We are living in our apartment now and slowly days seem to be taking on a routine, despite continuing to set up our house. It is still quite different for me not to have any friends to visit and to interact with new people daily who may become part of our lives for a shorter while before they move away. I continue to miss my connections in Vancouver and all those cool, yarn-craft-related activities. My friend Manuela had her first Lonsdale Shipyards night market sale for her jewelry on May, 20th 5-10 pm and has a few more coming up on July 8, August 19 and September 30. If you are in town check it out!
Until a few days ago we were still car-less which makes quite a difference for mobility about town. We did not think it mattered much, but started to notice the limitations last week when we thought of acquiring used furniture, but were unable to figure out how to transport it home. A taxi is only useful for smaller items like boxes and compactly packed Ikea blinds, but once it comes to tables, shelves and chairs one needs their own transportation. It has somewhat curbed our ability to visit other areas in town as well. Nevertheless, I managed to take the bus downtown to research a craft store selling yarns and to find my way from there to Abu Dhabi Mall where the next Knitting Amiras meet would be held. I picked a day with no other appointments to make sure I had sufficient time, but a peak temperature of 43 C. We have two bus lines coming to and leaving from our area. Each is scheduled every two hours. But they alternate, so we have hourly bus connections. The timetables can be looked up online and are pretty accurate. One should be at a bus stop about 5 minutes before departure and the bus can be delayed up to 10 minutes, limiting the maximum wait time outside to about 15 minutes. That will be no problem, I thought, even in 43 C as there is always some shade to wait in. Oh, well, the plan did not allot for the time spent walking around a block twice in the blazing sun to find the Green Branch Trading craft store. Per Google maps it was supposed to be past the travel agency at the corner of 4th and Sheik Zayed the first street and next to the furniture store. I found both, but no craft store. Locating a store or destination in Abu Dhabi goes by description of general area, the block with a well-known “landmark” (it could be a store or restaurant) and then a count of how many doors from there. Finally, when I looked up and down the street questioning my planning, I saw my destination across the street. Which was 6 lanes wide and the only option to get there safely was walking back to the intersection and crossing at a traffic-light controlled crosswalk. Driving is crazy at best of times and jaywalking only recommended when one can attach to locals who seem to know what they are doing. At this point I had exceeded my 15 minutes outside air-conditioning and was more than happy to cool off inside. The yarn selection goes across two walls with mostly acrylic, some cotton and same rayon yarns. The pricing is reasonable with 10 AED (about 3.50 $ Cdn) per 50 gm ball of fingering weight cotton (needle 2.5-3 mm and 125 m). I liked their selection and had already decided I needed to knit a few more cotton squares for the kitchen. A pretty purple-pink variegated and a blue ball made it into my basket before I went to explore the rest of the store.
They carry an amazing array of paints for all art purposes upstairs: oil, acrylic paint, water colours and dyes for cotton. Colour pencils, pastel colours, chalk and lots more. Amazing! Downstairs the selections go towards buttons, batting for quilts, sewing thread, artificial fruits and other decorations, glues etc.Too many items for me to take in or to look at. Definitely, a destination to go back and look for almost anything crafty, but fabric.
Sufficiently cooled off I thought it can’t be too difficult to walk the 4 blocks to Abu Dhabi mall from there. Well, that was quickly revised after about two blocks in and the next bus stop offered two lines stopping close to the mall. The cool bus was exactly what | needed to be ready for a walk again. On my way I saw this endearing sight for a Canadian:
It is part of the Mall on the ground level outside. After finding the knit group meeting spot my next quest was to load some more money on our Hafilat bus cards. As per website it can be done at some bus stops, malls and the main bus station. Someone pointed me to a machine nearby. Unfortunately, it was broken. Well, last time loading money on my card was easy at the main bus station another 20-25 minutes by bus. I figured that the bus stop opposite the one I arrived at would get me there. Another 5 minute walk and 20 minute waiting for the right bus to show up. That bus stop was not air-conditioned and just standing in the shade with a breeze flowing made the sweat trickle off me. Drinking water ongoing did not seem to make a difference as I was still parched and couldn’t wait to be inside again. Barely recovered while sitting on the bus I had to get off again as the bus did not drive into the station but stopped across another 6 lane road. Walking to the station so close and still so far almost did me in. I arrived and bought a cold pop just to re-hydrate. Now, I could go about loading money onto the card and sitting for a while waiting for my bus to take my back. Funny, I thought, that I can find the timetable for departures but no mention of it on the stops or bays saying “suburbs or airport”. The numbers were just not listed. About 5 minutes before departure I checked again: no, I did not miss the bay with information for the bus. Dumbfounded by this I asked the security guy if he knew where the airport/suburb buses were leaving from since they arrive in the station when coming into town. “Oh, those! You need to catch them across the road!” was his answer. Darn! Not only did this mean I had to go outside again, climb stairs to an overpass, walk across and then wait in the heat and sun, I may have missed it already. Luckily, the bus was late and I finally made it home crashing onto the bed for a nap. Lesson learned: next time bring enough cash to be able to afford the 60 AED to get back by taxi, the most common form of transport for many, western expats without a car.
Waiting at home for deliveries or maintenance has its upside in lots of knitting and spinning time. The socks have been finished and submitted to a sock-hop contest at Wetcoastwools in Vancouver. Thank goodness, for online submissions!
And the new yarn has been knit up into a “scrubby/potholder” for the kitchen and a baby hat in a honeycomb-slip-stitch pattern, which breaks up the pooling of the colours a little.
The decreases of the honeycomb pattern on the top of the hat turned out in a flower pattern, surprisingly. It will be knit more often for my new baby collection for sale on etsy soon.
Until next time with more experiences from Abu Dhabi….
Maike
beecosydesign 