I’ve recently moved residence to Dubai and as most of you should know (if you pay attention in Geography) that during the days it’s hot and bright and Sunny to the point where staring outside on the road for long periods of time and then looking back inside a moderately bright house can contrast to a point of needing to close your eyes for a minute to steady your vision. Not that I haven’t lived in the middle east before (2 years in Bahrain and constant visits to various GCC countries) but after living in Malaysia for about 3 years and not going anywhere else, it was a little difficult to get adjusted to the weather (while still suffering from Jet Lag and a 2 week-old flu) and environment. During this “welcoming” period, I didn’t know if I wanted it to be hot (because it was definitely HOT outside) or cold (since I had a flu and I was constantly sniveling mucus) .

Well, since my new house had an absolutely fantastic garden with just the right amount of vegetation I chose to be out in the sun and since none of our stuff has arrived from Malaysia yet I didn’t have much to do. So… out of what I did to kill time comes the birth of this list, 10 things to do under the sun - literally.

# 10 - READ A BOOK
I had 9 thick-ass books (Including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, something from Douglas Adams 2 books from Trudi Canavan and the ‘His Dark Materials Trilogy’ by Phillip Pullman) which I finished reading within a period of 2 weeks.. and I think the Douglas Adams book is still somewhere lying on a bench.

#9 - TAKE A PET OUT
If I had leashes I’d be walking my cats around the garden but I don’t so I had to run around while they galloped across the vast plains of my garden. I felt like such a shepherd, “Come here Missy, Come here Skippy, NO DON’T CHASE THAT CAT, IT’S NOT FEMALE, OH JESUS, COME BACK HERE!”. They left me wheezing.

#8 - PRACTICE A SPEECH YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO RECITE
The neighbors probably heard me reciting Shakespeare’s soliloquies and monologues, and the traditional rhymes of Guy Fawkes Night and excerpts from Hamlet and DEFINITELY some immitations and impressions of O’Bama and Bush and even some of Moses. Think of 1AM (remember, still have Jet Lag) in the morning, you hear a girl in the garden next to yours chanting ‘LET MY PEOPLE GO!’. Yes, I know I’m weird.

#7 - TALK TO SOMEONE
Well, since I had no one I could hold a decent conversation with, I talked to the ants.

#6 - SLEEP
Oh yeah, I slept ’sprawled eagle’ style right in the middle of the garden, right after I got tired of talking to the ants.

#5 - WATER THE PLANTS
Or even plant something new in your garden.

#4 - EAT THE GRASS
You never know, it might taste good.

#3 - PEOPLE WATCH
And if there’s no people to watch, watch the clouds. Never know what shapes you might see. I saw Osama’s turban.

#2 - SWING
I have one of those 3 seater, classic-ey swings in my garden so I just like to sit there and daydream.

#1 - LISTEN TO MUSIC
Preferably, while still swinging.

This probably helped no one at all but I had nothing better to do so deal with it.