To manage or not to manage
To manage or not to manage?
Wafa Alobaidat
Am sitting in Al Bareh cafe waiting for my meeting with Hayfa al Jishi, and shes late which allows me to sit down and have some lunch. I order the feta and date salad with extra dressing and notice that the staff on this side of the gallery are also the chefs and waiters. The same waitress who is telling me about the exhibit is also taking my order, making my salad, and shouting the password for the wireless internet from the kitchen.
Which reminded me of my visit to Al Muharaq with the Khaleejesque editorial team a few days ago. Fouz, Fajer, and Suad graciously came to Bahrain for a day trip to interview me for their next issue. I gave them a tour of the office and we went into the lounge area to chat about life, work, and what makes us all tick.
Afterwards I managed to cram a lunch at the Organic Food and Cafe, a visit to the calligraphy gallery Naqsh, a new bookshop called Words (their almond cupcake is divine) and then squished in a visit to Abbas Al Mosawi’s new gallery. We had a few hours left and decided to venture to Muharaq to visit what I like to call Shaikha Mai’s 7 wonders, renovated houses in the alleyways of the area. Our first stop of was the Al Shuwaiter coffee shop, we walked into the boutique qahwa, to find it open, yet deserted. We then ventured in the labyrinths of the town to find the welcome office closed. We proceeded to Abdulla Bin Zayed’s house where it was being renovated and assuming it was close we moved on to the next space. Out of nowhere, an Indian man in a chef’s outfit, came chasing after us to tell us, the house was open. An hour later, this man, became our tour guide, the security (he had all the keys), opened all the lights for us, took photos of us, and guided us around in his broken English.
Our tour of the area very much depended on this man, who was multi tasking away smiling cheerfully every time we asked for more pictures with our phones.
It seems that in general we build our visions up, give them a foundation, create the physical space sometimes and then we forget to manage our spaces or concepts. Same applies for the one million and two start up projects on facebook, that eventually run dry, their owners getting bored, and walking away to try out a new venture.
We have the concepts, we ride the thrill of the start up, and then we forget to manage and maintain and adapt.
Wafa Alobaidat writes the weekly fast lane column for Khaleejesque and muses on fashion, art, culture and culture shock in the Middle East. Wafa is also the editor of Sketchbook magazine and runs design and PR agency Obai and Hill.
To get in touch with Wafa, email her at obaiandhill@live.com or follow her on Twitter @fashionambition