I headed off into Doha City Centre by taxi this morning I realised I'd left the kitchen window open. After a flash of panic I remembered that the cleaner was coming so I wasn't worried as she usually closes any open windows when she finishes work.
And why was I in a taxi? Well, many of the roads in Doha are so poor that Madame can't go on many of the places I need to go as she's too low to the ground. Some of the speed humps in our suburb are so high that she 'bottoms out' going over them. None of the speedhumps are marked so driving at night in an unknown area is a slow and cautious affair.
Arrived at City Centre which is the largest mall in Doha, its probably about the size of the shopping area at Bur Juman in Dubai. First stop coffee to make an 'action plan'. Surely its an indictment on all the other coffee bars that the best coffee in City Centre is at Starbucks? 10am, the shops opened so I neaded down the hallway to the retail cemetry that is the back section of DCC, where only a few evening dress shops and a row of abaya shops remain. Its reminiscent of the gold souq in Dubai Mall. The perfume shop guy told me that there's going to be another entrance to mall from the new carpark and many of the shops in the retail cemetry will be removed to make it more open and accessible from the main part of the mall. Meanwhile, most of the shops in the back section of the mall have not renewed their leases anyway. He has 3 months to go and then will relocate to Al Rayyan. Even Al Jeida's gone :-(
Dear ShoeMart: If you join a pair of shoes with a security band that's so small that a customer cannot walk in the shoes to try them out, then the customer will not buy! I asked for a pair of scissors so I could cut the plastic band to take a few steps, I mean that's what you do when you buy shoes, but the guy said "No Ma'am only manager have scissor(singular)". WTF! a shoeshop where you can't even take a step in the shoes before you buy them. How will you know if they fit properly? So, like the lady next to me, I walked out (something I couldn't do in any of the pairs of shoes they had on display).
Anyway, after my non-purchase from ShoeMart I headed home. At the front door I tried my key, it didn't turn, meaning the cleaner had left the key in the lock on the other side. No prob, I collected the shopping and went round the back of the house to try the back door. I put the key in the lock, tried to turn it but mafish, nothing, so, sigh, that meant the key was in the lock in that door also. Well that was the end of the door option, now for windows. Fortunately the cleaner hadn't gone round closing the windows before she went home and the kitchen window was still open. I reached up and moved the pots of herbs off the window ledge, hauled the ladder out of the storeroom, put it against the side of the house and up I went. Onto the window ledge (woo, does it collect a lot of dust there), slid the flyscreen back, hopped onto the bench (nice work, very clean) then down to the floor. I went over to the back door and sure enough the key was still in the lock but, when I turned the door handle, I discovered that the cleaner hadn't locked the door when she left, it was unlocked and if I'd thought to try the handle I could have just walked in. Still, the whole ladder up to the window brought back a misspent youth and keeps skill levels high.
No comments:
Post a Comment