We’re Bored!
That is what my children and their friends said to me last week. I said to my daughter, “I am disappointed that you should say something like that after your mother and I have raised you to appreciate everything in life and to make use of your time.”
The kids chortled and repeated, “We’re bored!”
I said “What do you mean ‘bored’?”
They said, “We don’t know what to do! We have played with our bicycles and with our play station, but now we want to go out for the weekend and we don’t know where to go?”
I asked: “Where do you usually go?”
They said, “Funtime Pizza or Stationary Magic but we’ve been to them so many times!”
I said, “Well, how about going to the museum of natural history? I love going to the ones in London and New York.”
My wife broke in. “There is no museum of natural history in Jeddah; the only museum of history in this country is in Riyadh.”
I said, “In that case, children, go to the museum of art. You are old enough to appreciate the displays there and it will be educational for you.”
My wife spoke again, “Sorry no museum of art in Jeddah.”
I said, “Go to the planetarium; it is great fun and you will learn a great deal about our world, the planets and the stars.”
My wife said once again, “Sorry no planetarium either.”
I said, “Go to the cinema. I am sure there must be something amusing and educational for you there.”
My wife said with exasperation, “Don’t you know cinemas are forbidden and that cinemagoers are minions of the devil?”
Desperation increasing, I suggested, “Why don’t you go and watch the young men as they race their cars on the racetrack of the Jeddah Automobile Club?”
My wife said: “There is no such thing. The government prefers that young men race their cars on the city streets instead of in an artificial environment such as a racetrack.
“Besides,” she continued, “whizzing along and weaving through the streets of Jeddah while narrowly avoiding collisions is regarded as a superb way for young men to hone their driving skills.”
We thought of picnicking in the park, going to watch a play or attending a concert plus many other things that are impossible in Jeddah. Finally, the kids gave up and decided to go to Chucke E. Cheese for the umpteenth time. After they had left, I suddenly turned to my wife and said, “I’m bored!”
