Friday

This morning I went down to More cafe for breakfast, got myself a spanish omelette and about five lattes (It's not the latte I'm after, it's the little cinnamon-butter cookie they serve it with), and then met up with some friends who had come down for brunch and spent the morning nibbling on their crepes and stealing their latte-cookies.

After that I had to go to the airport and drop off Dan's entry permit, which was fun. I hadn't been to the airport since I arrived, and seeing it in the daylight made it look altogether different. I was one of two people in the lounge this afternoon booking in a visa, and for some reason, it took the five uniformed visa-booking staff wandering back and forth behind the service counter about a half hour to call a number. I started to wonder if some kind of visa-booking crisis had occurred. Uh-oh, ladies, we just got a call that the Qatari Sheikh is getting off the plane, and we don't have his visa ready. All five of us better wander back and forth between the desk and the back office looking lost and occasionally punching buttons on our single, shared walkie-talkie. And when they finally did decide to call a number? They called my number, not the guy who was there before me. Too bad for him.

The good news is that, 150 dirhams later, Dan's visa is now waiting for him at the airport. Hurrah. I couldn't help but notice that, remarkably, it cost me 10 dirhams in taxi fare to get to the airport and 40 dirhams to get back. I'm going to need to shop for a car soon.