Friday night shopping

Decided to hit the shops last night. It is a little strange during Ramadan because instead of shops being open at either 4 or 6pm, most things are open from 8-1am. After a trip up the road to Carrefour we went shopping for some more homey stuff - its funny because there are so many people out shopping after 8.00pm - kids of all ages included! It is nice being out at that time of the night tho, coz everything is very much alive and shopping is actually quite relaxed. There are some particularly nice home wares stores. One is like a Middle Eastern Freedom...lots of really nice stuff and cheap compared to what we'd spend in Aus.We bought a bed set thing (cover with pillows and cushions and stuff -10 pieces). We're going for the middle eastern opulence/royallook...so have gold swirly things on a blue/gold background with goldtassels... complete with NICK ROLLS! yep - neck spelt wrong.....sooofunny! Have got some more cushions too...slowly making a home. I seem to be drawn to GOLD and there's an element of 'tongue in cheek' when we buy stuff.

Arabian Opulence

When we were on our way home last night in the early hours, sitting and waiting at a roundabout somewhere...a ute nudged us from behind. Our first (very minor) bingle! Michael got out first and attempted to sort out the 'mess' - but not a lot of success. I was sitting in the car thinking and remembered that I was told - if you're ever in anaccident, no matter how minor, don't play the victimised expat and let the other people talk over you...blah blah..so - out I get to inspect the damage. There was a very minor nick to the paint and a small dent- if it was our car, I would have just let it go.Because we have to pay 500 QR (about 183.00 Aussie dollars) in insurance excess for any damage caused by us or to us to the car rental co - I got a bit feisty with them. They said " no English" and I said "mafimt to your Arabic" (don't understand your Arabic) and proceeded to let them (3 guys) know that not happy Jan... All of a sudden flashing lights and a cop car drove up. One guy went straight to the cops car and waved his hands to say - nothing wrong here your not needed, but I was right behind him saying 'la, la la –do you speak English' (la means no)...cop gets out and I told himstraight...we pay coz he wasn't looking... We get a yellow form in Arabic to take to the traffic dept on Sunday morning (lucky Michael gets to do that while I work) and hopefully all sorted...the insurance company will deal with it. The police dude was quite helpful and seemed to be on 'our side'. The other dudes went off not that happy.

Told you it was MINOR!