It’s nice being on the 10th floor of a building. With a balcony.

Sometime, it lends itself to a view. Such as a really interesting sunset, above.

A couple of points:

We don’t many great sunsets in the UAE. Not like, say, Paris. Or other European capitals, where long, gorgeous sunsets are a summer staple. Or even Los Angeles, where the sun’s rays through the photochemical haze makes from some brilliant colors.

A key ingredient in sunsets is clouds, and for about seven months a year we, in the UAE, rarely have clouds here. They just cook off under the withering sun.

Too, the air often is darkened by lots and lots of sand. If we get a breeze of more than about 10 miles per hour (I suppose it’s wind, by then, not a breeze), it will pick up the sand around us, or from up the Gulf (like, literally, from Iraq) … and sand blocks views, too. I believe “occlude” is a useful word.

And then there is the notion of being able to get a decent photo of a sunset.

The one above was taken with a smart phone. (Or maybe it should be a smart camera.)

We are looking east, in this photo. (Well, duh.) This part of Abu Dhabi Island is nearly east-west, in orientation, so it’s looking sidelong from the balcony — which usually gives us a northward view, towards the mangroves and several islands.

Drive towards the Corniche from here about eight (long) blocks, and it becomes almost a north-south island.  Which can lead to confusion when people in Abu Dhabi start talking about north-south-east-west, because what is further “up” or “down” the island changes as it moves along.

In this case, we have the sun sinking below the clouds, which gives them that pink coloring, and the lights are just coming on, in the city.

Had we thought this through, we would have made this a video, and then we could have picked up the sunset call to prayer from one of the several mosques in the area.

Anyway, it’s nice to sit out on a balcony, when the temperature is moderate, and then to get a view with it … sometimes it’s strikingly nice.