World view of Interesting World....

When we started this blog it was simply for the purposes of keeping our family and friends up to date as to what we were up to in Saudi Arabia. We figured that it would be lot easier to simply make a post and let everyone read it, rather than having to email everyone individually.

It was also to be some kind of record for us of all the things that happened whilst we were here. Too often lots of marvellous things are forgotten in these kinds of situations.

We did not expect nor realise that it would be read by anyone else. However it obviously is. We have been contacted by number of people who are thinking of taking jobs here in the Kingdom especially at PMU. It turns that this blog is interesting and useful to a wider audience than just the family.

So to all you readers out there whoever you may be, welcome to our blog and thank you for taking the time to share our experiences with us. We will endeavour to keep the blog as informative as we can. Saudi Arabia is a place full of quaint oddities and surprises. Often you will see something, smile and think “Only in Saudi…”

There is a great little blog gadget called the ClustrMaps. Clicking on it shows where our visitors have come from. Here is what it looks like:

The visitors have come from the following countries:

Saudi Arabia (SA) 396
Australia (AU) 163
United States (US) 69
United Kingdom (GB) 39
Canada (CA) 18
Italy (IT) 11
India (IN) 11
United Arab Emirates (AE) 9
Bahrain (BH) 6
Pakistan (PK) 5
Venezuela (VE) 4
Korea, Republic of (KR) 4
Jordan (JO) 4
Kuwait (KW) 4
Germany (DE) 4
Malaysia (MY) 3
Philippines (PH) 3
Russian Federation (RU) 3
Europe (EU) 3
South Africa (ZA) 3
Qatar (QA) 3
Singapore (SG) 3
Moldova, Republic of (MD) 2
Indonesia (ID) 2
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY) 2
Egypt (EG) 2
Sri Lanka (LK) 2
Ireland (IE) 2
Switzerland (CH) 1
France (FR) 1
Austria (AT) 1
Belgium (BE) 1
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR) 1
Oman (OM) 1
Thailand (TH) 1
Nigeria (NG) 1
New Zealand (NZ) 1
Morocco (MA) 1
Turkey (TR) 1
Spain (ES) 1
Lebanon (LB) 1
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) 1

So if anyone is interested in anything about Saudi please drop us a line and we will endevour to gladly answer your queries.

Thank you all....

A public apology...

In one of the earlier posts (Single man’s life) I described an outing with my friend Mohammed where we went to a restaurant to buy some food for the evening. I said that perhaps he was not the best person to have around when trying to exercise dietary moderation as he himself weighs 145 kg.

Two days later I had a very hurt and indignant Mohammed on the phone saying how could I accuse him of being 145 KG when he was actually only 138 KG.

Obviously my thoughtless shots at cheap entertainment at the expense of my friend have backfired badly.

So I hereby publicly apologise for getting it so terribly wrong. Mohammed has kindly agreed to have his picture published on this blog that will refute once and all that nasty aspersion  that he weighs 145 KG. It is obvious from his facial expression how deep is the hurt and mental anguish that my thoughtless utterances have made.

Sorry Mo, We’ll go out for a big meal to set things right. :)

 

Vanishing acts....

Last Saturday we took the JEEP down to the local dealer to finalise the registration and transfer of ownership. Here in Saudi as I mentioned before the car has to be impounded by a car dealer whilst the transfer is being affected. This is for the purpose of ensuring that there are no outstanding fines, dues or criminal activities associated with the car. If there are the police simply confiscate it. Makes sense actually.

Got a call on Monday to say its all fine, come and pick it up. Finaly after all this time, all those hurdles overcome and it is ours. It was a sweet moment.

So we immediately went for a drive to Al Khobar old town to kind of celebrate. I also had another joyous reason to go. My weight loss has been going really well. I am now down to 90 Kg from my initial 106.3, all in about 3 months. I had to buy new jeans waist size 34. My old ones are all size 38 and have become rather baggy.

However being blessed with rather a simian anatomy of sub-standard length legs I always have to shorten any pants that I get. The old town is full of tailor shops some no bigger than a small wardrobe. Literally nestled into wall cavities and nooks and crannies. Its just another one of these charming facets and joys of exploring the old areas.

They are what we call here same-same tailors. Anotherwords you take any garment to them, pick your material and they will replicate it exactly. It's a wonderful service if you have a favourite piece of clothing that you want re-born or updated.

I parked the car on the corner in exactly the same manner that all other cars were parked. There is absolutely no signage anywhere indicating where to or not to park or how long to stay etc. So never gave it another thought.

We wnt into a tiny tailor shop where they said they will shorten the jeans in 1 hour for the price 15 Riyals (AUD 5). I remember having the same done in the shopping centre tailors in Melbourne for $ 35. We have it so good here.

Then we went walkabout for about an hour to pick up some jewellery (Jill's name spelt out in Arabic done in gold). We came back to the spot where we parked and all of a sudden had that sinking feeling... My God, where is the car. Is it stolen? You keep looking at the spot where you know you left it and now there is some other car there. Amasing what thoughts go through your head. You think: "I'm on a wrong street, this can't be the spot, I'll just look on the next corner and it will be there." All disbelief and denial. Asked the tailor if he knew what happened. He just pointed us to this tow truck that was actually removing cars from the street. Went over, asked the driver and he just said "Parking bad go there" pointing to a Car Park about 50 meters down the road. Sure enough it was impounded.

It cost us SR 180 ($60) to "liberate" it. Again I remember in Melbourne paying $300 to get the car when it was removed from Bourke St. It was such a relief to get it back.

The attendant in the booth just smiled at us and said "My dear, you can park here for 1 Riyal per hour". So now we know. When we go down-town just park in these spaces for 30 cents an hour. Not a bad deal. Guarantees no more magic. No more vanishing acts...

Who ME??? Delayed reaction :D - Registrar Female Campus

Well who would have thought it? Me – the little (well not so little) Aussie from Down Under being asked to fill in in the registrars office when the registrar goes on maternity leave in July! and finding out it is the actual Registrar and not assisting!

 

I thought oh no probs – I can fill in helping out in their department they will just have to show me what the procedures, forms, processes etc would be and away I go. Not so simple – as one would expect being here – the lady I will be filling in for is away for minimum of 6 months and I now know that she is THE registrar for the female campus. Another one is well advanced into her pregnancy so I will not be able to rely on her for help as she won’t be there either. Hopefully the other 2 ladies will stick around.

 

I filled in for her yesterday just taking forms from students for early registration and just being in attendance so to speak – oh and what a nice office she has – directors furniture no less, so Jesse eat your heart out :P

 

I was asked to go around there again today as the lady from the IT registrars was not there to take the forms and as you can imagine with only 2 days to go for students to get the forms in to book their classes early to make sure they don’t miss out on their preference it has been a swarm of impatient, anxious students.

 

Well consternation time, as my colleague in the admissions office is away for 8 weeks approx at the same time and I am the only person who knows what to do to get prospective students organised, and I have been told oh you can do both :(  hahaha so much for my cushy easy job!

 

Well I will keep you all updated as to my progress and what I will actually be doing – apart from a very large work load……… stay tuned folks :)

Motoring nirvana...

The command post :)

Well finaly the wait is over. I went down to Riyadh last Monday night to pick up our car. It has been such a protracted saga with getting various loans and permits etc that we almost lost hope there for a while. Even on the last day when I was told that the car would be loaded on a truck to get it down to Khobar I was told that I need one more permit. This was the University permitting me to own a car. As it trinspires in Saudi your employer has to allow you to own a car. Simply another unfathomable step.

Having gotten that out of the way I was then asked to come down to Riyadh to affect the transfer and registration (ishtemara). I did but of course that was not the end of the story there. It could not be done on that day as the guy who did these things was not coming in until 4 but the registration department closed at 2. Nice :). At any rate I was given the car and told to drive it Khobar and than take it to a Jeep dealer who will make the registration here locally in Dammam.

The process involves impounding the car at the dealership until the paperwork is done. So inshallah it will be done next week. Until then I can drive it locally but cannot take it out of the country (Bahrain etc)

But what a joy is to have it. It is giving us the complete freedom of movement and that is something to relish after all these months of dependance on taxis and compound buses. It just means we are not limited to the 5-6 places where the buses go. I must admit that the bus service is actually quite good. One can survive quite easily as they go to all major shopping centres and supermarkets and give you around 3 hours to do your stuff.

So I hopped into the car and drove it from Riyadh to Khobar. Its around 360 km with a very good road. (more on that in our previous post on Riyadh vacation). The Jeep is incredible to drive. It is creamy smooth, silent and rides like only an American softly suspended limo can. There is hardly any engine noise and at 140 its barely ticking over at about 1,800 rpm. That is the beauty of a gutsy 5.7L V8. I tried a few bursts of speed on some lonely and straight stretches and lets just say that I had to back off long before the car limits were reached :)

Its 3 years old and is the top of the line in Jeep range. The Overland. Inside its simply luxurios. Jill was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it was not that big actually. She expected it to be as big as a GMC suburban or one of those ridicoulosly sized Nissan Armada's. But its actually not that much bigger than our Mazda CX7. It is a bit Tonka toy and Hummerish in styling but it simply looks awesome in the flesh.

It has 3 rows of seats but the third row is for legless midgets only. Still not as if we will be loading 7 people any time soon.

It has a very good sound system from Boston Acoustics with a huge subbie.

The drive from Riyadh cost me 35 Riyals which was AUD 11.13 for 95 RON. This is simply heaven. The power from the V8 is sffortless in ANY situation and it actually cuts out 4 cylinders when cruising so it is economical as well.

Anyway here are some photos:

So now we can go and truly explore our wonderfull environs. Motoring Nirvana :)