A series of business trips to Europe recently (Britain, Italy, Germany) didn’t exactly leave this expat hankering for the Good Old Days, but it did jog the memory. Here, in no particular order, was what fell out when the handbag of reminiscences was tipped on to the floor ...

• A nip in the air.
• Anoraks. No need for them here, of course, but the absence is striking.
• Fur-trimmed hoods? Iconic.
• Puffa jackets. ‘Nuff said.
• Beggars.
• Blokes in suits on bicycles. More of a Continental thing, of course, and eminently sensible in a green save-the-planet kind of way, but somehow still pretty cool.
• Bicycles. Yes I know some people cycle here for leisure and sport – though those blokes going up Jebel Hafeet seemed to be doing neither of those but I’m talking about commuting.
• Small cars that don’t immediately induce scorn. There’s a Smart car in Abu Dhabi that looks kinda nervous driving around among the testosteroneheavy 4x4s.
• Buildings that predate you. Or your parents.
• CCTV everywhere.
• Chewing gum on the pavement, in lifts and corridors, and eventually on the soles of your shoes.
• Cobblestones. And flagstones
• Converses worn with anything/everything.
• Graffiti. Especially good-quality graffiti that suggests some appreciation of art and style, rather than the urgent need to rool or be a gangsta.
• Hats. Apart from sun hats on women and baseball caps on males. I’m talking Trilbies, Homburgs and berets.
• Intimidatingly poor people. People who are obviously somewhere near the breadline, and don’t care if you know that it’s your fault.
• Lambs (not just lamb). Especially in gambolling mode at the appropriate time of the year.
• Muggers, or at least the fear of being mugged.
• Overt displays of affection in public
• ... Sometimes by people of the same sex.
• People knitting in public. Or knitting at all.
• Ripped jeans. Yes, that’s still a fashion among some. Along with jeans in boots.
• Scooters.
• Shops where the good on sale come from the same country rather than a different continent.
• Silly clothes on teenage girls
• ... And boys.
• Sitting and watching the world go by. Often in pavement cafés. Most of the time it’s too hot to sit outside here, and even when it does happen there isn’t too much world to watch going by because it’s too hot for that too.
• Strolling, the flipside of the above. Window-shopping, too. There’s a lot less being outside generally, in fact. For obvious reasons, of course, but the absence is still noticeable.
• Pedestrianised areas. I suppose you only need them when being a pedestrian is an reasonable mode of behaviour, given the weather.
• Suits worn with trainers. One step up from suit jackets with jeans and suits with tee-shirts, both of which are common in Europe and rare here.
• Sunglasses worn inside. Even in the metro.
• Teenagers, or at least European teenagers – the missing generation in the expat community.
• The smell of new-mown grass.
• Trams, trains and metros. Blimey, you forget how much fun trams are ...
• White vans. And white van man, often with tattoos and a primitive attitude to anyone even remotely female.

[writer] Dennis Jarrett

 

[Originally published in Abu Dhabi Week vol 2 issue 18]