People make their way along Southbank in London, England. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Anna Seaman
On returning to the UAE after a recent trip to the UK I was grateful of two things, the sun and the smiles that such sunshine brings. In London, even though it was the middle of August and supposedly the height of summer, the dreary rain constantly fell and with it fell the faces of the people.
I could understand. It wasn’t many months since I was one of those masses, trudging through the slippery streets, negotiating the Tube and fighting my way for a seat on the bus. But now, with the perspective of a relative tourist I found it odd. For me the rain was refreshing. Yes it meant that temperatures struggled to reach above 20 degrees but it was worth it for the cold lungs full of air I inhaled and the dewy smell that lingered in the air after the downpours.
Also, the city sparkles after the rain. During a sunny spell one afternoon I visited a friend and we had lunch on her roof top terrace. From there we could see all over London, from Canary Wharf in the east to planes landing at Heathrow in the west. Alongside the River Thames we saw the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Battersea power station. Although the sky was full of clouds, they were white and fluffy and the whole scene was beautiful. I realised the saying is true, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. London was all the more stunning to me because I’d left it behind.
But despite this nostalgia I did not want to return. London is lots of fun and a great place to visit but you won’t catch me queuing up to take my place among the glum faced masses any time soon. I prefer to see people smile.
In the countryside, where I stayed with family, I walked the dogs through muddy fields and watched farmers struggling to take in the harvest amid the bad weather. It was a very English scene and it did make me realise what I had been missing in Abu Dhabi.
Although it is a relatively green emirate with kerbsides and parks watered on a regular basis, nothing could really compare to the luscious countryside of the UK. But, I also noticed another particularly English pastime - all anyone could talk about was the weather. It was either too cold, too wet or on the day the sun came out it was too hot! It made me grateful for our perpetual sunshine.
Although it is common for us to complain it is too hot or too humid out here in the Gulf, as far as I’m concerned the weather is not a problem. Ok so for a couple of months a year the steering wheel is too hot to touch when you get in the car and walking outside for more than a few minutes is a sweaty experience. But for the most part, we don’t have much to complain about, apart from maybe the lack of rain.
