I spent the past week "off the grid" in Kenya on safari. It was fantastic, a marvellous trip, except for the part where I couldn't check my email.
The camps we had booked into promised Wi-Fi access in the main lodges, if not in individual rooms. But in the places we stayed, heavy rains had caused an internet providers glitch: no downloading a new book on an e-reader, no online games for our children and no sending (or receiving) very important work messages. I had forgotten to set up one of those "I'm away from the office" messages on my email before I had left Abu Dhabi, which meant that anyone writing to me wouldn't get an immediate answer.
Out there in the Kenyan bush, the scariest thing I confronted was the reality of my internet addiction, that lure of immediacy promised by the internet: download the new book right away; Google the answer to your questions right now. What is the point of seeing a lion eat a zebra if you can't immediately share photos with hundreds of "friends" in your social media feeds?
I have been reading lately about Lady Hester Stanhope, an intrepid English woman who travelled around the Levant in the early 1800s, dressed as a man. Her correspondence with England took months to get back and forth: simple questions about finances, family matters or gossip floated unanswered in ways that to us seem unimaginable.
Before our trip, I had uploaded some documents to "The Cloud" thinking that I would avoid carrying bulky files while I travelled. But the internet problems meant that the only clouds available to me were those sailing above the Mara, in air so clear I could watch cloud shadows glide down one side of the valley, move along the valley floor and then vanish up the far side of the hills. Occasionally, we would see stripes of rain in the distance, looking like threads hanging from cloudy cloth, but after the rains that knocked out my internet lifeline, no other rain reached us - and as if to apologise for knocking out the internet signal on two separate days, we saw double rainbows.
We had timed our safari in hopes of glimpsing the Great Migration but the rains in both Tanzania and Kenya had disrupted annual patterns. Much of the migration had already headed back to Tanzania before we got to Kenya. But a large portion of the animals, lured by the new grass in Kenya, had swerved back around. We caught up with a small group of wildebeest (about a thousand strong) heading across a small tributary of the Mara River towards the rest of the herd. And although the river was too shallow for us to produce the kind of crocodile carnage my children were hoping for, the spectacle was awe-inspiring nevertheless. We watched for almost an hour as the animals started to cross the river, hesitantly at first and then in a seemingly endless stream, leaping through the water and up to the grassy plains on the other side.
Tearing ourselves away from the crossing, we bumped along in the jeep, alongside the herds, which paid no attention to our clicking cameras. When our guide turned off the jeep engine, we were engulfed in an almost prehistoric silence, which is to say that all we could hear were animals: wildebeests ripping at the grass, warthogs grunting at their babies and the whiffle of an elephant spraying dirt across her back to cool herself off in the hot afternoon sun.
That silence sent home the second lesson of our trip: in the grand scheme of things, I don't matter very much. In fact, I wonder how much any of us matter as individuals, outside the tight circles of families and friends, compared to things like the immense rhythms of the migration or the vastness of the savannah. Sadly, our most profound effect as a species may be the damage we have done to the environment but scientists suggest that if humankind were to vanish from the planet overnight, the earth's environment would eventually repair itself and it would be as if we never existed. The world, it seems, would do very well without us.
I know what you are thinking: I am about to tell you that I returned from Kenya having renounced my electronic addictions. Nope. As soon as we were back in Wi-Fi range, I plugged back in, only to discover that my unsent and unanswered emails had led to, wait for it, no crises whatsoever. It seems that a person could live a bit more like Lady Hester Stanhope; maybe everything does not have to happen "right now".
It was a fantastic trip. I can post the photos on Twitter if you want.
Deborah Lindsay Williams (mannahattamamma.com) is a professor of literature at NYU Abu Dhabi
Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta)
Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli)
Best Team: Atalanta
Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)
Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia)
Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus)
Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan)
Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Real Sociedad v Leganes (midnight)
Saturday
Alaves v Real Valladolid (4pm)
Valencia v Granada (7pm)
Eibar v Real Madrid (9.30pm)
Barcelona v Celta Vigo (midnight)
Sunday
Real Mallorca v Villarreal (3pm)
Athletic Bilbao v Levante (5pm)
Atletico Madrid v Espanyol (7pm)
Getafe v Osasuna (9.30pm)
Real Betis v Sevilla (midnight)
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Scoreline
Australia 2-1 Thailand
Australia: Juric 69', Leckie 86'
Thailand: Pokklaw 82'
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7
World Sevens Series Pools
A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan
B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland
C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales
D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)
Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)
Chinese Grand Prix schedule (in UAE time)
Friday: First practice - 6am; Second practice - 10am
Saturday: Final practice - 7am; Qualifying - 10am
Sunday: Chinese Grand Prix - 10.10am
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
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EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Florida: The critical Sunshine State
Though mostly conservative, Florida is usually always “close” in presidential elections. In most elections, the candidate that wins the Sunshine State almost always wins the election, as evidenced in 2016 when Trump took Florida, a state which has not had a democratic governor since 1991.
Joe Biden’s campaign has spent $100 million there to turn things around, understandable given the state’s crucial 29 electoral votes.
In 2016, Mr Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton paid frequent visits to Florida though analysts concluded that she failed to appeal towards middle-class voters, whom Barack Obama won over in the previous election.
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