After being in SA for so long, we came home appreciating where we were and the life we have here. As much as we love our homeland, we missed our 'little' villa here in Al Ain and all our wonderful friends that we have made here. It was lovely to lie in our own bed and survey my messy nest feeling oh so happy to be home.
A few days after our return, the heavens opened. The rain poured down for hours and left a scene which lead me to understand exactly why Noah needed his ark. The truth of the matter is that people in the desert have no idea how to deal with rain. Our driveway was a small river while our street was a larger river. Every house surrounding us was leaking in some form or another, with my neighbours the Philpotts having water streaming down their electricity box, of all things, rendering their top floor into darkness. They also had a leaky roof and, like the rest of us, leaky windows. We ran out of towels in minutes flat but all of this did not dampen our Christmas spirits as we celebrated with those that were leaving for the holidays. For once we had a function indoors as the kids ran around in the rain outside. Dishes were brought in the rain from the various houses in our complex and some of us did not fair so well in terms of negotiating the soaked marble steps, resulting in some nasty bruising and aching bones.
The next morning, after dropping the kids off at school in her tiny Yaris, braving drowning and/or flushing away, my neighbour Pauline and I decided we would go and watch New Moon at the mall. We decided my car was a better idea to forge the rivers and off we went at a veritable snail's pace. It was quite a thrilling journey to the mall as we tested my car's swimming capabilities as she swam around roundabouts and waded through parking lots. The funniest bit of the journey occurred when we saw man
y cars stopped on the side of the road up ahead. Fearing an horrific accident, we slowed down even more, only to find several Arabs with their cell phones taking amazed pictures of the tiny waterfalls trickling down the mountain. Hilarious!Once in the safety of the cinema, we shared a wonderful 2 hours trapped in the warm haven of the cinema perving fine young things along with just one other patron before having a bite and zipping off to collect kids again in the veritable Venice that Al Ain had become. All in all a very extraordinarily fun day. At least I got to wear my boots once this year :).
As I sit here now and gaze out of my now well-sealed window, its as if it never happened. The sand is as dry as ever and the roads are back to being simply dusty. I still have not yet bought an umbrella and doubt I will until this time next year when it pours again and we wonder why we don't own one.
Meanwhile my son would like to know when the snow is starting as expat association is instilling in him the idea that snow is synonymous with Christmas. Time to whisk him off to Ski Dubai for a day I think....
