Grocery shopping

Today the thing we all fear at the checkout happened.  My card didn't work. I have a spare, that didn't work either.  The network was done. 

The checkout guy said "you don't have cash M'am?" No I don't have cash, why don't you have a machine that works? "So you don't have cash?"

The security guard had packed my groceries for me and he said do you live here M'am?  I was at Choithrams in Green Community Dubai where I used to live.  I said no, we used to live here but now we live in Abu Dhabi.  Oh he said looking sad, I was going to suggest you take the groceries home and come back later to pay.  Where else on earth would a supermarket suggest that.

I went to the bank next door and withdrew cash with the assistance of the bank guy who stands in the foyer, they have no idea of privacy with banking here,  he was wanting to push the buttons on the ATM for me. 

So I got my money, paid for my groceries and lived to tell the tale.

Bert had a similar experience one day he got fuel.  The guy pumps the fuel into your car and Bert thought he could pay in the shop with a card, as he had no cash.  He couldn't.  They said oh its ok, just bring the cash in tomorrow on your way past.  

It's things like this that make the frustrating days more tolerable.

Sand storms

We have been hit by two very bad sand storms in the past few days. They are impossible to photograph, as it just looks like fog. This however is the aftermath of one. This coffee table sits on our patio and was cleaned about 7 hours before this photo was taken.

Pretzels

In Australia we used to drive a ridiculously long way to buy pretzels. We used to buy them in bulk and freeze them. We can now buy really good quality ones at our local supermarket.

A hitchhiker.

See this guy, he must have been four foot tall on a tall day and somehow without us understanding a word he was saying we agreed to drive him to the mosque. One minute Bert was using the handful of Arabic words he knows, next thing we know he's in the backseat of the car giving us directions. So we drove him quite a few kms to the mosque. Goodness knows hows he was going to get there without us.

Australian floods

As I type this North Eastern Queensland is underwater. I read that an area 7 times the size of Texas is flooded. Many people are lost many, many more are under threat. When I was last home it had barely rained for ten years. It all seems so unbelievable. Australia is most certainly a land of droughts and flooding rains.

My cousin had this photo on her facebook from the floods. Its a green frog hitching a ride on the back of a snake. Amazing!

foggy mornings

The last few days we have woken to thick fog. It's a relief that Bert does not have to travel from Dubai in this weather as the high speed and crazy driving does not ease up when there is low visibility.

This photo is taken from the Abu Dhabi police website where they are pleading with motorists to take care.

Laura and Paul

My son Paul, and daughter Laura were here in Abu Dhabi for Christmas.  They visited the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi.