The summer heat stir crazies: This comment made me laugh

"It's so bad, my friend is going to the Ukraine, to Chernobyl, and I'm a little bit jealous." 

Snap caption: Through Dubizzle, Abu Dhabi adventures in apartment hunting

Overheard in the newsroom: Ra-Ra-Ramadan edition

Others did not like the banoffee, but they were British.

Anyone else more aware of their fingertip now?

So that's going to be quite a complicated order. Should we go through it again, to make sure we get it?

This smells, by the way. I am just warning everyone now.

OH! I just turned off my computer by accident. Hit the button with the pointy toe of my shoe right in the middle of an edit.

Four in a Yaris, it will be fine.

You don't have a supercar to ride home in today? 

Those are some spinning shoes: One picture sums up why I am in no way glam enough to be an Arab woman

This photo was taken on a recent morning at my local fitness studio just before an 8.30am RPM class.

I had stumbled to the class fresh out of bed, wearing my workout clothes.
This woman had donned an abaya and - so chic - studded high heels, for the same thing.

I just love how awesome she must have looked at that hour, and how terrible I did. I also love that I don't even have a pair of shoes like this, let alone wear them to exercise class.

Even better, when class was finished she just touched up her face and hair and popped the abaya on over her exercise clothes. 

July in Abu Dhabi: Got a case of the stir-crazies? Just know you are not alone

The way you feel right now? That's a case of the mid-UAE summer stir-crazies. 

If you feel fine, then maybe you are lucky, and it hasn't set in yet.

If you are scoffing at the notion, feeling assured that you are strong enough to withstand high temperatures coupled with a dearth of fresh air - and ready to argue that the thing you are mad about now you are really and truly mad about and would be even if it was lovely, lovely February - then I'd suggest that you either don't know about the stir-crazies or are in deep denial about having them.

I realised the mid-UAE summer stir crazies had descended over the weekend when I looked out my car window and I hated everything I saw. (I hated things inside the car too, and inside myself of course. It was equal-opportunity hatred). All of a sudden the things that I treasured mere days ago were sore points. Joy was gone. And the people around me? Irritating, all of them.

I managed to escape this feeling last summer, for the most part, by attending daily RPM classes. One summer I staved them off by going for long, sweaty late-night walks. 

Leaving for somewhere you can breathe - even the UAE seaside - helps. 

In the meantime, deep breaths and calm thoughts. This too shall pass. I've been here for five years - the summer always does. 

Presented without comment

Snap caption: Out with the old...

It wouldn't be Ramadan in July if...

... I didn't find myself at least once in a shopping mall bathroom stall scarfing down half of a protein bar and chugging water. 

Today in UAE radio ads based on conversations unlikely to happen in real life

Woman A: Guess what I heard today?
Woman B: Oh no, is it another one of your gossips?

Snap caption: Something about this place is special; what we are not sure