We seem to be in the middle of a one today. Not a bad one but a mild one. The day started out sunny and clear but now we can’t see very many other buildings. It’s similar to fog but warmer in colour, so not pearl grey in colour like fog, but a mellow creamy yellow haze instead.
When I hold my hand out the open window the air feels warm, soft and smooth, not cold and moist like fog. There is plastic and cardboard floating down through the air from above us in slow motion…now why would that be? Must be the rising heat pushing against gravity. The palm trees are waving like belly dancers below us.
Because I had the kitchen window open a crack, the counter is covered in fine sand. It’s intriguing...should we hustle to the beach for a free dermabrasion!!?
The sand strangely, in not coming from the UAE desert, but from the northwest, from the desert of Iraq, and is carried above the gulf waters for quite a distance before hitting our peninsula and sandblasting the skyscrapers of Dubai.
Nasa’s satellite picture shows the dust storm moving south-east towards the UAE from Iraq. Nasa and Karim Kadim / AP PhotoWe had a worse sand storm earlier in the year. All high land marks were completely obliterated, kind of like in a snow storm or squall but the air was warm and dry and creamy...a most unusual sensation, like our minds are playing tricks on us.
We set out for our new church that morning in a newly rented vehicle but struggled to get our bearings on the road, since we couldn’t see the guidepost landmarks and didn’t remember how many exits to count on the highway before turning off.
When we finally got out of the vehicle in the sandy parking lot at the church, we had to shield our eyes from the dust and sand as it whipped about us...but even this was an adventure too, lol.
Instead of stamping the snow off our boots, we shook the sand out of our clothes and hair!
