Winter in Canada helped me quit smoking.
I had already quit my pack-a-day habit about five or six times by that point, and I even once managed to relapse after three months without a cigarette. Then the first snowstorm happened, and the next, and getting out on the balcony for a smoke became an immense ordeal – the bulky parka, the wind chill, the frostbite, the coldness of a breath that burns your lungs.
It was entirely too much trouble, too undignified to bring the cigarette up to my mouth with a shaking hand just to get the little nicotine infusion out in the cold.
We are now in the midst of our second winter in Canada. My wife and I arrived here in the autumn of 2018 but this year we have a nine-month-old little Arab-Canadian who was born in the interim and who has made the winters a little bit warmer.
If you arrive in Canada outside the five-month window from November to March, you will hear plenty of stories about winter, often in hushed tones accentuated by worried frowns from fellow immigrants. Their advice often boils down to finding ways to not be in town during the peak cold of January and February. Canadians are often apologetic about the whole thing.
Everyone I knew seemed to have a story about their first injury from slipping on the ice, or the pain after rushing home and trying to warm their freezing hands by running hot water all over them (never do that), or waiting for half an hour in piercing cold for a bus that never arrives.
It was quite depressing, that first cold snap. Autumn quickly turned into winter as though wanting to just hurry up and get it over with. We had not yet made friends or explored the city, and getting used to being indoors felt suffocating after years in the Middle East. Our last stop had been Istanbul, where we were a 10-minute walk from a commuter ferry that sails over the glittering waters of the Bosphorus, while taking in the magnificent view of the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace.
Winter here felt like a prison by contrast. You could go out if you dressed up in enough layers but it was not particularly appetising to wade through the slush and penguin-walk over the ice on your way to an indoor space. The novelty of falling snow wore off every time I had to lug out heavy winter boots or my phone’s battery died in the chill, or when I contemplated the barren trees in a nearby park. I could not wait for the snow to melt, for the verdant green to take hold again.
Read More from Kareem Shaheen
But what I realised this year was this – what I had really missed was the warmth of family and friendship. As a new immigrant, everything is just a little colder, a little more bittersweet. Often when I was walking in downtown Montreal, or catching a ride on a crowded subway and saw two star-crossed lovers or a multi-generational family exchanging soft-spoken words I wondered to myself – did they have to give up another life to be here? Was it all worth it in the end, to raise a child so far from all that we know?
This year, our little one is nine months old, and everything is softer, bathed in inner warmth. The falling snow blanketing the streets twinkles a bright white instead of a sludgy gray. The breeze is refreshing, rather than frigid, the cold seeping through a chance for a tighter hug.
The cynicism and pessimism melt away when we are both pressed up against the window, watching the fresh snowfall, the lights flickering on and off in the windows across the street. It still takes a long time to get everybody ready to go out for a walk. Us, him, the stroller lining, the poncho that keeps him warm, the cover that shields him from the freezing rain. But it is all worth the look of wonder in his eyes as he takes it all in.
I wonder how different his childhood will be from mine. Will he like ice hockey and skating or play football like I did? Will he want to throw snowballs around or settle in my lap with a blanket as I read him a story?
For now, it does not matter. It does not feel like it is below zero when I step outside.
Kareem Shaheen is a former Middle East correspondent based in Canada
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Your Guide to the Home
- Level 1 has a valet service if you choose not to park in the basement level. This level houses all the kitchenware, including covetable brand French Bull, along with a wide array of outdoor furnishings, lamps and lighting solutions, textiles like curtains, towels, cushions and bedding, and plenty of other home accessories.
- Level 2 features curated inspiration zones and solutions for bedrooms, living rooms and dining spaces. This is also where you’d go to customise your sofas and beds, and pick and choose from more than a dozen mattress options.
- Level 3 features The Home’s “man cave” set-up and a display of industrial and rustic furnishings. This level also has a mother’s room, a play area for children with staff to watch over the kids, furniture for nurseries and children’s rooms, and the store’s design studio.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1hr 32mins 03.897sec
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) at 0.745s
3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 37.383s
4. Lando Norris (McLaren) 46.466s
5.Sergio Perez (Red Bull-Honda) 52.047s
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 59.090s
7. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) 1:06.004
8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) 1:07.100
9. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri-Honda) 1:25.692
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:26.713,
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
Brief scoreline:
Burnley 3
Barnes 63', 70', Berg Gudmundsson 75'
Southampton 3
Man of the match
Ashley Barnes (Burnley)
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
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Where can I submit a sample?
Volunteers can now submit DNA samples at a number of centres across Abu Dhabi. The programme is open to all ages.
Collection centres in Abu Dhabi include:
- Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)
- Biogenix Labs in Masdar City
- Al Towayya in Al Ain
- NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City
- Bareen International Hospital
- NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
- NMC Royal Medical Centre - Abu Dhabi
- NMC Royal Women’s Hospital.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day – 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227-4 at the close.
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Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.