Now this was cool, and I’m glad I was able to make it – advertised as a community family-friendly event held at one of the English speaking schools with entertainment, vendors and public stalls to sell things, like a flea market.  Remember, Arabian Ranches is the mainly-expat compound in which we live – home to approximately 4,000 other families.  It’s a gated, guarded place that’s incredibly beautiful and well-cared-for.  They hold these Market Days a couple times a year I think.  So, we headed over there, and discovered that there were no parking spaces to be had close-by, so we parked a ways away and walked…. And walked and walked and walked – apparently, there are very few entrances, and only one was open for this event.

I sorta wanted to get a bit closer and take closeup photos,…. but was feeling kinda unsure of the protocol.

Inside, there were tables with garage sale items all over, nicely lined up so that I wasn’t going to miss a single one.  The offerings were a mish-mash of well-worn children’s items, household items,  clothing, shoes, books, games and movies.

Stuff for the whole family to enjoy!

One thing I noticed a lot of was pirated movies…..  Now I’m not making a judgment call about that…. Well, wait.  Yeah I am.  I think it’s wrong, and I wouldn’t buy it.  And frankly, I thought less of the people selling them, even though I didn’t know them, I formed an opinion about them.  And it wasn’t good.

Anyhow, I ended up with a great chair for the back porch, a canvas folding chair that’s sturdy and has leather corners, with a great patina about it.  I pitched a sky-blue pillow on it to reflect the color of the sky, and it looks like it’s been there for forever.

Lovely, sturdy, perfectly serviceable chair for under $3!

Also was lucky to find an office chair, and the owner asked for a whopping 80 dirham – my brain was a bit slow in calculating how much that would be in US dollars, (a bit over $20) which I was about to pay, and the owner lowered their asking price to 50 dirham – about  $11 or so….. I said “sold!” and it came home with me as well.

Also found some cork trivets from Ikea, brand new for 5 dirham, got some great travel ideas, saw some fun things for the children of the community to do there, and watch some guys cooking stuff over a portable flat grill.  All in all, it was a nice community event, and a great introduction to what can happen at the Arabian Ranches.  And the evening call to prayers were really haunting as I sat at the curb waiting for TBG to bring the truck and pick up me and the booty……..

Chairs and a bag of loot from tje Arabian Ranches Community Market Day sitting at the curb waiting for TBG to pick us up!

The sunset and lighting were just perfect…….this was the end to our day there……

Beautifully lit mosque tower.