When Lightening Strikes!

Sleep seems to be catching up now, which I'm glad about, although it does mean we're getting up later.  

The weather was very strange today, there was a very heavy smog, yet it it was incredibly hot and therefore humid.  Sherry called from the supermarket and asked if I'd like anything picking up, which was nice of her, so I asked if she'd mind getting eggs, ham and avocado's - we have a big apartment in this hotel, so have a fully fitted kitchen which is great, not that I'm cooking gourmet meals, but at least we have facilities. 

Alan wanted to watch the F1 and I decided to go out for a walk to Safa Park with my camera, except it was quite disappointing.  I walked over 5 miles in total, but it was hard to find the entrance to the park as there's so much construction and half of the park has been sectioned off for development - as if Dubai needs even more development!  I met a young girl who was also looking for the entrance, so we decided to walk together.  She told me her name was Kayleigh and was from Cape Town, she'd only arrived at 3.30am this morning and was staying with her Aunt & Uncle, but couldn't sleep so decided to get up and go exploring.  She was very excited as she's in her final year of high school and this is the first time she's ever travelled abroad.  We finally found the entrance to the park and went our separate ways, but with the construction, there wasn't much to look at.  I guess in it's time, it was a little oasis in the centre of the city, but apart from a few pretty pink petunias there was nothing else to look at. Even the view of the city was ruined with all the construction cranes, but then again, with the smog I couldn't have taken photos of the buildings in any event.  

I did see an interesting squirrel though, and I've added a photo to my extras.  At first I thought it was a chipmunk as it had a striped back, however when it came towards me I could see it looked more like a squirrel, yet it's face is definitely more mouse/rat like than our squirrels. I sent Sherry a photo, and she's lived here a long time and said she never knew there were squirrels over here so I googled it.  It appears it's called a Palm Squirrel, is native to South Asia and Iran, and was first seen here in 2009.  Studies found that they were most likely brought here as pets but then released into the wild and since then the population has increased and now spans almost the whole of the UAE.

Continuing my walk, I left the park and headed along the canal path back into the city.  The canal walk is a relatively new development which is very nice, and I was surprised to see they had hired lots of Indian workers to keep the area clean, including sweeping the pathways, wiping the lamp posts and plant pots and they were very courteous and stopped what they were doing to stand aside when anyone passed.  I noticed mobile phone charging points at some of these lamp posts which had little plastic covers and a shelf next to a seat, so you can plug in your phone and have a sit while you wait.  

By the time I got back to our apartment, I was hot, tired and looked rather bedraggled as it had also rained quite heavy while I was out, so I planned on going for a swim, but once I sat down I couldn't be bothered.  As the evening progressed the rain got heavier and we decided to just go downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel and we're glad we did as quite a storm built up.  Once we were back in our apartment, we could hear the thunder so went out onto the balcony to watch the storm as we were sheltered so could keep dry.  There was the most amazing electrical storm and it's the first time I've managed to capture the lightening  - I didn't have time to get my monopod so the camera was hand held, but I'm pleased with the results  which shows the lightening travelling through the Burj Khalifa and also coming out of the top of it!

Thanks for all your hearts and stars for yesterday's view of The Palm which is sitting near the top of the popular page!   I'll get round to thanking you personally as soon as I can x