Finishing the Work Week

I've settled into something of a routine while Craig is at work. I go to the pool in the morning. The pool is in the shade and the water is just a few degrees cooler than the air. I typically have the pool to myself when I get there. Before I'm finished, there will be a couple people sitting by the pool. But I haven't seen the same people twice, so I guess I'm the only one with a pool habit in the morning.

I spend the morning working on various things in the apartment - writing this blog, reading a book, or working on the class I teach at Allen. In the afternoon, I've started sewing.

Wednesday night, we went out to dinner with the team. This time, the request was for "a burger and a beer" so we went to a burger place in the souk just beyond the mall. Because the souk is attached to a hotel, we thought we would be able to get drinks there. But the burger place hadn't gotten a liquor license yet, so we moved to a British pub instead.

When several people in our party ordered burgers, we were informed that our meals would take 35-40 minutes due to the burgers. It's less clear why burgers take so long to cook, though we came up with several theories during our wait. Those who ordered the burgers reported that the burger was particularly dense and the meat had been finely ground, giving it an odd texture.

Craig and I shared a Scotch egg:

And I got a steak and mushroom pie that was very tasty:

On Thursday, I pulled a muscle in my neck during my morning swim. I had a rather lazy day as a result. Thursday being the end of the work week here, we were planning to go out for a nice dinner with the team. Craig had gotten a recommendation for a place that wasn't within walking distance. So we got dressed up to go out:

If I look funny, it's because I can't move my head.

We had a bit of a wait for a cab that would fit all seven of us. But the cab ride was a special adventure. In addition to the already harrowing traffic, our cab driver seemed to make a sport of driving opposite the speed you would expect. When traffic was nothing but brake lights ahead, our driver would speed up just to come to a body-jolting stop behind the stopped cars. When the road was empty, he inexplicably drove at half the legal limit. When slowing down for a stop light, he would "pump" the brakes - not like anti-lock brakes, but with a full to-the-floor motion that made the cab ride into some demented dark ride.

When we encountered traffic on the off-ramp from the highway, he made an illegal U-turn (which involved driving off the paved road on the sand) and got back on the highway going miles past our destination. Getting off the freeway again, he didn't get in the left lane to make a proper U-turn to get on the highway. Instead, he rolled down his window, flagged down a delivery person on a motorcycle, and convinced that man to cut off the van in the left lane (with his delivery motorcycle, mind you) so that we could also cut in front of the van.

Laughing manically, our driver got back on the highway and took us back to the mall we where we were planning to have dinner. Our front seat passenger reported later that our driver had also been scratching frantically at his legs and arms during the drive. I had been too busy trying to stay in my seat to notice such crystal meth induced behavior.

Craig took this picture of the open air, but air conditioned, restaurant:

And this picture of the appetizers our group shared:

This is what he ordered me for dinner (there was a piece of chicken buried under the vegetables and a pile of couscous under everything):

And this is what Craig had for dinner:

I was underwhelmed with dinner, though the appetizers were very good. I always love hummus and fresh bread, though.

For the cab ride home, we split into two groups and took cars back to the hotel. Not only was our driver far less adventurous, the trip home cost 2/5 of what the trip out had cost.