A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

The weekend turned out to be more exciting than I'd anticipated. On Thursday night, we had dinner at Felix Arabia in the Old City because Big Cheese from S' company were visiting. I noticed the waiters brought out wine ("grape juice") poured into discreet brown glasses but no wine bottles were to be seen. Then on Friday, we managed to get invited to a VIP tour of Wadi Dhar (above), which is an old palace built on a rock, about 30 minutes from Sana'a. We were surprised it was actually a touristy place - thought it'd be in the middle of nowhere. Because it was Friday, there were a lot of people, foreign and local. There was also traditional Yemeni dancing - men only - in the palace courtyard (below). There was one old man in the group who lives in Sana'a but comes out to Wadi Dhar during the weekend to dance. What was also interesting was that we had four armed security guards the whole time because of the VIPs. The real Men In Black - black suits, sunglas...

I can't believe it's already February 2009. The weekend is here once again. Again, S has to work tomorrow morning, which really irritates me because the people in Europe who want to have meetings on a Friday morning are the same ones who are SHOCKED at the thought of working on a Saturday morning. Yeah, they should think about that one. As usual, we have nothing planned for the weekend except maybe finally getting some carpets (I can hear you all moaning "That again!"). Will probably go to the Movenpick Hotel to exercise - it's been a while! I love pottering about the house during the weekend - I like sitting in the qat room during the day because it's sunny, I can hear the birds and there's a lovely breeze when the windows are open. Also, the school nearby is closed so it's blissfully quiet. Today I finally called this lady about Arabic classes but she was in class and said she'd call back. Countdown to parents' visit: 1 week!