. . .and even more tile shopping

We're still not finished picking out tile. It is frustrating to say the least.

There's a strip of shops along a main road in Suk Juma that sell nothing but tile, plumbing supplies, kitchen and bathroom fittings. This is convienient as you can park the car and walk from shop to shop, picking out and comparing.

What is inconvientient, and a huge pain in the neck (and other places) is that the shops generally don't open until about eleven o'clock in the morning. You would think that most workers, plumbers, tilefitters etc. would begin their work quite early in the day (like about 8 am), so it would make better sense if these shops opened earlier to accomodate supplying the workers. Of course the shops close up for lunch at about 2 o'clock and don't open up again until around 5:30pm. They close down for the evening not long after the sun sets.

So we are doing all our tile shopping in little jumps and starts - trying to fit it in when the shops are open and our schedules are free. Since I work in the afternoon and evenings I miss out on the evening timeslots - that leaves mornings. Mustafa is usually out overseeing the workers in the mornings. He runs home, I jump in the car, and off we go for a mad dash around the tile shops. Then it's home and an even madder dash around the house getting lunch served and myself ready for work.

My camera is back from the shop - I will drag it along next time we go tile shopping so you can get a real picture (instead of just an explaination) of what it's all about.