Ramadan 2015, Day 8 - A Holy Month Interrupted by Terrorism

So what was supposed to be a quiet, lazy Ramadan Friday was interrupted by breaking news report after breaking news report of terrorist attacks in Kuwait, Tunisia, and France.

In Kuwait a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shi’a mosque during the Friday prayer. To attack a mosque during Friday prayer during Ramadan is pretty shocking and was clearly done in the knowledge that the mosque would be filled to overflowing with people. Attacking a mosque during Ramadan Friday prayer would, in my opinion, be analogous to attacking a church congregation during Christmas Mass. Islam states that it is preferable for Muslim men to do their five prayers a day at a mosque but it is not a requirement. But if there is one prayer a week that everyone shows up at it is the noon prayer on Friday. During Ramadan even moreso.

Isn't Ramadan supposed to be the month of peace and spiritual reflection? The BBC had a commentator on who noted that Islamic extremist groups embrace the example of one of the earliest great battles of Islam, which took place during the month of Ramadan. I wasn't sure which battle he was referring to but a quick Internet search lead me to think it was the Battle of Badr, the first large battle between the Islamic army (led by the Prophet Mohammed) and non-believers from other parts of the Arabic peninsula.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Badr

So sectarian violence appears to be spreading across the region. There were some mosque bombings in Saudi Arabia not too long ago, the Syrian War drags on, ISIL is still fighting in Iraq, and now Yemen has descended into fighting split along religious lines.

As for Qatar I suppose there is a risk of something happening though hopefully the risk will be small. While the vast majority of Qataris are Sunni one must remember that Qataris are only maybe 15% of the population of the country. There are numerous immigrants here from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain and other countries with sizable Shi’a populations so there is risk that a Shi’a mosque in Qatar could be targeted (ISIL is a radical Sunni group who I think consider Shi’a Muslims to be something like heretics.)

I asked a Qatari friend of mine if there are any Shi’a mosques in Qatar, and how one could tell? He only knew of one in Qatar and told me there’s no easy way to tell if a mosque is Sunni or Shi’a as they will “look the same”. I take that to mean there’s no difference in architecture, I assume you’ll only know when you get closer. I’m sure there are differences that a Muslim would pick up on immediately.

Hopefully nothing will happen in Qatar. Heck, hopefully nothing more happens anywhere.

Ramadan 2015, Day 6 & 7 – Coffee and a Ramadan Cannon

A while ago I noted in a blog post about how Qataris usually do not tell people about upcoming events or good fortune until after it occurred (or notify you with only a little time in advance, such as with wedding invitations). I just received an announcement that a friend of mine has a new son. I was with that friend at the St. Regis Ramadan Tent two days ago and at no time did he mention that he was expecting a baby, nor at any time in the last 9 months did he mention that his wife was pregnant. People new to the area may find it surprising that such things are kept secret but it is not meant as any kind of slight, it is custom to keep impending good fortune secret from everyone.


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So last night I decided to go visit the Ramadan Cannon. The military sets up cannons in various locations (one is at the State Mosque, I’ve been told another is near D-Ring and Al Matar street) and blast the cannon to announce the end of fasting for the day. I try to see the cannon at least once during each Ramadan.

On the way I saw many men gathered at a mosque preparing for an iftar meal provided by the mosque. Many mosques and charities have set up tents or eating areas throughout the city so that people can have free iftar meals.

There were lots of people at the State Mosque to watch the cannon. Families enjoy the event because beforehand the soldiers let children climb on the cannon and people can take photos (somewhere under all these kids is a cannon).

It’s also a nice view of the city from the Mosque.

Eventually as sunset approaches the soldiers and security clear everyone away to a safe distance.

They wait for the right time at which point a solider fires a flare pistol, then . . .

FIRE!

It is loud! If you’re a bit sensitive to noise you should cover your ears or stay further back. In prior years my ears would ring for about 5 minutes after the blast but this year I kept my ears covered.

While children love climbing on the cannon staying around to watch it fire might not be for toddlers. These little girls were really scared by the blast and were screaming and crying (poor things).

I then ate iftar in the car. I had brought a bottle of water, dates and some bread with me as there was no way I was going to wait even longer by driving home or to a restaurant. Many others also brought water and some food with them.


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Later I was at the mall buying some shoes. At the till they asked if I wanted a coupon:

Why yes, I’d love a free coffee at Tims, thanks for asking. :) I was planning to go there after buying the shoes anyway so this was a great coincidence.

Now I haven’t had coffee for the last week and I knew that the Tims was out of decaf (because I was there yesterday, why no I don't think I go to Tims a lot, why do you ask?) but I wasn’t going to turn down a free coffee so I asked for double-milk to water it down a bit.

Twenty minutes later I was buzzing! It was like I had a double-espresso or something. Once you go off coffee it really doesn’t take much caffeine to make an impact. I was still wide awake at 1am.

Luckily no caffeine withdrawal today. I was pretty sure one small coffee wouldn’t do it.

Ramadan 2015, Day 5 – Hotel Ramadan Tent

Last night I met a friend at the Sheraton hotel. I hadn’t been in the hotel since the renovation. The lobby had not changed much, only it looked a bit cleaner, or maybe the colour scheme was lighter than before, I dunno. I’m going to guess much of the renovation work was done on the rooms. The hotel is over 30 years old so needed an upgrade.

We were there because my friend wanted to go to a real estate showcase. A developer is building homes on a man-made island in the new Lusail development and potential buyers have the option of putting down a deposit to reserve a spot. If there is more demand then plots then at some point a lottery would be held to see who gets first chance to purchase. My friend was interested in buying a place so we went to check it out.

Nice homes. In fact the villas were huge.

Beautiful big villas are not cheap. It turns out the villas were really expensive, starting at something around QAR 20m+ ($US 5.4m+), more if you want beachfront. Needless to say that was more than my friend expected and the price was out of his league. C’est la vie. I’m sure it’ll be a very nice (and very exclusive) island when it’s all finished as I think the development covers the entire island.

From there it was off to meet more friends at the St. Regis for the Ramadan tent and sohour buffet. We arrived around 10:30, relatively early by Qatar standards (the tent doesn’t even open until 9:30). Of course it’s not an actual tent but the main ballroom decorated in Arabic style. While this one did not look like a tent it is common for hotels to use an Arabic tent decorative motif so everyone calls these events “Ramadan Tents” regardless of what they actually look like.

The St. Regis had decorated a hallway leading to the tent.

And decorated the ballroom like an old Qatari village, complete with pigeon towers.

So we hung out chatting, eating, and in some cases smoking shisha while in the background an Egyptian band played Arabic music. Years ago some hotels would also have a belly dancer as entertainment but I believe the Government found that a little too much for what is supposed to be a religious occasion and banned it. [I’m not 100% sure that’s exactly what happened but I have not seen belly dancing at a Ramadan tent, or anywhere in Qatar for that manner, in maybe the last 6 years or so].

We left close to 1am as most of us had to work the next day. The place was still pretty busy though.

Now I was unsure what to do about my 2:45am meal. I was full when I left the Ramadan tent so do I still wake up at 2:45 to eat a little bit or just go to sleep and thus wind up fasting even longer? I decided on the latter, why force food into my stomach?

Thanks to an invitation I’ll be going to at least one more hotel Ramadan tent this month. They are a nice way to spend an evening, albeit expensive and not good for your waistline. Definitely worth doing at least once during Ramadan.

Ramadan 2015, Day 4 – A Typical Ramadan Day

First I’d like to note that, I’m guessing because of Ramadan, the post “Varieties of Dates” is currently #1 on my blog. I guess a lot of people have been doing internet searches on date varieties trying to figure out what types of dates are good. Coincidentally I found another variety of date to try – Sukkary. I've updated the “Varieties of Dates” post for the new review.

Second, the 21st was the longest day of the year, which means it was the longest fasting day in the entire year. Glad to have made it through. It’ll only get easier from here (by a minute every day or so).

Thirdly, here’s a cool picture I took of the Moon with two planets, the brighter one is Venus, and just above the Moon is Jupiter. Just wanted to get that in here. Because of the dust, haze and light pollution it's difficult to see stars so I knew something was up when I could see two "stars" near the Moon. Credit to the Star Walk app for showing me what they were, it’s a cool app if you’re into astronomy.

Okay let’s move on from posts talking about me being tired and hungry. Some people have asked me how different Ramadan is from usual days. I suppose if you're not a fasting Muslim it is not a huge change. Not being able to eat or drink in public during the day, and having all of the restaurants closed during the day, is probably the biggest shift. Some would also point out that the traffic timings are a change as well. There’s a rush hour now around 2pm and traffic is pretty bad well into the wee hours. You also need to be careful driving on the roads close to iftar time as the roads can be full of many drivers in a rush to get back home to break the fast -- drivers who are probably very tired and who have not had anything to eat or drink all day, which can make the roads more erratic than crazy than usual.

Though I’m fasting it’s not all excitement, here’s what my day was like yesterday:

12:30-1:00am -- go to bed
2:45am -- wake up and eat sohour
3:10am -- back to bed (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
7:50am -- get up (this can take up to 20 minutes), shower and go to work
9:00am – arrive at work
2:00pm – leave work
3-ish pm – nap time
5 pm -- wake up, do some chores at home or use the internet (such as for daily blog posts)
6:00 pm – prepare/cook iftar
6:25 pm – iftar
7:30 pm -- stop by a friend’s place to take care of their cat while they're away on vacation
8:30 pm – head to City Centre Mall for some grocery shopping and a snack.

I'll take this time to point out that Hamad Medical Centre has set up a number of mobile clinics in malls or various health screenings, sign-ups for organ donation, and in some cases might have blood donation facilities. Do check it out if you see one.

11:00 pm -- time for some exercise so I decided to walk down to the Souq. How crowded is it after 11 on a weekday?

Yep, pretty crowded.

And that's a typical day, I wouldn't be home for my walk till maybe 12:30 am, at which point I get my sohour ready and go to bed.


Nothing wild, the sleep times are a bit off the norm but for the most part a fairly typical day.

Ramadan 2015, Day 3

If there’s one thing fasting reveals to me every year, it’s the importance of eating breakfast every day. After I wake up it takes around 2 ½-3 hours before I start getting really lethargic and after 4 hours my mind starts to dull. I start getting forgetful, even about basic things. The difference is huge when I compare it to normal days when I eat breakfast. Eat breakfast everyone!

Sitting at home while you’re fasting is tough. Food is within easy reach and it is so tempting to just grab something. When I first starting fasting in 2010 I assumed I would get so hungry I’d bite my arm for blood but it wasn’t that bad -- except when you’re bored and food was around. Thus on Saturday I got out of the house and went to the office to do some work, something I regularly do on the weekends in previous Ramadans just to distract me from eating.

After that it was off to the mall for a bit of mall walking to get some exercise and to keep my mind off of food. The temperatures right now hit around 45° in mid-afternoon so it's way too hot to be wandering around outside (and don't forget you're not allowed to drink water). In Qatar during Ramadan all restaurants and cafés are closed during the day by law so I knew that it would be quiet in the afternoon.

In truth the mall was busier than I thought. While all of the restaurants were closed I was not expecting most of the stores to be open. Not sure what changed that stores are now open on Saturday afternoons during Ramadan, compare the pictures that I took yesterday with how a mall looked years ago during Ramadan.

And for the record while many stores were open the kids amusement area was not.

Walking around didn't accomplish too much as I was feeling a bit lightheaded. Back home for a two-hour nap which let me just enough time to prepare a vegetable soup for iftar. I felt a lot better after eating. I think I'll stick to evenings for exercise.

Ramadan 2015, Day 2 – Fasting on the Weekend

So Friday morning I woke up at 2:45am, ate my sohour, and went back to sleep until . . . noon.

What the heck? Noon?! Not sure how that happened, I can’t say I was particularly tired or something, and I did have a nap Thursday afternoon. Maybe my body is more tired than I thought from fasting. Anyway I jumped out of bed and busied myself with things at home during the afternoon until iftar. Big shock – I wasn’t tired at all during the day, that’s what sleeping until noon will do for you, but I was certainly getting really hungry by about 3pm.

I kept iftar small, some dates, olives, bread and cheese, I was going out to dinner that evening so didn’t need to stuff myself during iftar. Dinner was at around 11:00 because we were waiting for a friend to finish the tarawih prayer (a series of extra prayers and Qur’an reading held during each night of Ramadan). http://islam.about.com/cs/ramadan/a/taraweeh.htm

During Ramadan such late hours is standard, many businesses will open at 8pm until midnight or 1am, and the restaurant manager told me the restaurant would be open until 1:30, “but we will see how it goes, if it’s still busy maybe we’ll close later.” Case in point I was there early, around 10:00, chatting with a friend and the restaurant didn’t even start getting busy until 10:30.

At dinner I did reflect a bit on just how many people were leaving Qatar in the next while. I was eating dinner with someone who would be leaving in a month, three co-workers have left in the last month, and at the function on Thursday I met many people who were leaving the country or in one case managed to switch jobs and stay as the company they were working for packed up and left. While not everyone was in the oil & gas sector a lot of layoffs are happening now due to the low oil prices and as the months go on it’ll impact other industries as well. I won’t see the full impact of the job losses until September though when the schools are open at which point we’ll see how bad (or good) the traffic is.

Ramadan 2015, Day 1 – The Struggles of Fasting

I got to bed around 12:30 in the morning I had to set an alarm for 2:45 so that I could be up before first light (which was around 3:06am) and have my sohour meal before the fast starts. I can't say it's pleasant having an alarm ringing in your ear at 2:45 but it's even less pleasant to skip a meal and not have food or drink for another 15 hours. So I struggled up and with my eyes pretty much closed the whole time ate my meal. I always keep it by my nightstand for easy reach.

I'd like to think it's pretty healthy – cereal, a bit of cheese, some nuts, some dates, olives, a few low-cal crackers, a banana, two glasses of water and a glass of low-fat laban. I would've preferred a cereal with a bit less sugar but I need to have a cereal I can easily grab with my fingers, experiments have shown that trying to eat a bowl of cereal with a spoon in the middle of the night, in the dark, while you’re half-asleep, results in bits of cereal all over the place including the bed. The cereal needs to be something that is in big pieces that are easy to grab and put in your mouth.

Since I'm not Muslim I don't have to worry about then going for prayer, I just go straight back to bed and start sleeping again.

In the morning the traffic was actually worse than usual, which was annoying. I recall from previous years the traffic was pretty light but that might be because I was starting work at an earlier hour (8am). This year I'm starting work at nine so I guess I'm hitting the Ramadan morning rush-hour. I’ll now need to leave a bit earlier to make it to work on time.

By 10:30-11:00 the lack of food started to hit and I started to feel tired, by noon my stomach was really growling and I could feel that mentally I was a bit dull and not as sharp as I would normally be. I knew from past experience that my stomach would settle by about two o'clock as this happens every time I fast -- noon comes along and my stomach starts going "lunchtime!" and by two o'clock it realizes it's not getting anything so quiets down.

Work was over at 2. As I arrived a bit late in the morning all of the parking spots that were under shade were already taken which meant I had to park my car in the open so naturally inside the car it was around 60°C. Lovely. Even though I put a shade in the front windshield so that the sun was not on the steering wheel the inside temperature was so hot that still the vinyl was hot to the touch and difficult to hold. In temperatures like that the a/c can, at best, blow some lukewarm air on you for the first 20 minutes, by which time I'm almost home. 20 minutes in a sauna and you’re not allowed to drink any water while fasting. I'm not sure how in the past Arabs managed to do Ramadan fasts in the summer without air-conditioning, they must've just sat in tents all day and not moved, 15 hours in this heat without drinking water must've been a real struggle.

So when I got home it was straight to bed for a nap, which lasted almost 2 hours. I felt a lot better after the nap a whiled away the time on the computer waiting for iftar to be called around 6:30. I was heading out to a dinner that evening so I kept the iftar meal small and simple: a big glass of water followed by an odd number of dates (tradition is you should eat an odd number), some cheese, bread, and some olives. After that more water and some milk. I felt a lot better after that.

Got home from dinner, put my sohour meal on the nightstand, set the alarm for 2:45am, and prepared to settle into a routine of early wake-ups and growling stomachs that was going to last all month.

Ramadan 2015 is here!

So tonight I received a number of announcements and well-wishes from people as Ramadan had been announced. I even read an article that the rulers of GCC countries had been calling one another to give Ramadan greetings to each other.

Fasting starts tomorrow (technically around 3:05am) and will last until 6:26pm, so about 15-and-a-half hours without eating or drinking, even water.

To help people cope workplaces in Qatar have reduced working hours, typically 6-hour days but where I work it is now five hours. This year they shifted it an hour, before it was 8am-1pm but this year 9am-2pm. I think I’ll like that better. In previous Ramadans I was sleeping maybe 4-5 hours at night then napping after work but as Ramadan went on the daytime sleep got longer and longer while nighttime sleep got shorter and shorter, to the point where the nighttime sleep was the nap. Getting up later in the morning this year should help keep me on a more even sleep schedule.

Already got plans for Thursday night, and possibly a sohour on Friday. Another sohour is in two weeks time. I just have to remember to keep the buffet meals under control.

Ramadan Kareem everyone!

Ramadan is Almost Here

(caffeine update: today I had just 1 red tea and ½ a diet soda -- I should be okay for Ramadan now)

There was a small chance Ramadan would be called tonight but it did not occur. Traditionally the start of Ramadan is when the crescent moon is sighted and while astronomy provides the date that it is likely to occur it is possible for it to happen a day early if the beginning of the crescent is sighted. I believe some Islamic countries announce the day Ramadan starts in advance but in most (all?) Gulf countries they stick to tradition and require visual sighting of the crescent. Since it was not tonight it should be tomorrow night.

There were lots of people in the malls and the souq out shopping for food, candy and clothing in preparation for Ramadan. This would be a good time to note that some clerics are warning people about not going into debt buying luxuries such as vacations:

http://dohanews.co/qatar-residents-urged-not-to-take-out-loans-to-go-on-exotic-vacations/

The statistics in the article show that debt amongst Qataris is a big problem. Some people think all Qataris are rich but actually some are rich while others are heavily in debt “keeping up appearances” so to speak. A young Qatari man has a future with a wedding (typical wedding is I think around $100,000+), building a house ($500,000+), pressure by people to have a nice car (two if he’s married, at $50,000+ a piece), and to pay for the daily expenses and upkeep of the household. That’s a lot of expenses.

But I do have to agree with the Imam, if you have to borrow money to take a vacation you should really take a long look at your financial position and reconsider the vacation plans.

Anyway Ramadan should be tomorrow night, then the daytime fasting begins.

Gulf Mall Update – Now Has Restaurants

[latest update on Gulf Mall is August 14th, you can find it here]


I was at Gulf Mall today and some restaurants have opened!

-- Nandos was open

-- The Turkish restaurant Kosebasi (I think it’s pronounced Kushebashi) was having a soft opening so were offering a limited menu.

-- And the food court has now opened. Two places in the food court, Wok Box and Wrap It, were open. [July 4th update: KFC is open as well, July 6 update: Fatburger is now open.]

The kids play area wasn’t open yet, but it looked close to opening. [August 14th update: still not open]

So what’s not open:

-- Shake Shack, that’s got a ways to go:

-- IHOP, but I saw staff in there for what might have been their first training day. I think it’ll be at least a few weeks before it opens, maybe even after Ramadan. [August 14th update: still not open but it looks like it will be very soon]

-- There’s a new seafood restaurant getting fitted out but that’ll be a while

-- And there’s an Italian restaurant, Melenzane, that might be ready in the next few weeks.


So with most of the shops already open it appears Gulf Mall is pretty much ready to go. By end-of Ramadan I think almost everything will be open.

Ramadan is Next Week

While I was out for a walk the other day I saw a temporary building being constructed near a mosque.

I believe it's an Iftar tent, one of the many such structures set up around the city to provide meals to people during Ramadan. Looks like Ramadan is approaching! I believe Ramadan is going to start on June 18 (± a day) so I need to start preparing for the month of fasting. I’m not Muslim but I have made it a habit to observe the fast during Ramadan, something I've done now for the last four years. It helps keep one in sync with the rest of the country, is an interesting cultural experience (and hopefully I’ll lose a bit of weight).

Step one -- kick the caffeine. During Ramadan you fast from the moment the first light (typically around 3:30 in the morning this time of year) until the sun sets at around 6:20pm. So that's about 15 hours where you do not eat or drink anything, even water. It can really play havoc with you if you're accustomed to drinking coffee, caffeine withdrawal is not fun that is something I would like to avoid as much as possible. So I've been slowly cutting back on the coffee and other caffeinated drinks. I'm now down to two small cups of coffee a day and I expect by midweek I will maybe have one tea in the morning, by which point it will be easy to not have any caffeinated drinks at all so I won't suffer through a splitting caffeine-withdrawal headache.

I'm not sure how smokers deal with this (yes, you can't smoke while fasting either). If you're a moderate to heavy smoker 15 hours is a long time to go without smoking.


Step two -- shopping for essentials. I haven't done this yet but I'll need to get big grocery shop done before Ramadan starts so that I have everything available for my iftar and sohour meals. Eating at home is definitely preferable to eating out all the time, that way you can have moderate-sized nutritious meals ready. The first time I fasted during Ramadan I was eating out in the evenings all the time with friends, going to various iftar buffets. The problem is when you have been fasting for so long the moment you start eating it's difficult to stop if there is food around, so when you go to buffets you wind up absolutely stuffing your face. Every year during Ramadan the hospitals see hundreds of people with stomach distress caused by overeating. I think that first Ramadan I wound up gaining weight because of all the food I was eating. My Qatari friends have told me that it is an issue, plenty of people actually gain weight during the month despite the fact that they’re fasting all day. Since then I have cut back on restaurant meals during Ramadan and instead prepare food at home. That means stocking up on vegetables, soup, olives, nuts, dates, whole-grain cereals and breads, laban, and some cheese. Dates are a must, they are the traditional food for breaking the fast.


Step three -- adjust the sleep schedule. Because you are out much later in the evenings (most shops have hours of 7pm to midnight or 1am), wake up around 3am to have your sohour meal, and you’re tired during the day from fasting, you sleep different hours during Ramadan. Typically I was sleeping from 1am to 6am (waking up briefly in between to have my sohour meal), then having a long nap from about 3pm until 5:00 or 5:30. I’m going to try to shift a bit to that this week by going to bed later in the evening and having a short nap after work.


Okay, I think that’s it for Ramadan prep, we’ll see how it goes starting next week.

Kuwait

This weekend was a getaway to Kuwait. My Turkish friend and his wife has never been to Kuwait and he said that in Turkey it has a reputation as a luxurious place because Kuwait invests a lot of money in Turkey and wealthy Kuwaitis frequently travel there. I had not been to Kuwait in almost eight years so what the heck, we booked a flight and hotel maybe 10 days before we headed out. Not a smart move in hindsight, I contacted a Kuwaiti friend of mine to see if he was around and it turns out that weekend he was in Doha! Whoops. What were the odds.

So here is downtown Kuwait. This awesome picture was not by me, I took a picture of a picture posted at an exhibit in a mall (credit: Nasser AlOmari).

Kuwait, even though it has a lot of oil wealth, is not as flashy as the UAE and Qatar. There isn’t the tons of construction and big projects/developments like in Doha, Abu Dhabi or Dubai. At times you’re left wondering where the money is, but some have told me that Kuwait invests a lot more outside of the country rather than do all those mega- projects in the country. I suppose that makes sense given it wasn’t that long ago that Iraq invaded Kuwait, causing all sorts of chaos. I am glad though that Kuwait is considering expanding the airport, compared to the shiny airports in Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi the one in Kuwait needs to be upgraded.

One exception is a new mall called Avenues, which I think opened a few years ago. The place is HUGE, possibly as big or slightly bigger than Dubai Mall. Not surprisingly I think half of Kuwait was there, despite its size it was really crowded and it was difficult to find a table at any of the restaurants or cafes without waiting for a while.

Otherwise we hung out by the pool of the hotel or went to a few other places in the downtown area. It was too hot to spend a lot of time outside but since we were there only a couple of days it was easy to fill the time.

Gulf Mall - May 29 update

[latest update on Gulf Mall is August 14th, you can find it here]

[There's a June 13th update on Gulf Mall here.]


Was over at Gulf Mall today, I'm surprised at how many stores are open. Unlike when Ezdan Mall opened and stores opened bit-by-bit over 6-8 months it looks like Gulf Mall made sure most stores were ready to open or close to opening around the same time. Around three-quarters of the non-restaurant shops are open. This meant the mall was pretty busy as lots of people were there shopping at the new stores.

The major thing not open are the restaurants. Most of the cafes are open, and I suppose Bagel Bar and Brioche Doree (a cafe/bakery/restaurant similar to Paul) are open and you can get food there, but none of the restaurants are open.

Thus no Shake Shack or Nandos or other restaurants. A Turkish restaurant is almost ready, staff were in there I think being trained.

And they started putting tables out in the food court so maybe that'll open soon.

And still no IHOP. A bit of work still to go. Maybe it will open in the next month? That would be a bit of a problem given Ramadan is approaching, would anyone want to eat pancakes in the evening? (I would!)