The fun fair

The Huband and I braved an Iranian funfair yesterday. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting - a typical third world experience!

We had to queue up and buy tickets for each individual ride (and yes, each one was priced differently!), and then queue up for our rides. The first ride was a boat ride - you know the pirate ship type thing that swings. As we got on, the man said something along the lines of "don't be scared". An odd comment to make, I thought, considering that the ride is no different to other pirate ship rides. Once the ride started, I realised what he meant. The first few swings were so squeaky that even a lorry load of WD40 couldn't have fixed it! Once the ride was in full swing, the noise went away (thank God!)

The next ride was similar, except that it swung us 360 degrees as well as swinging from side to side.

The caterpiller ride was the funniest though. We waited in queue and watched the ride in action before going on. The ride had to stop every 3-4 minutes as the women's chadors were flying out of control! As annoying as it was to have the ride stop so often, it was good to see the ride operators taking this seriously, and making people aware that their clothing could get stuck in the machinery.

The nice people

Ok, I admit my last blog entry was a bit harsh. Sometimes the annoying people annoy me so much that I forget about the good people (happens all the time in every country). Some Iranians will actually go out of their way to help you, like the lamp guy I encountered the other day.

My parents had brought me a desk lamp from the UK. They brought me a lamp that needed a bayonet bulb, but you only get the screw type here. The man was overjoyed at the fact that a lamp from Inglistan (England) had been brought into the shop! He offered to change the fitting and put in an energy saving light bulb. He also changed the plug from a 3 pin to a 2 pin, and made sure that everything was properly secured. He must have worked on the lamp for a good 2 hours and only charged me $4. And, the best part was, he didn't complain but rather relished the challenge.

And while some (or rather most) taxi drivers will try and rip you off, you do get the odd gem who will tell you where the best kebabi in town is, introduce you to the owner and even offer to pick some up when you have a kebab craving!

Is the heat getting to people??

I went to the Monday market today, on the outskirts of Qum. Its a great place for time-pass and buying things at a cheaper rate than the bazaars.

They also sell fruits and vegetables, so I thought I'd stock up. I found a stall with the most loveliest tomatoes and seeing the woman in front of me selecting her own, started picking some out for myself.

The stall holder started shouting at me for touching the tomatoes!! While I pointed out that the woman next to me was choosing her own and that usually stall holders give you the worse fruits (which they do!), he grabbed the 4 tomatoes out of my hand and started filling the rest of the bag himself. When I pointed out that he was giving me the rubbish ones, he started bouncing them on the table to show me they were ok!! Is that some kind of tomatoe test??!! Do the good ones bounce back and the rubbish ones go splat, or something?? If they weren't the nicest tomatoes, I would have told him where to stick them.

Weirdo or what??

As I walked through the rest of the bazaar, I noticed EVERYONE picking their own fruits and vegies. Oh well, only one month till I'm back home and shopping in Tesco again!

Ice Pack

Ice pack is the name of one of the ice cream milkshake places in Iran. They make yummy shakes, complete with choc sauce, bananas and smarties. Not as nice as Tinseltown ones, but they'll do in the mean time!

I'm spending my last month here going through the menu and trying all of them. (Apart from orange), and from the ticks you can see I have a LOOOOONNNNGGG way to go!




The puzzling thing is that all the Ice Pack literature says "Ice Pack Inglistan", i.e. Ice Pack England, but I've never seen an Ice Pack in England! Wonder if they trade under another name? I guess I have the summer to find out!

Polution

I love the random public holidays we get in this country. Makes up for having one day weekends.

The other day, (Tuesday I think - without school, the days are all merging into one!) was declared a public holiday in Tehran because of polution!!

It's affected things here in Qum too - school is closed (even the sports centre) and the new funky bread shop in town hasn't had any deliveries (so that makes it a funky breadless bread shop!).

The air in Qum is a little bit dustier than usual I guess, but not reason to close shops and offices!! How am I to survive the next 2 weeks if shops are closed?!

Eggs

The first time I went grocery shopping by myself, I asked the guy behind the counter for 6 eggs. Makes sense right? Eggs come in packs of 6 or 12. The guy behind the counter looked at me strangely while he packed my 6 eggs. Later I realised that you buy eggs in this country by the kilo! And they don’t come nicely packaged in a tray with a see-through plastic lid. They come in a plastic sandwich bag. Inevitably, some of the eggs get broken on the way home.

When my mum came to visit, she accompanied me on one of the grocery shopping trips. She insisted that the shopkeeper pack the eggs in a tray and cover it with a plastic bag!!

Here’s a picture of yesterday’s kilo of eggs:

...yes, the green thing is what you think. The eggs are completely organic, poo and all!