Abstract Thursday: Black and White

I love participating in the weekly challenges, so I hope it's ok to post this image, which I took two days ago during an evening visit to Al Seef. The eagle-eyed amongst you will know that this is the medallion of a Persian rug. If you've ever seen a silk-on-silk Qom rug, you will know what I mean when I talk about how soft they are. They're a dream to touch!

Today I was informed that Qom rugs are no longer handwoven. Instead, they are machine-made to old designs, using synthetic silk. Hmmm, there goes another tradition. The machine rug looked just as authentic on the front and back and is (thankfully) much more affordable, but somehow, it doesn't feel right to buy a machine rug!

Back to the day - it started well with Diane coming to the flat with a gift of strawberries. She helped me tweak a "smart" spreadsheet she had done for me a few months ago, which will help speed up coding a few complex invoices. It took us nearly an hour, but we got there in the end. The UAE being a tax country now is changing lots of things.

I took the car down to the garage to have the engine oil issue seen. Whilst driving there, in 40degC heat, the a/c packed in. It turns out all the a/c gas had leaked out. The garage kindly topped it up for free! G said everything was fine when she drove home, so something is up with this car. Methinks it likes something/someone in the garage and keeps wanting to go back!

I got home just in time to collect G & Danny and head to Wafi for dinner with Jeff & Margaret. We ate at Elements, which impressed everyone with the quality of their food. Then on to St. Mary's for our World Day of Prayer service for the people of Taiwan. It went well. G's idea to make up the island and sea using green and blue fabric was excellent. She finished it off with two dragons. :))

PS. I should record that after five months of living with a screeching lift, it finally got fixed today! There's still the occasional sound, but for the most part, we don't know when the lift is being used now.