Thursday 14 December 2023
It is 20:13 and outside is apparently 20°C. I am in Doha, my first trip back to the Middle East in the almost-four years since the pandemic. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed sunshine and warmth as much as this. Yes, I love living in Scotland (and it’s not like London is 29°C during the day, or even 20°C) but coming here has made me realise the extent to which I miss sunshine. That said, when it is sunny in Scotland, it’s glorious. But not quite glorious enough to stop me hoping for more Middle East work trips in winter.
From 1 January 2017 until almost exactly two and a half years later, I was out of the UK for 365 days. For the past year and a half, I have missed the travel, mainly work but also add-ons to work trips and holidays. For the first year to year-and-a-half of Covid, I enjoyed not going away. I am very much a home person, but this trip has felt amazing. I feel that I have some kind of clarity on a lot of things. I love my home life in Scotland, and also in London, though they are massively different. No surprise there. But there are things I don’t particularly like about both. It turns out that not only do I want to keep two homes, London and middle of nowhere in Scotland, I want a third element, trips away, places that are different to London and Scottish Borders. I have really surprised myself by how good the sun has felt. I am not at all a hot weather person usually. I think new places (not that Doha is a new place to me, I’ve been here more than ten times) provide amazing experiences but also give you a chance to reflect on what you do have.
I was thinking about things I need to do in the four days I’ll be in Scotland before returning to London for Christmas and I realised I’d need to go to the post office. Picturing the 45-minute drive and grey sky and rain, I felt both weary and happy. I love living there. I love visiting places like this (ie not at all like the UK) and I get giddy about different walks, experiences, food, architecture; all of it. But there is no way I’d ever want to live here. For many reasons, but one of the main reasons is the weather here too. Yes, it’s glorious now, and will be for the next three or so months. Then it’s too hot and it is actually difficult to be outdoors for about six months of the year. I hate air conditioning (well, I love it, but I hate having to need it and I don’t like how it makes me feel or how disinclined everyone is, for very good reason, to go outdoors or open windows when it’s in the thirties and forties. Anyway, the hotels here are hermetically sealed). I also – I know, I know – love a bit of rain and the four seasons and grass and greenery …
I’ve been here for a week, today was an unexpected day off and I’ve had a great trip. Even elements of the work have been positive, mainly the people. Last night, when the job finished earlier than expected, most of us in the room had that end of year kind of giddiness, most of us flying home. I had a great evening walking around the souq in summer clothes, the temperature by then at about 20°C with a cooling breeze. Those of us from colder climes commented on how great it was to see the sun and feel warm outdoors. But, particularly as it’s Christmas and almost all of us are from the northern hemisphere, the thought of wintery weather was strangely appealing, in spite of complaints. I will retract that if the weather is so bad that I can’t get home though!
Tomorrow, I will have a walk in my summer clothes, enjoy the last few hours of warm sun and then I will sit on a plane and watch three films (miraculously, I managed to squeeze in four films, including a couple of cheesy Christmas films), eat shite food, arrive in London on Friday night, complain about the amount of people on the train back to Lewisham, complain about the darkness and cold … but I will be happy to be back. I just wish I had a trip lined up for another sun and giddiness fix in January.