Today was my first shopping adventure on the bus! To start with, I thought the bus I wanted left the ball park area at 8:30am so I hopped on my moped and made my way there - a nice 4km run and some fresh but hot (and sand filled) air. Found a great parking spot then asked the driver which bus, since none of them said Al Rashid Mall ... the reason was the Al Rashid Mall bus leaves at 9:00am ... so off to Najir Coffee House for a morning java ... and they don't open until 8:30 so I waited outside for 10 minutes (in the shade) and just enjoyed some quiet. The opened on time, but the espresso machine takes 15 minutes to warm up so I had a nice Turkish Coffee and read a local paper while I waited ... then the bus came and it ended up nearly full! Roads here are big crazy, particularly how to you get to places not being intuitive ... but we got there just as stores were opening ... The mall layout is rather confusing, even for a mall veteran like me (Edmonton, Alberta is lots of malls of various sizes) because the multiple levels were not all directly connected and it was just odd ... but I found my Bose speakers there (they have a Bose store) ... then walked the mall for a while ... and waited for the bus - the back to camp and a nap.
I decided that I needed to go to eXtra for some electronics stuff after my nap so I phoned Akter who called Makther (his brother) to come get me. This was good, except my door lock broke (in the locked position) as I left - I'd deal with that when I got back since I had no phone numbers with me (they were inside and my phone had lost half of my numbers for some reason recently). Anyway, riding with Makher is nice - a good ride to be in and he waits for me at the store ... except my timing was impeccably bad and as I was about to check out, the loudspeakers starting playing some strange sounds which mean it was prayer time and the store would close for about 20 minutes for prayer time. We stayed in the store, but there were no services or help ... so I continued to wander through eXtra. It was a successful trip ... I found a step-up transformer so I can by 220vac stuff here and have it work in the camp which is one 110vac (like America) plus a nice new monitor. Makther came in to find out if I was okay just as prayer time ended and I was paying ... then it as back to Dhahran camp.
We got back to camp but stopped at security so I could get a number for maintenance to unlock the door. I phoned and we drove to my place where Makther left me to wait for the carpenter (I am glad it was night and not daytime so it was cooler). The carpenter showed up after about 15 minutes, but I'd already managed to free the cylinder and unlock the door. This really makes me appreciate my locks in Houston that are key operated but can also operate electronically from a keypad, my computer, cell phone, or iPod touch ... basically impossible to get locked out! The carpenter took the lock apart and found a minor problem and fixed it so I hope this will be the last house incident!
So that was the day for me ... settling in and hoping that next week brings a multiple entry visa so I can go Bahrain next weekend, which is a long weekend, and a drivers license so I can get there easier - and go shopping easier in the future.
I decided that I needed to go to eXtra for some electronics stuff after my nap so I phoned Akter who called Makther (his brother) to come get me. This was good, except my door lock broke (in the locked position) as I left - I'd deal with that when I got back since I had no phone numbers with me (they were inside and my phone had lost half of my numbers for some reason recently). Anyway, riding with Makher is nice - a good ride to be in and he waits for me at the store ... except my timing was impeccably bad and as I was about to check out, the loudspeakers starting playing some strange sounds which mean it was prayer time and the store would close for about 20 minutes for prayer time. We stayed in the store, but there were no services or help ... so I continued to wander through eXtra. It was a successful trip ... I found a step-up transformer so I can by 220vac stuff here and have it work in the camp which is one 110vac (like America) plus a nice new monitor. Makther came in to find out if I was okay just as prayer time ended and I was paying ... then it as back to Dhahran camp.
We got back to camp but stopped at security so I could get a number for maintenance to unlock the door. I phoned and we drove to my place where Makther left me to wait for the carpenter (I am glad it was night and not daytime so it was cooler). The carpenter showed up after about 15 minutes, but I'd already managed to free the cylinder and unlock the door. This really makes me appreciate my locks in Houston that are key operated but can also operate electronically from a keypad, my computer, cell phone, or iPod touch ... basically impossible to get locked out! The carpenter took the lock apart and found a minor problem and fixed it so I hope this will be the last house incident!
So that was the day for me ... settling in and hoping that next week brings a multiple entry visa so I can go Bahrain next weekend, which is a long weekend, and a drivers license so I can get there easier - and go shopping easier in the future.
Shops closing at prayer time... still not used to it!
ReplyDeleteDrivers license should be easy... takes around 2 days once you hand in the forms and your translated license from back home