Christmas Season in Tripoli

The fact that the Christmas season is here in Tripoli is most noticable for one fact:  there's a distinct lack of expats in town.  They've all headed off to where ever they head off to at Christmas and for those headed to Europe or the US, best of luck.  With the travel related issues caused by the snow, of yeah and now some daft bugger who wants to kill himself and some innocents in his way, I reckon you're much better off staying put and travelling in the off season.  Helps not to have kids too.

Anyway, another thing about living here is that you need to leave your preconceptions at home.  If you come here with "western" expectations it's going to be rough on you.  You need to get over the fact that the the beef and chickens are freshly killed, cool but not refrigerated and not as well presented as we're used to.  You also have to be ready for the way that things are presented.

Here's SMILEY, not so long ago he was running round happy as Larry, now he's smiling, not sure over what but he's smiling.  He reminds me of the bad guy Aliens from the Bruce Willis movie, The Third Element. 

Here's some rabbits in the Butcher's window, freshly dressed and ready for the pot.  Oh, notice they are cold, they have Uggies.  (Fur left on the feet)

Remember though, they probably taste pretty damn good, not that I like rabbit all that much but a few people we know buy them and assure me they are tasty!

You need to get over the fact that the vegetables are in small shops with sometimes hit and miss supply, that they are not all the same shape and size that we get presented with in the west and that they will have blemishes. 

GET OVER IT!!!  Personally I am sick of going to somewhere like Coles or Woolworths and getting told what I am going to shop for.  Guess what, the veggies here taste like veggies not like they've been grown and pumped full of water to make the right shape and size that we're told is acceptable to us.  Again, the veggies taste like veggies!!! And guess what, if you grow veggies at home do they always look like the fat and watery offerings from supermarkets?  Nope, they don't.  They have the odd blemish, they come in slightly different shapes and sizes but it's the taste that you're after........ isn't it?

Oh yeah, one last thing.  When some moronic, headline grabbing, politically correct idiot in the West decides that we can't wish people Merry Xmas for fear of insulting or offending them, tell them to sod off and send them to Tripoli for Xmas.  We may not have the lights, the Xmas specials of the decorations but what we have is people (mainly Moslems remember) who got out of their way to wish us Merry Xmas.

Cheers
DADFAP