Just thought I’d get it out there. In case you were wondering.

I got dropped off near a store after work yesterday, at around 7 p.m. I bought some groceries and, laden with bags and my work satchel, clickedy-clacked in my favourite pumps up to the house. I love the sound those things make when they strike pavement. I loved the stars overhead and I loved the sound of someone playing “Jeshana” on their car stereo.

Of course, my mood was to good. Some dude came along to fix that for me. He started following me, trying to talk to me and get me to go somewhere with him, from what I could understand. I stoically ignored him.

I shook him after a few minutes, my pulse already quickened, fighting the urge to start running (I would have looked rather silly, anyway).

Then I passed one of the nicest houses on our street, a place where even in the winter it smells a little bit like jasmine. I noticed an older men and two kids that looked like his teenage sons, waiting by the door. The trio stared at me as if I had two heads.

Well, whatever, I thought.

Then, when I had already passed him, I heard one of the kids go – “5 dinar, baby.”

I whipped my head around, and there he was, grinning at me like an idiot. I considered tossing one of my beer cans at his head, but it would have been a waste of a perfectly good beer. So I kept walking, the bags feeling just a little bit heavier in my hands.

Just another evening in Amman.