End of November updates

So far the changes I've taken to help heal my knees have been going well. Every day I have been doing my isometric exercises, balance exercises, and swimming 10 laps of the compound pool (yes, a lap is to the end and back). One positive thing that should keep me doing the exercises is that after a day at the office my knees feel sore but after doing the exercises they feel better, so I start doing some my exercises as soon as I return home. My sister also sent me some other exercises and I have been starting to try them out. Hopefully they help as well. I don't think I will be able to get into physiotherapy until January because the physiotherapists here are very busy.

As for the diet it is also going well. Breakfast is a small bowl of healthy cereal, no dipping into the snacks at work, and lunch has been usually a chicken taco salad (no sour cream and I do not eat the bowl). Since lunch is my "big" meal as well as my daily source of protein dinner is usually a couple of slices of wholegrain bread, a banana and an apple. If I manage to stick to eating along these lines then the weight should gradually come off. My only lapse has been on Wednesday, when my friend Serdar offered a chocolate-covered marzipan that he brought back from Germany, and one of my Qatari colleagues was going around offering every one fresh dates stuffed with walnuts. I didn't think I could refuse when an Arab offers you dates, y'know? The other days at work I was good.

Let's see how this goes, my knees are definitely feeling better than they were last week so I'm not complaining.



In other news the men's Tennis tournament has been announced for January 5-January 12, and both Federer and Nadal are scheduled to play! This would mean that in the span of two months I will have seen both the top two men's and ladies tennis players. I sure hope they can both make it, I have never seen either one of them play before so I'm looking forward to watching their matches.



The property market in Dubai is starting to reel, and I don't think anyone is pretending it is not going to go down. Conservative estimates are 20%, while I have heard estimates as much as 60%. Banks in the region have really tightened their lending for mortgages and hundreds have been laid off from the real estate developers. There is even some concern that if the crash is big enough it will take a few regional banks with it and everyone is analysing bank financial statements to see how exposed they are to real estate. The three big property developers in Dubai have already agreed to scale back the completion dates for many projects so that further oversupply does not hit the market. However I think this means that anyone who put a down payment on an apartment in said projects is out of luck -- their apartment or villa will be delayed likely for a year or more and I highly doubt they will be getting whatever money they paid back. Let's see how this plays out over the next few weeks.