Monday, November 1

The whole business of travelling across national borders remains entertainingly complex or frustratingly difficult according to your mood.

To get here we had to get a PCR test on Friday and then print out the negative results once they arrived in our inboxes. Then we had to show them at the check-in in Helsinki and again when we entered Dubai. At both ends the process went as efficiently as it possibly could but still, inevitably, it added one more layer of stress to the journey.

In the taxi from the airport I look out of the window as we wait at some traffic lights to turn left into Deira. I notice the old architecture pushed up against the new. I also notice the sheer brightness of everything.