Shamal*

Not quite the dramatic picture of a sandstorm coming in, but hopefully, the branches and leaves on this eucalyptus tree give a sense of how strong the wind was. The weather today has been BAD. And very very hot. We experienced winds up to 50km/hour and visibility was down to about 2 kilometres.

Start of another week and poor G had an extra long day due to exams. She's got another one like it tomorrow. Not much else to report really. The cleaner and I agreed it wasn't worth doing the balconies today with all the sand blowing around.

*A shamal (Arabic: شمال‎, 'north') is a northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. (Wikipedia)