Gubbi of Arabia: Expat Life in Dubai

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Fear and Foreboding in Dubai: Summer Comes to the Desert

There is a foreboding to May in Dubai.

It’s a beautiful month, if you ask me - the last of the beautiful months, as far as I’m concerned, though the more delicate greenhouse flowers among us may claim the beauty ends in April or even March. May is hot, yes - as I type this, the temperature has settled at 93F just past 11 PM - but at this point in the year the humidity from the Gulf has yet to bear down fully upon our fair emirate, and oh, it’s not as hot as it will be. (Who among us can forget the mid-July glories of “Feels Like 135F”?!)

So May - perhaps like the waning Indian summer of early September in an American clime where winter is the season to fear - is a month full of “lasts.” Throughout May, Dubai gathers ‘round for one last collective outdoor hurrah before we scatter into our respective air-conditioned abodes to hibernate for the summer - or better yet, decamp to a more civilized part of the world entirely, a sweaty (if well-heeled) diaspora desperately seeking reprieve from the desert heat. 

And so I thought I’d share with you some of the glorious lasts from this time of year - memories to be cherished through the endless boxed DVD sets and shopping mall afternoons of the brutal summer months to come.

May is the time for one last poolside barbecue at your friend’s villa on the Palm…

… one last cheeky midday Corona that stays cool for more than 30 seconds without a koozie …

… one last encounter with your abaya-clad local counterparts on the Safa Park track before they pack it in for the summer, leaving you to plod through mile after sweaty mile all by your lonesome (though to be honest, you quite prefer it that way) … 

… one last crisp glimpse of the Dubai skyline before it goes missing until September, obscured by the summer haze … 

… one last secret picnic on a deserted white-sand island (to be fair, this was also a first for the season - but one that shall be repeated many, many times in the future) …

… one last skim across - and into! - a sea that is not yet soup-hot (lest you think I’ve developed sufficient coordination to wakeboard, let me clarify that this is our friend Caro, not me) …

… and one last awkward tan line that totally throws a wrench in your cute work-oufit plans for the week. 

(You mean showing up for important meetings with an obvious post-weekend sunburn is not acceptable when you’re a few months away from 30? BUT I REALLY WANTED TO WEAR THIS CUTE MOSSIMO DRESS FROM TARGET! Wait, does that not help my case when it comes to “maturity”?)

And that, my friends - with temperatures climbing up to 105F in the ten-day forecast that sees us through the end of the month - may be all she wrote. So let this post serve as my ceremonial passing of the “nice weather” baton to those of you that live in normal climates… but don’t worry, I’ll grab it back from you on the occasion of your first frost in October, when I’m just beginning to reacquaint myself with that deserted white-sand island.

  1. hershapeinthedoorway said: Book. Also, I am so jealous of your life. Let’s be best friends please.
  2. gubbiofarabia posted this
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