Field notes, National Day

Every National Day in Riyadh has the same notes, and I have stopped trying to draw a lesson from them.

A car with a flag the size of the car, doing ten kilometres an hour so everyone can see it. Nobody hoots.

Every shop on the street gone green. The pharmacy's window usually wins, and the pharmacy never hired anyone.

A queue at the coffee place in the afternoon. Half the people in it wearing the colours, the other half photographing the ones who are.

The ministries own the feed. Brands post into it anyway. Scroll for a while and try to remember one of them afterwards.

Sweets handed out of a car window at the lights, by a family, to strangers. No logo.

A restaurant with a special menu that is the ordinary menu with a green ribbon on it. Full.

Fireworks after dark. The whole city stops and looks up, and for a few minutes nobody is selling anything at all.

That is always the best part.