Some Observations

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Having been back in Arabia for just over a week now, I thought I’d share some observations. So far we feel really comfortable being back. It seems like we have never been gone, other than the fact that we are in a new house with hardly any furniture, waiting for our shipment to come 🙂 Some things haven’t changed and some things have:

• the shwarma and hommus are still as yummy as ever!
• the traffic is still crazy (ok, maybe it is worse…)
• our friends that are still here are still wonderful! (And it was soooo good to see them all again!)
• there are still sandstorms which blow dust and fine sand into every nook and cranny of the house…
• there are more malls than ever… and more houses being built all over the place
• the lamb is still cheap – New Zealand lamb for $10kg – yum!
• you can still buy Aussie carrots, $1kg (buy Aussie, yeah!!!)
• I can’t find decaf tea bags anywhere… bummer….
• they still give you bags when you shop here – and not those thin ones in Oz, real, strong ones!

Of course there are a few things that I had forgotten about.:

• I forgot you need to take the veggies to a guy to weigh them before you get to the checkout.
• I forgot that Safeway gives you 5% discount if you spend over a certain amount.
• I forgot that you don’t take the shopping trolley to the car and unload yourself… the Indian guy who packs it does that for you…
• I forgot that you get 10% discount at the book shop if you show your card (even if it expires in 2008)
• I forgot it was so dry here… my heels are cracked and my hair is limp…
• I forgot that you shouldn’t shop at Ikea on a Friday night…. it takes you an hour to get through the checkout and get the stuff in your car!

And just a few other intersting facts you might like to know:

• Weekend here is Thursday and Friday. It takes a while to get used to that again.
• We drive on the opposite side of the road here than in Oz… umm… that would be the.. um… right side? Well, the steering wheel is on the left 🙂 It always confuses me!
• When Elizabeth and I go outside we need to cover – wear a black dress called an Abaya and have a scarf over our heads. At the moment Elizabeth is wearing my old Abaya and has been hassling me from the time we landed to go buy one of her own with purple trims.. 🙂

I am sure some more observations will come to me as time goes by. We are very happy to be back again and enjoying every moment. We have caught up with old friends and it was so good to see them again! I went to my friend’s quilt group last week and came back with something NEW… I will leave that for another post 🙂 I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog, but will get there bit by bit. For all of you in the rest of the world, hope you are having a great weekend! For us, it is nearing the end of the second day of the work week and I need to go cook dinner…