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Sunday, January 01, 2012

Day 46, Saturday, 31st December 2011

Thank you, dear readers, for continuing to read my blog as you have been doing for a month and a half. For those who arrived late, do check out the earlier entries as there are many vignettes of information, thoughts and entertaining details of my arrival, stay and endurance in this country. 


Most of you will be reading this on the New Year's day, so may I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012! I had a stroke of luck yesterday. My ENT colleague, an Egyptian doctor by the name of Dr. Aala had to go to Ta'if for a dental consultation, and I jumped at the chance to go to Ta'if after the clinic hours. We left the hospital 1/2 an hour earlier in his Mercedes 300SE, and reached Ta'if by 5.40 p.m. opposite Ta'if's Heart Mall (Panda). I dropped off here and he proceeded to another part of the city to see the dentist. The few hours that I spent in the mall were refreshing; I had my first ever ice cream in Saudi Arabia (a vanilla softy) along with a few other small things like a strawberry slush, some candy and so on. Also took a home order of Al Baik's fish fillets and 2 chicken burgers from the McDonald's outlet. 


From Panda, I bought soup sachets, a box of mixed ginger garlic paste, a bag of frozen shrimps and some other odds and ends. I also roamed around the mall, waiting for Dr. Aala to return from the doctor's visit. The sight of crowds and lights and the hearing of the various sounds and noise in the mall perversely but surely entertained me  as I successfully made a New Year's Eve celebration out of a boring existence in Al Muweh.


I returned with Dr. Aala at around half past eleven. A great day indeed. Dr. Aala turned out to be a stable but fast driver (his average driving speed is about 120 kmph). During the return journey, he stopped at a place called SASCO to have a dinner consisting of fried chicken, french fries and a bottle of water with cheese and tomato ketchup to go with it. After the dinner, I must have fallen asleep, and I woke up when we were just reaching Al Muweh.


All in all, a nice day indeed.

1 comment:

Ravi Pandit said...

Taher,
Happy New Year to you and all the very best for 2012.
The broast chicken in KSA is a treat and for a tenner you get a whole chicken with Khubz and a drink for 2 to share!