dirhams, defibrillators) in public places. This has only happened in the last few years and it's a huge development. Years ago I wrote about losing my friend Rob Evans, who died out on Yas Island at the age of 37, for no real good reason. By all accounts those who were with him that terrible night say it happened quickly, but I always wonder whether if there was a defibrillator nearby... would it have made a difference. Either way, I think of Rob when I see these and thinking of him always makes my day, because he was a hilarious, gentle, kind and imaginative soul. You can read all about him here and here. 

Costa Coffee catches up with almond and coconut milk

I haven't had a cafe latte in years, as milk makes me feel gross and like my pants are two sizes two tight. I'm obviously not alone, according to the boom in non-dairy, and that's why I was so excited to see that Costa coffee is now not only offering almond milk, but coconut milk too. (Coconut milk makes a better latte, in my opinion). These types of milks are on the regular back in North America.

Day 1: Whole 30 in the UAE

I’m not a fan of fad diets and I’ve pretty much figured out how I like to eat: clean, with minimal dairy and bread items. 

But I was home in Canada for three weeks over the holidays and ate my face off. Also, I’m intrigued by some of this diet’s claims, particularly that it can reduce pain. (For some reason, I have had an inordinate amount of it in the last year).

So I ordered a ridiculous amount of vegetables from a new delivery company, The Honest Counter, which I can highly recommend. I’m to avoid all dairy, grains, sugar, legumes and alcohol for the next 30 days, then slowly add them in to my diet after to see what’s bothering me. 

(I drew the line at making my own condiments. C’mon.)

The day got off to a bad start when, after resisting this banana bread at Costa, I accidentally made off with the wrong drink order. It took me way too long to realise that instead of drinking an almond milk latte, I had downed half of some sort of all-milk drink. (I haven’t had milk in years - it was delicious!) How could I mistake a cup of hot milk for a coffee, you might be asking?

Well I’m working at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center this week and I couldn’t find the office I’d just left, okay? I think this diet might address brain fog, too. 

But not if I keep drinking milk accidentally. 

China's Iconiq brings freaky new driverless cars to Abu Dhabi's Masdar City

Iconiq's Level 5

The Chinese company Iconiq will test two driverless cars at Masdar City this year, including the Level 5 – developed in conjunction with Masdar – above, an announcement made at the World Future Energy Summit at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. 

Iconiq's chief executive said the company plans to deliver the first L5 fleet for the Dubai World Expo in 2020 and begin mass-producing them at the end of 2023. 

It's 2018 & now we are all paying VAT. Also, I was on the radio

Hey there. Happy New Year. I was real ready for it to be 2018, because 2017 was basically the best of times and worst of times for me – 2016 too, come to think of it – and I'll be writing a little bit more about some of those adventures in the coming weeks. I've got a bit more free time these days, and I'll be writing about that too. New beginnings, and all.

For now though, one of the new things I started doing at the end of 2017 is reporting for CBC Radio's programme The World This Weekend. I used to be an Ontario Morning correspondent for CBC back in the day, and later filed reports for Ottawa Morning and I have to say, it's a real thrill to be back on radio. As a foreign correspondent-type person. (I always dreamed of being a foreign correspondent, but I kind of took a different route in my career) Anyway, it's a medium I love and will be doing more of. So stay tuned for that too.

For now, you can still check out the report I did this weekend on the five per cent value-added tax that launched today across the UAE.

As Alia Yunis, a Californian I interviewed for the report, puts it: "Taxes are one of those words that you never want to hear, but they seem to be getting inevitable so you can run but you can’t hide from them, as much as people try to." 

Haifaa Al Mansour will screen a film in Saudi Arabia one day

I interviewed the Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansouri at the Dubai International Film Festival over the weekend, before news hit that Saudi would definitely have movie theaters starting next year. Still,  when I asked her how she would feel about the possibility of seeing a film in her home country after a lifetime of not being able to, she said the cutest thing:

“See a movie? I’ll have a film playing!”

Courage + 'when are you coming home'?

I love this Anais Nin quote. This quote always makes me think about my life in two parts: before my mom Christine died of cancer when I was 27 and she was 53, and after.

Not only did it lurch me into adulthood in the three short months she was ill - like so many women, I wasn’t so much an adult who made my own decisions as a person who leaned on my mother in every way - but it brought something else into sharp focus. What if I died? What if I only made it to 53?

What if my mom knew she was going to die then? What would she have done differently? I know one of the paths she didn’t take, using her nursing degree to become a flight attendant, was something she thought often about. I know she was great at living in the moment and getting immense enjoyment from silly things, and lifelong learning and growing, and challenging herself, and that she loved being a mom. What else, I won’t know. But life from that moment changed forever for me, and ordinary became impossible.

Jenny Holzer's For Louvre Abu Dhabi and 6 more lady parts art not to miss

One of three Jenny Holzer script walls in For Abu Dhabi.

When I visited the Louvre Abu Dhabi this week for a preview before it opens to the public this weekend (and boy is this a gorgeous building) I was particularly looking forward to installation commissioned from the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, titled, aptly, For Louvre Abu Dhabi. Although she is often known for using neon light, most recently seen in her current exhibition, Softer, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Holzer’s Louvre Abu Dhabi piece features something much different - and she is not messing around with the details.

It's back! It's back! Get ready for the Terry Fox Run 2018

Go here to register for this 8.5km track along Abu Dhabi's Corniche on Friday, January 19. See you there!

If I knew then what I know now: Buying a car edition

I just returned from another trip deep into Mussafah, Abu Dhabi's industrial area, after taking my car into the Volvo dealership. It was to be a routine service, but as they delicately explained, there is something wrong with my engine. Gulp.

So I left the car, ordered a Careem, and am back at home expecting a big bill - or maybe having to decide whether I even bother fixing the car. But I'm also facing next week without a car, when I really need one, because the technician already warned me this was going to take awhile.

And here's where if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't bother buying a used car in Abu Dhabi. I would go new.

I bought my 2008 Volvo C70 back in 2013 because it was a) a convertible and b) a good price. And although I have loved that car more than any other in my life, it has had some major problems over the years. I once blew a radiator hose on a trip back from Yas Island, which damaged the engine (and which I suspect is the source of today's problem). That's when I found out how long it can take to get parts. I had to rent a car because it took two weeks to get the parts and do the repairs.

The next year I cracked the oil pan going too quickly over one of the massive speed bumps out at Yas Mall. Another very expensive repair, another two weeks without my car. You see what's happening here? Even a smaller repair can take days, versus the hours I was used to back in Canada. Only the biggest job there would take two days. But that is there and this is here.

And although I am sure Mussafah is lovely, the traffic is terrible, it's very confusing to navigate – I still need to Google Map it, after all these times – and I could do without driving out there for servicing.

All this to say, while I am a huge proponent of buying used almost everything, to cut down on waste and rampant commercialism and because it's cheaper, in Abu Dhabi, when it comes to a car, I say go new.

Who needs to deal with long stretches of time without their car? Long waits for parts that need to be shipped in from Europe? The worry, the hassle? I think it's cheaper, not to mention way more convenient, to buy new with a warranty. 

Today in firsts: Standup paddle boarding versus kayaking

Eastern Mangroves Corniche.

I've been meaning to try standup paddle boarding for 5 years now. During an interview with an expat website literally five years ago, I indicated that I was going to be trying standup paddle boarding imminently. 

And the thing was, I meant to. I really did. I don't know where the time goes on these things, but I guess it's the same gaping hole that swallowed my book and my screenplay. But you can't really compare something that would take two hours and is a five-minute drive from my house to something that would take hundreds of hours to complete. 

FINALLY: You can book appointments at the Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi online

*Me and a Mountie.

While I have always taken great pleasure in getting to the embassy early enough to get the '001' ticket, I'd much rather do this. In an email sent out tonight to Canadians in the UAE, the embassy announces: 

To better serve your needs, we are pleased to announce our new online appointment system for requesting passport or consular services for Canadian citizens. This will avoid long and sometimes unexpected waiting times. You can do this either through the website or through Facebook.  

*Not a real Mountie.

People are super stressed out in the UAE and they often have no idea why

I wrote an article on the link between depression and inflammation for The National this week and it's getting some really good traction and reaction. One of the most interesting things to me, in researching it, was that Lighthouse Arabia, a therapy centre in Dubai, sees the same pattern in the people who come in for help.