Sunday 31 May 2009

It's very hot here

I have to write a post on the weather at this time of year. July is supposed to be the hottest month but we're now at the end of May and the temperature has hit 50. I took a screen shot of my google weather widget at 47 last week. It's 9.30 at night and the temp is 38!
We went for a night swim and the water was divine - really warm. Mind you going for a swim during the heat of the day in the sea is strange and not at all refreshing - the sea water is actually hot especially at the waters edge. We spend most weekends at the Dip Club by the pool or beach - see previous post. It's been getting very hot - the other day we were offered a frozen small towels (flannel)to put on our faces! - it was heaven.
It's the wind that's incredibly hot, it burns your nostrils when you breath. The humidity isn't so high though. Brian has not been so lucky - no air con where he is.
The other weird thing we have to do is turn off the hot water. Usually the cold water comes from the tanks that sit on the roof top, but at this time of year they give us hot water. So now when you turn on the hot tap we get cold water from inside the apartment because we have turned off the hot water cylinder and when we turn on the cold tap we get hot water from the roof!

Saturday 16 May 2009

Counting down

Only 6 more weeks till the end of our first contract and we'll be flying back to NZ. I'm getting very excited about seeing everyone again. I remember back to when I was making that hard decision to come up to Qatar and thinking that an 8 month contract wasn't that long and the time will fly - well I have to say a lot has happened in those 8 months and it seems like a long time ago since we were in NZ.
Today we woke up to a dust storm. Here is a before and after shot.
At 6.30 in the morning yesterday it was 38 degrees rising to an unofficial 45 during the day. It was hot but generally I'm working in air con so it's not too bad. When we leave the school, walking to the car the heat is OK because you feel like you need a bit of warming up after being inside all morning. Then after 10 mins or so the air con in the car starts to kick in.

Last weekend we went on a fishing trip on a big old dhow. Here are a couple of photos