I've been thinking a lot about mirrors recently. I'm aware that this makes me sound rather vain, and that as a fashion correspondent I should guard against validating that popular assumption.
Yet I'm not a big fan of the looking glass. I enjoy the fact that the mirrored doors of my wardrobe are doomed to inefficiency, thanks to the raspberry curtains that cast a reddish pall over my bedroom. Indeed, I often find myself wearing horribly clashing colours, which I blithely pass off as a bold and fashion-forward statement.
I can potter along quite happily until I am confronted by a normal mirror in perfectly clear light. And for someone who spent 31 years in the dim haze of British days, there can be no light less forgiving than the glare of an Abu Dhabi spring.
When I'm running late and haven't time to smudge on some lipgloss before leaving the house, I often whip out a compact in the taxi, attempting to make myself presentable. Those harsh sun rays show up every flaw, wrinkle and spot.
Deprived of the soft focus accorded by drizzle and mist, I find myself staring in shock at a hirsute, saggy-skinned hag, apparently the proud owner of Chris de Burgh's eyebrows, Churchill's jowls and my father's auburn handlebar moustache.
Yet the truth of a mirror image is not so very concrete; the mind has a truly wonderful facility for kidding itself in one direction or another. Lily Allen claimed the other day that she suffers from body dysmorphia, seeing a hugely overweight person in the mirror (prompting the question: why would you wear a midriff-revealing crop top and seek out pop-star fame?).
Conversely, my grandmother had a mirror coveted by everyone who experienced its ability to turn a family of stocky peasant midgets into elegant aristocrats. We knew it was somehow cleverly fixed, but there is no feeling like going out in a new frock thinking you look like a film star.
Last week, while trying on dresses in a swanky boutique, I realised that either I had grown several inches and lost 15lb or its looking glass was from the same factory as my granny's.
I had a moment of fury - I was, after all, about to drop a wad of cash (albeit at an 80 per cent discount) on dresses that might not suit me.
But then, in a sort of post-Cartesian revelation, it came to me: how could I know which mirror to believe? Why would I always accept the veracity of my reflection in any mirror that made me look short and podgy, when it could conceivably be more distorted than this flattering vision?
Which, I wondered, would be more beneficial: to go out into the world believing I looked fabulous, or to shuffle sadly through life, safe in the miserable knowledge that at least I'd concealed my most hideous aspects from the world?
Perhaps, after all, ignorance really is bliss.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
if you go
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
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Miguel Cotto world titles:
WBO Light Welterweight champion - 2004-06
WBA Welterweight champion – 2006-08
WBO Welterweight champion – Feb 2009-Nov 2009
WBA Light Middleweight champion – 2010-12
WBC Middleweight champion – 2014-15
WBO Light Middleweight champion – Aug 2017-Dec 2017
The%20specs
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Brief scores
Day 1
Toss England, chose to bat
England, 1st innings 357-5 (87 overs): Root 184 not out, Moeen 61 not out, Stokes 56; Philander 3-46
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
25%20Days%20to%20Aden
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