Aseeb & Al Shabab | عسيبا و لشباب

روحي وما ملكت يداي فداه
My soul and all that I
possess are sacrifice for him

وطني الحبيب وهل أحب سواه
My beloved homeland, and is
there any other I love?

وطني الذي قد عشت تحت سماله
My homeland under whose
sky I have lived

وهو الذي قد عشت فوق ثراه
And upon whose soil I have trod

منذ الطفولة قد عشقت ربوعه
I have cherished its landscape
since childhood

أحب سهوله وربال
Truly I love its plains and hills

وطني الحبيب وهل أحب سواه
My beloved homeland, and is
there any other I love?

looking out over the entrance atrium from the mezzanine at Aseeb restaurant, recommended for local cuisine . . . and a bit underwhelming, perhaps for the absence of good wine and the presence of abstinence

which is actually a snap taken at Lulu supermarket. . .

the words above are Talal Maddah's:

the most compelling dish, apart from a delicious camel steak, was a dessert called Nostalgia, a date crumble . . . the staff, wearing black latex gloves and facemasks, worn under the nose, without the often-seen and often-seen discarded in the streets hairnet, took great care in serving from the platters, to the extent of trying to cut equal portions of a ball of icecream, which here is a hard and chewy (mastic) thing.

a short walk from the Ascott, at the local arena, Al Shabab vs. Al Ettifaq . . . security outnumbering spectators and the supporters, under the direction of someone who resembled their teacher, a matching group for the other team,

sang and danced, and at the slightest lag, the someone jumped up waving his arms and shouting. It worked, Al Shabab scored. Then Al Ettifaq, with a well-deserved, for all their hard work and superior coordination, scored an equaliser. There it finished. Not before supporters behind us insisted we wear the scarves. . .

at the end security rallied lest in their pumpedness the supporters storm the field. . .

Al Shabab supporters in a state of pumpedness: