Mono Monday: Old and New

I'm hosting Mono Monday for this week, but Chatler63 chose the theme, and I am so pleased because as soon as she gave it to me, I knew exactly what I wanted to blip!

G has taken this picture of "old" and old new Dubai. In this new city where I am older than the country itself, everything is relative! The picture shows the old windtower houses built as they were at the turn of the 1900's. They were the houses of Persian merchants and they lined the Creek so that the traders could keep a close eye on their shipments.

In the '60s and '70s when Dubai began to modernise, a lot of these houses were torn down. Dubai has made an application for the Creek to be a World Heritage Site, so they have rebuilt these old houses, but using modern materials... i.e. breeze blocks covered over in sabkha. (The original houses were built using coral). This project has taken over two years to complete and was opened in stages. It is now a mall (yes) and parts of it are a hotel that sprawls over a part of the mall. The developer tried to keep it authentic by leaving electric wires trailing on the outside of the walls, wooden doors made to look old etc.

All of this sits opposite what was once "new" Dubai, but as Dubai has been developing South towards the Marina and the Palm, this is now old Dubai. There you go! New old and old new... It takes some figuring out.

The Creek remains our favourite part of Dubai, and despite the way that the windtower houses have been rebuilt, it is quite magical walking in this area around dusk. Loads of people use it for photo shoots.

I must apologise for the tag I gave yesterday for today's entries. It is ofcourse MM348 as many of you have already used correctly. Thank you! I'll award hearts on Friday (sorry you've got to wait an extra day).

G had a very short day today - Just one hour. I took the car to the automatic car wash so it got thoroughly cleaned inside and out. We then checked out the Organic Food Store and Cafe for the first time. It's only been there fifteen years!

We also called round our old church to pick up the Coffee Table book they have produced to mark 50 years of ministry in the Northern Emirates. I was excited to be given my own personal copy but apprehensive as well. Some of you may remember my big scanning job in the summer to provide photographs for this book. I opened it as soon as I got home. I think I found one out of the two hundred pictures I sent, with almost no mention of any ministry that took place prior to 2016. What a wasted opportunity. I can't see another commerative book needing to be done for at least ten years and in a place as transient as this, there will be even fewer people who were there at the start. It makes you realise how history is recorded and how much we're missing out on. :)

G & I have both spent quite a lot of our home time in our own offices today!