I’ve enjoyed the whole shopping, cooking, eating thing. When you haven’t got too much money but you do have plenty of time then it’s quite interesting how far you will go to look for a cheaper option. I have “tested” a number of supermarkets over the last 2 weeks and have settled on massive one in somewhere called Ibn Battuta Mall which is a couple of metro stops from my local station. The metro is a bit of an issue in itself as travelling with loads of shopping isn’t the best idea, taxis are expensive and I don’t have a car – so little and often is the current mantra ! Anyway, back to boring weekends………
Thursday night I was invited out to meet a few work colleagues from other projects at a local bar (which was handy). I wandered over at about eight, having got involved in pool match with Julian (more of that in a minute – probably in the inventory), had a couple of glasses of wine and then made my excuses and wandered back – two reasons for this, firstly, a live band had just started and you couldn’t hear yourself think, and secondly, because there was a fish and chip shop opposite the bar…….and I hadn’t had any dinner ! If you leave aside the fact that I had to pay the equivalent of about 11 quid for fish, chips and mushy peas, it was bloody marvellous !
Friday I got up and went to the gym. Fridays are a bit of an odd day here because they are the religious day and therefore nothing much gets going until lunchtime (the Metro doesn’t open until 1pm, and the first train at my station going into town is at 1.15 – going out of town it’s not until 1.53 !). I needed feeding and food so jumped on the Metro and went to one of the big malls where I knew I could get junk in the food court and there’d be a supermarket (Carrefore). Suitably full of KFC and ingredients for Lasagne and chilli I went home and made a big lasagne and had it with some nice salad. The rest has gone in the freezer along with the rest of last night’s chilli so I’m stocked for the rest of the week cooking wise. Julian is/was supposed to be going to Basrah for the week but last night there were problems with his flight so I don’t know whether he’s around for food this week or not.
Back to the weekend – yesterday I was supposed to be going to watch the rugby with another Welsh friend but she has her mum staying with her at the moment and they all decided that a desert safari was more prudent than international rugby (turns out they were right – who’d have thought it !). I was on the metro on the way to meet them when I go the message but it didn’t matter cause I was also taking in my favourite mall (Dubai Mall) because I needed a couple of things which I guessed I could get in Waitrose (oh yes, Waitrose !). So I spent a very pleasant 4 hours wandering, drinking coffee, reading the paper, and I found this brilliant library……millions of books, magazines, places to sit and read, and for some strange reason, tills by the door……….I spent 2 hours in there learning all sorts of things and will definitely be going back at some point !
When I finally got home I made a chilli and then had a lovely 2 hour nap, went for a proper swim training session, reheated the chilli (it’s always better when it’s been reheated), had another leg of pool with Jules and went to bed – not a bad weekend considering I spent most of it alone without spending too much money. It’s not something I’d want to repeat very often but needs must etc.
The inventory thing isn’t going to work very well unless I update this every day, and I don’t think any of us want that…….. so there will have to be a fair bit of generalisation so that it all makes sense over time !
A new addition to this section though will be the on-going pool competition that Julian and I have devised. When we get the chance we are playing best of 9 frames and keeping score on a running basis – currently the score stands at 3 legs each after I won last night’s session 5-3. Generally the sessions have been very close with at least 4 of them going to the final frame to decide the winner. The one exception to that was a sound thrashing I was administer (5-1) a few nights ago but I’ve pulled my socks up since then.
Otherwise the tale of the tape goes something like –
Alcohol – on-days and off-days. It seems to be all or nothing with me drinking quite a lot of hot water and lemon or red wine and brandy but very little in between. There isn’t likely to be much change to that until I can get away from temptation !
Cigars – I have managed to wrestle back control and have cut down significantly……….
Food – Nothing of note unless you count the superb lasagne and chilli that I manufactured and the outstanding fish & chips I had on Thursday ! Certainly nothing of any cultural note…….
Weather – it’s still warm but we’re back to horrid humid on and off. This morning it was very misty and muggy and I haven’t been out for few hours so I don’t know where we’ve moved on to.
Gym – several sessions building quite nicely. The whole triathlon thing is quite interesting, and the science behind it is frightening if you ever get really competitive (which is unlikely from my perspective). I’m trying to build up my swimming stamina and I’m going to have to address my running soon…..I can’t put that off any longer – as well as the fact that I’m probably going to have to do everything (run and cycle) without socks, so I’m going to have to toughen up my feet somehow !
That’s about it really I’m afraid – if I remember I’ll take a couple of local photos in the near future so you can get a view of the apartment and its surroundings.
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