Jewellery

I appear to have poisoned myself for a second time.  Yes, my culinary skills are obviously in need of improvement.  Or perhaps these days my stomach isn't as "cast iron" as in my youth!  The fish pie will have to be thrown out.  That's a nuisance because I was planning on eating the remains over the next three dinners (lazy cook syndrome).  As a boy my parents made me eat everything on my plate telling me "Think of the starving in Africa".  At times I wanted to send the food to Africa.  My parents loved broad beans and brussel sprouts.  I hate them!  You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find and marry a girl who also hated broad beans and brussel sprouts. One consequence of this forced feeding regime is I hate wasting food!
No doubt I will have recovered my appetite by tonight and the the last of the frozen lasagna awaits dinner.  It's also looking slightly "tired" and the thought of the defrosted and coagulated lawn clippings isn't that appealing! Still, should I get desperate there is a half bag of chips in the freezer and pizza in the fridge. <burp>

Manuel the cleaner has finally made it to my office.  I've only been here four months!  He leisurely and haphazardly breast fed a small broom around the floor managing to push most of the dirt into the corners.  Then with a beaming smile he left.  I assume leaving the dirt ensures continued employment.  No doubt he will return in four months for a second attempt!

The office phone finally works.  But on my first attempted use there were no free lines.  It's one of those fancy new all singing and dancing phones that can do almost anything.... except cook fish pie!  Of course there was no accompanying user manual.  No doubt they have been carefully stored somewhere for future use and that location has been long forgotten.  Nevermind, after 30 minutes I discovered how to get an outside line.  There's no point in me making a local call as I don't speak Arabic.  But I do need to make several overseas calls to potential suppliers.  Each time I attempted to make a call a man would attempt to tell me something in Arabic.  Eventually I realised there is a bar on the phone making overseas calls.  It's as useful as a chocolate teapot.

One thing I noticed about the Middle East is that males were almost no jewellery.  I've never seen a male wear a chain around their neck.  However wearing a "clunky" looking ring (often made of silver or pewter)  with a large semi-precious stone (green opal?) appears fashionable.  Women do wear necklaces (most of them under the black abaya.  The jewellery shops are always full of locals so I can only assume the females have jewellery parties on alternate days to their dress parties!

I had been wondering how the men prevent their fundamentals from freezing when the cold wind off the desert races up their Thobe.  Then I noticed the white ends of a pair of woollen "long johns" around my drivers ankles.  They cheat!