Cinderella

So, I'm going to dinner and a ball tonight. I don't know exactly what that will entail except I know I have to hand over my passport and go through about 4 locked gates before I can get in. However when coming here I didn't particularly envision going out somewhere fancy where the dress style is black tie and medals!! So today after a morning visit I went shopping. Before I talk about the shopping, let me just mention a quick something about my visit this morning. It was to someone that I had seen last time I was here and I was just catching up and seeing if anything new was happening. Turns out something new is happening, something big and deep and solid in the middle of their compound...a bunker! I was quite surprised at this because last time I was there that area was just grass and garden. It seems that they should have had a bunker in the compound for like the last 4 or 5 years, but they only just got the tools, permission, labour (I wasn't quite sure what) recently, and so now the bunker is being built. It actually looks like something out of a movie, I mean seriously. I wish I could have taken a photo, however taking photos here is pretty difficult to do, just because you don't want to get shot or something. I try and take as many as I can, but it all comes down to taking through car windows or while I'm moving in the car. Ok, back to shopping. I hate shopping. I really do. But I have nothing to wear for this evening, and I stupidly checked what the dress code was, so now I have no excuse for not knowing what to wear. Which means shopping. I was advised where to go yesterday, and given instructions on how to get into the shopping centre (which for those of you who have been to India, it's a bit like one of those kinds of shopping centre!). My driver drops me off and tells me he will wait, and so I hurry in, passing by angry police who are harassing the money exchange people. Once inside I look for the easiest, nearest dress shop that might sell my kind of dress. Considering what country I am in, they have a surprising lot of what the Americans call "prom dresses" and what we in England would call "evening dresses". I am not particularly interested in what it looks like, but more about the price, and the size, and how quickly i can purchase it. As I get to the first shop, the power in the whole building goes out. Well that makes it interesting to see. I glance at the price tags and scarper pretty quickly out of there, I'm not looking for expensive. I look up at the next floor, and as they are closer to the ceiling, there is more natural light coming in and its easier to see the dresses. I go into the shop, point at a dress that looks fairly simple, and ask if they have it in my size. He shows me the tag and we both seem to agree that it might fit, I ask if there is somewhere I can try on and he shows me this little cupboard with a lock on where I can try on this potential new dress. Suffice to say, I took off my headscarf and black abiya, but pretty much tried on the dress over the rest of my clothes, I wasn't going to think this was Marks and Spencers changing room!! It was a nice dress, it fit ok, but when I went to ask the price, it was twice what I was prepared to pay for. I said no, hoping he would lower the price, but either because he could see I was a desparate foreign woman, or because other customers had come in, he refused to budge...I walked. Now I was beginning to get desperate. I had told my driver I would only be 30 minutes, and I really wanted to stick to that. I walked into a few more stores, but they didn't have the kind of dress I wanted. Finally I found a store, and the sales guy spoke some English. He had a dress in the window that looked nice and then told me that he had one in black as well with sleeves - I preferred the idea of the black dress, but when he looked for it, he couldn't find it. So again, I went into the cupboard/changing room and tried on the dress over my clothes. It fitted - perfect! Now to the price again. It was a cheaper price then the first guy offered which was a definite bonus, now to haggle it down...however I was very aware that I hadn't taken tea (always a way to establish a relationship here) and was also in a hurry and therefore my haggling skills weren't really up to par. We finally came down to a price that was a little nearer to what I wanted to pay and a little less than he had started with. Great. Cinderella now has a dress. I wish I could take photos of this occasion this evening to show you all, it will be full of foreigners who are working here, it's a whole different life to what poses as normal life here, but unfortunately no cameras allowed. I'll try and write about it tomorrow though.