A Walk

At 5.00pm yesterday I decided to take the gps and go for an 8km walk to the ‘Extra’ electrical appliance shop where their website stated they had Philps wireless headphones available at SAR$365.  Because of the latitude dusk occurs rather quickly and shortly after departing I found myself walking in the dark.  Of course, where there are footpaths they can’t be used because of the junk and other hazards.  Besides where would the locals park their cars.  It was Friday evening (the local equivalent of Sunday) and all the shops usually open between 4-12pm.
After 2 hours of dicing with traffic death I could finally see the ‘Extra’ shop.

The only problem was it was on the opposite side of a 10 lane highway with a concrete median strip.  Reaching the shop involved a one kilometre detour where I was able to cross the traffic in four ‘bite size’ pieces.  On reaching the door I was stopped by a man holding up his hand an making the prayer motion.  Bloody timing…. got that wrong!  There were still 5 minutes until prayer time but he wasn’t letting anyone in to wait out prayers browsing the goods.  Oh well, it only takes 10 minutes to say prayers, so I went for a wander around the retail park 
The Swede’s had obviously arrived before me.

After waiting 20 minutes the shop still hadn’t opened and I was starting to want to rest my feet.  The locals don’t seem to be all that “into” providing public seating but for resourceful people who are prepared to go snooping usually find an option.

I just had to bang the base a few times to clear the dust.  After 50 minutes the staff returned and the shop opened.  By then there was a large crowd of locals outside the front door, so either the shop staff were having an extended prayer break (my preferred option) or those waiting outside are bad muslims!
Well, surprise…surprise!  The shop didn’t have the advertised Philips headphones for SAR$365.  Instead I was offered a set of bluetooth headphones for SAR$999.  I’m not paying a thousand Riyals for headphones, so I turned around and started retracing my steps back to the villa.
Hunger pains set in along the way and I was almost tempted to buy a burger from the following shop………. until I read the sign for a second time.

Do I risk camel or goat burger?  Perhaps another day!
I also discovered why all the local turkeys are bald.  There are two local turkey barbers to make sure they go around naked.  The lighting for the first “Turkey Barber” sign was off but the second around the corner was open.

Oh, I’m looking for a headset to use with the TV.  My hearing is now so bad I can’t hear the sound, even when it’s on maximum.  Of course the TV is on the far side of a large room, which doesn’t help matters.  No doubt I’ll find something at the price I’m prepared to pay.