‘Lashing, torrential, cats and dogs’ downpours inched their way across the Emirate this morning under cover of thick, overcast rain clouds.  Much to the delight of precipitation deprived children who jumped in every puddle they could find, and the frustration of drivers whose visibility was substantially reduced, everyone quietly acknowledged ‘it’s that time of year’.

Relieved that the sudden jump in morning temperatures from 16 to 21 degrees had been rightfully put in its place, I happily set off for work, albeit at a slower pace than normal.  I was even more relieved knowing that the words the children had scrawled on my ‘until this morning’ dusty car would finally be washed off (think: ‘poo’ ‘wee’ and such like!).

Rain in Dubai is a great break from what can sometimes feel like relentless sunshine and the ‘same old, same old’.  One of the best things about the rain is that it starts and is done (if I had written ‘dune’ here, would it have sounded too corny???) and dusted (literally because in the desert equivalent of ‘rock, paper, scissors’, the desert sand will always force the rain into retreat!) quickly.  It might last 20 minutes.  It might last an hour.  No matter how long, it always seems to last long enough to flood many places and cause havoc on the roads, but not long enough to get that feeling that you are back on London’s soggy streets darting from shop front to shop front seeking respite from the cold, sloshing raindrops.

By mid morning the rain had cleared leaving only angry, dark clouds acting ‘all that’ and threatening to inflict more chaos on Dubai’s sunny life……

Alas this morning’s downpour was not the only soaking I was destined to endure today.

As I arrived at the school to collect the kids, I had a SMS message from my helper telling me that water was gushing through the roof of her bathroom.  My first thought was ‘it must have been the weight of the rain which pooled on the flat roof of the house which was now leaking into her bathroom’.  When I spoke with her, she sounded panicked,  as if she were on a sinking ship and had been ordered to stay aboard until all passengers had reached safety.

‘It’s coming through all 4 corners.  It’s not stopping’ she added.

‘Switch off all electrical points and start sandbagging the bathroom so it doesn’t get into your bedroom’ I advised as I mentally flicked through the maintenance company rolodex wondering which company I could call upon to deal with this emergency.

Jim Will Fix It to the rescue!

Thank you chaps for sorting out my burst water tank in the same amount of time it took for the rain to flood Dubai this morning!

PS this is not a sponsored post!