Friday, January 30, 2015

Green Giveaway Winner

Hi all, as you all know our first Green Giveaway ended yesterday and today I went through the entries. I opted an old-fashioned way to select one lucky winner as I promised. I wrote name of every single entry on piece of paper and picked up the winner name, definitely DSF inspired draw! With all the excitement in air it was definitely an enjoyable activity to do on weekend :). I am supposed to announce winner on 1st Feb, but having winner's name in my hand I can't wait that long ;).

But first I would like to thank each and everyone of you who took time out to stop by and enter the giveaway.

Thank you so much!


The lucky winner will receive Sanitizing a King Size Mattress worth AED 350 from The Healthy Home.



And the lucky winner is...
 
Faiza Mohammed
 

Congratulations Faiza, The Healthy Home team will contact you soon!!! Our readers will love to hear your experience, so please share it with us in comments, our facebook page wherever you want.

Once again Thank You everyone who entered our Green Giveaway! There are many more to come...
Have great weekend!
 

Monday, January 19, 2015

Toddler Discovering Rain in Dubai!

Today heavy hail storm occurred at parts of UAE. But it rained and drizzled frequently in area where we stay. After my son woke up in morning, I wanted to show him rain. He has never seen rain before, last year he was too young to understand. So I was thrilled today that Ruhaan is going to learn what is rain today!
But even today his untrained eyes were unable to see the slight drizzles from our window. All he could figure out was roads are wet. So while I was explaining what is rain, he concluded 'WET' and repeated few times.
http://lead-green-life.blogspot.ae/

Left with no choice, with the urgency to make him know what rain is, while it lasts; we went down to the landscape area of our building with our 'Ella' (umbrella). He loved walking around in rain holding Ella on his shoulder. I didn't want him to get wet, it's very cold here today. Somehow I made him understand 'water falling from clouds is rain'. But we couldn't keep ourselves dry for longer. He discovered the joy of stomping feet in puddle of rainwater! Of course, every kid loves that. But what I learned today is, stomping feet in rain puddle is natural human instinct, we don't need to learn it! :D
http://lead-green-life.blogspot.ae/

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Win our first Green Giveaway!

Today we are launching a brand new feature on blog, 'Green Giveaway', in collaboration with our partner companies to give our readers chance to win Green Products and Services in UAE.


Our very first Green Giveaway is Sanitizing a King Size Mattress worth AED 350 by The Healthy Home Middle East.
The Healthy Home Middle East specializes in Indoor Environment Control by treating furniture from
pathogens and impurities through their unique dry and chemical-free treatments. The company uses the Kirby® vacuum with special Hypo Allergen High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters and holds Middle East exclusivity to remUVe®, the world’s only medical grade Ultra-Violet mattress sanitizing technology.


The Results of Mattress Sanitizing?

Your same old mattress free from dust mites, bed bugs, bacteria, mold and viruses! (source: www.thehealthyhome.me)

To read review of their mattress sanitizing treatment on our blog visit 'Green Directory' section, click this link.

To know more about call 800 SANITIZE (800 7264 8493).

One Lucky Reader will Win Sanitizing a King Size Mattress worth AED 350! (Click to Enter)


This giveaway is open to residents of UAE only.
  • To enter the draw, click Green Giveaway image on right side bar and fill up your details in form completely.
  • Your chances are winning increases,
  • 1. You subscribe to our new post alert (Subscription box is under Green Giveaway section) or
  • 2. You like our Facebook page, here.
  • 2. Refer your friend,
This Green Giveaway Ends on 29th Jan 12.00 pm

Winner will be announced on 1st Feb 2015.

 Good Luck!

Indian Harvest Festival

Happy Makar Sankranti to all my readers! Today is Indian Harvest Festival, it is know as Makar Sankranti, Lohri and Pongal in different part of India.

I call this Indian festival a traditional environmental and lifestyle festival, this day 14th Jan celebrates  the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara rashi (Capricorn) on its celestial path. The day is also believed to mark the arrival of spring in India and is the only festival in India which fall on the same date in the Gregorian calendar. Makara Sankranti commemorates the beginning of the harvest season and cessation of the northeast monsoon in South India.

In western India celebration of this day consist of, in morning married ladies offer prayers and do pooja of small earthen wares which hold small portions of new harvest wheat springs, carrot, sugar cane, chickpea springs, Indian Jujube etc. And these pots are shared with other ladies after pooja. This signifies prosperity, sharing and happiness. Sweets made of sesame and jaggery are distributed amongst each other to mark change in food habits and intake of nourishing and rich food in winter. While exchanging these sweets as tokens of goodwill people greet each other with the words 'Accept this til-gul and utter sweet words’.


During the day kids and most of families fly beautiful and colorful kites The act stands as a metaphor for reaching to their beloved God. Kites are always most fun part of this festival and many kids get grant from their parents to stay on terrace whole day to fly kites :).


Now that you know about this festival, here is Wishing you all Happy Harvest Festival!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Live Green in Dubai

A very happy new year 2015 to all my readers! A new year is always a good time to do new beginning, so after 6 long years the 'Green Living' blog has now a fresh new look along with a more appropriate name, "Green Living in Dubai"! So I decided to dedicate this post to discuss how to live green in Dubai.
http://lead-green-life.blogspot.ae/

Every resident of UAE pays two biggest bills one is electricity and second water. We need to use air-conditioning for at least 5/6 months but there are ways to save your air-con bills
1. Nov-May you can live happily without A/C, just open your windows. If required you can use table fans.
2. During summer always keep thermostat on 24/23 degrees, just to make pleasant atmosphere. We don't need to make chilled indoors when it is 34 degrees outside.
3. Not wearing suites in offices and conferences during summer in UAE should be a norm. Companies can take initiative, if not we can start that from us and spread the awareness. Wearing weather appropriate clothes is just common sense isn't it?
4. For better circulation of conditioned air fan can be used at home and in offices but we push thermostat to it's limit!
5. Please don't keep A/C in your home on while you go out, if it's unavoidable then at least keep it on 25/26 degrees. I know millions of people in Dubai who like to return back to a chilled home! It's luxury not necessity at the cost of lot of electricity!
6. Best way to reduce heating of homes/offices is shading, so try to shade the windows, doors by simple structures, trees, even thick curtain helps.
7. Always clean A/C filters at least once at the start of summer to prevent airborne infections.
8. Don't disconnect yourself from outside even during the summer. If you observe June is always a better month that June and August. If you keep in touch with outdoors, you can probably adjust thermostat accordingly and can actually prevent unnecessary colds and flues.
10. Oh yes, adjust the thermostat in fridge two times in year, start of summer and start of winter.

We all know, UAE is completely dependent on desalinated water, so using water wisely is most important here.
1. If you reduce your water use you don't just save your water bills but you save sewage bill too.
2. Invest in water efficient washing machine and always run it on full load.
3. Swimming during summer is better than 2-3 showers a day.
4. Figure out ways of recycling water at your household. Ex. Car can be washed on lawn, so that lawn watering can be done in same water.
5. We all buy drinking water here, but many times we forget that half filled bottle in car. In summer that water smells weird so we can't drink it. But we can always use that water for plants or filling car wiper tank.

Recently on 31st there was big traffic jam as always so I think topic of using public transport is not out of the blue. Few years back when there was no metro and no connecting buses, things were different. But now most part of Dubai is well linked with public transport.
1. Avoid using cars at least on weekends and use public transport
2. To commute to and from office we can always share cars with colleagues or find professionals on sites like car share etc. I have done it few years back and believe me it's fun, you get to know many different things from each other. If the car buddies are from different countries then you look forward to that boring commuting time and even enjoy traffic jams!
3. When you can walk, you don't need your car. Depending too much on your favorite car is not healthy.
4. You can buy all those fancy cars which you can't buy in your home country. But even then if you will buy fuel efficient car then you won't do any harm to yourself. I have seen people don't even care for safety ratings when they buy car. It is norm on Dubai roads to show respect to high-end cars, but if we start showing respect to hybrid, electric cars on road then craze for that cars will start too.
Check our Green Home section to know more about living green.

Enjoy the rich Nature of UAE! People know high life in Dubai malls, hotels, shopping, movies, great food for entertainment. But many don't even venture in beauty of dessert, rocky mountains.
Visit, camp, star gaze in dessert, play in super soft sand in Abu dhabi. hike mountains in RAK and explore wadies, kayak in Kalaba mangroves. There are many beaches and parks. But don't disturb nature or habitat.
1. Playing music in wild is not cool, instead hear the sounds of nature
2. Don't throw any garbage anywhere, cleanup while you leave
3. Sorry guys, but try not to smoke. When you are in Nature breath pure air and let others do that. But if you smoke then please don't throw cigarette ends, they are found remotest parts of UAE. Shame!
4. Explore flora and fauna but don't damage it.
5. Don't leave your pets in wild, first they might not survive or they will harm local habitat while they survive
6. Teach your kids how to care for Nature, by example.
Check our Green Mama, Enviro Dubai, Green Events and Eco travels sections for more ideas

Lastly, if you need any help making your life green and want to know more about Green products and services around Dubai, check our Green directory section.

Let's restart our journey towards Green future...