.

deema (left) explains her ‘madeenah’ city walks to an attentive huda, laila and farah at zeri crafts

in the zeri crafts front garden. sitting left to right: rabaa, sarah, shoag, huda, laila, farah. standing left to right: matt, farah, deema, georgia and me

the cushions i ordered from zeri crafts are here! and a painting laila commissioned me to do

later on, mubarakiya souq with the ducklings

xixi in front of this ‘kiosk’ dedicated to our emir

they are kings of the world. and he is someone we don’t know

broom hildas yasmeen and tarek. and cheeky xixi

the king and me outside bait ahmed. the king is sitting in a brass chair

while yousef settles into a more practical bench with traditional sadu cushions

some tasty delights inside bait ahmad

and this man! imagine how lucky i felt to see artist jaafar islah having his tea and cake at the bait ahmad cafe

and back to the riff raff. omar, khaled and yousef chat among a dhow, chest and some ersatz swords

i love everything here. but i buy nothing. i’m like that when i’m overwhelmed with goodies

later on food! by the time we found a restaurant with a free table for nine it was almost four. we were starving

khaled devours a skewer of cow meat

the bread was scrumptious

the things the table said

and finally a group shot. i left the picture the way the waiter took it. no straightening, no cropping, just the photo of a not-so-charming man. but we broke him and ended up having a great laugh with the guy. hooray!