Ode to Shopping
We are definitely in countdown mode for both end of school and our NZ visit. Glad you are getting all that stormy weather out the way before we get there, but will still be packing rain coats and warm winter clothing, which incidentally haven’t seen the light of day since we arrived here in late March.
Forgot to mention a few more opposites in my last post: leaves have been falling off the trees here, not due to some early autumn but the heat and lack of water, we’re always yelling at the kids to keep the doors closed… to keep the cold air in, and whenever we go out to a mall or restaurant we take a light jacket to wear indoors (because the air con is generally on too high!!)
Not too much to report this end, Mark took part in a 4 hour cycle marathon recently. He completed the second leg of a wholly indoors event at the local gym raising money for breast cancer. We went along to offer morale support and chocolate bars.
I have finally fallen into the maid trap. The going rate for home help is 1 riyal (approx $4 NZD) per hour, and when my friend’s maid was looking for a couple of morning’s work recently I managed to twist Mark’s arm. So now Zubie comes to us two mornings a week. Mum told me, back in March, I should get someone in to help as it would be contributing/giving back to the local economy and so that is my justification!! It’s strange watching someone else vacuum the house and clean my bathrooms, most times I go out as I feel guilty that she is working so hard… and she acts as if I’m the one doing her a favour. Her husband is also going to help with our miniscule patch of garden out the front (our own responsibility) and waters that and all our pot plants each day for a small monthly sum.
This all leaves me with more time to pursue my favourite past time…. Shopping!!
Where shall I start? Muscat is a long narrow city, and there doesn’t seem to be a ‘one stop shop’ type mall or centre where you can get everything. I’m dying to find a Whitcoulls or WH Smith type store. There is a shopping centre called “City Centre”, which strangely enough is about 40kms outside of central Muscat, and home to a branch of NZ’s own Pumpkin Patch. There are other pockets of shops dotted all over the place and it has been my mission to visit them all… just for orientation of course :-)
A little bit of Kiwiana
Business hours have taken a bit of getting used to, generally shops are open 10am to 1pm and again from 4pm to 10pm. In fact the place really only comes alive in the evenings, you can have a whole floor of shops to yourself sometimes in the morning. I’m getting used to having several sales assistants following me around, just because they need something to do! Some of the ‘malls’ seem to be designed inside out, with the entrance to each shop on the outside of the building, rather than them all connecting in the middle.
For when it just too hot to walk from the carpark to the shops...
I’ve been impressed with the number of NZ products found here, obviously there’s our lamb and beef, competing side by side with Australian and occasionally Argentinean meat. I’ve also seen NZ apples, brown onions, even bottled NZ Pure Water, powdered Anchor milk and butter in the supermarket. I was surprised when I bought a new bikini the other day and found when I got it home that it was made in Panmure, Auckland!
I’m at the supermarket nearly every day and really enjoy the international feel of everything there: fresh dairy products and honey from Saudi Arabia (hmm does that make it the land of milk and honey?) oranges from Pakistan, watermelon from Iran, avocado’s from Kenya, I love imagining the journey every item has taken to make it to our humble Al Fair store. Local produce, mainly tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, eggplant and dates, is very cheap with all fruit and vegetables being sold by the kilo. It seems strange to be lining up to have your lettuce weighed. Imported Western goods can be quite expensive with some breakfast cereals costing nearly $10 a box and up to $6 for an Australian celery.
The local supermarket
I try to buy Omani products wherever possible, but recent experiences with dishwashing liquid that smelt like diesel and a laundry powder that foamed over and made a mess of both the machine and kitchen floor have made me a little more cautious of buying something that doesn’t have English writing on its packet :-)
You can eventually buy everything that you need here (pork is available in a special Non-muslim section at the supermarket), just don’t expect to get it all in one shopping trip or from one store. And it won’t be the flavour or packet size you were hoping for, but keeping a relaxed attitude goes a long way and does wonders for your mental health. I’ve discovered you can buy something one day and then not see it on the shelves again for weeks – a wise mum from school told me when I first arrived: ‘if you see something, buy it there and then, and maybe even in bulk!’ can I apply that theory to shoes??
There are marked differences between my NZ/Western and Arabic taste for clothing and furnishings. Woman’s clothes seem way over the top with loud colours and sequins/embroidery everywhere, possibly to compensate for the black abeyas that must be worn in public. Our recent furniture hunting expeditions were a real eye opener. Due to the typically large Omani families, the size of some dining and lounge suites was astounding, and most items were very ornate. We still haven’t sourced a suitable dining table or bedside cabinets, despite the many many furniture shops here. And trying to find a duvet cover for Brannan’s room was nearly impossible, we struggled to find anything plain or simple that appealed to my pre-teenager. Linen is on my NZ shopping list!
Dinner for 16?
Where do you get sheets to fit this??
In the group of school mums that I hang out with, there are three of us who are new to Muscat. The old timers have been introducing us to their favourite shopping haunts, the souk (for the silversmith and ethnic handcrafts) the framers (for framing handcrafts etc bought at the souk) the material shops and finally the tailors. Its like an initiation rite to be introduced to someone’s tailor and framer!
And then are some things are the same the world over! Our favourite weekend jaunt is to stop at Starbucks just before lunch on a Friday (think Sunday) morning. Nothing else is generally open until 4pm Fridays and we’ve usually finished any exploring by 11am due to the heat.
Reading the Friday (Sunday) papers
Well I’m getting the hard word here from Mark to wrap this up – so will sign off for now.
Less than three weeks to go now… winter here we come!
x
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