BRRRRRRRRRR, apparently Bahrain hasn’t had temperatures as low as these for 50 years.
The other day it was colder in Manama than in my hometown back in chilly Scotland, who would have believed it! Well, my family and friends certainly didn’t until I sent them a photograph of the temperature gauge in my car.
I soon received a flurry of sarcastic and unsympathetic messages in return but I hadn’t been looking for pity, I’m actually embracing these chillier times! Although, to be fair, I know this freak weather spell will pass in the blink of an eye whilst the folks back home still have months of it ahead of them.
I’ve even see it snow in June! Of course, here in Bahrain we aren’t accustomed to such low temperatures and it can often feel colder than it reads on the weather forecast due to the wind chill.
The other day it was showing a warmer 18 degrees Celsius, yet we were all wrapped up for an Arctic-style winter. Low and behold, when entering City Centre Bahrain the other day, I was stopped in my tracks when I came face to face with a woman wearing a fur coat and a matching Russian style hat in the mall, which wouldn’t have looked out of place on the film set of Doctor Zhivago!
That same day, I bumped into a friend who was feeling very pleased with herself having just purchased the last two fan heaters from a store and was rushing home to add these to the collection of oil-filled radiators around her villa.
“But don’t you have heating?” I innocently asked. Let’s just say, I quickly discovered that most villas on the island don’t have a central heating system and that if you do, its best to keep that information to yourself!
