Mobile Credit Scores and Essential Facts

During my short stay in Riyadh, I consumed a minimum of 2340 Saudi Riyals of ‘Mobily’ credit. I have no way of quantifying the exact amount, for the deck of cards I have (3 of SAR90 denomination, 27 of SAR60 denomination, and 15 of SAR30 denomination), this deck only includes cards I bought at the grocer by our office. It excludes machine recharges at the airport, the all-in-one supermarket cum laundry cum I don’t know what in my compound, and the miscellaneous cards I bought from miscellaneous grocers and non-grocers here and there. Several essential facts can be drawn out of this simple maths.

Essential fact #1: I spent too much time at grocers in this city. For someone who doesn’t have a grocery store fetish, that’s a lot of emotional connection with stacks of everyday consumables. Usually I swing for other consumables: some concrete like music and movies, others intangible like memory for example. I also spend enough time exploring other people’s fetishes on Web2.0 to be certain, so damn certain, that ‘grocery store fetishism’ is not a observable global phenomenon (unlike teen underwear, warm piss, latex, chicks with dicks, gore or gun fetishes). I can thus assume, with a reasonable margin of confidence, that I spent so much time at grocery stores because I have nowhere else to go, to take my legs to, to mobilize my blood circulation, or my need for changing scenes, in its direction.

Essential fact #2: I did not spend that much on ‘communication costs’. Not as much as I’d presumed at least, given the fact that ‘calling’ was one of my most tried-and-tested forms of escapism. So I’d call my mom, or I’d call Moody or Raed, or a combination of the three, to complain and whine. I should be grateful to the universe (by default of gratefulness to God), that my mom and my two best friends exist in my life. I’d also call Boudi, my flatmate, to talk ‘everyday business'. And hey, everyday business like ‘what Labneh brand to get’, or ‘whether the occasional maid dusted the place properly’, is the most universally practiced, yet the most often overlooked form of escapism. I would also call my boss and co-workers to apologize for running late, or to thank them for a meeting where a lot was discussed and nothing was resolved, of course. I would finally call other Riyadh sufferers to organize exciting events like the ‘Great Friday Sunbathing Bash’. And Oh My, Arabian Homes (my compound) has 16 outdoor swimming pools, perfectly clean, with controlled temperature. In other words, we have access to 16 venues for Bashes like these.

Essential fact #3: not sure whether this is a fact or a conclusion really, but I will not increase my Mobily credit score and right for rewards much further. Same applies to Aljawal or even Zain (MTC’s new brand name in response to increased competition in the Telecom market). In short, I will not return to Saudi Arabia as a resident. Assalamu Alaykom.

Fringe 4: Absence and Impossibility

Will these slender monsters bend to meet me?
and these never endings stretches, will they contract to greet me?
and the birds, almost non-existing because of too many cranes competing for space, they will not be here to sing the last song for me..

There were birds at the window of the house that didn't turn out to be home
and birds have made home in the ducts of the 'window AC' that didn't turn out to be mine..
even though I had bought it myself at a place that smelled the grocery stores I'm familiar with
and the Ramadan ceremonies that mean folklore to me
and these couple of friends that, well, just like the misleading home and window AC, didn't turn out to be friends..

They left, and left Vodka and Cognac at my door
One of them transubstantiated into a bottle of 'Absolute Vodka' and the other into 'Courvoisier Cognac'. Both bottles are still intact because I do not drink alone, and because I do not want the two girls to evaporate like the 50% and 40% Vol. alcohol(respectively). It's too disturbing for my sanity to accept the fact they have evaporated, like everything that comes and goes, gracefully tiptoeing at these marble and asphalt floors, ignoring the noises..

and what will I leave at whose door?
and will the footage I will take with my (not yet mine) Handycam serve any purpose?
will it be more than a futile exercise in zooming in an out,
when the textures and details, and for the first time, do not really matter?

This time it's trickier to bid farewell to things I love
to winds I barely felt, a sun that tired more than inspired
or to creatures, or places I have appropriated
I can only say 'assalamou alaykom' to supernatural phenomena, to abstract things like hopes and dreams
and yes indeed, all these towers and cranes do inspire hope
for things that compete with Godot in absence and impossibility..