Jacky is pictured at her regular ex-pats' coffee mornings at Villaggio with two other kiwis - Julie Telfer (wife to Ritchie) and Jan McFadyen (wife to Graeme). It was Julie's last one before she headed back to Nu Zild.The clamour to fill the silver box continues. Among the latest additions is Adam's oud.
For the second time in my life I experienced the magic kingdom of musical coolness*. Jacky and I went down to the souq to get Adam his present from Qatar - an oud. We walked in to the oud emporium and did our usual inspection of the merchandise (the ouds' owner told us when we finally bought Adam's one that it was the sixth time we'd been in since December 09!!).
We settled on a beauty, haggled a decent price, and left after a lengthy conversation with a young Qatari man about oud playing who happened to be in the shop with his (I think) girlfriend. [Sidebar] I got to talking to the girlfriend, who was dressed in usual Qatari woman's abaya and hijab, and nearly fell over when she indicated in a strong American accent that she was indeed from Chicago!
Anyway we left the souq - me with the oud in its case slung oh so casually over my back. Wow - the reactions I got walking home (similar to when we brought Najma home). Guys actually walked out of shops to talk to me about ouds! I explained proudly that it was for one of my sons. Man - you can't beat musical coolness.
*Yes - the first time - well that was when Roger took me to buy my cherished blues harp from a shop by the Queen's Arcade after I'd seen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee play Nambassa in 1979. It's been a while between coolness moments then.
Love and peace - Wozza
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