Picture this: a wet and windy day in London, England, and office-workers are dashing across streets, jumping over puddles, holding newspapers over their heads in a desperate attempt to keep the rain off.
Commuters huddle together under a lone bus shelter, tutting when their shoes are splashed, frowning at the grey skies and wishing their mode of transport would arrive sooner.
I've always wondered, however, if sprinting along in the rain and splashing through actually spares people from the rain. What harm is a 30-second walk in the rain, after all? Plus, if you run along in a shower, do you actually become wetter than if you just walked normally but carefully?
What would actually happen if you walked along normally; your jacket might become slightly damp. And then it would dry out again when you returned to the office. For some reason, this thought struck me as I walked to the Metro station in the searing heat of August in Dubai. The temperature was so high that however slow or fast one walked, anyone was bound to become boiling hot.
Obviously, quickening your pace in this heat would make you hotter — but then again, you'd reach the sanctuary of the station's air-conditioning more quickly. So it's a toss-up, then, between a slightly longer walk in the baking heat, or a short sprint at a hotter temperature.
Sweat, however, is designed to cool people down. It might not be aesthetically attractive, but it is produced for a reason.
There's even a theory that drinking a hot beverage on hot days actually cools down the body — by producing sweat, which then cools one down.
I haven't taken up the opportunity of offers to test out this theory, however. Drinking a cup of tea straight from the kettle in the midday heat during a Dubai summer doesn't really sound all that appealing — even if it were in the name of science.
When I was at school, some of our classes were held in 100-year-old buildings, with iron window frames (cold in the winter and hot in the summer), no air-conditioning and a heating system that looked like it was built in the Middle Ages.
Cooling exercise
During one particularly hot English summer (which is unusual for the UK) my Religious Education teacher insisted that he had the solution to our discomfort.
"Sit completely still," he said to us, "don't even fan yourselves with that paper". Theoretically, I suppose he did have a point — physical activity could make the heart pump harder and therefore warm you up a bit.
Years later, however, I realised that was the quietest our class had ever been… so maybe he just wanted us to behave ourselves and sit still. This year I visited the Scottish capital Edinburgh and saw rain for the first time in more than a year. Not that surprising for a UK summer, it actually rained for the most part of each of the four days I was there.
Why is she writing about it raining in the UK, you might ask yourself, that's not exactly new. No, it's not, you're right: what is new, however, is the change in my behaviour.
Having lived in the desert heat of the UAE for more than four years, I found myself a slow stroller amongst hundreds of dashing visitors to Edinburgh city centre. Matrix-like, they tried to dodge the cold droplets of rain, frowns on their faces, grumpy demeanours.
Taking pleasure in the persistent precipitation, I grew so used to it that I didn't notice my clothes becoming soaked, my hair dripping with water, the wetness seeping into my trainers and socks. And not for a second did I consider running through the glorious rainfall.
