Rainy day blues

Last week's three-day marathon rains has affected me considerably.

Why? I don't know. How? I cried for three days because I did not see the sun.

Never thought it would happen to me, but, three days of overcast skies and the major inconveniences caused have altered my grand love affair with water in all its forms.

I love the rains, especially the temperate Dubai winter rain. It has always made the city cleaner, the grass greener, the air fresher and the temperature cooler; but this time it was different.

The pouring rain seemed to have washed off ancient sludge from all of the buildings and made the city slimy, the grass and all the autumn flowers drowned in sludge, friends and colleagues went down like dominoes with the flu and traffic was a nightmare on every highway.

Grey is not my favourite colour and being enveloped by a sky which stayed dark without the sun poking its head out from behind the clouds felt like the heavens were mourning the loss of an age of happiness. Even the pitter patter of raindrops on my window reminded me of tears and I yearned for a glimpse of the sun.

I have never really cared for summer time. The sun beats down on my head, affecting my smile factor and the high humidity levels leave me tired and listless and racing for the cool confines of home, car and office.

The vibe is also aggressive. In Dubai the heat and humidity make genuinely nice people irritatingly rancorous. I guess there is a direct correlation with the amount of time we are forced to spend cooped up indoors. The 50 degree Celsius heat in the shade does fry our brain cells; not very conducive to bonhomie.

Winter is the time to come alive. Somehow at the end of the year and the beginning of the holiday season people seem friendlier; those permanent furrows between the eyebrows always seem to disappear a few weeks before the winter solstice.

The incessant rain however, spoiled it for me. I know that water is a primary necessity, and it is common knowledge that we need the rain to ensure that our ground water levels are healthy. But, as we look forward to the end of a tough year and the start of a hopeful new year, I wish it does not rain only on the weekends; like it did on most Saturdays in December of 2006, 2007 and 2008.

I'm going to see Santa with my wish list for Christmas and New Year. Is it possible that although I am a naughty girl, he will give me regular sun breaks because I've tried very hard to be nice? Just have to wait and see.

Here's wishing you a bright sun-shiny weekend.