Ayman Elkhidir

Just came back from a 2-week business trip to Jeddah and it’s the third time I go there and don’t get a chance to sneak out to Mecca to perform an “Umra”.

I’m ashamed!

We were holding a sales and technical training seminar and after that starting a complex marketing campaign which we had to finalize in a very short period of time. So you can imagine working till 2-3 am daily for a whole 2 weeks with full concentration.

This was quite tough, especially in the last few days when I started to have vague memories of my family and friends and my life in Dubai as if that was happening a long time ago. Those 2 weeks felt like 2 months.

Another thing, every time I go there I ask myself: what’s the point of having a one-riyal bill instead of a coin (like the 1 Dirham coin) ?

From the first day, I always get my wallet full of bills of one riyal. Besides, it is a heavily used bill which gets it to tear off very quickly (I guess that’s why the UAE has coins for the 1 Dirham). The same is found with the US dollar (paper bill), while the British Pound is a coin (while a quid it’s worth 2 Dollars or almost 8 Riyals). Can anybody give me a convincing answer on this?

Anyhow, it’s nice to be back home and I’m really happy I’ll be going to Sudan (again) this December for 2 weeks and Eid Al-Adha.

A totally different 2 weeks, I hope!