There are a lot of very obvious differences between my native Wales and Abu Dhabi. Firstly, in Wales it is always raining. Or thinking about raining. Or has just fi nished raining. Or it’s that brief dry spell between the morning’s dose of rain and the afternoon’s dose of rain. Or it’s cold enough to be hailing or snowing instead, just for a bit of a change. I’ve spent years without seeing a proper summer, and we don’t really expect much from summer when it does arrive. Abu Dhabi’s winter weather, where temperatures plummet to around 20 degrees and you might see a cloud, is what we Welsh nervously refer to as a heat wave, storming the beaches in an attempt to keep cool. Perhaps complaining that it’s become a little bit too hot, wondering out loud every few minutes when the weather will break and plunging ourselves into the icy cold oceans until our skin turns a Smurf-esque shade of blue and we develop the symptoms of hypothermia.
But temperatures are surprisingly easy to adapt to. Instead of sprinting from air conditioned office to air conditioned cab, as I did in my first few weeks, I now find myself quite enjoying the warmth of the sunshine (provided I don’t have to walk any long distances or attempt any strenuous activities, that is). Likewise the different scenery – everything at home is a vibrant green, everything here is orange, or yellow or a slightly different shade of hot and dusty, but that soon starts to feel normal. And seeing street and shop signs in two languages is something I am very used to, except Arabic replaces Welsh alongside the English translation.
No, what’s harder to adapt to is the lack of hills. But I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even notice they were missing until I found myself walking up possibly the only hill in Abu Dhabi on my way to a dental appointment in Khalidiyah. I just knew something was wrong. You see, the green, rolling hills of Wales are very important to its inhabitants. Anything larger than a sandcastle is reverently referred to as a ‘mountain’. And sand dunes just don’t cut it. Sure, Tel Moreeb might be impressive, and should you foolishly decide to scale it you’ll get a similar experience – burning calf muscles, exhaustion and possibly a minor heart attack, but it’s just not the same.
Perhaps it’s time Abu Dhabi took the matter into its own hands. It could build its own hill, just to make its Welsh guests or any visitors from San Francisco feel a little more at home. It could be a hill of record-breaking proportions. It could be the tallest hill in the world – definitely taller than anything Dubai could manage, I’d imagine. Just something to think about.
