People are coming back! I am getting ready to leave!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel this summer – light, ha ha ha, that's funny, I can barely see my computer screen due to sunshine pouring in my window – and the truth is, it hasn't been half bad considering how much I was dreading it.

Some of the people I know are starting to come back into town, teachers, not for the state schools of course, they postponed their start dates until after Ramadan. The Yoga Tree is opening soon (Aug 23); the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink will be taking skaters again (Aug 17, when Magic on Ice wraps) and there are budding signs of life that make me excited about the autumn's revved-up social calendar. There is also Ramadan, set to start within two weeks, and that is a lovely time of year, even for an expat who doesn't celebrate.

Also, a whole bunch of hotels are opening up out by the Shangri-la, and as anyone who lives in Abu Dhabi knows, new places to socialise are always welcome.

And I have torn through Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy, 5 of Lost, 2 of Private Practice (that one just kind of snuck in there) not to mention several books. I'm even in the home stretch of Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi, a book you may recall has been my constant companion here in Ab Dhab.

Oh, and I am heading back to Canada in T-minus 9 days now for the first time in a year, so there's that too. Touchdown will see me reunite with my family and immediately head to see the Boston Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays. There, I will consume a jumbo hot dog and look happily around. It will also probably be raining, as Canada has had an atrocious summer, so I will probably put on a raincoat.

All that to say, life is good people. Life is good.