Sandier Pastures

I am too sleepy today. M and I were discussing about a thousand and one things last night, talking for more than three hours (!) in the dark.

After 45 days in Dubai, the cosmopolitan desert life has seeped into me slowly and constantly and I am finding myself complaining of every little thing that gets to my nerve, thus the three hour night discussion with my better half.

But today while riding the bus and looking at the city around me, I thought: Life is what you make out here in Dubai, the added bonus is that you can do anything you want 365 days of the year because the sun is always shining. Now, you can even go skiing, sledging or snowball fighting even when the weather is 40C outside! Where else can you do that?!

Yep, the summer is going to be horrendous but, let’s face it, I’ve had to spend most time indoors in Nagano (Japan) over the winter, so it will be the same thing, just for a different reason. But, reading across the internet, Dubai has a lot to offer in the summer for kids and adults alike. There are lots of events to keep everyone entertained inside temperature/climate controled places. So, no need to fear of being trapped in the four walls of the bedroom answering to toddler’s unending questions.

I have a good job (so far, so good!) that requires no overtime and I don’t need to report every exit I make. Time is flexible and no one complains just as long as I do my part. Sometimes when I walk to work and look at all the labourers who toil under the heat of the sun earning a minimum wage, big part of which they have to send to their families back home, I feel luckier. I should stop complaining about getting my shirt wet with sweat while walking to work. That problem would stop once we have a car. Does not mean really that I am so rich to buy one, it is a necessity here in Dubai, a need not a want.

Also, I should stop thinking about Japan and the life that we would have if we opted to stay. Things are different here than anywhere — not necessarily better or worse, just plain different! Have a mindset that life will be what we make it…no matter where we live!

Well it might be very true when they say that things are changing everywhere, that Dubai is not the same Dubai two hours ago, prices are going up, things getting worse, services getting worse, but that’s happening EVERYWHERE in the world!

A country itself cannot make you happy.

Unbelievably cold today morning when I went out at 8 a.m. Humidity coupled with sudden plunge in early morning temperature down to at least 17C and the whole city is enveloped in fog! 17C is pretty cool, refreshing really. I didn’t have to sweat while walking for 15 minutes to work.

Emirates Twin towers engulfed by fog (photo for reference purposes only)

By 7 am, visibility in Dubai was just 100 meters although by 8:30 am it had improved to 1,000 meters and by mid-morning, the fog had largely cleared. At lunchtime, the searing 27C is on again and I am back walking in the street armed with my umbrella and sunglasses on.