Jilly on her way back...

Just had two SMSs from Melbourne Airport. Jill is through the border control and about to board. Me and my friend Mohammed (he of the dead chicken fame) are going in the morning to pick her up from the Dammam airport. We should be ok this time coming back as Jill will be with us and able to guide us back home safely.

Last time me and big Mo ended up half way to Riyadh. That's how badly we got lost. You can imagine when a local who has lived here for 10 years asks YOU if you know where we are. Panic time. I have never been what you would call a "skillful navigator". Unfortunatly I think I have passed on this genetic defect onto my children with I think Daniel being particularly afflicted. As far as I am concerned GPS is the greatest invention since time immemorial. :)

Anyway can hardly wait to see her. Its been 3 long weeks and as you can see from the previous post, single life is simply not for me :)

Only a few hours to go now...

Mobility coming soon...

We have been here in KSA now for just over 6 months. This is the kind of place where having a car is a must. It has been ok during the late autumn, winter and now spring period as the weather has been absolutely fantastic. Just nice and balmy. Perfect T-Shirt weather.

I have been surprised actually as to how mild it has been. We all have an image of Saudi as a hot desert. Well it actually is but only for a part of the year. June, July and August are the worst months with August actually being named the "Hell month" because the temperature is between 45 and 50 C with tremendous humidity. I do remember coming here to Dammam from Riyadh (when I was here the first time), stepping out of the a/c car and instantly emulating a sodden sponge. They tell me that in the past it was common for a lot of older people to actually perish in the heat To keep cool they had a habit of simply lying down and covering themselves with wet rags during the hottest parts of the day.

These days its all a/c'd. You have it in your home, workplace, car, shopping malls etc. Makes life very tolerable and comfortable.

So what is the point of this pre-amble ?? It's to tell you that basically you cannot be without a car unless you are prepared to sit in your appartment for 3-4 months in the summer.

This place has no public transport worthy of any note. And the one that does exist is so erratic and unreliable and requires great sleuthing skills to actually find it. It is interesting to note that Riyadh is building a subway. The roads are a mess there at the moment as they are digging huge trenches to construct it.

Even prior to coming here I had discussed cars with my Saudi friends and one of them Fahad a coleauge that I worked with in Riyad Bank siad that he was selling his 2007 Jeep Commander and if I wanted to buy it. And so we agreed. I mean its a 5.7L HEMI 330 Kw, with 3 types of 4WD available. I mean what's not to like here, and with petrol being 16 halalas or 4.6 cents (AUD) per litre, you run the damn thing for next to nothing.

So one of the first things that I tried to do when we arrived was to try and get together a loan. Silly, naive me. Thought it would be straight forward. As most things in Saudi, not so.

The bank needs your usual documentation: iqama (residence permit), passport copies, salary statement and an employment letter. No probs the latter two provided by PMU. But when I submitted it all they said we also need a "Transfer Letter". That is basically a guarantee by your employer that they will transfer all your salary and end-of-service entitlements into a nominated bank account.

I thought that it was a routine letter but alas it was not. Companies do not provide this letter until you have been with them for at least 3 months. (most probationary periods are around this long). PMU however has a policy of waiting for 6 months. The reason for this is becausa quite a few people who start, take out a loan and then skip the place (do a "runner" in our parlance) basically stealing that money.

So it became obvious that we can do nothing for 6 months. Well finaly I have it and its all organised. I am just waiting for the first salary transfer into the new bank and it should all be there after that. We started banking with SAMBA but the loan will be with SABB (local HSBC) since Fahad works there.

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures of our new transport in about 3 weeks.

Then it will be exploration time. Kuwait is 4 hours away, Qatar the same, Bahrain is 1 hour over the causeway, Oman is about 12 hours and Dubai and Abu Dhabi are about 10. So we shell explore and report to you from all these lovely places.

Single men's life...

I have been a bachelor for the last 3 weeks whilst Jill has been back in Oz. Well as I am finding out it really isn't all that great. I am just not used to coming back to an empty, silent house. Jilly you are missed!

So I have carried out an experiment on myself which has required an incredible amount of sacrifice, hardship , suffering, mental stress, psychological trauma. How have I found the inner strength to deal with this dire diversity is beyond me. Pure stoicism I tell ya. (First one that says "What a load of crap" cops it).

The above situation was brought on by my decision to... wait for it... reduce the amount of food that I eat :)

No joke, that was it. So what led to this act of supreme sacrifice. On the night that Jill left, me and my friend Mohammed (who else??) went to a top eatery similar to Mama Noura's in Riyadh. I went apesh*t. Bought a huge mixed grill, two shwarmas, dips, some syrian pies, and a gallon of freshly squeezed lemon juice with mint. (awesome btw). Mohammed bought even more supposedly for the "family dinner". Yeah right.  At 11 at night?. Mohammed weighs a hefty 145 kilos btw so perhaps I was not in best company to encourage moderation. Needles to say two days later there was an almighty stink in his car and a dead, decomposing chicken was found under one of the seats. Draw your own conclusions here.

Got home at around midnight and thought I'd have a party all by myself. Ate the bloody lot. Anyone who has seen the Monty Python scene in a restaurant in "Meaning of Life" will get a very good approximation of how it looked on the night.

It was one of the worst nights I have ever had. Bloated, inflated, indigested, gaseous, nauseous, ill, immobile, slothy and short of breath was just the beginning of it. No chance of any kind of sleep. Had to eat boxes of indigestion tablets, then got sick from them on top of it. Real champion night here.

That was my tipping point literally. Got in the shower in the morning and half way through discovered what projectile vomiting is all about. On top of it the stomach acid burnt my vocal chords so I lost my voice. A magnificent effort I must say. Anyway standing there in the bathtub full of what looked like a vegetable soup (with meat) that someone had put through a faulty food processor was not exactly a finest moment of my life.  I felt like I was in the movie Alien - No one can hear you scream in space. No one could hear me because my vocal chords were acid-fried. Like any alcoholic in the morning it was a "Never Again" string of promises to myself. My sugar btw went through the roof that night. About 28.

So that was it. I have now been on a minimal diet for the last 2 weeks and amazing things have happened. I have gone from 106.3 kilos down to 98.1. My life is back. I was for years around 92-94 but since I went on insulin last April that had shot up to about 102.

In addition I have not had to use insulin at all in the last week or so. My sugar has been rock steady on 5-6. (Normal is 4-8). 

I am simply amazed at what has happened here. Mind you Jill has been telling me exactly this all along but I knew better didn't I :)

So what exactly have I done. First I have cut out all bread, bikkies, potatoes, rice and pasta. For breakfast I have 4 slices of turkey breast rolled in pepper. Lunch is a soup and a salad or a can of tuna. Dinner is sautéed mushrooms, with shrimps or pan fried hot dogs with some fetta sheep cheese. I have discovered that  I can have lots of things like tabouli salmon, fish, meats veggies etc. As long as there is no bread etc.

I have also been swimming every second day building up to 22 laps of a very large pool. I must thank our friend Telma for that. She is a Iranian-Armenian-German teacher here at PMU who is a great athlete. I am convinced that she is an ex East German performance coach (We don't encourage steroids but you will never achieve the targets we set for you unless you use them. Heavily.). She encourages me with gentle utterances of "Ein, Zwei, Drei gehen du Sheisskopff" or something similar. It's good when people care so much.

I will keep you posted as to my progress on adipose tissue shedding. Highly recommended.

How convenient is this...

I have just realised that my passport is about to expire in August this year. As most of the countries require the passport to have more than six months validity left it is time to update. It means I have now had it for 10 years and it is showing a lot of wear and tear on it. 

I have actually been looked at suspiciously a few times at border controls as it looks like I have delaminated the front cover and maybe tampered with it. But of course not!

This passport is actually very special as it was issued in Riyadh back in 2000. Not many Ozzie passports can claim that. 

Some wonderful visas in it from all over the world. It was also my second passport. So now I am on Passport No.3 Hardly ever thought that I would fill up one let alone two and start on a third one.

Of course renewal is very easy if you are in Oz. Go to post office fill a form pay X and it will be in your hands in less then a week. Slightly different when you are over here. I contacted our Embassy in Riyadh. It was so refreshing and almost startling to hear proper and understandable English spoken. 

You get used to getting on the phone here and having an almighty linguistic battle to explain even the simplest of things often with hilarious consequences. Here is an example of a dialogue with a taxi driver:

(Speaking very slowly and deliberately)

Us: Ok, we need to go to the Mobily shop on King Abdulaziz Road

Taxi driver: OK

Us: It is the shop near Tulip Hotel on the right as we go towards Corniche.

Taxi driver: Yes sir.

Us: Do you know where it is?

Taxi driver: Yes Sir.

Us: Ok, tell us where we are going.

Taxi driver: Yes Sir.

Us: WTF!!... silence

Anyhow I digress. I got through to the passports section and was told easy. Just get a form from passports.gov.au fill it in, courier it with your old passport and some cash and all done.

I thought that the website was only for downloading forms, but to my pleasant surprise after getting me to fill in some secret personal details up came the form already prefilled with all the necessary information. So just printed it off. Need to add signature and a couple of photos and its all done. And much to my delight this one will also be issued in Riyadh. Collector's items people. 

Finally our tax dollars are achieving some value.

Of course I will have to carry around both of them for a while as my Saudi Visa is still in the old one and they do mot transfer it to the new one so you have to present both at douane. (Look it up, just showing off my incredible vocabulary :)

They have a very good Visa system now in Saudi if you are living here. You can get either a single exit/entry visa for a one off trip or a multiple exit/entry if you want to duck out often. Since we live literally half hour drive from Bahrain me and Jill will be getting a multiple one. Jill already has hers for the trip back.

The visas are actually not stamped in the passport. They are just a piece of paper that states the visa type and validity length. Multiple E/E visas last for 6 months. If you get one but do not use it within 3 months you must pay a fine of SR 1,000. Few people have been caught out like this.

A single visa costs SR 300 whilst the Multiple one is SR 500. Just after we got Jills PMU announced that they will pay for all visas henceforth. Oh well, win some lose some :)

Stung into action...

And so it is. Jilly is absolutely right. I have been lazy and have not been posting regularly (or at all). Very remiss of me and I will rectify that starting now. Thank you Jilly for the proverbial up the Khyber.

So how about Hannah? Devastatingly cute. Welcome to this world Hannah. You will experience so much in your life. It will be an amazing journey for you. You are only the second generation to experience the potential of the internet. Your life will be so different to what we find as "normal and accepted". 

You will live longer, healthier and wealthier see more and experience more than the lot of up put together. You will see out the end of 21st century and will know things that we can only consider as "magic". More will be revealed in your lifetime than in the collective human history that has preceded you. 

Your mum's friends and Ebony dreamt of, and now are flight attendants (a profession that simply did not exist 70 years ago). You may very well end up being flight attendant in space tourism if that captures your imagination. We simply cannot even begin to fathom how you will live and conduct your daily affairs. 

But we can guarantee one thing Hannah. We will be there by your side to make sure that whatever you have potential for, will be fully realised. You will get love and support which is still the essence of what a human being is. And believe me we have had a lot of practice between us. We have fine-honed it on our many kids and siblings so we are well poised to embrace you into our fold. 

Just like our children changed us deeply and profoundly in a most wonderful and gracious way, so will you. Your birth is another milestone in all our lives, another celebration of who we are and another proof that we got things right after all. 

I hope that you are first of many from all our kids. 

Welcome little darling !!

Welcome to the World – Hannah Elizabeth Reid 30/3/10 :)

I have spent the last 3 weeks in my home city Melbourne and arrived in plenty of time for the arrival of my first grandchild. She made her arrival when she wanted to and was totally beautiful when she made her way into our world :D Her mummy was brave and did a fantastic job and we all cried our eyes out when she arrived. We were all surprised at the amount of hair she had when born. As you can see from the pictures she is totally beautiful :D



Now we have the problem of what to call me. My son the "name police" :) has let it be known that it can’t be a “stupid” name because his children will most likely call me the same :P – There are so many names that one can be called from nanna, gran, grammy, grandma, granny, nanny jill, but I think that Nanna has been decided on and Jesse will be Dedo so that all our grandchildren will call us the same :D

I have had a busy time visiting family and catching up with friends and shopping for “essentials” that we can’t buy over there whilst here, but will be making my way back to Al Khobar on 14th April and I am sure Jesse is eagerly waiting for me to arrive.

Jesse has been saying every week for the last 3 months that he will post a blog but procrastination seems to get in his way – so EVERYONE get stuck into him to get him “motivated” so that you know how he has been thinking, living, and working whilst we are there. Give him the proverbial kick up the bum to get him motivated to write about his experiences to make it more interesting for you to visit our page to see what is happening with him :D

Will keep you all posted on more happenings when I settle back in – posted by Jill on Jesse’s computer :D

Just Cruis’n

Well what can one say!!! My job at the uni has certainly taken an unexpected turn from what I expected from the title I was given when I started here:

IT Support Officer - Student Affairs: Admissions Office

What does this title conjure in the mind? That I am so savvy with computing, that I have been given an IT tag? That I am actually good enough in my knowledge of technology that I can support the other office staff? That I am in the admissions office?.......Well yes to all of the above although it really WASN'T mentioned in my interview that I did have this knowledge, only that I am very comfortable with applications and also learn new applications very quickly :D - Lucky for me I understated in the interview, as I have been thrown full throttle into a computing support role.

When the lady I work with in admissions asked me to change the sign on the door, all that I did was copy what was already there, spaced it a bit more evenly, brightened the colours slightly, and took the name of the other person that left and put my name on it. Keep in mind that under our names they have what our title is, so I put as one would suppose and expect I would..... IT Support Officer - Student Affairs:

Oh the consternation! Oh the puzzlement! Student Affairs are now so important they need their own IT Support? What type of Support? Why isn't the IT Department handling our support? Do the IT Department know? Am I involved with them? Do I fix the machines? What exactly do I do? They actually had a meeting regarding it :D

Everyone here is very possessive of their position and area of expertise, as well as everyone else's and need to know exactly what role people have, and what is expected from that role, and if you do step out of your area or are asked to, then it is asked  HOW COME?… ISN'T THAT ??'s AREA?… DO THEY KNOW?… WHY ARE YOU ASKED TO DO IT?… WHY WASN'T ?? ASKED TO DO IT?… Well me not knowing exactly what was expected of me, I was at a bit of a loss to explain what exactly IT Support Officer was, so had to do a bit of bluffing re my title.

I was asked to do a map of the female campus ground floor for orientation for the new students starting the spring semester to try to make life a bit easier for them. So away I went, pad in hand and got the locations, room numbers, and titles of the different sections and put them into a very nice lay out complete with a faded picture of university in the background. This went down very well and was accepted with no hesitation as it did look very professional and nice.

Then we were all asked to design a flyer for the different services offered to the students for orientation. As I am the IT person in our department some of the ladies came to me to show me the design they were already using but as there were a few “small problems” and they didn't have the knowledge to correct them. I refused to use what they had shown me so came up with my own design (with some help from my own IT expert at home).

Well this was exclaimed over that I had been able to make our logo round (as it should be) instead of oval, and that the coloured decoration lines of my design actually met in the middle of the outside fold both front and back instead of one at the inner fold front cover, and one on the outside edge back cover. I had also put a faded picture of the very impressive front gates as well as some smaller logos on the inside edges and did some very nice separating lines to demarcate the different text areas.

Needless to say this design was taken up immediately and sent to everyone on both male & female campus as the template to put their work on :)........yes my head is expanding at a great rate. I must admit I was very impressed when they came back from the printer - they looked fantastic :D

What has all this to do with admissions you might ask? Well the departmental heads decided that as all new students have to pass through the admissions office before ever beginning their student life that it would make them feel more comfortable having people from the admissions office joining in the orientation day - so I had to design and present a very short power point presentation with certain important info of where to get ID's, get laptops coded for wireless access, bus timetable etc. I was then asked to do the schedules for both campus's and also organize a tour of the facilities for the new students - so my involvement with orientation day was......... very involved :D

Oh and I also was sent all the finished flyers to correct any grammar or spelling errors before going to the printer as at that time I was the only western female working in the administration area. We now have another that has joined us.

I must say I am enjoying my job very much. I didn't realize just how big an area that student affairs covers and what planning and thought goes into organizing activities to get students involved in campus life. So far I have taken part in developing a new filing system for the students, aerobics, yoga, aromatherapy, orientation, prep orientation, information days, more yoga, and blood donation day and a trip to Riyadh for marketing.

Blood Donation Day: I thought ok, this has been billed as a big event. Our nurse was very excited about this day and I was also keeping in mind and that when I cut my finger on a glass in the sink the nurse very kindly dressed it every day for me and was lovely.
So being part of a team I moseyed down to the nurses office to have a look at what was happening and with the thought to donate.

Imagine my surprise at the amount of people lining up to donate and when I started to fill in the form - the next minute the camera was stuck in my face to record me filling the form, then as I waited to be called it was snapped again. I was called for blood pressure & temperature check and yes snapped one more time complete with thermometer in mouth and blood pressure cuff on.

It was then to the next station to get my blood type mapped and you guessed it, snapped again. So not only did I have to have my finger severely pricked, but had to wait with the blood balancing on the tip for the pic to be taken.

I was then taken into the actual patient area and when I lay down on the table snap again. The tourniquet was placed around my arm with the exclamation from the doctor - oh what big veins you have! and - snapped again. I was then hooked up to the blood bag and asked to squeeze a rubber ball to let the blood come out easier - and yes snapped for the final time :D - but to their consternation the blood poured out of me, so ball was immediately taken away, tourniquet loosened and I was finished in half the time of the other ladies. Oh the joys of having "big veins".

The camera comes out at all these events, but they have to be very careful NOT to get any of the Arab ladies with their hair or face uncovered. The Arab ladies are very sensitive in general about being in any picture at all so it is a real boon for the department having me here so they can snap happily to record the different events :D

After all this I was asked to go to our director's office and was completely taken aback when asked if I would like to go to Riyadh for a High School information presentation. They do high school visits here to present via power point what facilities we have, what we offer etc in the hope that we can get some of the graduating students to our uni.

Of course I jumped at the opportunity and was very pleased and surprised to be asked :D - The only problem was that we (the other lady going with me) prepared the power point presentation and literature and gifts for the expected 40 students and the same for the men for the next day. The reality was.....

When we arrived it was to a full on expo complete with our own booth (the men had been in to set it all up so all we had to do was arrive :D) and about 20 other universities representing themselves. It was very busy with bus loads of high school students coming through. We soon got into the swing of things and became very proficient with our information and what we had to offer. We had to start rationing our flyers etc when we realized there as an afternoon session, as well as for the men the next day.

The Arab lady I was with did most of the talking..... in you guessed it Arabic, whilst I attracted all the girls because I am western. I was the novelty act :D and we really attracted a lot of attention with the girls all coming by to say hello and to try their English out - it was a great day.

What does all this have to do with admissions I hear you ask yet again? Not a lot...hahahahaha although if we get any new students from these visits then they might get to see me in the admissions office.....lol

The lady I went with originates from Riyadh, so I was very privileged to be invited over the lunch break to her parents home. It must have been quite an occasion because not only did I meet her parents, but aunty, uncle, brothers, sister, nieces, and a cousin. Her dad works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was very interesting to talk to and her mum didn't have much English, but with translations we had a lot of laughs and a very nice lunch.

So who would have thought from my job title that all these things would be taking place :D and only in my second month - I am enjoying my job very much.

Looking forward to coming back on the 25th and eagerly awaiting the birth of my granddaughter :D

Warming Up in Al Khobar

Hi once again from Al Khobar :D
The weather is warming up week to week now - you can really feel the difference when you go outside during the day or at night. The temperature has been perfect now (hanging between 19-24 degrees Celsius) for so many months that I was "hoping" that this would be how it is year round. It has jumped into the 30's now.

I first really noticed it warming up when I was in Riyadh last week to do an exhibition promoting the uni. We walked outside at about 12.30pm for our 4 hour lunch break :P and whilst waiting for the driver belonging to the parents of the lady I was there with, we actually had to go under cover as it was too hot to stand outside. It is cooler here in Al Khobar at the moment than in Riyadh, but it gets humid here - so not a great combo - hot weather (about 45-50c they say) and humid with it :( Well we DO have 3 air conditioners in the unit so at least we should be comfy for sleeping & resting!

The uni has pumped it's aircons up as well and it seems strange that it has gotten warmer outside, but we have to wear shawls, jumpers, scarves, jackets (I think you get the general drift) because it is soooo cool sitting in the office. Most of the ladies in our office section have their own big private heater sitting behind their desk keeping their legs and feet warm.

Oh The Joys of Shobbing :D

Hi - Well I decided I had better get back on track with more updates and news as such to let everyone know what has been happening in our lives:D - we have settled into a sort of routine - if we need groceries or feel like going out then it is onto the compound bus at 5.30 after work to be delivered to whichever shopping centre it is going to that day and then back with a timely tip or box of chocolate goodies for driver - this means he will drop us off at our building instead of having to walk fully laden down with our groceries - read slabs of diet coke for Jesse. "Inshallah" (this is meant to mean God willing.......however in local terms it means maybe one day... perhaps... or NOT) we will have a car soon.......lol :D

One of our favourite locations at the moment while the weather is still cool enough, is to go on the Monday night bus down to the original old shopping streets of Al Khobar. It is a real mixture of Phillipino clothing markets in laneways, cheap eating places, to modern malls where I purchased an "original" (hahahaha - not) Jimmy Choo handbag for the grand price of about $30 and a Luis Vuitton cloth phone holder for my i pod for all of about $3.

We love to get into the many souvenier shops that abound in this area and I am constantly amazed and surprised by the variety there is on offer both good taste and extremely bad taste, and the willingness of the shop keepers to get us in and have a laugh at Jesse's attempts at Arabic and to sell us stuff - some don't speak English, Jesse's Arabic is limited but enough to get by on, so they are talking at us as if we understand, we are talking to them as if they understand - we are all smiling and laughing and using sign language and pointing,then when it comes down to it - we ALL understand HOW MUCH??? HOW MANY RIYALS???

There are many shops that sell the long curved Arabian swords and knives framed behind glass - I have really fallen in love with a pair of daggers with horse heads in one of the shops and will most likely get them at a later date. We got some really cheesey typical Arabian pictures that are almost like a shadow box set up of silver Arabian icons - the first is a silver camel train with 7 camels ranging from about 2cm down to really tiny. The second has 4 squares and different icons in it like the palm tree, coffee pot, shishka etc, and then I decided that for it to look really nice on the wall we then got a larger one with about 9 icons. We put them on the wall directly opposite our front door and have had sooooo many comments when people come in and see them. I also think that it wouldn't be Arabia without getting an Aladdin type lamp which they have in many different varieties down there and which I haven't seen in the shopping malls.

 

It is also a great experience to go into the many carpet shops set amongst the souvenir shops - we have been thoroughly educated on what the many different carpets are and the areas they come from like Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan etc and once you know you can really tell the area they are from. One of the things that is really strange here is that because they are real hand woven carpets and not machine made, they are all folded in the shop rather than rolled up like at home. Then even though we aren't going to buy one (lack of funds) they are opened up and spread out one on top of the other for you the look at and admire. They really are works of art and the ones that they make for wall hangings are just unbelievable with the amount of colour and detail that goes into them. The ones below are for actually walking on.

On one of our first trips down there we thought "oh it's very close to prayer time" so we were on the lookout for somewhere to settle in and eat - it is a very good way of passing the 30 minutes or so of the last prayer as all shops shut during this time and they kick you out. As long as you get into a restaurant before the doors close then all is well, you can order, eat, or sit the whole time during the prayer break.

I noticed a sign down the alleyway - Family Entrance: so down the alley we went. Most restaurants here have a family entrance or a bachelor entrance - even takeaway shops like Macca's or KFC etc - one side for single males, the other for families or women. We weren't 100% sure about this fine eating establishment as at first glance we couldn't find the main front of the shop to have a look, but decided to take the bit between our teeth and plunge in regardless. It turned out to be and Indian Restaurant :D and for the grand sum of $12aus for the both of us we had a most satisfying and enjoyable meal that was very fresh & very tasty.

I must admit we were a bit worried by the fine plates that the waiter set at our table - polystyrene meat type trays and plastic forks. Then he brought some very nice  melamine plates (matching) which was very a pleasant surprise after the polystyrene, but he then proceeded to wipe the aforementioned plates with a tissue and phhhht - tissue was slung straight onto the floor......lol. The look on Jesse's face was worth taking a photo of for posterity. We both went into gales of laughter after he went away.

The meal was very enjoyable and we have been back two more times since. The funny thing is that each time we go we are not really sure what we are going to get when it comes. We asked for Roti as we had it the given to us the 1st time we went. The blank look we got when we asked and the shoulder shrug, and the total incomprehension on his face, then the guy called the older waiter over and the discussion that ensured after - we ended up with chapati....lol. The Indian waiters here are the archetypal Indian dudes with the head wobbling from side to side (almost touching their shoulders)as they speak. I think I am the only white female that has ever set foot inside this establishment and they do try with the niceties of wrapping the ends of the plastic forks in tissues.

Then if you stroll a few blocks down you get the the main shopping street (Sarkat? St) and that has literally 100's of abayer shops interspersed with mens shoe shops, thobe(Saudi mens caftan) & guttra (the red checked head scarf) shops,  homeware shops, evening dresses that are so over-done they they become grotesque and they even have a few 2 riyal (60c) shops.

They also have the Arabian "oud" shops which sell all the incense and incense burners as well as all the different types of Arabian perfumes and lovely bottles. When you walk past these shops the vendors are all out with their bottles and either spray or rub u with oil. They also have the accessories that go with them such as drink carts – see below :D

We were given as a gift, from one of Jesse's work colleagues who owns a date plantation, some really nice smelling incense balls (a lot of these balls are made from dates) and a burner, so we then had to go to one of these oud shops to find out how to use them. We were shown that you get a charcoal and light it and put the incense on once lit - so we purchased the charcoal rounds and the lighters they use are really awesome - it's like a mini blow torch and really flames the charcoal up till it is well and truly alight and will be coming home with us.

I ripped the side and front of my first abayer, and being in the fore-front of students coming in at work decided I had better get another one that didn't look so tatty. So now being in the "know" of where to go to buy one, I ordered a really nice "trendy" abayer with brightly coloured satin sleeves, overlaid with black chiffon type fabric that is split right down the middle of the sleeve so that is falls open and you can see the nice fabric under it. there are lots of brightly coloured crystals along both sides of the opening and around the sleeve edge and satin chanel trim down the front. The abayers on this road are around 1/3 of the price that you would pay in any of the malls and it becomes almost hard to choose as there are so many different colourful designs added to the basic black abayer now.

We found by accident an Indian shop that sells push bikes, so.......Jesse has decided he needs a push bike to get him around the compound when the weather warms up as it is now starting to do...... the weekend was quite warm and I had the aircon on most of it. He has really fallen for the Indian made very retro looking gearless...... to get from the unit up to the swimming pool and gym once it is ready - this way he will avoid the blisters popping up on his feet and with the compound being flat he won't need the gears and with the width of the seat he won’t get a sore rear end. We are able to get a brand new one for the grand price of about $70aus  so thought it would be a great idea for him to get one to avoid the blisters and it will make a nice Birthday pressie for him :P

 

Well after this marathon effort will settle in to do some work......hahahaha and will post some other commentaries soon.

Back to Work (again)

I know, I know, I have been a bit remiss in posting a blog since before Christmas, but I am back :D albeit only a short entry and no pics to go into this post. I will go back to the first week in the New Year of 2010.

I was still in bed, resting my eyes soundly when my phone rings at the ungodly hour of 9.30am (rudely awakening me) and it was the husband, calling to say he was on his way home to collect me for a surprise interview scheduled in 1 hour time with the Rector of the university.

I flew out of bed and raced into action with the prayer that please please don't have water turned off, or electricty down (they had been doing random maintenance days in the compound around this time and sometimes you would get up at 8 am and have no water or power for hours) - Lucky me, all was good so I showered, make-upped, and hairdress'd, and threw the abayer on just as Jesse walked through the door. The good thing about wearing the abayer here is that it hides a multitude of things - including rumpled clothes, trakkies, or even pj's if you so desire :D but I did dress very nicely under it (just in case).

No time for pre-job interview jitters for me, no time even for brekkie :( and 50 minutes later we arrived in the middle of the desert (slight exaggeration - it is really on the coast but surrounded by sand) for my job interview. The Rector greeted me very pleasantly in his huge marble lined, massive office and introduced me to the Director of HR who was to sit in on the interview. Lucky for me I didn't know that these 2 men hold the most senior positions in the Eastern Region of Saudi so I wasn't really nervous at all.

The interview started out as all interviews do, but soon got to the nitty gritty :D - There was one sticky moment when asked what my university qualifications were but we sailed past that with flying colours and a job offer was in my inbox that afternoon. Oh the size of my head - it took days to come back to normal .....hahahaha

My job title is......IT Support Officer - Student Affairs :) and I work in the admissions department so have full contact with new students wishing to enter our fine institution. I am even having business cards printed for me - English one side and Arabic on the other side. I have been readily accepted by the ladies into the admin section and must admit that I was a bit worried on that front as I am the only western female working in this area.

Jesse is still most surprised at the speed with which the offer was made and how quickly I was introduced to university life thereafter :P and in the 4 weeks I have been here have done some very interesting things like web surfing to make a report on how other universities post their student application sites, and visiting a high school for recruitment purposes, student "Stress Free" days the week before finals which included aerobics, yoga, exercise, diet, sleep and study habits, and I did aromatherapy for relaxation. All the admin staff joined in the activities so you can imagine how sore I was from all this uplifting exercise after 2 days........oh the joys of having anti inflammatory’s available without a prescription :D but it was a very fun few days.

Well I will post more in days to come with pics as there is a very big chunk of time that has been missed out on.