The Arrival of the "Little Tank" and the Couch Observation

Ok so its called the "little tank" and it goes broom. Thats about as much as I know about Aj's new car because he's not gotten out of it. Well, I also know that Brunhilda my golf cart does look rather depressed and resentful sitting next to it but she is MIGHTY or at least thats what I think.

I may have sung "highway to hell" to him the morning he went out to pick the car up which rather amused me and earned me at least one or two metaphorical missiles from the looks I got but apparently the roads aren't as bad as they look as long as you don't look while driving here...hmm...so all is well.

I've just forcebly jettisoned myself from the self directed group I was being coffee bitch for and I now have my tuesday mornings free from the petty one up manship that so characterizes this kind of expat compound. I swear I'm learning a lot about how to deal with ladies behaving badly here...Remind me one of these days to go into detail...on the odd chance one of the old ducks is blog literate I'll be polite which is a lot more than they are. I've never been more tempted to punch another lady in the babymaker as I have been this last week.

SO that aside, I have made yet another fascinating observation of Saudi culture from the outside and this one involves...wait for it....Lounge Couches....thats right you heard me Lounge couches.

OK so we need another lounge couch for our Bahrain house so blindly taking camp gossip to heart I assumed that Saudi was much cheaper than Bahrain for furniture. One of the girls told me Natuzzi in Saudi was a lot cheaper than home so I thought ok...why not and went to look at some very expensive lounge couches...italian leather...nice...price of my car back in Australia and surprizingly uncomfortable compared to the Natuzzi furnature I'd drooled on in Perth.

When I'd recovered my wallet from its dead faint we headed off to a 'discount' furniture outlet thinking that this would provide a better option only to find the couches even more uncomfortable and more expensive. (Starting from about 6000AUD per couch). It wasn't until I heard a Saudi lady describing merits that I'd never even considered of a couch I'd just jarred my tailbone on that I discovered the reason for the expensive appearance that has all the comfort of a bed in a siberian jail. Ramadan. After a few discreet enquiries my hunch looks like its true...it goes like this:

During Ramadan here you've gotta entertain all of your friends and family and they will come to your house and eat and be merry, potentially bankrupting you in the process. (Saudi families are HUGE...about 7 kids per woman) You of course want your house to look as spectacular as possible for this occasion so that the relatives wont have something to one up you on. SO if you offer your house up for visitors, provide food but...and here's the secret...have a couch so uncomfortable that any guest staying long enough to eat the entres will develop haemeroids, they won't eat much and will trundle home early leaving less work for you and you can keep food over for the next night. Genius! This doesn't fix my couch problem but I'm so stoked at this particular bit of Saudi trivia I don't care:)

Anyway I'm off to be "that woman" who's upset the camp matriarch..