Saturday, June 26, 2010

One bar attempts to air-condition the outdoors


I am in Canada at the moment - the weather is freaking glorious - and I basically ran out of Abu Dhabi in relief because it was already so hot I felt like a hair dryer was being pointed at my face.

It's only going to get hotter, of course, and will remain so until the end of September, and I think that is why when I left most people were freaking out and exhibiting short tempers. (Or maybe that was just me) Anyway, I snapped this really crappy pic with my phone just to show how one of my favourite hangouts in the city is trying to keep people outside as the temperature rises. Thirty 1st at the Holiday Inn has erected these fans, which mist water as they blow. The reviews have been mixed (and ladies if you go, don't put any effort into styling your hair beforehand) but I spent a night there before I left and while it was very moist, and I don't even want to think about the environmental implications (energy, desalinated water, oi!) I was able to be outside for part of an evening without feeling as though I was suffocating, and that was a very good thing.

How to be a happy expat

Because a cloud wall makes you want to take a selfie.  After 10 years living in the UAE, some of that time happy, some miserable and ...