German Embassy officially better than mine

Tonight my hubby and I went to the German Embassy for a concert by Karlsruher Konzert-Duo http://www.konzertduo.de/ and we had a wonderful time. We're not much into classical music, but I think they managed to pick interesting pieces that would appeal to novices as well as the more cerebral bunch. Our fave for the night was Hungarian Dance No.1 in G Minor - very moody and atmospheric music, and something about the sound of a cello really fills a room. The musicians were received so well at the very end that they did a couple of encores for us which was great. In the picture below, the cellist is wondering just how starved people are here for live music.



Besides the great music, this was our first time at the German embassy here in Riyadh, and while it's not big, it's somehow much nicer than everyone else's embassies. With rocky ponds worked into their landscaping, and a classy looking garden replete with a quiet fountain, it put the giant beaver sculpture in the Canadian embassy to shame. Let's face it, there's no way to make a beaver sculpture look elegant, is there?

They served hors d'oeuvres after the concert and I had missed dinner and had marshmallows for lunch (for reasons we won't go into), so I was dying for food. When I saw the first tray come out it was like something out of "When Animals Attack"...I know it's not rational, but when I'm really hungry at events like these, I believe in the bottom of my heart that they're going to run out of food, and that I have to have my fill before that happens. Well after about the 10th or 15th bitesized morsel had been digested, I was starting to feel a bit heavy, and then embarrassed because all the waiters had turned their antennae on and kept passing by me, smiling and offering more, telling me that they had been looking for me, or following me, or telling me to save room for dessert.

This event got a big thumbs up from me. I'm looking forward to more from the German Embassy.

Photography in Riyadh (?) ...and PIES (!)

I've been bluntly told a little while ago that my assistance is required with decorating the house before I leave to go for a visit to Canada. This was after some more gentle nudging and hinting (e.g. "I wish this would look more like a home..." >big sigh<) a couple months ago. Normally I would scoff at this but without gainful employment and not much else to do, I agree that this would be something constructive for me to work on. The hubster wants pictures up on the walls, which would be great, I agree. But the thing is, it's not like there's a ton of photo developers here. I've seen one Kodak studio in Kingdom Mall and that's it - I suppose I'll go investigate. Taking photographs of Saudis is taboo for religious reasons so my guess is that there's not a lot of demand for these services, which is a shame for someone like me that always comes home with hundreds of pics from vacations. I confess I still get a little confused by the whole photograph issue for the locals. Most photographs I know of are not being used in shrines with incense and candles, except for the one of me taken immediately after winning the World Pie Eating Contest - so what's the big deal? The lack of photo developers seems to be made up with printing services at malls that put photos on mugs and t-shirts. The samples are all of people, mostly kids, on these really tasteless coasters and the like. I also just saw an advertisement for a Saudi movie, starring what appear to be Saudis on the television, which added to the confusion of what's taboo and what's not. I'm assuming it's based on how conservative you are, and that these movie makers must be running wild like heathens with their cameras.

ok I really can't resist writing about the pie eating contest. It's held annually in a bar in Wigan, England and has recently been plagued with problems. In 2006, bowing to health lobbies and "relentless pressure from the Vegetarian Society" (those vicious vegetarians!!!) the rules were changed to concentrate on speed alone, i.e. how long it takes you to eat just one pie, rather than a volume based challenge. Plus, they added a vegetarian pie, which added insult to injury and pissed a lot of pie people off. In 2007, a dog ate all the pies, and in 2008 a junior pastry chef made all the pies using inches instead of centimetres and ended up with "giant" pies.

Can't wait to find out what calamity will befall the contest this year.

Saudi taxi driver 'learns' a lesson

We have just returned from a vacation abroad and I have to share with you a saudi story about our travels. On our first attempt to leave the country we realized at customs that we were missing our saudi visas and we had to retrieve them quickly. We normally would have called a driver but couldn't afford to wait for one to arrive so we decided to take a taxi from the airport to our destination 10 minutes away. A saudi taxi driver approached us first out of a whole mob of drivers and led us to his car where he started putting our bags in the trunk. Before opening the car door I insisted on coming to a price, though he kept trying to get us into the taxi. He finally quietly quoted an exorbitant 80 riyals, to which I offered a more reasonable (and still overpriced) 50 riyals because we were in a rush. Unbelievably, he said no to this with about 30 other drivers watching the whole thing and ready for business. So we removed the bags and just went to the next car, much to his dismay. Upon returning to the same airport about 2 weeks later on our way home, the same taxi driver was hawking his services to us again. Comically, he remembered us and kept repeating "ok ok 50 riyals, 50 riyals" to us, but our driver was already on his way so we had to decline. I'd like to say we taught him a little lesson in free markets and dealing with foreigners, but I'm really not so naive...

What do you eat?

I get asked this question more than you might think because it usually comes from an acquaintance just after an initial shock of being told that I have been whiling my days away in Saudi Arabia. We eat a lot of home cooking, meals at the compound restaurant, and other restaurants in the city. General strong suits are Indian and Lebanese. I have never tried Arabian food because my husband described it to me and it sounds unappetizing. The one time I tried to arrange for it and get directions by phone I ended up throwing a book at the wall. Believe me, if I get there, I'll tell you about it. There's a terrible proliferation of fast food here and many locals and expats end up eating a lot of french fries - it's really disgusting and I feel greasy just typing this. The standard of east asian food is not at the quality level and value that you get in Toronto. So for all you readers out in Toronto I want you to know that you are 100% spoiled rotten! One positive about grocery shopping here is that since I am doing my duties while my hubby is at work, no one is around to gripe about how long I'm taking to pick vegetables or to ask where the soy milk is even though I am clearly not staff. Downsides? Difficult to find certain spices and flavourings (e.g. montreal steak spice, tamarind juice, wasabi) and my favourite soft drink: I really miss Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Please drink that and think of me.

p.s. http://www.britishcommunityservices.com has a good selection of restaurant reviews; it's actually a good all round site for getting an idea of what it's like to live here and what some of the popular western compounds look like. On top of that you can purchase financial advice and quiches from "Bill" and "Leah"...hey if you have a good website, why not sell your quiches right?

Intercontinental Oasis

One of the nice parts of this city is the Intercontinental Hotel - it has a nice oasis-like atmosphere to it where you forget you are in Saudi Arabia. The grounds are lush and very well kept. They have a small driving range there that I like to go practice on during the day when it is empty. The most disheartening and distracting thing I find at driving ranges are children half your size sending those balls sailing 150 yards straight down the line. When you're doing really badly, you just want to snap their mini-golf clubs in two. Thankfully there's no little Tigers running around especially during the day at this hotel. Here are some pictures of the grounds. Hmm...I have to work on posting a picture of their sad little driving range. It doesn't bother me so much because I can only hit the balls a certain sad little distance.

What a sand storm looks like

I have never in my life seen the sky this colour before. I just want you all to know that I have not touched up these pictures at all and it's actually a very good reflection of how the sky looks right now -i.e. yes, it's really that colour!

When I woke up this morning...well actually it was noon =D...the bedroom was so dark I had this brief moment where I panicked and thought the apocalypse was upon us and that I should repent to be on the safe side. To my relief it was just a sandstorm - no repenting todayyyy! But what a sandstorm this is. This is the worst I have seen it here.

Twinkies in Riyadh - not recommended

So many of you know that I have an awful binge love/hate relationship with snacks. I often become fond of a snack that I will eat until I hate. This often happens within the course of a few hours, where I love love LOVE these cheetos until I hate hate LOATHE those horrid orange cholesterol sticks. I recently came across a big box of Twinkies at the grocery store for 5 riyals (less than $2 canadian) and being the bargain hunter that I am by nature, I could not resist the calling of a good deal. Boy I could not WAIT to dig into those Twinkies. Except when I finally opened one and had a taste, it was so anticlimactic I wanted to cry. The pastry bits are not as light and spongy as the real deal, and the cream is not evenly distributed in the centre of the Twinkie - it resides in pockets in different parts of the Twinkie. It's like I ate the Frankenstein of Twinkies, stitched together with cheap spare parts....what a nightmare...