Leaving JBR | Capturing The Last Day in HD (Heart-Devastating) Mode

No looking back. Love where you are going. ∼ web wisdom

Today (now yesterday, post Cinderella hour) was our last day of living in JBR. It has been 6 long years of living here… amidst cool sea breeze, beautiful sunsets, broken down sand castles… a few good friends… many restaurants that I have written about… we have seen some restaurants from the day their first bricks had been laid down, we have also seen some when their last brick had been taken out. We had moved in because we could see a lot of blue sea from the windows in our apartment on the 21st floor. We are moving out because soon there will be no blue sea to be seen with highrises coming up. And a lot of construction is happening to make this place hotter than what it is right now, and cooler than what it is now… and the Z-Sisters are finding it difficult to commute to school. This blog post captures all the places where we are leaving behind some HD (heart-devastating) memories of moments behind, and have been captured during our stroll on our last evening in JBR. The only regret that I have is that in all these 6 years of our living here, I didn’t buy anything from Lili Lights, although I have admired them from afar (probably not my style but they look so so pretty and desirable!). 

And in defense of complaints of the traffic in JBR, I have found a solution… the traffic does seem normal sometimes, specially when it is shot in time-lapse – it’s in your perception you see! So here’s my first time-lapse video captured in my last day in JBR… 6 years of living here.. everyone is asking me to stop my melodrama but I am choking!

While a lot of breakfast moments have been spent in Costa Coffee, we have had some amazing meals at Absheron gorging on some speciality dishes from Azerbaijan and Russia (try out Merza Ghasemi or the grilled eggplant, Dollma Azeri or grape Leaves with meat, Pit or the Meat stew cooked in mud jar and the Chicken Saj). Our most frequent orders have been the Shawarmas from the Automatic restaurant – any random and impromptu hunger pangs and we have picked up the phone and ordered for Shawarmas. This has been followed by Subway (mainly for Lil Z who is a fan of the BLT Sub). Sim Sim has been my favourite hidden gem of all in the Walk. I have written about this Palestinian restaurant many times and pray that Rula Hamed, the owner, reads my post and sends me the Musakhan Dajaj once in a while. And a few glasses of Kardareh – the Hibiscus drink. The Talk & Soul Brunch Mövenpick JBR  is one of my favourite brunches on The Walk. Two different restaurants Soul (a lounge) and Talk (a family restaurant) merge together for the Friday brunch – both indoors and al fresco. It’s interesting how the two different sections exude different vibes while seamlessly becomes one. The steaks at Butcher Shop & Grill, the fresh croissants in Paul and the buffet breakfast of Il Cafe de Roma, the home made gelatos of The Ice Factory, the Halo Halo and Nasi Goreng of Chow King (the only restaurant on the Walk with 24 hours home delivery), teh Molten Lava of Chili’s … the list is really long.

And then came up The Beach Mall. Everyone seemed to have forgotten the best flavours of the last season and flocked to taste the latest flavours of the new season – typically Dubai residents busy seeking out ‘what’s new’!. Leaving no scope to complain however, this beach property has been built stunningly and has some independent restaurants that are really worthy of visiting. Our top favourites here have been… Eat Greek (my review here), House of Curry (again my review here), breakfast at Eggspectations (especially the smashing Lobster Benny), the newly opened Emirati restaurant – Seven Sands, icecream at Morelli’s, the new steak house Butcha Steakhouse & Grill with an interesting concept where meat is brought in and aged here itself, and the mini mobile kiosks that are all across the beach promenade. Not to forget the selfies that you can take in their LED display boards and email home! Just because it was our last day, I actually hired an auto – took rides across The Beach Dubai twice – once to make a video and the second time to click a time-lapse video. No, we aren’t leaving Dubai… but I almost feel like that. There are more emotional ties across the Marina too – the Address Marina, the home deliveries from Appa Kadai, the more-than-hundred-cakes that we must have ordered from the cake shop named Gateaux… and also on the sea facing side – the Ritz Carlton… but now all that can wait for a while.

Yes, I have often complained about the traffic, the construction and other things (in the last year of our living here), what I am taking with me are billions of giga bytes full of happy memories – in my hard disc and in my mind – way more than these last snapshots captured in an evening. The last stroll had to come to an end but the above pictures are a mini flashback as the evening rolled… Absheron, Sim Sim, Subway, The Ice Factory, Chow King, Chili’s, the sunset, the sea breeze… and back home to Sadaf 2. Home until now. Until the last box is packed and moved out. Until… I stop choking myself and settle down to the new home that we are moving into!

Unblogging it all… Ishita

Disclaimer: I am working as a Huawei 2015 Influencer and all images and videos in this post have been taken using the various features (night mode, best photo quality feature, time lapse feature) of the new Huawei P8 which has recently been launched by Huawei Arabia… used as is… without doing a single colour correction. I am excited to try out the other features like panorama, light painting and taking audio notes as I take pictures. The subject, story, opinions and views stated here are my own and are independent. None of the outlets mentioned have sponsored this post. While you enjoy reading my posts with lot of visuals, please do not use any material from these posts. Do join me on my daily food and travel journey on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.