$111.00 DIRHAMS!!!

The translation for $111.00 Dirhams is $30.24 US Dollars

Why is this important? Because that is how little we paid to eat at a what we would consider a 5 star restaurant. Included: Appetizer of Vietnamese Chicken Wings, Main dishes of Chiken Garlic Soy for John, and Lamb Teriaki for me, both served with a plethera of vegetables(and not the cheep ones either)Fried Rice and Raspberry Sorbet for dessert. Served by the most attentive and proper staff, all cooked by a master chef in front of us! Now that is the kind of experience that could potentially spoil us.

Needless to say dinner was great!

But I should really start from yesturday... if I can remember what I did yesturday. I know I went to coffee at the Mercato, where I met 2 new friends both from the UK. We clicked immediately and we have plans to get together for some Souq browsing this Saturday. The women I met last week all checked in on me and I was able to tell them all about my week and the places that I had been to on their recommendation. Absolutely fabulous! I met some more women on my way out of Mercato that I had the pleasure of bumping into today as well. Back to yesturday though... After coffee, I headed for home. John and I had plans to go to the pool where he would study and I would watch him study after I swam. But when I walked in the door, John shared that Dave had invited him to go Skiing at Mall of the Emirates. So our plans were a bit altered. I immediately set to work making a quick lunch of pizza on middle eastern bread with fresh tomatoes and basil. Mmm good. But as I was making luch I remembered that I wanted to make vegetable ministrone for dinner so I figured I may as well get started on that so it will be ready for us when we get home from skiing. I had to use every pot and pan I had for the task, but by 5pm it was simmering nicely and I finished cleaning up the excessive pots and pans that I was done with. So while I waited for the rest of our party, I started to make some jewelry. I was almost done with my first peice when John announced that it was time to go. I had no intention of skiing, but I did have every intention to find the Austrian Swarvoksi bead store in Emirates Mall that a shop person told me about form the mall we went to the night before. So, after the taxi hailing, the traffice and of course meeting up with the last member of the group it was 6pm. I left them to have at it and took to my own devices.

I found the shop fairly easy and I struck up a bargain with the manager to see if he could get me bulk pricing. Hopefully this will come to fruition. They had plenty of supply that I could buy by the peice and the prices are right, cheaper by almost 75% So that got me all excited, and I bought so much that I nearly thought I wouldn't have enough money. But thankfully it wasn't as much as I thought and I was able to go on to the next shop. A shop I wished I had been to before. I keep finding more and more deals on everything from bedding to bannana holders. So I'm trying to hold off on buying anything until I know that I've been to every store worth stopping in. I've got a mental inventory of where I can get the biggest pots, the smartest pillows and the finest rugs. When I find my starting point I will actually attempt to make this bland apartment home. Trouble is, I haven't really found my starting point. So I will bide the time taking inventory when ever I am out and about. More on this later.

So, after some browsing, it was time to go back to the Ski center to meet John. Well, my timing was perfect. John had just gotten kicked out! Unfortunately, John hasn't skied very much and Dave has been an excellant teacher, however on the last run he made, Dave told John to follow him... which John did. But Dave made a sudden stop and didn't give John any warning, so John ended up taking out about 6 people. This illicted the attention of ski patrol which then proceeded to test John (which he passed) and then tell him he couldn't ski anymore until he took a formal class! (Now we all know they told him that in order to get more money out of him.) Leave it to John to get kicked out with only 30 minutes left in his session! After a while the rest of them came out and we parted ways for a while. Some wanted a hot cup of joe, and the rest of us wanting to explore a little. So I showed Dave and John where I'd gone and then all of a sudden John got tired of the mall and he wanted to go home to eat. So we abandoned our exploration and headed home for ministrone with pasta. We knew the rest of the party would catch up with us and that they to would be hungry, so when I got home I set to work preparing for a full house. In the mean time I ran into our neighbor, who I hadn't met yet and I invited him to eat with us as well. Before I knew it, we had a full dining table and enough conversation to last us until after midnight. Unfortunately, when we have a full table, we have also used every dish in the house! So that meant lots of dishes for me. But it was worth it, it felt normal to entertain. So I hope that I am afforded the abiltiy to do that at least once a week. Most of these guys are waiting on their wives to join or they are single... needless to say they aren't eating well.

I rose early today to go to the women's art show at Time Square. I walked around looking at all the different offerings of arts by local women. So much talent! However, I didn't see anyone with my style of jewelry, which encouraged me to try to take part of the next show in 6 months time. I ran into a few women from coffee and we had a chat in the middle standing with all the vendors. But then, John called me to tell me that it would be near impossible to get the Jeep that we had put a deposit on. So I stepped away to hera what he had to say. Unfortunately, the letters thedealership requires from HR are non-existant and we can't understand how that is, since they have done this very same transaction a million times! So John was very irritated and he said that is they can't find a way to get the letter situation straighted out, he was going to cancel the jeep and look elsewhere. I agreed and then he told me he was going home.

So after that disappointment, I was able to sit and have a coffee with Robin who is from New Zealand, and we proceeded to talk for 3 hours! She is so funny! She's lived everywhere and managed to have very few American friends so we hit it off talking about all the differences from climate to politics... then she told me about some upholstry stores just down the street and so we hit the road to check them out. Mustafawi! A great shop that has precisely what I am looking for. But like I said, I haven't found my starting point so I can't choose anything until I know what color I am going to use as a base. But at least now I have the source in my pocket!

Robin offered to drop me at home since we were nearby and we made plans to meet at coffee next Tuesday. I ran... or should I say rode upstairs and I expected to see John, but he still hadn't made it home. So I gave him a ring and he was at the Ford dealer just about 50 yards from where I had just come from. UGH! I wish I would've known. I wasn't happy that he chosen Ford, but they have the transaction down to a science and there was minimal red tape and to top that off the prices were better... they included warranties, service plan and one year of insurance. So after hearing that I wasn't against going Ford anymore. So later, after John arrived home he made quick work of showing me the Explorer book and the options it has and we made plans to knock this out. We went to Jeep, and got our deposit back, then he dropped off the application for our alcohol license... which sounds strange, but you can't purchase any alcohol at all with out it. Not even a beer for beer batter, or marsala wine for chicken marsala... And , if you know John, you know that he loves my marsala... and we were talking about it last night, so now he is craving some... Anyhow, we kept the same taxi from the time we left home and we had him wait for us to run all these errands. So after the alcohol license, we headed for Ford, where we bid adeu to our taxi and set our minds to purchase a vehicle. We browsed, we compared, we chose, we both test drove and I must say, the explorer has changed a lot.... for the good. I still don't like it as much as the jeep, BUT, the price, the service, insurance and the lack of red tape sold me on it. So we signed and in just two to three short weeks... we will have an Explorer. Why so long? Well the paper work take s few days... but the real reason is that the Exlorer we want is still on the boat. Actually, any explorer or Ford for that matter is still on the boat. Everyone waits for a car here... you never actually drive it off the lot the day you buy it, nor do you see the one you buy until it arrives. But this process makes it easier for dealers to be located anywhere in a city, since they only display three or four of each model, they don't need these huge car lots. But the inventory is still huge... they just keep them at port until they are purchased.

Anyhow, a diet coke a few hand shakes later, all the papers were done and we headed over to Times Square where we had the lovely dinner I mentioned first thing. Now, John is using the rest of this night to study for class tomorrow and I am just about to make bedtime preparations. That is my intention anyhow....