Like a rare bird being spotted in the wild, rain has come to the UAE. The first winter showers are expected to persist until today, clogging traffic and making our lives just a little more challenging. Yet the sheer freshness of it, in a country that normally basks in year-round sunshine, means we look forward to it in the same way those in the northern hemisphere await sunshine.
But the irony for the players of Manchester City football team is that they left the grey skies of home for a few days of warm weather training in Abu Dhabi just as the weather here took on a distinctly English tenor. City are here to play a friendly against Hamburg at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain tomorrow.
Most of the players would have been expecting to play in warmer, drier conditions. Indeed, pitchside advertising at the Etihad Stadium proclaims Abu Dhabi as a destination blessed with 360 days of sunshine a year. Shame City have arrived on one of the other five.
