I would like to posit that human nature doesn’t allow us to remain happy with anything for too long. We may still appreciate it and even still enjoy it from time to time but we can never recapture the thrill and excitement of our first experience of it. Imagine a land of fluffy unicorns jumping over colorful rainbows. I have a feeling that the initial glee of that situation would wear off pretty quickly. Even a life where money literally fell from trees would, after a while (sure, I agree it would be a long while), become kind of tedious. And even a city where the sun shines 360 days of the year can kind of get on your nerves after four years of it.

So, my point (yes, I do have one) is that I am at a stage of my life where I love (and long for) the rain. But sure, I see how that can make me sound ungrateful. Who the hell turns up their nose at constant sunshine??

But, let me point out that Dubai’s sun, whilst constant and abundant, is hardly the sun of fairytales and poetry. It’s a burning, mean, wickedly hot sun and it travels through high humidity, smog, dust and airborne sand to get to you. It is not the sunshine which dapples through trees, nor the sun you can taste in a late harvest semillion. It is not the sun that caresses your skin, dousing you in Vitamin D and keeping depression at bay. Nor is it the sun which makes you want to frolic barefoot and do cartwheels in the grass. It’s the kind of sun which sends us scurrying indoors, to avoid it as if we were vampires. REALLY!!!

So, today I woke up happy. I woke up to the gentle patter of raindrops on my forehead (we’d left the window open for some fresh air – another valuable commodity that I cherish on trips abroad). And then later, just for good measure, we got some of that nice dappling sunshine too. Totally spoilt!!!

Gorgeous, soul-affirming rain outside our window.