In the summer in Dubai, the only options for recreation are inside, in air-conditioning.

Malls, cinemas, a ski-slope, hotels, brunches etc. all figure quite highly at weekends.

But, not having small children to occupy and entertain, or a desire for a long, lengthy brunches every Friday, the lure of the above fizzled out pretty quickly.

We would try to head out of town most weekends, crossing the border to Oman frequently to haunt our favorite beaches in search of the eternal missing link shell we hadn’t yet found.

But in order to do that in a comfortable climate, an 8-hour overnight drive was needed to get to the areas of Oman that were cooled by the Khareef season (Monsoon).

This wasn’t always feasible, so we tried to spend summer weekends collating the shell collection, photographing and recording data for our ongoing and seeming eternal project to update the Eastern Arabian data for shells. An immense task that will take us through retirement!

But, on some weekend days, flat-fever was inevitable so we would head off out into the 45+ degree heat to shop for food and quite often pass by the aquarium shops.

It made me feel as if I had feet in the sand on those scorching days where Mad dogs and Englishwomen really should be terribly sensible.

Surfing around the aquarium, checking out the fish and coral tanks would give me the outdoor connection and the Philipino guys who ran the coral, fish and mollusk tanks came to know us well.

We have an aquarium, so would often buy new reef fish and they tolerated me and my camera on those hot August days very kindly.

A few Aquarium shots, under-sea life is mystical, even in a tank….

The fish are Blue Tang,a species of Indo-Pacific surgeonfish, fancifully portrayed, aquarium lighting is always blue-toned so a little masking helped with outside fantasy in the heat.

The corals…well, I wish I knew more, but they are ethereal underwater, so beautiful and if there was ever a precedent for saving the world’s reefs to preserve these most intricate life forms, I hope this could add to it…