Odds and Ends

Photography is not welcomed in the Kingdom as it is in other places. You don't see families posing and having their picture taken anywhere. No one ever asks for you to take a photo. In fact, we have been strictly warned not to photograph anyone. So instead of taking our tripod and digital SLR out with us, taking pictures has turned into a covert operation where I sneak in pictures with my iTouch.  I promised not to ramble this week, so here's life in pictures....

Pain at the pump
The only pain we feel at the pump is the blurry image. You can't see it clearly, but the entire tank was filled on 24 Saudi Riyals which is roughly 7 US Dollars. But don't be jealous, I would probably pay the $5 gallon if I could drive my car, have a margarita and not be melting in an overbearing abaya in desert heat! :)

Apple Juice
When we go out to eat, R loves to order apple juice.  Here is some freshly squeezed green apple juice with a slice of apple as a garnish. It is pulpy, delicious, and tastes exactly like drinking an apple. So very refreshing!

Zatar (aka Zaatar or Za'atar)
Zatar is a dry Middle Eastern spice that contains herbs, sesame seed and salt. It is too delicious for words. You can find zatar croissants, or spread on pitas like below.

Kri Kri Almonds
These nuts are also amazing. Kri Kri is a Lebanese speciality of coating nuts. These almonds have the same taste as traditional almonds but are coated with a crunchy sesame shell. They also come in chili and BBQ flavors. Yummy!

Clothing care
I was wondering how I would be able to keep my blacks black and whites white. Good thing there are custom detergents for each. And right next to each other!

Books and Magazines
My newly inherited free time has reignited my passion for books and reading. R was kind enough to get me a Kindle before our adventure began so I can catch up on the classics and new best sellers. I love a good book store and thankfully the Kingdom is full of them. I could get lost in a book store for hours, just browsing through every section trying to take everything in. There's a decent selection of English books in most stores as well.  There's always a large section of Arabic books. I almost bought an Arabic children's book just so I could learn the numbers!  And of course, the Saudis love the Twilight saga as much as we do!

Here are a few of the latest English version Arab magazines I picked up as well to keep me up to date on issues. My biggest pet peeve is that our TV line-up doesn't include any local news or weather so I am constantly relying on the internet. Don't get me wrong, I love doing everything online, but there's something very classic and enjoyable about flipping through a magazine or newspaper.

Until next time!

Cheers!

M

Coffee Mornings - Past and Present

There was a time in my banker life where I worked a lot, and I mean A LOT.  There was a time where everything was a blur. Days turned into weeks turned into months. I would come in at 8-8:30 in the morning and if I got home by 2am, I would be happy. I wasn't happy very often.  And then there was the weekend. Friday night would usually involve heavy drinking. I would try to sleep off the exhaustion, only to go into on Sunday until midnight. Sounds horrible, right? Well, it was.  Looking back, my fondest memories are not of working on billions of dollars worth of deals, or of pounding through Excel, or even of going to wonderful events and even more wonderful restaurants. No, none of that (maybe it was the haze of exhaustion).  At some point the hours got better but the work got worse. It was less exciting, less challenging, and watching people get laid off that you knew shouldn't was disheartening in so many ways.

I look back at this time in my life fondly only because of the people. Our peers of banker monkeys made everything better. We were each others' best friends. We knew how our days were and exactly what to say to make it better.  We knew each others moods, favorite foods, drinks of choice, bad habits, issues at home, and everything in between (and I mean, everything).  There was a wonderful level of mutual respect and adoration that I truly believe will be hard to find in a future work environment. There were many days when everything was going wrong - getting ridiculous requests from people that were impossible to fulfill, getting reprimanded for not being able to read peoples' minds, or being demeaned into doing some terrible task.  It was on these days where the people made the difference.  The people (you know who you are) that would say "hey, let's get a coffee". And somehow you felt better.

Grab your badge, your wallet and run to the elevators before anyone sees you. Take the elevator down 21 floors and run out the doors. We would get to the closest coffee shop, order as fast as we could, and run back so that you don't miss too many e-mails/voicemails/requests from people asking where you were. In those 10-15 minutes, you would find peace. As escape from the routine, as escape from the staring at computers screens (doing three things at once), while jumping back and forth from a conference call to someone standing at your desk asking for something or the other. That was what I knew of a coffee morning. 

And then I moved to the Kingdom as a woman. 

As I've mentioned there is no consumption of alcohol in the Kingdom. Let's just say that if I lived in a Western country and women were not allowed to drive or work, there would be a lot of drinking going on. Heck, we used to drink a few glasses of wine while getting a pedicure (at any hour of the day!).  Perhaps it's better that there is no alcohol, because every morning would be a get together of zatar croissants and a glass of wine. Instead, here in the Kingdom, we have coffee. And lots of it. Coffee shops line every mall, strip mall, compound and any of the "hip" areas. Coffee shops stay open until the wee hours of the morning here are always busy. I should also mention that donut shops, ice cream shops, and dessert shops are all "cafes" where you can get a latte with your choice of dessert. R and I recently went to a "Cafe Baskin Robbins" where the music was hip, and so was the crowd - a stark difference from the shady Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donut truck stops we are used to.  Here's a sample menu from a local cafe. And yes, the drinks actually come in large glass cups.

A coffee morning in the Kingdom is a generic term used to refer to a group of women gathering for gossip, eating, and often times vendors trying to sell things. It's pretty much a "happy hour", or "kitty party", or "ladies night". I love ladies nights, after a day of work, blow off some steam, drink, eat, and laugh all your cares away.  Here in the Kingdom, I don't really have that many cares or any steam to blow off. So I'm pretty sure coffee mornings were borne out of the collective female need to gossip and bond with other women.

So I can handle drinking coffee, eating some food, chit chat, and shopping for a bit. Maybe an hour, maybe two. Coffee mornings here can last for four or five hours. Four or five HOURS! That's a long time. And the reality is there is no reason for it to be shorter because we women have nothing else to do. Most of the women here have houseboys/housemaids to clean their house, do their laundry, and sometimes even cook. I haven't quite felt the need to get a houseboy - instead I mop my entire villa for two hours twice a week. I can see that getting old, so I'm reserving the right to a houseboy/housemaid in the future. And honestly, when I'm at a coffee morning, I come back with so many goodies that I don't really want to clean or cook.  It's something I look forward to now, I get all dressed up, cover myself up with an abaya and head out for some adult interaction. If we didn't have coffee mornings to look forward to, it would be so easy to become trapped in your villa and then you miss out on making wonderful friends with such interesting, diverse, and genuinely kind women. Cheers to coffee mornings! (and to shopping!)

My favorite purchase so far has to be my blinged-out camel leather flats.  They look real sexy with an abaya!  Thanks for reading and I promise not to ramble this much next week :)

Cheers!
M