Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday night and the fridge is full
Wednesday night and the fridge is full
Assalamu 'Alaikum
Wednesday night is weekend night here in Riyadh. Like if they have Thank God Its Friday Restaurants here, it would be called Thank God Its Wednesday.
Wednesday nights are important nights for me and family, it’s the night we go to HyperBanda, or Tamimi or Carrefour Hypermarkets to stock up for the week. But this week we made a mistake; the kids have started their summer hols so we take them out to Shopping Malls more often on weeknights than we normally do. And after dinner at the usually spanking brand new food courts of Hypermarkets in Riyadh, we will visit the Supermarket on the ground floor to buy stuff before heading home. This week we overdid it, Wednesday night and the fridge is full.
One thing you'd notice in a country where there are no alcohol joints, no pubs, no discos, no karaokes the average family have more money to spend than in countries where mom and dad and bros and sis spends a lot of hard earned money on the list above. The economy is vibrant and everyone have savings to speak of. Like most local residents of Riyadh Shopping Malls is our life, for me, my wife and three pre primary school kids. If we have Mid Valley Mega Mall in KL there’s probably 30 or so Mid Valley Mega Mall equivalents here in Riyadh. Every new Mall is lavish in terms of size and interior design. No such thing as hideaway small suraus atop the car park here; mosques occupy centre stage in Riyadh Shopping Malls. And every waktu is almost a small Jumaat in terms of size of congregation, thanks to the ever present roving Muttawa encouraging the men to Jemaah prayers. And true to form in the behaviour of most humans when there are people encouraging us to do good, we are happy to do good. But left to our own devices………
There are 4 mega Carrefours here, a number of Geants, a number of HyperBandas, and many many more local brands. Every Mall will have the anchor Supermarket, a Food Court on the upper floor and various designer shops and stalls. A kids' Amusement Park with all manner of dangerous play is a must for every Mall. Looking down the hallway of a Mall we will see flowing patches of black and white ; Riyadh men in white jubah and red headdress and Riyadh ladies radiant in black. Its easy to guess at nationalities here in Riyadh, all ladies wear the black abaya or ladies robe, but usually the only ones in veil will be Saudis, the Arab ladies without veils will be the non-Saudi Arabs. Malaysian ladies are also resplendent in black abayas, without the veil, but with the Malaysian tudung. Ladies in black abaya but flowing blonde or black hair will be the Mat Salleh ladies or the Pinoy. My wife and I always wonder how lost Saudi kids recognize their mummies in the bustling crowd and I personally wonder how the Laundries or Mughassal recognize one white jubah from the hundreds they receive every day. These are all inner secrets I know we shall learn in due course.
Prices of food have rocketed here in Riyadh too. It seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Our favourite 5 kilo bag of fragrant rice which was 13 Saudi Riyal before this is a whopping 23 Saudi Riyal now whilst flour to do our cucur bawang was SR 3.50 and now SR5.50. Petrol is the exact opposite being the owner of the world’s largest oil reserves talk is always about how much petrol in Saudi is going down per litre. Currently its 45 sen equivalent per litre and the more expensive grade is 60 sen per litre.
There is another reason why our fridge is easily full, my wife refuses to allow me to upgrade it to a bigger one. We are still using the same 6 months stay fridge we bought in mid-2006. Our 6 months have stretched to almost 2 years now and we are still using the same fridge. And why are we still using the same fridge? My wife says small fridge means we have to go out more often to buy food and they will always be fresher than if we have a bigger one. I have no arguments with that.
Wassalam,
Zahid
Assalamu 'Alaikum
Wednesday night is weekend night here in Riyadh. Like if they have Thank God Its Friday Restaurants here, it would be called Thank God Its Wednesday.
Wednesday nights are important nights for me and family, it’s the night we go to HyperBanda, or Tamimi or Carrefour Hypermarkets to stock up for the week. But this week we made a mistake; the kids have started their summer hols so we take them out to Shopping Malls more often on weeknights than we normally do. And after dinner at the usually spanking brand new food courts of Hypermarkets in Riyadh, we will visit the Supermarket on the ground floor to buy stuff before heading home. This week we overdid it, Wednesday night and the fridge is full.
One thing you'd notice in a country where there are no alcohol joints, no pubs, no discos, no karaokes the average family have more money to spend than in countries where mom and dad and bros and sis spends a lot of hard earned money on the list above. The economy is vibrant and everyone have savings to speak of. Like most local residents of Riyadh Shopping Malls is our life, for me, my wife and three pre primary school kids. If we have Mid Valley Mega Mall in KL there’s probably 30 or so Mid Valley Mega Mall equivalents here in Riyadh. Every new Mall is lavish in terms of size and interior design. No such thing as hideaway small suraus atop the car park here; mosques occupy centre stage in Riyadh Shopping Malls. And every waktu is almost a small Jumaat in terms of size of congregation, thanks to the ever present roving Muttawa encouraging the men to Jemaah prayers. And true to form in the behaviour of most humans when there are people encouraging us to do good, we are happy to do good. But left to our own devices………
There are 4 mega Carrefours here, a number of Geants, a number of HyperBandas, and many many more local brands. Every Mall will have the anchor Supermarket, a Food Court on the upper floor and various designer shops and stalls. A kids' Amusement Park with all manner of dangerous play is a must for every Mall. Looking down the hallway of a Mall we will see flowing patches of black and white ; Riyadh men in white jubah and red headdress and Riyadh ladies radiant in black. Its easy to guess at nationalities here in Riyadh, all ladies wear the black abaya or ladies robe, but usually the only ones in veil will be Saudis, the Arab ladies without veils will be the non-Saudi Arabs. Malaysian ladies are also resplendent in black abayas, without the veil, but with the Malaysian tudung. Ladies in black abaya but flowing blonde or black hair will be the Mat Salleh ladies or the Pinoy. My wife and I always wonder how lost Saudi kids recognize their mummies in the bustling crowd and I personally wonder how the Laundries or Mughassal recognize one white jubah from the hundreds they receive every day. These are all inner secrets I know we shall learn in due course.
Prices of food have rocketed here in Riyadh too. It seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Our favourite 5 kilo bag of fragrant rice which was 13 Saudi Riyal before this is a whopping 23 Saudi Riyal now whilst flour to do our cucur bawang was SR 3.50 and now SR5.50. Petrol is the exact opposite being the owner of the world’s largest oil reserves talk is always about how much petrol in Saudi is going down per litre. Currently its 45 sen equivalent per litre and the more expensive grade is 60 sen per litre.
There is another reason why our fridge is easily full, my wife refuses to allow me to upgrade it to a bigger one. We are still using the same 6 months stay fridge we bought in mid-2006. Our 6 months have stretched to almost 2 years now and we are still using the same fridge. And why are we still using the same fridge? My wife says small fridge means we have to go out more often to buy food and they will always be fresher than if we have a bigger one. I have no arguments with that.
Wassalam,
Zahid
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