Talking about the weather is dreary, especially when it’s weather nowhere near where you happen to be sitting.

But I have complained so often about the six months of summer here … that I have to speak up for the conditions of Friday.

It was … perfect.

Friday is like Sunday, here. Most people have it off.

And it could not have been nicer.

Talking low 80s. A cool breeze coming in off the Gulf. Sun out but not intense. Scattered wisps of cloud overhead.

It was an invitation to a picnic, and as I prepared to go to the office I could see expats from the subcontinent showing up at the 30-yard strip of grass and gnarled trees that runs along Airport Road. Residents around here treat it like a park … and on days like Friday, it works.

I saw eight people, four men in quasi-western clothes and four women in long black dresses find a place to sit. I spent some time trying to puzzle out where they might be from. They didn’t look like Arabs, but most non-Arab cultures don’t have their women wearing the long black abayas, with their heads covered. Where are they from? Afghanistan, maybe? I gave up.

Anyway, they were out for the day. So were many others. Kids playing cricket. Guys just sprawled on the grass. The beach apparently was jammed, which doesn’t happen often. Most of the year, you wouldn’t want to be out there more than five minutes. But not on this day …

It was, what, November 19, and the whole day was an advertisement for Europeans in their cold, dreary homelands to come spend a week in the UAE to get some sun. To take off their coats. Now is the time.

It was warm but not hot, sunny but not blindingly bright. The air seemed fresh, and cool but not chilly. It was weather you would order up if you lived in heaven and had control of the thermostat.

There. I said it. It can be grand here, outside. I hope it will be again for many more days between now and March.