I was always one of those people who thought when people said “retail therapy” that it was just an excuse to go shopping. who doesn’t like new things right?? however I was and still am very well ….Cheap! I hate to spend money on something that i know i can get cheaper by making it or not getting name brand or searching somewhere else to find it for a little less. Like a predator searching for its pray , how ever living over here is taking that drive for the hunt out of me. At first when we were shopping and looking for new things i would see the imported section in the store and steer clear thinking “ I don’t need the name brand” , “ it’s all the same , what person would pay that?!? Times have changed ! and this is the new Tracey way of shopping Imported=IMPORTANT If there is an entire wall of food we look for the one that says Imported , cost who cares. Also if its something you have been told is not allowed here and you find it you buy 2. Such as more “Gingerbread Holiday” Items . We decided to go to the craft store here which is like micheals meets a dollar store in forest lawn …we had to wait for Brandt to take us after work head down to the hood , Wait 25 mins for prayer to end in the car with my always calm 3 kids.Go in side to the darkest farthest corner of the store(similar to the family section @ starbucks) only to find Joy ! Colorfull lights hanging from the ceiling and more colourful balls for greenery then we spot it ….wrapping paper and not just any wrapping paper it had a big ol sticker on it that was so familiar i may have shed a tear…..Kirkland…..as i wipe the look of shock and how the heck did this get here i see the price (120SR) which is $30 American , look at brandt and say YUP we will take 2 . Finish our shopping trip with bags of Crafts , red and green items , Fabric that closely resemble elsa’s cape and sparkly lights . Rush out of the store to beat the next prayer time , as they are so close together right now at night with the sun setting early . We drive to one of Brandt’s local Schwarma joints which he loves. As we drive , there are people everywhere , open pit’s of road contraction cars/cabs swerving and honking and all i can think is yup this is it…..He#* It like a bad dream just pure and utter craziness and then we turned in to what seemed like a parking lot to a dump only to discover nope this is the road to our destination , close my eye think what’s ment to be will be and open as brandt is parking (which i use very lightly) as it’s on the corner of an intersection and he hoppes out of the car and goes in to what looks like a post apocalyptic building filled with men (of course men only) and emergeces with our dinner! Fun right ! we then enjoyed the best schwarma and the kids devoured it to! so they must be doing something right in there .
Another Trip to Bahrain , we headed off for anther day of adventure and shopping ! Getting up at the crack of dawn to head across the cosway as it can get pretty wild and take up to 2 hours we lucked out and only took about 40 mins ! crossed the boarder and Stripped off my super sexy abya reveling my elbows and wrists! the car almost swerved off the road..LOL ka maybe not that much but man it did feel good. We went to the mall for more retail therapy cause it had been about 8 hours since our last shopping trip……As it was early and the mall was still closed we went to the food store and found …..frozen blue berries!!! now as you know these are really hard to find and we love them!!!I don’t even know how much they cost but we bought all they had !!! about 12 (average price $5 per 340 g bag)
Then we continued to tour that mall as we filled the kids with ice-cream to get them though we were ready to rock ! and we found Bath and body works!!! seriously it smelled like heaven ! it was the first place in a long time that smelled good! everything here smells like dust and spices and gross perfume! aka the middle east! it’s an official smell and well i’m not a fan! So bath and body works smelled like HOME and they had Ginergerbread holiday scents! with snowmen and snowflakes and Peppermint all over them!! Now as excited as i was you have to remember when you cross the boarder to come back to Saudi your car will be searched and you never know what they are going to take aways so you have to be car full what you bring back with you…..So this is what we brought and the what’s ment to be….
after calming from our smell over load we went to the baking store which we have here but this one was better! that’s the things with Bahrain everything is the same there except better!!!The people are happy , the women are not completely covered and the people in the store are able to talk to you! but the store was full of more gingerbread holiday stuff!! I got this awesome mood to make gingerbread houses! so excited!!! When ever i find something i have been looking for it's pure joy. I have been searching for all the items i need to make Grandma's Chocolates for the Winter holidays to share with my new family here. And it's tough! i have been searching for weeks , still unable to find Maple flavouring and people think i'm crazy to look for something like that , Finding chocolate for dipping .Which Brandt finally had to meet a local women at a public location to pay her in advance to order chocolate form her Friend.So in pure saudi style you give a stranger money and hope that something good comes out of it down the road .Fingers crossed . But I am slowly getting there and hopefully will find everything i need:)
#adventure , driving to Bahrain always Fun
Brunch!with Friend Lots of sugar!
Here it is!!! $60 worth of wrapping paper
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Not sure if you can see the writing but it just sums up this wild world we live in
More Retail therapy! pottery barn kids ,but it's for Brandt ! we think it looks like a drilling rig and could no resist
Here it is my Contraband scents! that made it across! My appartment will no longer smell like the middle east!!
We also managed to get a Lego star wars Advent calendar which some i know will be pretty surpassed as we already said the The guy in red is running low on lego this year , just to cover our bases.Bad parents I know but we had to be ready:)
Summ it up , I formally apologize to anyone that i brushed off when they said retail therapy helped because after my past 48 hours of shopping I have to say it's true it's a real thing and it does help!!! Look out Brandt !
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