It's Christmas day and what am I writing about? A plug for the sink, yep that's right one of those little rubber thingies that stops the water from running straight down the drain.......
Christmas morning our late lie in was interrupted by a phone call from our son Rufus calling from Canada. So some two or so hours later we crawled out of bed having spoken to the family and breakfasted on eggs and unsmoked bacon. A little let down from the normal Christmas, but then we were keen to get on our way for two days in a luxury hotel on AlJebel AlAkhdar - that would be the Green Mountain.
A quick dash out to the kitchen with our dishes I racked n stacked then searched the kitchen high and low - yep no plug for the kitchen sink! Our stand in maid (all of four hours a week) had been yesterday afternoon and done the dishes. What she did with the plug we may never know....
I called Katrina and she looked everywhere I had and maybe a place or two I hadn't. All to no avail there was no rubber plug for the sink. It's OK says I I will just duck down to Zam Zam's Hypermarket and get one. Hmmm no such luck, the store attendants just looked at me blankly when I said for the umpteenth time - no I don't want an electrical plug. Ok so I will go to Al Fair (another hypermart) that's just down the road I thought, probably unlucky I had driven, but then we were keen to get away - as if I hadn't driven there would be no story to tell.
So off to Al Fair - well sir we normally have them in stock, just over here - where I had already spent a few minutes scrabbling through the box of odds and ends.
Ah well Carrefour is just down the road at Muscat City Centre, surely they will have them. Yeah right - after the first attendant said no not here in Kitchen ware, have a look in Bathroom. Sounds reasonable I thought. So I get to Bathroom and look around , nothing. Ahh there's an attendant I'll ask him - follow me sir he says (with a knowing look and air of absolute confidence) finally I think - until we walk around the corner and there's the first attendant.... d'oh.
I am starting to get a little peeved by now, spent close to an hour and no flaming plug for the sink!
At least there's a kitchen store, off I go and get blank looks. I'm sorry sir we don't stock hardware did you try Carrefour? GRAHHHH!!! So with cries of Merry Christmas sir, I head off to Home Centre (and for good luck try e-Maxx along the way - yes I know they're an electronics store, but they do have a small hardware/housewares section) - and you guessed it more blank looks and Christmas wishes.
So hanging my head in shame and despair I head for home. And then I think well I could try the small building supply shops - So I stop at the first one I see and ask - only to be presented with a grand selection of aluminium pipe end plugs - no, no rubber plugs I say. More blank looks and Christmas wishes.
Sigh in desperation as I turn the penultimate corner to home I pull over and ask at the little "Household Items and Luxuries" shop (that's code for cheap crap - but sometimes useful). Ah no sir they say after showing me their selection of powerboards, but try the building supply shop across the road, and Merry Christmas - Arghhh.
So with nothing to lose by now - it's been an hour and a half - I go across the road. Do you have rubber plugs for the kitchen sink I ask. Ah like this the little man says and presents me with an aluminium pipe end - No says I rubber. ahh he says and comes back with a little bag containing the fixings to replace the whole sink outlet. We have this he says presenting the plastic bag to me - and miracle of miracles it also contained a rubber plug!
Yay finally. Home dishes done and we hit the road almost two hours late. And the lesson for me is walk to Zam Zam's next time, coz you never know where you will find that odd thing in Oman.
But seriously nine shops to find a kitchen sink plug?
Happy Christmas everyone.
ps we did make it to AlJebel AlAkhdar and am sitting on the terrace watching the sun set, with beer at my elbow and feeling a little chilly for the first time since March.
Life is good.
Christmas morning our late lie in was interrupted by a phone call from our son Rufus calling from Canada. So some two or so hours later we crawled out of bed having spoken to the family and breakfasted on eggs and unsmoked bacon. A little let down from the normal Christmas, but then we were keen to get on our way for two days in a luxury hotel on AlJebel AlAkhdar - that would be the Green Mountain.
A quick dash out to the kitchen with our dishes I racked n stacked then searched the kitchen high and low - yep no plug for the kitchen sink! Our stand in maid (all of four hours a week) had been yesterday afternoon and done the dishes. What she did with the plug we may never know....
I called Katrina and she looked everywhere I had and maybe a place or two I hadn't. All to no avail there was no rubber plug for the sink. It's OK says I I will just duck down to Zam Zam's Hypermarket and get one. Hmmm no such luck, the store attendants just looked at me blankly when I said for the umpteenth time - no I don't want an electrical plug. Ok so I will go to Al Fair (another hypermart) that's just down the road I thought, probably unlucky I had driven, but then we were keen to get away - as if I hadn't driven there would be no story to tell.
So off to Al Fair - well sir we normally have them in stock, just over here - where I had already spent a few minutes scrabbling through the box of odds and ends.
Ah well Carrefour is just down the road at Muscat City Centre, surely they will have them. Yeah right - after the first attendant said no not here in Kitchen ware, have a look in Bathroom. Sounds reasonable I thought. So I get to Bathroom and look around , nothing. Ahh there's an attendant I'll ask him - follow me sir he says (with a knowing look and air of absolute confidence) finally I think - until we walk around the corner and there's the first attendant.... d'oh.
I am starting to get a little peeved by now, spent close to an hour and no flaming plug for the sink!
At least there's a kitchen store, off I go and get blank looks. I'm sorry sir we don't stock hardware did you try Carrefour? GRAHHHH!!! So with cries of Merry Christmas sir, I head off to Home Centre (and for good luck try e-Maxx along the way - yes I know they're an electronics store, but they do have a small hardware/housewares section) - and you guessed it more blank looks and Christmas wishes.
So hanging my head in shame and despair I head for home. And then I think well I could try the small building supply shops - So I stop at the first one I see and ask - only to be presented with a grand selection of aluminium pipe end plugs - no, no rubber plugs I say. More blank looks and Christmas wishes.
Sigh in desperation as I turn the penultimate corner to home I pull over and ask at the little "Household Items and Luxuries" shop (that's code for cheap crap - but sometimes useful). Ah no sir they say after showing me their selection of powerboards, but try the building supply shop across the road, and Merry Christmas - Arghhh.
So with nothing to lose by now - it's been an hour and a half - I go across the road. Do you have rubber plugs for the kitchen sink I ask. Ah like this the little man says and presents me with an aluminium pipe end - No says I rubber. ahh he says and comes back with a little bag containing the fixings to replace the whole sink outlet. We have this he says presenting the plastic bag to me - and miracle of miracles it also contained a rubber plug!
Yay finally. Home dishes done and we hit the road almost two hours late. And the lesson for me is walk to Zam Zam's next time, coz you never know where you will find that odd thing in Oman.
But seriously nine shops to find a kitchen sink plug?
Happy Christmas everyone.
ps we did make it to AlJebel AlAkhdar and am sitting on the terrace watching the sun set, with beer at my elbow and feeling a little chilly for the first time since March.
Life is good.
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