I have heard that some people have a inner conscience for exercise: “Oh, I haven’t exercised today. I really need to go for a run. I’m so glad I went and worked out! Now I feel productive and good about myself!”
Yeah, that’s not me. I think of exercising as a happy accident. I do it accidentally and I’m happy when I can escape it. I want to be in shape, but I haven’t figured out how I can accomplish that while watching episodes of Revenge (or The Blacklist) lying on the couch with my knitting and a cappuccino. But I can commiserate in a slightly different arena. When I hit the “publish” button on my blog, I get that rush of accomplishment, sense of completion, and the niggling “you haven’t written in a while” voice is silenced and I’m guilt free as the timer resets to zero and starts ticking up again. So here’s my exercise for today:
Over the weekend we went to the annual Autumn Fair. I have never known why they have an Autumn Fair in January, but Josh finally solved the mystery. I guess it originally took place every year in November so it was indeed an Autumn Fair, but when they shifted the event to January, they kept the name. Oh, Bahrain!
This 9 day event takes place in a big exposition center and it’s wall to wall booths of things for sale. Everything from mass produced leggings from China, honey from Yemen, spices and perfumes, clothes, beautiful pashminas, bazillions of cheap comforter sets, to gemstones both genuine and fake.
This shop was full of metal coffeepots, tea sets, copper pitchers and lanterns. We didn’t buy anything because the prices were all higher than what we could get for similar items at a shop in the souk where we know the guy.
The masses of humanity didn’t exactly put me in a shopping mood either. So much perfume and incense, too many cheap, mass produced products, and getting whacked by all the puffy blanket sets that everyone and their mother were buying as we squeezed down the aisles wasn’t my favorite part. The rule for shopping here: keep moving and be aggressive. Just like on the road.
We stopped at a stall where the guy was making sugar cane juice.
Fresh off the cane. He would feed the stalks into the machine that pressed them and spit the flattened husk out the back while the juice poured into the bucket below. We bought a cup. It was sweet and tropical tasting, almost like the water from inside a fresh coconut.
I don’t plan to go back to the Autumn Fair again this year, even though I’ve heard that the prices on items are discounted on the final days. Mom and I have other adventures planned — another trip to the souk, a visit to my furniture guy to check on my latest project, and maybe a little carpet shopping.
