COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

Over the last week, the number of COVID cases have shot through the roof at the UAE – about 5000 cases each day. Have been hearing that it maybe because the Government had not stopped the incoming flights, especially the ones from the UK as soon as their cases went up.

Anyway, the UAE is encouraging people to take the vaccinations innovatively. Some restaurants are offering discounts if we have fully vaccinated. But as of now, we are back to the dire situation and we may have to get into the second phase of the lockdown. Fingers crossed.

What are your plans for the week? What was the last non fiction you read? What are you currently watching? Let's talk. Click To Tweet

Despite these, I am so excited for the coming week and especially for the weekend. I will be volunteering at the Emirates Lit Fest 2021 over the coming and the next weekend.

I have to take the COVID tests over the week as a part of it. I will get my final course of vaccination during the week starting the 7th, so maybe I will get to skip the second round of tests for the Litfest.

What I read this week

Last week was another good reading week. I finished two books and I enjoyed both of them immensely.

  • Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
  • Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

I am in the mood of reading some non fiction over the week. What are your suggestions?

What I watched this week

I am back to watching my guilty pleasure House MD, on Prime. I have watched most of the House MD over the years, but I am re-watching the episodes and currently on season 2.

Also I have started watching BBC’s Luther, a British cop thriller starring Idris Alba.

From the Insta-world

Here is what I posted on Instagram during the week. Give me a follow, will you?

I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.

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Let us chat

What are your plans for the week? What was the last non fiction you read? What are you currently watching? Let’s talk.

COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

UAE COVID Vaccine update: Sunday Musings #106

I am glad to say I got my first dose of COVID Vaccination done this week and I have not been feeling any different since then. I was warned of some headache or other flu vaccine kinda symptoms, but fortunately I didn’t have any of those either.

My second dosage would on second week of February (21 to 28 days from the first one) and I can’t wait to have that one too.

It is disheartening to hear that people, even my own friends, are hesitant to have the vaccine even when they are free here in UAE. Apparently, they want to wait for more information and time “because these vaccines came too early”. Obviously they came early, because the scientists are busting their asses to get it done for us. Sigh.

As much as I want to not comment about it, it is getting really hard not to.

Would you be getting your vaccines as they are available to you or what is your logic? When do you suppose you will get your COVID vaccines? Click To Tweet

What I read this week

This week was fairly good to me in terms of reading, though that did stop me from doing other things on my list.

I finished

  • The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  • Duke and I, The (Bridgertons, #1) by Julia Quinn

And I am currently reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple, which has been on my TBR for a long time. As I promised to myself earlier this year, I would focus on clearing my TBR shelf rather than adding more to it, so that is what I am doing for now.

What I watched this week

Last week I watched Wonder woman 1984. Despite a few glaring plot holes, I actually enjoyed watching Wonder woman and Gal Gadot. Yay for more female filmmakers and superheroes.

Paranoid on Netflix was another series that I watched this week and it was meh at the best. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

What are you guys watching this week?

On my blog

In case you missed the posts from my blog, last week.

Book review of In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren Featured

Perfect book quotes for Instagram captions by Quotes

Book quotes for Instagram Caption Featured

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – A book review

Book review Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Featured

Winter in Dubai: Sunday Musings #105

Winter in dubai

I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.

Around the blogosphere

Some of the posts that I loved reading around the blogsphere in the past week.

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elgeewrites UAE COVID Vaccine update: Sunday Musings #106 SM106P

Let us chat

What do you think? Would you be getting your vaccines as they are available to you or what is your logic? When do you suppose you will get your COVID vaccines? Let us talk.

COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

Winter in Dubai: Sunday Musings #105

January is a good time to visit Dubai because it is the winter, aka my most favorite season of the year. We had the coldest period of the year in the last few days and I loved it.

Coldest winter in Dubai
Credit: Time and Date

Of course this is still the Covid era and I didn’t go out as much as I usually do. How cold is your place right now?

How cold is your place right now? And what is the lowest temperature it can go to? How was your week? Let's talk. Click To Tweet

What I read this week

I finished reading my first book of the year already putting me on track for my yearly challenge of 52 books. I read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia this week and I will be posting a review soon.

What I watched this week

Last week I watched the Imposter and I had to binge watch the two seasons in just two days. I really enjoyed the first season more than the second.

Earlier, I also watched Collateral on Netflix. What have you been watching these days?

On my blog

In case you missed the posts from my blog, last week.

2021 plans: What to expect of me

2021 plans Featured

December 2020 wrap up: Sunday Musings #104

elgeewrites Winter in Dubai: Sunday Musings #105 SM104F

I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.

From the Insta-world

Here is what I posted on Instagram during the week. Give me a follow, will you?

Pin me!

Winter in Dubai

Let us chat

How cold is your place right now? And what is the lowest temperature it can go to? How was your week? Let’s talk.

COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

December 2020 wrap up: Sunday Musings #104

Now that we are letting out a collective sigh of relief that 2020 is over, it is time to look back at what happened in our lives during December 2020.

How did your December 2020 go? What did you do for the New Year's eve? What are your plans for the weekend? Let's talk. Click To Tweet

Also I hope you guys had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and happy New year to you all!

Quick December’20 updates

  • We began the month with a fabulous five day week end for the UAE national day. The weekend had a lot events happening and a spectacular fireworks show at Le Mer.
  • December 2020 also saw the beginning of the voluntary mass vaccination program all over the country. I love how proactive and involved the government is in the control of Covid, unlike many other countries from what I hear.
  • I also met my book club in person after almost a year. It was the first and only time I got to meet them in 2020. Though we had quite a number of Zoom meetings, it was not the same.
  • Finally about the New Year’s Eve. We stayed overnight at the Crowne Plaza (using some reward points, the prices were sky-high) mainly to watch the spectacular fireworks and not drive home after the party. The fireworks left me breathless and it was fun to celebrate the NYE with strangers. Of course social distancing protocols were followed, though not to the T.

What I read this month

Nothing works like a last moment panic right?

In order to complete my reading challenge of a measly number of 46 books, I went on stupor and a reading spree. Look at the number of books (11) I got to read this December 2020.

  • Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon
  • Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story by Debbie Tung
  • Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares, A by Krystal Sutherland
  • Silent Patient, The by Alex Michaelides
  • Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
  • Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
  • Heartstopper 2 by Alice Oseman
  • In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
  • Two Boys Kisssing by David Levithan
  • Heartstopper 3 by Alice Oseman
  • Heartstopper Mini by Alice Oseman

What I watched this month

Thanks to the long weekend and the holidays in between I spent a lot of time on the Netflix and the other streaming platforms.

Here are my top five things that you have to catch up soon.

  • The Scam
  • Delhi Crime on Netflix
  • The call on Netflix
  • Flight attendant
  • The night of

On my blog

In case you missed the posts from my blog, last week.

Book Reviews from December’20

Sunday personal posts from the month

Other posts from the month

I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.

From the Insta-world

Here is what I posted on Instagram during the month. Give me a follow, will you?

Pin me!

elgeewrites December 2020 wrap up: Sunday Musings #104 SM104P

Let us chat

How did your December 2020? What did you do for the New Year’s eve? What are your plans for the weekend? Let’s talk.

COVID panic returns: Sunday Musings #107

Year in review: Most popular posts of 2020

As much as I love Christmas, the week between Christmas and the New Year has always been filled with excitement for me.⁠ It is the perfect time for reflecting and recapping the year and then setting new goals. I wanted to share the most popular posts of 2020 in terms of page visits with you all.

Did your favorite posts get a spot on my popular posts of 2020? What do you think are the factors that can get a post to viral? Let's chat. Click To Tweet

Earlier this week, I was just going through my statistics and I was not surprised to find these most popular posts of the year had very few of my favorites. I love all my posts but my favorites like create a blogging schedule that you’ll actually stick to and What’s A Successful Blog To You?, were not as popular as the others.

Also the internet Gods have proved once again that popular doesn’t necessarily mean the best. It just means Google liked them better or Facebook kept showing them randomly. We will never know why and how.

Elgee Writes’ most popular posts of 2020

I am ranking my most popular posts of 2020 based on the page views garnered during the year, based on the WordPress’s statistics. Let me know if your favorite made the cut.

1) Bookish Questions For Your Social Media Captions

This list of 25 bookish questions to use for your social media caption or a blog post was a huge this year.

Bookish questions for social media Feature

2) Book Reviews: Why Don’t They Get Much Engagement?

We book bloggers keep lamenting at how book reviews don’t get much engagement. This post takes a good dive into why that happens to help you understand.

Book reviews don't get much engagement Cover

3) Book Review Posts: How To Improve Engagement?

As a sequel to the previous post, I wrote a guide on improving the engagement on the book review posts. Maybe you will like it too.

improve engagement in book review Cover

4) The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Quite funnily enough, this book review of The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi is one of my most popular post of 2020. Read on to find what made it so popular.

Henna artist by Alka Joshi Featured

5) Book Blogging Is More Than ‘Just For Fun’

This post is one of my personal favorite.

Do you ever feel that your book blogging lifestyle is not taken seriously? Let us talk about why book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’.

Book blogging is more than 'just for fun' Feature

6) Adding WordPress Follow Button To Your Self Hosted Sites

One of the points on my checklist for bloggers is the WordPress follow button. But if you are self hosted there is no direct way to add that button. This post explains how to do that and gain more followers.

Adding WordPress follow button to your self hosted sites Featured image

7) Balancing Social Media And Blogging: How To Stay Sane?

If you are content creator and you are on top of your social media profiles without going insane, YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR. But for others, mere mortals like me, here are some tips to balance it out.

Balancing Social media and Blogging Cover

8) Eight Books That Will Make You Smarter

Why do you read books? This post is especially for those who want to read more books to get smarter and has quite a few non fiction recommendations.

books that will make you smarter cover

9) 35+ Questions To Ask Beta Readers

Some questions for an author to ask your beta reader when you submit a manuscript for beta reading. These questions ensure you get constructive and honest feedback from them.

questions to ask beta readers Cover

10) The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

This famous book didn’t fare so great for me and this review in particular had a lukewarm response when I initially posted. But when the official Auschwitz Museum responded to my post on Twitter, my page visits shot through the roof overnight.

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Popular posts of 2020 Pinterest

Let us talk

Did your favorite posts on my blog get a spot on my list? What do you think are the factors that can get a post to viral? Let’s chat.