It felt good to be back home after 6 weeks away - my own bed sort of feeling. The day after I returned I relished the heat after the cool damp of the Washington State. Three weeks after returning I was more than ready to leave again. I had this idiotic idea of walking on the corniche (waterside avenue) to Spinney's, the local upscale grocery store around noon. My idea was to shop and take the taxi back to our apartment. It was warm, but hey, I'm from Houston, I know about heat. I'm tough, and besides, I needed the exercise. Funny thing, though, nobody was walking on this normally busy corniche. The phrase "only mad dogs and Englishmen out in the noonday sun" floated to my mind like a hallucination as I was walked. The half-hour journey did me in. I stumbled into Spinney's, managed to make it over to the water bottle cooler, while holding on to a shopping cart for dear life. I thought I was maintaining my composure but people were glancing at me like "should I help her"; "Is she OK?". After cooling down a bit, shopping and checking out at the register, the bagger told me, yes, told me, he was going to flag me a taxi. Like, I'm not being given a choice - such a stupid lady. The summer temperature has been past 45 degree celsius (113 degrees fahrenheit) on a daily basis. It might be alright but somehow the coastal areas also maintain a high humidity level. I've read that historically - before the oil and air-conditioned buildings 50 years ago - in the summer the tribal people would travel inland to places like Al Ain (a desert oasis town) where it was just a bit cooler but much drier, hence, cooler nights. So now you know when NOT to plan your visit with us. Summer here is a place to hang out with a few remaining hardcore friends at restaurants, bars, indoor gyms, shopping malls, indoor souks and maybe a drive over to Dubai for a turn at the indoor ski slope.
We had Waleed's going away - as in back to the states - bash. The guys hammed it up with their cigars. I was offered one but graciously declined. We will miss that Lebanese rebel rouser. So many trips to the Lebanese Flower restaurant at his instigation. Our table was always over-ladened with more sharmas, tabboulel, fattoush, hommos and moutabel than we could ever eat. He even enticed some of us to eat Habra (raw ground meat).
It's a nice time to just cocoon, read a book, and watch the sunset over Lulu Island from the comfort of your own air-conditioned apartment. Lulu Island - the Emirates have just opened it up for tourists. Bob and I took a ferry over there early one morning and swam on the gulf side of the beach. It's got a way to go, amenity-wise, before it becomes a tourist destination but it was fun to have the whole beach to yourself. I snapped a shot of our apartment building from the island. As you can see it's very easy to cocoon here with workout, room-service, and sleeping all in one building. If something breaks down, I call maintenance. If I don't want to grocery shop, I call "Smart Grocer" across the street from us and they bring it right up. Dry cleaning is delivered.
Bob has also gone a few times to the golf course. He says, with the heat, it's not nearly as crowded - h'mm. He's also gotten himself golfing sandals and anybody who knows Bob, knows how rare this is - he rents a cart.
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