Our playground :) |
Marek taking a group photo |
Our start-off point preparations |
Preparations include many activities |
Down to the axles |
All hands to the rescue |
Launch point on the top of a dune |
Ready for descent |
And some descent it is! |
Welcome to Jesse and Jill's blog of our life in Saudi Arabia.
Our playground :) |
Marek taking a group photo |
Our start-off point preparations |
Preparations include many activities |
Down to the axles |
All hands to the rescue |
Launch point on the top of a dune |
Ready for descent |
And some descent it is! |
Gun holsters and kitchen utensils - A natural item grouping |
We survived Ramadan without too much hardship – and I must say I did enjoy it better than “normal” times, as we started work 1 hour later and finished 1 hour earlier :) and then there was the six day holiday to mark the end. The shopping was also great as most shops and cafés didn’t open until about 9pm and went through to about 2am.
I really didn’t think that it would have that much of an effect on our lifestyle with us not being Muslim, but I was wrong! If we wanted to eat out we had to schedule to eat late, then we would go and get groceries so we weren’t getting home from shopping until midnight – or later.
There was another bonus that we really enjoyed, and that was that by the time the shops opened at night all the prayers were over so we didn’t have to leave while they shut for prayer or rush to get in to eat before they closed. We both really got used to the changed later hours and it was hard to get back into the normal routine of going midway between the second last prayer and the last – I have gotten to be a master at scheduling. If we get in between these prayers, you can eat in comfort, and when finished, all the shops are open so the shopping is uninterrupted.
After Ramadan, we were really pleased to welcome Brendan into the PMU community. His wife Sarah had come across our blog while trying to Google info on living conditions and what to expect in Saudi, as well as anything relating to PMU. She contacted us and I tried to answer some of her questions and concerns. We are still trying to figure out why he would leave the Guggenheim to come to PMU…lol
We were sitting relaxing, on what for us was a weekend, and the next thing there was a very timid knock at the door, and there was Brendan to say hello. He had a big smile and a big bag of goodies in hand for us –3 “Family” size boxes of Triscuits (we soooooo love Triscuits - all gone now) and some lovely organic coffee from Sarah’s mum. So thank you so much to Sarah’s mum for this - it is very nice and we are enjoying it a lot :)
We weren’t concerned about his jetlag – he is young and can cope – so we bundled him into the car and took him straight to Rashid Mall, first to eat (we also love Fuddruckers hamburgers) and then onwards to the Mobily shop to get his phone and internet organized. We were successful with his phone, but our friend who was leaving at the end of that week wanted to sell him his internet device, and he did take that on but didn’t have a lot of luck with it. He is going to the local Holiday Inn just in front of our compound to Skype Sarah – who he is missing a lot as she is still in the USA waiting for her visa…. :(
He came again a few weeks later and very apologetically told us that his phone was locked – able to receive calls, unable to make them. We got him his phone on the first night, but because he didn’t yet have his resident permit, Jesse put the phone in his own name as we already have two phones & internet with Mobily……..the problem with this was, that we also didn’t have resident permits (Iqama) because Jesse had to renew his passport, which of course has a different number than his passport that he entered into Saudi with. We did manage to get it sorted so Brendan now has a phone back :)
The situation here at the moment is that neither Jesse nor I have our resident permit or our exit/entry visas. He has been told sure, tomorrow – this is 4 weeks ago now……lol but we really are expecting it this week – who knows maybe tomorrow Inshallah.
We have not been able to go to Bahrain to the cinema or to Paul :( or to the Ritz to get my hair done. To top it all off – we haven’t had a car for 2 weeks because he put it in for a service after our desert dunes trek (more coming on this subject) – and they informed him after having it for a week and a half (after he actually went to the Jeep dealer and walked through the workshop to find out why) that they would be almost ready to give him the quote for the brakes…… hahahaha…. can you imagine Pete if you had a customer’s car in for a service for that long and then just informed them after they came to find out, that you were ready to give them a quote….hahahaha
It is lucky that we don’t get too upset and keep a sense of humor for the ridiculous. I must say that I didn’t miss the car that much before we had it, but now we do, it is a total chore to be catching the compound bus to get our groceries….