While you’re pretty reliant on a car in Dubai, university in the UK is a different story. The first culture shock is how much you are required to go about by foot. The art of walking long distances is not just confined to a treadmill in Fitness First, but to actually get to places – lecture halls, Boots pharmacy, the supermarket. Then there’s the paucity of lifts and escalators, which means I’m huffing and puffing as we ascend the fourth flight of stairs while my unperturbed companions throw me curious glances.
It’s strange, although not necessarily bad, to discover that motor vehicles are not allowed in many parts of central Cambridge. We ordered Domino’s Pizza as comfort dinner once, only to receive a call from the delivery person informing us his motorbike wasn’t permitted in front of our college. We trotted a fair distance down the street in the pouring rain, resplendent in pink pyjamas and hastily thrown-on trench coats, to fetch our large pepperoni.
What people do use here are bicycles. These may be exceedingly good for the environment but cycling against a sub-zero chill wind is about as pleasant an experience as finding a scratch on your Maserati. Besides, bike theft is a huge problem in Cambridge. All right, I’m just trying to find excuses for the fact that I am a softy who teeters and wobbles all over the place, then falls off the seat when attempting to cycle a hundred metres.
An obnoxious wit poked me in the shoulder the other day to relate a joke he assumed I would keel over laughing upon hearing. Apparently a rich kid from the Middle East goes to the UK for uni. He calls up his dad and says: “Dad, I feel embarrassed driving up to lectures in my red Ferrari, everyone else including the professors takes the train.” The dad answers: “That’s shocking, I don’t want you to be embarrassed, son. I’m transferring a million pounds to your account – go buy a train.”
All you can do is smile tightly, nod, then wonder if you have any money to call a taxi because your legs hurt from having trekked to the physiology lab.
Back in Dubai for the holidays, I was once again dependent on the parents for transport. Many of my friends were driving to school in their last year, having begun their training at age 17 and received their licence on their 18th birthdays. It’s a tedious process, involving hours of driving practice, theory lectures, a theory test, a parking test, an internal driving test and finally the real road test.
Being excessively lazy, I kept putting off getting training, which meant that my road test was the day before I was to leave for university. I failed it, conveniently enough, which meant I had to do more classes and another test this December, which I failed yet again. Thankfully, the third attempt yielded a happy ending and that miraculous card entitling me to complete independence on wheels anywhere in the UAE. All I’m waiting for now is my red Ferrari.
The writer is an 18-year-old student at Cambridge who grew up in Dubai
Without Remorse
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B Jordan
4/5
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The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
The specs: 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali
Price, base / as tested Dh207,846 / Dh220,000
Engine 6.2L V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque 624Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined 13.5L / 100km
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Result:
1. Cecilie Hatteland (NOR) atop Alex - 31.46 seconds
2. Anna Gorbacheva (RUS) atop Curt 13 - 31.82 seconds
3. Georgia Tame (GBR) atop Cash Up - 32.81 seconds
4. Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed Al Maktoum (UAE) atop Peanuts de Beaufour - 35.85 seconds
5. Miriam Schneider (GER) atop Benur du Romet - 37.53 seconds
6. Annika Sande (NOR) atop For Cash 2 - 31.42 seconds (4 penalties)
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Neymar's bio
Total club appearances 411
Total goals scored 241
Appearances for Barca 186
Goals scored for Barca 105