Summer here in Dubai

I must have mentioned a few times it is HOT here at present, we have had a fair few sandy days and some sand storms in the past couple of weeks, these are different actually.... sandy days are just cloudy and windy, whipping up the sand ... where as a sand storm is when the wind is coming from a particular direction bringing sand from else where some times Saudi or down from Kuwait and Iraq, you can tell where the wind is from by the colour of the sand it brings with it, but neither is pleasant the visability in a storm can be just a few meters.

Add this to the heat on average 43+ daily it gets very uncomfortable to say the least.

Thus the place gets sand splattered there is sand on the out side of the buildings, on and in the car, it swirls on the pavements and streets, it gets everywhere, in your hair and eyes of course, then pop in some really hot winds and you have a nightmare of weather. Our balcony can have up to a bucket full of sand swept up every other day if we were daft enough to do it often.

So people become hermits and stay in.

This last week or two our weather has been just as discribed, so I will not be sorry to get away on vacation in 4 weeks ...whose counting ?

The wind is also frustrating not least of all here in the apartment, I do the laundry and hang it on a rack, putting it on the balcony I watch it dry in about 30 minutes and have to be ready to bring it in before it dries like a board.

I have to be on my toes during the drying time for as the wind whips up .... over goes the rack and sand/dust clings to the clothes and results in all having to be rinsed again which can be more than annoying to say the least.

I have tried shaking and brushing off the dust but it actually stains the washing if left.

Now I can hear people saying "why don't you use a dryer?"

Well! I actually don't like using a dryer, my experience of dryers is not good, so many shrunk tee shirts and other items spoiled in them.

In NZ, I do actually have a dryer in the garage for those really bad winter days when wet towels and bedlinen are hung about.

The washing machine here in the apartment is a combination washer dryer, but I have never even bothered to worked out how it works why would you with perfect drying weather outside..

So summer in Dubai is not all it is cracked up to be or how you would imagine with all this sun,sea and sand, in fact it can be very unpleasant.

The following photo is a picture of an ensueing sand storm as it rolls in ( obviously not one of mine)