May 06, 2014

Windy?

What do you mean, windy?

 Windy, you say? Beirut airport registers 25 knots, with wind gusts up to 28 knots. That’s 6 on the scale of Beaufort. Is that much? It is considered a ‘strong breeze’ according to this table.  Some coastal service will issue a ‘small craft warning’; i.e. not good to go sailing now. You don’t say; I almost blew off the Corniche. I love the wind, although back home, wind like this was a kill, especially if you had to bike against it.

 
It is odd how the weather has changed in the course of three days. Sunday was wind still and gorgeously Sunny,  Monday saw hazy and overcast skies and it was hotter than hot, and now the temperature is dropping but I’ve got to nail down my balcony furniture.
I guess the pillows on my bench and balcony chairs have already flown to Jbeil by now. As I write this, I see the white plastic chairs slide by my window. Bye bye chairs. Oh dear, I think I've got some laundry still out on the line. That probably spread all over the neighborhood.  We’re looking at rain and thunderstorms for Wednesday.  4 different days, 4 different weathers. You can’t say it is boring.
Beaufort 6
Our housekeeper is walking on clouds, now that she just heard she won the equivalent of half a year’s salary in half an hour (not exactly, it was 41:06, and there’s a lot more work involved than just that one race, but you get the magnitude of the number). My daughter is happy because she just realized she’s got only 6 more weeks of school. My son’s happy because he’s going to study abroad (wait till he figures out the budget he’s got to live on! A budget perfectly normal for any Dutch student, but probably not fitting the lifestyle he intends to continue over there. He’ll be coming home from a ‘cold country fair’, as we say in Dutch) . And I am happy because I am finally catching up with the immense pile of work I had. And that’s it for today.
Just noticed we've got bike lanes on the Corniche.  Or are those for serious runners? Motor cycles maybe? Or MP's who believe they should not have to wait in traffic like the rest of us mere mortals. (everything is possible)

2 comments:

-paul said...

The first picture is one to steal, beautiful.

Ms. M said...

Yes, everything is possible in Beirut. Love it.