Being expat Canadians in the UAE has been a great experience and we were especially excited last year (2016) on Canada Day when the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi hosted a free skate and a friendly hockey game thereafter. With these events our expectations for Canada Day celebrations this year, the 150th anniversary, were set and then: Nothing! No announcement for July 1st from the embassy or the Canadian Business council or any other Canadian group we could find online. We were a little disappointed – the 150 year anniversary was advertised everywhere in Canada and even earlier this year here to be celebrated with events – and so decided to make our own Canada Day as Canadian as possible.
We started with topping our breakfast oatmeal with Canadian maple syrup.
Followed by a road-trip to Dubai to a few Canadian spots. On the way we stopped at a Tim Hortons – there are quite a few of them in Abu Dhabi and one or two along the highway – to grab our coffee and Timbits to go.
Our car measured the hottest outside temperature we have seen here so far: 50C! That only allowed a short walk of 15 minutes along Jumeirah beach before we needed some air-conditioned cool air. Our Montreal-founded lunch restaurant “Eggspectation” was right there and we enjoyed a great strawberry-raspberry-smoothie, crepe and Mac&Cheese with beef bacon.
The only other Canadian and hometown representing store we could come up with was Lululemon in the “Mall of the Emirates”. They had a great sale on work-out tops, yoga pants and running shirts. Unfortunately, none of them were my fit or colour. Still it was a breath of “typical Vancouver” and made us feel like being right at home in Kitsilano for a few minutes.
Ending our day with some Maple whiskey chocolate truffles for dessert. It was a great Canada day in a country far away!
Happy Canada Day to all! Thank you, for reading my blog, Maike
beecosydesign 
the photo of Grant at Lululemon has to be one of the funniest trompe-l’oeil images i have seen in a long time. tell Grant “big chuckle”. imagine, creating the illusion of being one of the “Lululemon Models.” good for you two, model & photographer. loved the maple syrup maple whiskey & all. his maple leaf shirt was great. wonder what you were wearing Maike? Best Canada Day 150 photo.
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Thank you Y, for liking the photo in front of Lululemon. My :model’ did not want to comply and be one of the other ones. So, I snapped a few quick photos and chose the best one…,:)
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