"Walking the distance"

My youngest son needed 20 pieces of popsicle sticks for one of his subjects in school. And since it was a couple of days before month end, we had to hold on to every single halala until my husband gets paid his salary. God is really good! He knew beforehand that something like this would happen so he made sure that I have a couple of orders to deliver which meant extra income that would allow us to stretch our budget. Bunso (a term of endearment for my youngest son) called his dad in the office and told him about his assignment. Hence, as soon as hubby arrived from work he asked me to go with him to buy them stuff.

Although we knew we can buy a pack of popsicle sticks in Al Samil bookstore (which is a one stop haven for arts and craft enthusiasts among other things), we put the thought of going there at the back of our mind. First because it was a bit far and we needed (tough not necessarily) a cab to get there which would displace our budget. So, off we went in search for the said sticks around the area. We went to this baqala (mini mart) near our place unfortunately, they didn't have what we were looking for. Hubby even suggested we buy 20 popsicles and just clean the sticks hahaha but I argued that they were too short. So, hubby and I weighed our options and I told him that I can walk it off from Thuqba to Ramaniya just to avoid spending 30 riyals for a back and forth ride. Al Khobar is such a small place and everything is both "walking distance" or a trip via cab. ("walking distance" meant it was "do-able" one way only lol) 

And walk we did, my husband and I joked our way to Ramaniya; was able to cross the streets and byways and arrived at Everything 10 in one piece! But we found no popsicle sticks there either,  we had to walk some more to Al Samil (our last resort) where we were able to find one (as I knew they would). And walked again to buy a couple of grocery items from Al Ramah. By the time we were done purchasing our week-long supply, our feet were really really tired and all we wanted was to reach home, take a warm bath and sleep.

Am actually used to walking long stretches of roads but it does help to have the right walking shoes. I was wearing ordinary sneakers which was a bit hard on my sole after one of the longest "strolls" I've ever managed to accomplish.

I came across this photo on the net and I can just imagine how our feet felt like yesterday after that long and tiring traipse down to the heart of Al Khobar.

Welcome to our new home!

We transferred to the company accomodation on June 30th and believe me this was no easy task! As I mentioned previously, back home I had an extra pair of hands. Now I only have to rely on myself while my husband is at work and my kids are in school. Packing them stuff is already an energy zapper and unpacking them was next to impossible with most of my energy already drained. We were sooo tired that after the last plastic bag we decided to just take a bath and sleep even with our living room looking more like a battleground than anything else. 

Now our living room cum dining area looks better... I made sure that I have a space for my "mini-office"...

getting better...getting there... i just so love my office space!

Normally, there would have been a sofa provided by the company but probably due to wear and tear the sofa has been brought upstairs. My husband is planning to buy one at a harraj or junk souq (second hand shop) where we can buy some neat sofa and just have them reupholstered.

I would have loved a larger kitchen because the one that we have now is really small but who's complaining? nuh-uh

It's actually a good thing that my husband was accorded this family housing because of this we would not have to worry about rent and utility expense. This is such a big help to us especially since all our kids are now in school. And to add that we can enjoy our privacy - we would not have to be bothered about our kids being rowdy while our other flatmates are still asleep.

We are surrounded by malls (yipee!!!!) and with Ramadan fast approaching, everything is on sale right now only thing is we don't have much left for shopping...so there goes my "mall hopping dream"...down...further down the drain....boo-hoo!

The flat is fully furnished...well supposed to be fully furnished but as I said earlier the other furnitures may have been brought upstairs due to wear and tear. So the only stuff that we are enjoying right now are the big ref, TV, airconditioning units, and electric stove.

This will be our "home sweet home" for the rest of my husband's contract and we are just so happy to see that our kids have more space to skip on hahaha....