Five reasons to spend summer in Dubai

Yes, it’s hot. Like, really, really hot. Even I think so. And, yes, the children are on school holidays. Every day. Yes, most of our friends have left town. Yes, this year summer has happened to coincide with Ramadan, so even if there was something to do, it couldn’t involve the public imbibing of fluids or eating of food (although bending over and pretending to tie your shoelace while surreptitiously swigging from a water bottle is working out quite well for us so far).

But there are a few wins to spending the summer holidays in Dubai. Here are five of them…

1. There are no queues

Now is your chance to visit every Dubai attraction that is normally too crowded to enjoy. Put off taking the kids to the ice rink because of the crazy teenager speed skaters playing tip between the toddlers with over-sized penguins? Worry no more. They have all gone home to Europe or Africa or wherever, leaving the ice free for your precious offspring. Don’t want to spend half an hour in the line for every ride at Wild Wadi? Visit over summer and the whole water park is yours. Etcetera. WIN!

2. There are no cars

Honestly, the roads are like Nowra on a Sunday afternoon. Vacant. Empty. Deserted. Over summer, you only feel like you are about to die once a day. It’s a big improvement. WIN!

3. Your family will bond

In Australia, summer holidays mostly consisted of driving the kids to their friends houses, or else picking the kids’ friends up to bring them to our house. In between, there were trips to Sydney, people to stay, work and all sorts of other reasons to spread the five personalities in our family around more thinly. But at the moment, we really only have each other. Okay, Graham actually has a life, but the rest of us don’t so much right now. No one can say I am not spending enough time with my children. And actually, we quite like each other. WIN! (Now, if I could just convince them that lying on a bed reading a book all day was a good use of holiday time, we’d all be happy.)

4. Lunch is the new breakfast…

We’re encouraging serious sleep-ins, seeing as the hot, empty days are harder to fill in than the relatively pleasant evenings (only 39 degrees. That’s under 40!). Turns out cricket after dinner is quite possible in the park by that time of day, finished off by an evening swim in the pool (which currently is for our exclusive use). This means that the first meal of the day, for those of us without livelihoods, is more like a (very slightly) early lunch. The kids eat afternoon tea, and then a good dinner, but so far no one has noticed the fact that we’re eating one less meal a day. This saves both time and money. WIN!

5. …And you can eat it in your jimmy-jams

If it has to be done in the morning, then it has to be done in pyjamas. That’s the new rule at our house. Whether we’re playing cards, playing Wii, playing Trivial Pursuit, cooking, cleaning (oh wait, that’s just me) or building houses both real (Lego) and imaginary (Minecraft), our pjs are de rigueur. And, because there’s no one in town, there’s no chance of the front doorbell ringing. WIN!

And finally, if I ever start counting down the days to the new school year, I just have to look at our friendly Springs 14 lifeguard (what? You’re pool doesn’t come with one?). He spends the whole day outside in temperatures around the mid-40s, and not only is he fasting for 16 hours a day (that’s no water, folks. NO WATER) he does it all in long pants.

What are your surprising holiday upsides?