Downtown....

OK... yes, I am old enough to be humming the words from the old Petula Clark song.... and I really don't think she had downtown Jubail in mind when she was singing it!

Friday... and it was Chris' one day off for the week and the shops don't open till 4 in the afternoon, so we thought we would drive into downtown Jubail and have a look around. Just one problem... so did everyone else! I actually thought that it would be hard to know if you were in Calcutta or Jubail when I got out of the car....

If you removed all the Indians, Pakistanis and Filipinos from Saudi Arabia.... the Kingdom would come to an untimely end... these guys sign up to come here and work, they stay without any form of leave for 2 years, then get to go back to their families for 2 - 3 months before returning for another 2 years. I find it hard to comprehend how difficult this must be for them as well as their wives and children back in their homeland... even though I do something similar, but in a very easier and comfortable way. The queues at the place that wires their money back home runs for about half a mile up the main street, so many of them spend hours of their one day off a week in the heat and dust waiting to send thier pay packet home....

And you may have noticed something missing from the photographs.... go on... take another look!

Figured it out yet? No? I was the only female there!! (All other members of my sex must have more sense than to attempt a shopping trip in downtown Jubail on a Friday afternoon... but even though I was looked at, it wasn't uncomfortable, it was just curiosity on their part or perhaps sheer surprise)!!

Its totally reassuring to know that if ever my Internet goes down that I can pop into town and check my emails at the local Internet cafe!
One thing marred the event and that was when we returned to the car ( a nice shiny brand new Mazda 6 that is 5 weeks old and I have only sat in it twice, kind of car) had been keyed across the rear boot and down the two passenger doors to the front wing... how sad... why would someone do something like that?

Abayas R Us Photos!

Odelia, my next door neighbour that scraps, and I are getting really adventerous now and we took ourselves off to Fanateer Mall in Jubail yesterday morning. I had bought a new abayah last week and it was too long so I wanted the wee mannie with his sewing machine in the corner of the shop to take it up for me. Its a very pretty one with silver and aqua embroidery on the sleeves and because I was also buying some other abayahs for some expat women who are due to arrive soon... they gave me a discount and a free hijab (scarf that matches the abayah). Now... you don't get that sort of service in Marks and Sparks do you? "Oh Madam, you have bought three dresses; here, this shawl matches beautifully, we will throw it in for free! You need them taken up you say? No problem... can you wait five minutes and we will have that done for you....no charge" Do you think I should email M&S and suggest it? It might help in the Christmas slump!Here is Odelia and little Merrick in the shop - see.... I told you, you can have any colour you like as long as its black!! :)

Here is the wee mannie who takes the hems up and in a couple of minutes he had my abaya sorted and back in its bag - all for free!! :)

This is the owner, he was a little camera shy but didn't mind me taking pictures - more abayahs behind him.... yep, all black.

Here I am in front of Mr Chocolate - the sweet stores here are beautiful - the chocolates are in these arrangement of baskets with all this decoration. And yes, I need to get my hair done but there aren't any hairdressers shops! :( Men aren't allowed to touch a woman to whom they aren't married, women aren't allowed to work.... so that's a difficult one!! Chris did offer to cut mine for me but I passed on that... there must be an expat hairdresser here somewhere, I just need to find her!!

Shopping in downtown Jubail..

So it was Friday and Chris' day off, so we spent the day quietly, went for a walk along the beach and fed the fishes, I introduced him to the little crabs that make the balls of sand - which amazingly are called sand bubble crabs!! Everything here is closed on Fridays till 4 oclock in the afternoon and people had warned me that Jubail is manic, the shops are little individual shops, some with air con, some without - not your shopping mall type of place... well, that sounds like my type of place - you never know what you will find and once found, you can barter/haggle over the price and know you are coming home with a bargain!!

I found this gorgeous bedset in bronze with fringes and dangly crystals beads, 8 pieces in all, the comforter, 3 little cushions, a tissue box cover, 2 pillow cases and the thingy you put over your mattress to hide the edges of the bed... no idea what it is called!! LOL Sharon provided the word - its a valance!! I knew that!! ;) Price? £30.00 for the lot!! Yahooooo - one happy bunny bounced out of there!!

Had to pick up some prayer mats didn't I? This house is tiled floors everywhere and I figure come winter people might appreciate a mat next to the bed.

Ooooh, and these... now the four glass balls Chris bought me in a proper shopping mall a couple of weeks ago - I think they will look lovely for Christmas but in this weird little shop yesterday I found the bowl with just the right colour tortoiseshell inner and the bowl cost me the same as one of those balls!!

We also found the feather pillow shop!! Well, actually we never found the feather pillow shop... we tried lots of bedding places (thus I found the bedset) but only foam pillows were available and I was giving up hope... then we found this shop and asked the owner if he had feather pillows... and he told us to wait in the shop and disappeared off down the street.... returning a few minutes later with 5 feather pillows in his arms!! Now you don't get that sort of service at home... they might at a push phone to see if another branch has something... but they don't go rushing out the door to the other branch to fetch the stuff back for you!! He even offered us a cold drink or tea... and reduced the price on the five pillows we bought by 10 Riyals each (about £1.50)!!