Coffee Hour and The Souk

I've been visiting a chat forum about Abu Dhabi for awhile now and today was a chance to attend a get together with some of the ladies.

I brought along my friend from the compound and we ventured 25 minutes away to a restaurant called Fanr Restaurant, located on Saadiyat Island about 25 minutes from our home.

Click for a map. We live near Al Bateen Executive Airport, near the middle and Saadiyat Island is way up on the top and to the right.

So...this was a "Bumps and Babies" Coffee Hour. It was geared towards pregnant moms and moms of babies. There were several toddlers there and one or two with no kids. They had a great little play area for the kids that was near where we sat. There were probably about a dozen-ish ladies there, a mix of nationalities (American, Canadian, French, British) and even though everyone spoke English, there was still a few communication glitches with the slang differences. The ladies were mostly nice. There was definitely an "established" group that kept to one side of the long table and a bunch of us newbies that mixed in the middle and other side. This is a group that meets on a weekly basis and you can drop in whenever you want.

Honestly, today reminded me of that first day of high school. A little jittery in the belly and wondering what kind of impression I'll make. Knowing that it's a chance to reinvent myself if I want, but being pretty happy with who I am. Scoping out a room and seeing who the kids were and where I might want to fit in. Wondering what they thought of me and what I thought of them with a little bit of wondering how much it all really mattered.

I feel like I left behind so many wonderful friends and now I need some replacements. So, I'm silently auditioning. Who's my next gym buddy, game-playing partner, dancing gal, drinking buddy, gossiper, gal I can rely on for everything, neighbor friend I can borrow things from, smart friend to discuss things with, one who will calm me in times of chaos, older/wiser friend with sage advice, friend with kids the same age, couple friend, etc.....

Maybe no one will fit those moulds and I'll have new areas to fill that I don't even know I need. I don't want to REPLACE my awesome friends back home, just need a few stand-ins for a little while.

After a couple hours at a coffee hour that was definitely worth the drive for both the adult company and playtime for Cameron, it was time to head home.

I got home and waited outside just long enough for the rest of the family to hop in the car so we could head out for shopping and lunch.

We went to the Central Souk located in the middle of the city.













I don't think there are any old time souks in Abu Dhabi, but there is this new Central Souk (Central Market) there. It had some neat little gift shops, a spice store and a few places to eat. We ate at a yummy Crepe place and I bought a few little items for the home:

Here is my new camel family....




















There's even a baby camel in the mama camel's belly. (Don't get any ideas, I just thought it was cute, really.)

After the souk, we headed to the crazy-packed mall for Brian to take care of something. Such a different feel than visiting during Ramadan when it was a ghost town.

I even had a familiar drink:










I even ran into someone I knew. Go figure? I've been here two weeks and live in a city of 900K+ people and can manage to run into one of the 10 people I know in the city. Maybe this won't be so bad after all?


After all that, it was home for the day. Tomorrow starts a new month with lots of firsts in store. Top agenda item tomorrow....join a gym and start to lose my pre-move-stress-weight!

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