From Boston to Bombay and Toronto to Timbuktu – pedestrian rights are being trampled upon with impunity, and unfortunately, Dubai joins that league too.

The sedentary lives we lead because we have a tendency to hop into our cars to get from place A to place B even though it may be just to the corner store, have left us bemoaning obesity, diabetes and other related diseases. Yet, the one possible panacea – a brisk walk – is getting to be impossible.

Yes, if we have the luxury of time, it’s quite possible to drive to any of the green havens around the city for a brisk or a leisurely walk. However, if like me, you’ve jumped on the 24/7 work culture bandwagon, then you have got to find your exercise as a pedestrian doing your shopping, paying your bills or just simply going to the corner shop to get a carton of milk or the nearby pharmacy for some Panadol. Simple? Not in my experience.

Arthur Charles Clarke, the man who dreamed the impossible for other scientists to make things possible, has passed away at the ripe old age of 90 at his seaside refuge in sunny Sri Lanka.

And what a wondrous life he led. He was a scientist and a mystic, with one characteristic feeding on and fuelling the other and, in turn, firing the imagination of millions of people who dared to dream and hoped to make it happen.

One of the last of the sci-fi greats of the 20th century, Clarke brilliantly bridged science and the arts by predicting solid scientific discoveries long before their time and then fascinating people the world over with almost 100 of his eminently readable scientific and science fiction books.

It’s our birthday. We would have loved to invite you all for a grand celebration if that was possible but instead we present you with a confection of youth - fresh, bold and brilliant on our front page and throughout.

Young Lebanese fashion model Lana Wehbe is wearing a dress designed by Indian fashion designers Kailash Menon and Amrita Laxmi Rajgopalan, a professor and student respectively at the University of Mahe Manipal Fashion Department in Dubai.

The fabric is all XPRESS, a weekly newspaper made possible by a team that comprises Emirati, Dutch, British, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Syrian, Sudanese, American, Filipino, Lebanese, Jordanian, Canadian and Irish journalists who work together in harmony to give you all the news you want in a lively, fun package.

I woke up grumpy on Wednesday. My week had not gone well, and as I turned on the kettle to make a cup of tea, I considered calling in sick at the office.

While I stood barefoot in my kitchen, I stared out of the window and saw that the silly orchid plant which my husband and I had tried to nurture all winter had suddenly bloomed.

Beautiful lush pink flowers – what a brilliant picture to a woman who had struggled to get things right for some time now and was harbouring thoughts of chucking it all for some peace and quiet.