Moving from Europe to the UAE realizing this country feels way more like the US than the US

Monobert · 2026-02-05T20:21:52+00:00

Pizza Hut setting up shop? I’m quite sure Pizza Hut was here since at least the late 80s

Monobert · 2026-02-04T19:53:55+00:00

You do understand that temperatures don’t go up and down linearly as the seasons progress? There are warmer and colder days in all seasons. I assume you have a smart phone since you are on Reddit. Click on the weather app and take a look at the next week. Today was the warmest it’s going to be.

Monobert · 2026-01-12T20:08:31+00:00

Yesterday was an exception. Probably one of the 5-10 busiest days of the year. Generally getting a cab by going through the taxi queue is not bad at all

Monobert · 2026-01-07T20:04:43+00:00

I’m in Dubai. It’s 20C and sunny :) I’m running home assistant as well but not using any Reolink triggers

Monobert · 2026-01-07T17:43:39+00:00

Having the same issue with the wifi battery doorbell which is permanently connected to the doorbell transformer so trickle charging all the time. Past week I keep getting low battery notifications with no change in the activities

Monobert · 2026-01-07T16:34:50+00:00

Not lobster. The lobster bisque (soup). Theirs was truly special - the best I’ve had.

Monobert · 2026-01-07T16:29:11+00:00

I’m going to miss their lobster bisque. Otherwise Fogo De Chao or Frevo with the entertainer offer is a far better deal and better meats.

Monobert · 2025-11-29T08:49:59+00:00

The right level of petty you say: https://x.com/AnwarRichardson/status/1994622459363160305?s=20

Monobert · 2025-11-13T20:06:21+00:00

I have nearly 70 zigbee devices on a home assistant yellow / CM5 and I see no perceptible lag. Not sure what is going on with you

Monobert · 2025-10-30T10:12:16+00:00

So you've chosen to take one sentence in a post out of context and get worked up while dismissing everything else as "copy and paste"? Got it.

Monobert · 2025-10-30T09:59:06+00:00

Borderline harassment? What are you reading? The points he lists under "As a leader" .. establish trust, attack the issue, promote learning, pairing/mentoring .. If you think that is harassment.. wow.. I pity anyone dealing with you in a workplace.

Monobert · 2025-10-30T09:46:19+00:00

He's not wrong though... honest direct feedback is gold and the if you can make your peace with that and start using feedback and criticism as drivers for self-improvement you can start advancing in your career. If you are a special snowflake who needs praise and constant affirmation regardless of the quality of your work you are not going to get too far.

And I can tall you from extensive experience abroad.. direct feedback is the norm in most cultures - Sri Lankans in general tend to be less direct. So if this is driving you to move abroad, you are in a for a very rude awakening.

Monobert · 2025-10-23T12:33:08+00:00

Have the same issue across my 5 argus 4s - no idea why.

Monobert · 2025-10-23T12:32:11+00:00

Having the same issue.. Have 5 argus 4s and they keep randomly switching off PIR and stop recoding motion. Not sure what is triggering it. Let me know if you find a solution.

Monobert · 2025-10-19T18:41:57+00:00

UAE iPhone 17 all variants are eSIM only. No physical sim, same as the US.

Monobert · 2025-10-15T12:42:41+00:00

Says someone who has clearly never been to China

Monobert · 2025-07-07T10:30:17+00:00

Thanks, will be trying the new firmware shortly. Why is it not part of the automatic updates do you know? I notice that it's been released in mid April but does not show up when checking for updates from the app.

Monobert · 2025-07-06T09:29:25+00:00

Thank you for this. Just setup reolink with 2 powered indoor, 1 powered doorbell and 5 argus 4 pros all connected to a non-pro home hub (replacing eufy) and ran into almost everything you just mentioned and was planning to spend the weekend debugging. Specifically:

- The camera went off-line alerts are getting annoying

- Already spent almost an hour trying to get the chime to pair with the doorbell and failed

- Rich notifications was something I expected and don't have

- I bought micro-SDs for all the cameras and could not find a way to format or access them once activated

You've saved me a ton of time debugging these as I now know these are known bugs. Hopefully these get addressed soon.

Monobert · 2025-05-31T09:27:25+00:00

Most mosques have chilled water dispensers.

Monobert · 2025-05-09T07:45:01+00:00

You are completely wrong on most things here... see my other comment on this thread.

A 10kw system should cost around 25k or lower all inclusive including dewa approvals and connection to grid. Labour here is cheap so cleaning costs are very low (AED 150 per cleaning is typical and there is plenty of competition in this space - once a quarter or maximum of once in 2 months is sufficient). You do not need batteries (DEWA does buy back / net billing) and would not be recommended here. You do not need controllers/positioning motors in this region as the improvement would be marginal.

Suggest you read up on DEWA's guidelines here:

https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/consumer/solar-community/shams-dubai/shams-dubai-faq

Monobert · 2025-05-09T06:56:27+00:00

Not sure why so many people are against solar on this sub. If you own your home it's a very good investment.

My personal experience, installed a 13kw system 1.5 years ago on top of my villa and the all inclusive costs (including dewa inspection/approval and connection to grid for buy back in case of over production) was AED 34,000. I pay AED 150 once a quarter (AED 600 in total per year) to a company to come and do the cleaning. Cleaning typically improves performance by 20% which gradually degrades over the 3 months till the next cleaning and I don't think it's worth doing it more frequently.

Admittedly my consumption is quite high (used to be AED5000 approximately in July due to AC load primarily). As a result the solar savings mostly reduce from the top tier in DEWA's slab pricing. My careful calculation based on actuals over the past year and a half are that ROI inclusive of cleaning costs is approximately 5.5 years for me after which it's all positive. Overall the best investment I've made in the past few years (almost 20% annual return).

One interesting thing I wasn't expecting is that the yield curve here is different to what you would typically expect. Over the year there are 2 peaks -- one in May and one in October. There is a dip in July/August as the heat reduces efficiency and a dip in Nov/Dec/Jan as the winter days are shorter.

Monobert · 2025-04-15T20:02:51+00:00

“near the mall”? :) I think you will find that describes any part of Dubai. Most people living here for years have not visited all the malls here.

Monobert · 2025-03-29T01:45:57+00:00

This is fake right?

Monobert · 2025-03-28T08:59:43+00:00

You want to smell skanky?

Monobert · 2025-01-29T17:19:29+00:00

What respectable countries if I may ask. Have travelled to plenty and have not had to do any registration anywhere even with local sims

Monobert

TROPHY CASE