Scott took me to the local shopping mall yesterday to check out the traditional Azerbaijani stores…Nike, Oasis, Debenhams.
We also popped into the supermarket where I treated myself to some apples, shashlik flavoured crisp sticks, cheese crackers, cherry yoghurts, bubble gum in a tube (for Lola. So many E numbers, and squirtable!) and some instant Japanese noodles.
This lil’ trip was prompted by me realizing that the local currency manat is roughly equivalent to pounds sterling and therefore I’d been spending loads of money on food at the hotel, and the main catalyst was crispgate:
The other night I’d arrived back late from filming and was famished but didn’t want to spend money on room service even though I quite fancied a bowl of vegetable soup for 7 manat.
Instead I popped open a mini tube of Pringles from the mini bar not realizing they were 8 manat! Mmmm….triple the fat, a tenth the nutrition and all for just 1 manat more!
I learnt an important life lesson that day: “If once you pop you cant stop, don’t pop. Get soup”
I love a bargain and so was thrilled with my new secret food stash; I was on a high and decided to crack open the noodles in celebration so went to the hotel restaurant to ask for a fork; I was a little nervous in case they asked why I needed one as I imagine eating your own food is frowned upon.
I concocted an elaborate story based on me needing a back-scratcher after an outbreak of eczema between my shoulder blades.
In the end she just asked me if I needed a large or small one, which threw me as I thought it was a trick question. I opted for small and scuttled back to my room and feasted like a queen! Well, a student.
1 comments
May 22, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Hilarious as ever Sara. Have you managed to do any exercise whilst you’ve been there to overcome any crispgate guilt you might be getting? Perhaps a little Body Pump type class. There’s always bum squeezes & I don’t mean Scott’s.