So it is now day 5, but I haven't blogged about day 4 yet...i am behind! There is a cleaning lady in the apartment right now, cleaning Duncan's washroom and doing the laundry...I've never eally had a cleaning lady before, so I don't know what you're supposed to do. So i'm just gonna sit here and write of yesterday!!
oh, but first i'll put up the pics from Four Seasons that I said that I would.
(outside the four seasons, they had red carpet out, probably for tht guy)
(the inside lobby....it's so pretty! and those pants really fit Duncan....lol)
So Day 4, Sunday. It felt like a Monday cuz everyone went to work and I was all alone!
So i got up around noonish, i couldn't sleep the whole night again, i woke up at 1am, and couldn't go back to sleep till around 2....this is really getting annoying. I made breakfast and went to the pool for a bit. i brought my books and was being productive, reading about 5 pages while i was down there, and then giving up and resorting to....closing my eyes! the sun was right above me, but there was a draft, so it didn't feel hot at all. i got a good base tan, but i didn't bring any water or food or anything, so i got bored and went back upstairs.
I've been having vivid dreams too, every night that i have been here. that night, i dreamt of making pesto sauce. so i was determined to walk over to the nearest mall which had a Carrefour, and hoping to find the ingredients for pesto sauce.
Walking here is dangerous (not sure if i've already mentioned this), where there are probably 3 pedestrian crossings in the city, and cars drive like they don't care. there re many roundabouts here too, much like in montreal and quebec. but here, they speed right through them and speed onwards. let's just say there's a lot of speeding going on here. the only speed limit sign that i can remember at the moment is 80km/hr. and everyone, my dad, duncan, his parents, are all warning me to be very careful crossing the streets. so no pressure. so to get to the nearest mall, city centre, i decide to take small streets. and my gosh, there are soooo many construction workers here! every corner, every street, all over the place. there were more construction workers than cars! and it was awkward. i mean, i read up on what to wear when i go into public areas, no knees, no cleavage (i've got no problem there!), no shoulders, etc., so i wore jeans and a t-shirt. wow, i felt awkward, walking around with a wierd awkward smile the entire time i was walking to the mall. eepers, jeepers!
i finally got to the mall....as i got closer to the mall, i saw more pedestrians, so i just followed them when crossing the street ;)
looking for fresh basil was like looking for waldo. it was impossible! i finally finally found fresh basil, but one problem...it was in a pot. it was 15riyals, so $5, and i wasn't sure if i needed more than the pot, and the leaves didn't look too fresh....but i had no choice, so i found the best pot that i could. garlic butter was the next mission, for garlic bread. i stood at the butter section for like 10minutes, trying to translate the lebanese and arabic labels on the containers. i figured they wouldn't have garlic butter, but garlic is all over arabic food, i couldn't see why not! i asked a random man standing next to me if a green tub i found was butter (i figured green = garlic?), and he pointed to a tub of yoghurt and told me it was very good. so i picked up the tub, looked at it, and put it back down when he left. lol
so after wandering around the grocery store for half a hour, i finally had everything i needed for my chicken turkey pesto linguine dinner! i saw chicken turkey cuz we had leftover turkey from the night b4, but it wasn't enough for 5 ppl to eat, so i got chicken to add to it. it's not what Duncan was thinking, a cross-breed of chicken and turkey!
on my way out of the mall, all of these men were standing outside. i figured they were waiting for taxis, but in fact, they were the "illegal taxis" that i've heard so much about. one man started going up to me saying, "taxi? taxi?", i just pretended i didn't hear, saying, "i'm sorry? i'm sorry?". finally i said ok, and he walked me to his car in the parking lot. it felt sketchy, but he offered to hold my bags...i'm easy to lure! but luckily we weren't going far.
he asked for 20riyals, and i paid him 30riyals, cuz i just felt like it, and thought, well, $10 is not bad for a 7 minute ride, right? well duncan later informed me that the real taxis charge 6 riyals to go from the city centre to the apartment. oh well....the guy gave me his number in case i would need a taxi in the future...hmm...
so i made the dinner, it was all ready by 6pm, but robert (duncan's dad) just got home, and duncan right after, but we had to pick up mere, and caroline (duncan's mom) wasn't home yet. mere was out near the villagio (coolest mall ever) in a building shaped like a boat. so imagine duncan and i pointing at different buildings wondering if mere would think that it looked like a boat. we just went into the mall instead....i'll put up pics on my facebook, cuz it takes years to load em up here. or perhaps i'll put em later....but the villagio was cool! it had a skating rink inside, which city centre had too, but this one seemed bigger. it looked like Aladdin from Vegas, where the ceiling looked like the sky, and it just looked like u were in an arabian fortress....u should probably look at the pictures...
finally, we found mere, and traffic going home was horrendous...i'll save that for a later post. (this is getting long) but we had dinner, and i think the pesto was good...robert asked if i put pepper in it, pesto normally doesn't have pepper, but i prefer just a splash, i probably put 2 splashes...but mere told me that if robert asks what was in it, he likes it...??? oh well, he didn't have a look of disgust on his face...so i peg that as...success!!
we hit up the four seasons afterwards for martinis and cocktails....i really like it there....
and that ends day 4! (oh and after dinner we had some of duncan's chocolate covered ganaches for dessert from the food convention in dubai, but they were melted cuz they were in his car for the past week....haha)
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