A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

Last weekend we went to an art show held by the International Womens Association (IWA). It was hosted by an English lady who lives a typical HUGE Yemeni house. Let's put it this way, it was big enough to be used as an art gallery! They showcased (and were selling) paintings by about 10 Yemeni artists, with some of the proceeds going to charity. The nice thing was the artists were there to explain what the pieces were about. I bought a Shawki Mohd Abdul original called "The Golden City". I felt sorry for the guy, nobody had bought any of his stuff yet. I did like the painting...and compared to the other pieces, it was a "bargain" at $50. What the heck, it was for charity. I did like one particular piece that was on glass, but we've had glass items broken before during moves. S was hung up on this one abstract piece of a woman's face (only after we were told what to look for did we see it) but he thought it was too expensive at $150. To me the price of art...

The world of the Arabs

A couple of days ago, our driver showed us a video clip of a lion killing a man. In a cage. Somewhere in Iraq. I didn't see the beginning but did see the part where the lion was sitting calmly with his mouth around the man's neck. The whole thing was being filmed on someone's phone I think, someone who was standing outside the cage waiting for help to come. Help finally did come - a guard came with a gun or electric stun gun and shot the lion. Two loud shots. Lion collapses (stunned? dead?) and two people rush in to retrieve the man. But they were too late. Apparently he was the lion's trainer and had been in the cage alone with the animal. Pretty shocking. I couldn't eat my dinner.

Back in Sana'a after a three-week break. Weather has cooled down and is the perfect combination of cool dry air and sunny days. New shops have sprung up and a couple of buildings near the house are almost done. But the best thing of all is in the supermarkets. The Asian food shop now has a better selection of Asian veggies and food. Yeterday we found TEMPEH as well as kangkong, fresh tauhu, taugeh, gado-gado mix, chives, bok choi, lemongrass, etc. At Shumaila Hari, smoked beef is now available in the deli section and you can also get bottled sambal paste, frozen and fresh liver (me LOVE liver), frozen and fresh chicken breast/drumsticks/thigh/wings/etc., laban (said to be even better than yoghurt) with live AB cultures, and most other things. I guess the big deal for me is that all this is HALAL. You could get various meats in Angola but only the frozen imported beef was halal...I can count the number of times I ate minced meat in those three years! Al Jazeera reported yesterday th...

= Kannot Fry Chicken lah Remember KFC's Ramadan special offer? S went there two days in a row and came back with nada. The first day, he got there too late in the afternoon - they were closed. The second time, he went a bit earlier and they were open...but they couldn't cook until the electricity came back on. After waiting in the parking lot for 30 mins, S came home. Nevermind. Back in Malaysia in 10 days.

Bored with our own cooking, S and I went out for iftar twice a couple of times last week. Once at the Sheba Hotel and once at the Movenpick. Same price ($30 pp)but I thought the food and atmosphere of the Movenpick were better. Both places had the cheek to charge extra (500 rials/$2.50 each) for the small bottles of water that they open for you without asking first! Otherwise, it was nice. At the Sheba, we saw our old friends (the waiters) who were there last year when we'd just arrived. We stayed two weeks before we moved into the house. One, whose name happens to be the same as my late grandfather's, even remembered what I liked and plonked a heap of omm ali (like bread and butter pudding) in front of me. Bless. The Movenpick was snazzy (5 star hotel I think) and had a bigger spread. I think one of the chefs is from Malaysia because there was kuih sugee (my favourite) and the nasi goreng tasted really asli and I'd heard about him. Today, we're having KFC. There's...

Today we get a new driver. After a year of putting up with the antics of M and thinking a replacement one might be even worse, we decided to call it quits. He has a good heart. But his last, last, last, last, last, last chance was used up a couple of days ago: after the usual morning wake-up call and saying he's on his way, he disappeared. The whole day. Phone switched off. No news. We thought, what if he had an accident rushing to work? Poor guy, hope he's okay. The next day (we'd made arrangements for a standby driver), he showed up at work. All smiles. No explanation, except that he was sick and there was no electricity so he couldn't charge his phone and call us. Unbelievable. He pulls these stunts; shows up late for work; drives erratically; uses the car for his errands and to shuttle family around; goes home (which is far) to sleep during the day using OUR petrol money; always rushes us because he's got plans; makes a sour face when he has to work the...