Almost at the end of it...

May the 2nd, almost 4 months after the last post... and so many things happened since then! April was not a good month for me. Between car repairing, theft of my wallet and laptop, it seems that I had my unlucky period. Dealing with the local police was and is still a hardship, when you don't speak the local language. Worse than that, being non Saudi citizen, they just don't care about you. The day when the glass of my car was stolen, after calling the police, they told me that they would certainly help me B U T not before the weekend. Everything happened on a Wednesday night, 11th of April.

That day, I was seriously thinking about taking my car to the workshop.. At last. and so I did, at night I asked my secretary if he would come with me to Thoqbah, a place known to shelter many Yemeni people quite good at repairing cars. We were still at the center, I remembered well that I was holding my laptop case, hesitating whether I would take it with me or not. And finally, after making up my mind, I decided that it with me, how silly. As usual, when I am driving my car, I leave my laptop on the backseat. If I stop by a restaurant to take some food away, I don't move the laptop from its current place, as I just need some 7-10 minutes to have my order ready.. But that night I had it wrong. Back from Thoqbah, I decide to invite my secretary to the restaurant, as he helped me to find the garage and translated everything.

The place where I will leave my car is a busy one. On this big axis called Pepsi Road (as there is the Pepsico factory that provides the whole Eastern region), to see a traffic jam has nothing specially amazing. It crosses the city from West to East, until the beautiful Cornich. So, I will park my car not far from the Steak house, actually opposite to a shop that sells lighting stuff (so, from there one could see my car quite well...).

After parking my car, we will wait a little bit in front of the restaurant. Indeed, at 8 pm, it is the end of Ishaa prayer which is the last in the day... and as you know, all the shops and restaurant are closed during prayer time, locally called "Sala". We will get into the restaurant at 8.05, when one of the filipino waiters that I know quite well, opens the door for us. Pleased to have my secretary as a guest for the first time (li awwal marra) i will suggest him to try anything he wants. He will try this black rock grill, a piece of tender meat on a square volcano stone, warmed up to 450 degrees... so that you can grill it "your way" hehe.

He will be happy of his meal, and so will I. Both of us will get outside the restaurant at 9.45. I will push the button on my key, to open it in the distance and I will sit down. To be sure my stuff is still there, I will turn round and see an empty backseat. Wow. Strange. I was sure I had taken my laptop. Maybe I had left it at the institute. Well. then I will take a glance at the glass, behind the passenger seat. Missing. there won t be any glass any more.

I quickly understood what happened but didn't really understand why. Come on! This is Pepsi road, a large avenue busy at night like at day, how come? We then asked the shoptenders, on the opposite side, if they had seen anything. But they hadn't, or I would say, they refused to talk. Supposed to be lamp and bulb dealers, they remained enable to provide us any light. My friend Ihab joined me, so did the new owner of the restaurant, who assured us that this practice was common, happening periodically. While...

While the police claim the right to be on weekend. I'm not lying. after dialing 999 (like the number of hell, but upside down : I let you visualize the image) a police car came to us, apologized in the name of the thief - which was a nice idea but not my concern at that time. They made the report, took some fingerprints and pictures. Basicallylike the FBI as far as equipment is concerned, but the difference was about credibility. Then they told me : "look. We are on a Wednesday which means that tomorrow [Thursay] and the day after tomorrow, it is the weekend. So please come to the office on Saturday.

What the f### is this, police who don't work on weekends. What I was satisfied about, at that time, is the fact that nothing had happened to me physically because the hospital staff might have answered the same bullshit. Sorry, no intensive cares on THU and FRI. "Come back on SAT", they will say, with a large smile meaning "at last on a weekend!"

If there was a moral to extract out of this story, I would suggest this one. If you really have the desire of getting into trouble, make sure that you are on a worked day : Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays.... from 8 am to 9 pm.