I made the most of having the car all week. Self-care Sunday saw me dashing over to the dentist for my hygiene appointment and then zipping back to Kaya Skin Clinic for my second laser appointment. My mouth didn’t know what had happened—so exfoliated and clean after all that attention. And then somehow I ended up doing three return trips to the school and home. Driving in Riyadh is exhausting—the traffic is terrible. It’s the week before Ramadan begins, and I wonder whether this is increasing the traffic. I don’t know why, but I keep hearing people saying that it is very bad at the moment. I'm used to driving in a city where Google journey times cannot be trusted and you should always add an extra 15 minutes, but here 30 minutes are better. People drive like lunatics, and there are accidents on most journeys. So heartening!
Monday was a treat, and after a quick blast at the gym, a group of us headed over to Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024 in the West of the city. So, another fun drive across the city! Started in 2021, this year the theme is ‘After the Rain’ aimed at sparking re-imagination and shedding light on the familiar. It showcased local and international artists. There are 93 artists in this year’s biennial, including Sofia Binzagr, Nabila Al Bassam, Filwa Nazer, Liam Youn, and Tang Da Wu. My personal favourites were Detsi. Definitely worth a visit.
Tuesday was about car self-care, and I had to get over to North West Riyadh to find the GWM care service garage—a different set of roads to get up there heading north up to the airport and zig-zagging over to the west. Much calmer than going on the Northern Ring Road, apart from a sticky bit on the airport road. The garage was in a brand new industrial area and was slick—it took too long to wait, so I had to get an Uber back to a friend's where we had lunch and I played tennis and did a bit of work to keep things moving. And then back onto the Riyadh roads to collect the car. The journey back was much busier, with roads at a standstill; and then back to pick children up and a surprise visit to Al Reem compound to take one of my daughter’s friends home. It is ‘only’ 15 minutes from the school, but the round trip took 1 hour… fark. Made me grateful for choosing a compound that was so close and didn’t involve main roads to get there. Every minute counts.
Wednesday was catch-up day—I had abandoned all my usual routines in the excitement of having my own set of wheels. Piles of washing, unanswered emails, dishwashers to unload, cooking to be done. Oh, the life of an expat wife. It’s heady stuff. Really. I had a meeting with a local bakery which took an exciting turn (more of that if it comes to anything) and then back to the school for the term’s parent-teacher meeting clutching a box of beautiful cakes and pastries from the bakery. It all helps oil the wheels and keep the energy levels up. Delicious! Back home there was the surprise of having to help No. 1 son do a trial run for his cooking assessment—pavlova with fruit sauce, thank you very much. Which then meant a dash to LuLu’s to source local fruit or at least fair trade… HA HA HA HA HA. Good luck with that Green. The only local Saudi fruit there was melon and that definitely was not the pavlova vision and there was NO mention of fair trade anywhere. I got home and the kitchen was a mess, so I lost my shit. No. 1 son cracked on with making his coulis and did a much better job of cleaning the kitchen after the third attempt.
Thursday was get-on-the-train day to Bahrain—up at 5:30, booked an Uber which dropped me, and then rebooked and I got here in time. So excited to be trying out the train. A weekend of brunches with girlfriends from different corners of the world—a great friend from the UK who has relocated to Dubai, mutual friend from Qatar, and Bahrain Beks’s American neighbor. I think it will be worthy of a separate post, so keep checking in for the next installment.
Until then.
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