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.

High maintenance ladies and their fashions…

If you are a lady around these parts your jewellery is not only worn on yourself, it also extends to some other objects in daily use. Let’s say you have a fully optioned BMW to take you around. Well why not match it to your ring or earrings. Perhaps like this:

Of course with a matching diamond studded rear badge:

But where does one find such lovely pieces of jewellery? Several fine establishments such as this one may be able to help in selecting just the right piece that says “You” like no other.

 

Now that you have that sorted out why not get some haute couture fashion advice. You do not want to be “fashion tragic” now do you? So listen up and follow the wise words below:

There you go. No need to be ever found wanting now.

Lost in translation III…..

Back to our favourite subject, the use, misuse, mangling, damaging, contorting, distorting, perverting, twisting, injuring, misusing and generally abusing of the beloved English language.

So how do you tell when an Arabic speaker works for a marketing department of the food company? Easy. When you see food labels like this:

On the other hand if your kids don’t like the healthy taste of “abricots” why not just give them some of this ghetto favoured delicious snack:

Ideal snack for busy families with not much time on their hands. Speaking of no “time on your hands” could it be that your watch is simply out of order. No problems, trusted Swiss trained master watchmakers such as this one will take care of it for you:

And if you not happy with quality of work performed there you may simply take it to his mate:

Of course you will need that watch to be in tip=top shape in order not to be late for work, especially with these working hours:

Ahhhh… The marvels of English.

A Hard rain ‘s gonna fall…

Saudi Arabia, a land where global warming had arrived probably 20,000 years ago, a land so dry that it has the greatest expanse of completely lifeless desert in the world. The “Rub Al Khali” or better known as the “empty quarter”. There is so little rain here that everyone forgets to build any kind of infrastructure associated with drainage.

The roads here have no drains at all and when it does rain it floods within minutes. The roads turn into rivers that run deep and fast.

We have just a few days of rain here which is a bit unusual for this time of year. It was simply amazing to watch the entire place turn into a lake in a matter of hours.

Some watery scenes:

It is such a contradiction here that you have the extremes of dryness followed by the floody water abundances. The water usually hangs around for about 2 weeks afterwards in pools. Surrealisam at its best.

My Green City…

Green City compound in Riyadh was our home for about 2 years back in 1990’s. We all have so many fond memories there. It was a brand new compound with large spacious villas and best of equipment. In a lot of ways it was a bit of a resort. It was situated near the Sheraton hotel and had a lot of empty blocks right around it.

On our recent visit to Riyadh I made it a first priority to go and revisit the place and its environs. Some of the old food shops which were around the corner were still there like Mama Noura’s. That place has some mighty mixed grilles, shwarmas and freshly squeezed juices.

 

Another view:

 

Everything else was there, the chemist, opticians, kepsa shop, and of course the mosque right on the corner.

However it was a bit heartbreaking to see the compound entrance. It has been turned into a fortress. There were substantial barriers and machine gun nests everywhere. I guess it did remind me of the realities of life here in the middle East. We take things like vehicle checks, compound barriers and security everywhere as pretty normal. Our compound here is guarded by the National Guard corps. You always know when there is something going on as they turn out in their full combat gear, bullet-proof vests, helmets and guns in hand. The vehicles have to stop and are checked with underside mirrors, boots open etc. When things are normal they just wave us through.

This is the entrance to the green city now:

 

 

This is the back:

 

I guess that it is a reality and it must be done. I am just glad that we were here at a more innocent time and that we were able to enjoy the city of Riyadh pretty much unfettered.

My big sports day…

When leaving for Saudi one of the big attractions was the activity rich compound life that I remember so well from our time in the Green City in Riyadh. There was a gym, sauna, Turkish steam bath, spas, pool and the recreation facilities. Expectations were that our compound will offer just as much if not a lot more. I have been trying to motivate myself for a little while to get on with the fitness side of my life.

We have had some boomerang throwing lessons here from another Aussie guy (Dr. Bruce Wills) as well as some volleyball games. I have been nicknamed “Cannonball” for my powerful overhead serves which I specifically aim at the 8 year old compound kids who join us in the games J. Their hands are so tiny and fragile. They also cry J. Our first game was played in the kids playground where large concrete chunks are hidden by 3 cm of sand. It was fun diving for the ball. The “net” was the rusty swing frame. Made it all a lot more fun in an “avoid the serious injury” kind of way.
.

So at any rate I put on my best lycra shorts and went off in search of sporting activities. I’ll have a game of billiards I thought (my kind of heavy exertion sport). When I got to the billiards room this is what I found:

Oh well, a bit hard to execute cue tricks here I thought. Never mind. What next I thought. I know!! A spot of ten-pin bowling was just the ticket. Yes that was it! Power, precision, grace, control it’s all there perfectly combined and highly suited to my talents. Excitedly I rushed off to our 4 lane bowling alley. My excitement was greeted by this:

So ended my sports day. Never mind. I think I’ll do some yoga instead J

BTW I must admit that the compound rec-center is undergoing substantial renovations and that hopefully in a few months we will have the best of everything.

Back to blogging…

There has obviously been a hiatus in our blogging activities of recent. There was the Christmas and New Year’s so that took some ti4me away.However we are back on track now so there will be more content coming. There is a quite few topics to cover with some interesting things happening down here. So stay tuned and enjoy your readings.

I am listening right now to some really cool JJ Cale, the master of the understated as well as Jean Michel Jarre Geometry of love album. And just to spice up things I have some Dream Theatre stuff from last year. A very nice set .

Still Touring in Riyadh

   

We spent our first full day driving around and seeing more sights and Jesse wanted to take me to the old market souks which he found without too much difficulty. Unfortunately with it being the Eid holiday, the gold selling stalls weren’t open, but most of the other shops were and they were packed tightly all next to each other selling fabrics, curtains, really ornate giftware, fake pot plants, and even baby furnishings.

The items in the picture below really caught my eye and I thought I must snap this for a nursery/mother decorating idea for Anne :P – It’s a bit hard to see because of the glass reflection but it was all in pink satin & lace with tassels all round the edge of cot comforter – but wait for it……. there was also a queen sized comforter in same fabric to complete the ensemble for Mum’s & Dad’s bed, as well as a matching dressing gown & nightie. I’m sure that Paul’s heart would melt at walking in and seeing the room decorated in such exquisite style :P

MAIDS UNIFORMS AT SOUK :D – Lots of different styles and many stands that had these lovely stylish uniforms for your live-in Phillipino  maid – and these were the nicer ones.

For some reason (must be his European heritage & culture background coming out), Jesse has really taken a shine to the obscene as far as decorating goes and it has become a MUST HAVE on his list for decorating. He keeps asking me which I like and which would I pick, but I find it hard to choose :P – Maybe you can all help me in deciding…….lol. I have weakened and am buying him one from our local shopping centre for Christmas and will post the picture once it comes home so I won’t spoil the surprise by describing it, but just let it be known that it will be jugs and bowls decorated with plastic jewel inserts on them – alas they don’t have tassels like the lager one below if they have jewels, but tassels are cheap here so I might yet add to it.

Well our second night in a really SOFT bed was just as good as the first, and with check out not being until between 2-4pm and nothing else opening until 4pm we didn’t feel too guilty having a late sleep in.

After checkout we started to drive around for a last look at Riyadh and came across some tumbling down mud brick houses from the original settlements, but unfortunately they don’t have heritage listing on things here and really don’t appreciate or like the history of these old buildings, so they have just fallen into ruins and will probably be gone in a few more years.

We then found by accident after a wrong turn to get back to freeway a really nice water park attached to King Abdulaziz Museum. It was really strange that we were the tourists but I was the one that everyone was staring at as we were the only white people to be seen. It was a very nice walk around looking at the old fort and through the paved walkways alongside little man made streams all through it. This is one of the main paths and YES I have my hat on – the one that everyone is laughing at me for wearing on Facebook.

 

 

We decided after a visit here that we had better start on our way back home, so after a few wrong turns and being on the wrong highway, we found our way to a guarded checkpoint on the road to somewhere (we could see the freeway we wanted just a few streets over) and after going past and doing a u turn and coming back on wrong side of road Jesse asked them how to get back to Al Khobar. They were most helpful and pointed us in right direction and after a few more wrong turns we found our way back on the road to our home away from home.

We stopped about 20 km up at one of the carnival type servo’s to fill up and went in to see what they had – It was more like, what didn’t they have. Tents, gun holsters, knives, it was like an army disposal store cum supermarket – you name it they had it. We weren’t quite game to eat from the truckie Indian type “restaurant” so Jesse contented himself with a couple of rolls, I wasn’t quite that game so got a sealed packet of nuts and once again were on our way to arrive back home about 10’ish.

All in all it was a fabulous trip and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the new sights, and and even coming back being whizzed by on the shoulder wasn’t quite as scary as what it was going – mmmmmm am I becoming used to no road rules????

Riyadh Sojourn :)

Continued………….

Before I start on Riyadh, I might just go back to the freeway getting there :)

As I mentioned previously we arrived in our capital city just after nightfall. We had our nearly empty tank tank filled up by an attendant - yes every service station here has someone to fill it for you :p - for the grand sum of less than $6 aus dollars at the beginning of the freeway so as not to run out (petrol is a really great price here :p), but we didn’t really need to, as unlike Jesse’s experiences here 10 years ago there are quite a few service stations along the way, and approaching them as night was falling was like looking at a carnival on the side of the road with the amount of coloured fluorescent lights they had along the side leading into and out of them and also all over the roof shaped like tents – very hard to miss :)

Another thing I noticed that was really interesting was all along the highway cars pulled over onto the sand slightly off the road and wondered why – then I realised it was time for last prayer. I must admit that I was really impressed with the devotion to prayer that would have someone who was hurtling down the freeway at or in excess of 160km in an obvious hurry to get where they are going to take the time out to stop for 30 minutes approximately to face Mecca and pray. Not all cars pulled over mind, but there were sufficiently enough that it was very noticeable.

There were 3 major checkpoints on the way to Riyadh. This involved all cars slowing very rapidly to 20km, but luckily all cars put flashing warning lights on. We weren’t pulled over as we went through, but it was still a very serious matter approaching these points. The guards were armed and a jeep type truck parked by guard house with fixed machine gun ready to do serious damage.

We found  the exit from the freeway (quite by accident) to get into the main downtown area, and Jesse was then swamped with memories of where he used to go, live, etc etc. He then drove down to the computer souk that he had visited the week before to show me how many guys there were out flogging software, and then found a nice Holiday Inn right in the middle of the city. After checking in, it was then FOOD time so he asked directions to a Al Sayira, a Lebanese restaurant he used to go and eat at all the time. He was delighted that it was still in same street, same place, but was hard to find coz it had a huge facelift, lit up like Xmas, but inside it was still the same with individual booths complete with curtains, many of them closed with families inside, and the same waiter that used to be there all those years ago. For the grand sum of $100 Riyals ($30 aus) we had a fatoush salad,large dips entree complete with 2 huge loafs of Turkish bread, olives, dips etc etc. Then main of mixed grill, grilled fish, pepsi’s, lemon juice and mineral water :)………. Well I shouldn’t say, but Jesse ate most of it :p

Curtained booths for female privacy                Front Entrance :D

              Me deciding :D                        Fatoush Salad & Tukish bread

After finishing our delicious meal, it was back into the car and driving to see all the sights. We drove up the main streets which had the nicest light displays in the centre medium strip. The palm trees were all net lighted totally up the stems and into the fronds and overhead were starbursts and different kinds of light displays. It was then off to see his old compounds where he used to live and I’ll let him fill you in on his thoughts on those. We drove past the satellite & electronic souk and when we pulled in looking for a particular sort of audio cable– it was very like the computer souk with guys immediately swamping us with cries of “you want satellite???? We Cheapest….come….come” then back to Holiday Inn to lovely SOFT bed as it was now about 1am.

Next day we didn’t get up until about noon as room was VERY dark and bed VERY soft and we were very tired. It was then back out to drive around in daylight and take in the sights once more. Riyadh is a major city and would compare favourably with any major city in the world. I was very surprised after being in Al Khobar as this looks like a regional country town in comparison, but it was nice to get back to our own familiar town.

By this time it was evening and the quest was on to find parking for the Kingdom Tower. We found the shopping mall that was attached to the tower & hotel and parked. The shopping mall there only had brand shops in it, and we walked around looking at and in designer name shops like Chanel, D & G, Saks 5th Avenue to name a few – and people were really purchasing things from these stores :) and I actually saw a baby in bootees from Burberry.

After Jesse was told by a security guard in no uncertain terms “no photo in here sir” we then asked him if you could go up into the tower and he showed us where lifts were. Lucky for us it was prayer time, so the line wasn’t too huge and after only about a 10 minute wait we were let into the elevator, which was totally blacked out and had lights twinkling as stars & planets. All the ladies were herded into the back of lift first, and the men were let in after. Needless to say I towered over most of their heads. The trip involved the first lift to the 75th floor, where we changed and went in second lift to the 98th floor.

The views were breathtaking and it was well worth the trip. No cameras were meant to be used, but lots were so we did as well. We had our picture taken by photographer up there, and then the security got tough on cameras, so we then had to use the phone for pics, which was allowed.