A delightful little discovery...

Well I've now been here just over a month. Seems like only a week or so and looking back there have been a lot of things crammed into it but that's certainly not something to complain about. 

Back to the present though. I decided on Wednesday night that I would walk to work yesterday and order a taxi to take me straight down to Dharan again as I'd done when I went to Ikea. I wanted to go to the Rashid mall in Khobar really but it would be such a waste not to stop in and make the most of Applebys again - no doubt there are other, hopefully better resteraunts around but as I've yet to discover them so Applebys remains the benchmark. Speaking of my plan to one of the new guys however, he got quite excited about the idea of escaping Rahima and going to a mall. Apparently the hotel he'd been put up in was opposita one but nothing like what I had seen either in Dharan or Khobar. Sure enough then he was along for the trip. No problem really, and half the taxi fare so even better apart from the fact that he wanted to go back to the camp to get showered and changed as if we were going out on the town. This meant me walking back to my apartment (so I could have ridden my bike), doing the same as why not, and arranging a taxi to pick me up from Panda (another 20 minute walk) because they wouldn't find me by address, and going to pick him up all before even setting off. Still, it was better than going alone. 

Not long after, the two other new guys who were still staying in Khobar got wind of my plan also and wanted to meet up with us too. Combigned with yet another new guy who still hasn't made it to Ras Tanura which one of the guys used to work with and we would now be a party of five...

That afternoon, the department head had apparently sent round an e-mail to all trainers within the department for a meeting at 3pm. Unfortunately I think he still has me confused with another guy with the same name but with one letter different in the surname so I didn't get it, nor did the other new guy having only been given his log in account the day previous. Consequently at 3pm the two of us were soaking up the sun outside when one of the other trainers ran out and started whistling from over the other side of the seating area gesturing to us to hurry up because we were late. Not a problem I thought, at least we have a valid reason, howeevr the meeting had apparently been called on the behalf of us four new guys to introduce ourselves to everyone ay once and have everyone else introduce themselves in turn. Our immediate absence was compounded by the fact that the guy staying down in Khobar has dissappeared for the afternoon (with permission) to sort some stuff out for his new flat and one of the other new guys was nowhere to be found! Turned out he had been babysitting a class and decided to stay there after the teaching day had finished to use the computer. Hence there was only the two of us and we were late. Thankfully nobody minded our 10 minute delay (lets face it everyones pretty easy going here anyway) and both myself and the other guy were suprised at such a thoughtful thing to do from the department head merely on our behalf. It's not the sort of thing I've come to expect certainly. 

So after carrying my modified itinerary, me and the other trainer arrived outside the Dharan mall almost precisely at 6pm as planned to meet his past colleague who was standing waiting for us as we walked through the entrance. He's in his late 50's and by the sound of things did get a rough ride when the refinery down in Essex where the pair of them worked along with one of the other trainers here closed down and made everyone redundant. Consequently he decided to come here to top up what he lost out on with his pension, in the process negotiating a Senior trainer job level and salary (which is a lot easier to do when you don't really want the job and you have 32 years refinery experience by the sounds of it). No doubt the Senior trainer within our department will love it the first time this new guy points it out to him! To be honest I haven't made my mind up about if he's going to be the kind of person who will adapt to the many significant differences here or if after so long and being so regimented he will struggle to let go of his expectations and habits from back in the UK - something that I think may have been an underlying reason for my previous mentors departure after only 7 months. This new guy started telling us about all the things he'd been told in the interview - like most of us - which he was still expecting to happen and we had to correct him on. I was all for giving him the whole truth and laying it out how it is but the other new guy who'd worked with him previously was clearly going out of his way to maintain the most positive of attitudes towards it, no matter how bad. I'm not sure if it was his prior colleague or himself he was actually trying to convince if I'm honest. I guess only time will tell what he makes of it when he gets up to Ras Tanura sometime next week. 

After wandering around the mall and the guy I'd come down with being completely amazed at all the recognisable names of shops such as M&S and Debenhams etc, we headed over to meet the other two guys outside Applebys for 7pm. Typical however, I'd forgot 6:59pm was prayer time and hence we ended up stood around outside waiting for a whole half hour which at least gave everyone a chance to chat and get to know eachother. Dinner was eventually as good as ever, the rest of the guys being absolutely made up with it as I was on my first visit. By now it was 9pm and knowing how the Rashid mall music shop doesn't conform to standard opening times like the rest of the shops (probably due to lack of general trade with it being illegal to play insutrments in public and uncommon to hear them anyway) I decided to leave my attempt to buy a guitar for another time. It certainly hadn't been a waste of a trip anyway and at least I'd still have my original excuse for coming back another time. We ended up back in Ikea and in the end I decided that now would be a good time to buy the dining room table that had been missed off my list, another chair and a few small bits and pieces while we were there. The other guy did the same and we jumped a cab back to Ras Tanura which was thankfully big enough to accomodate all our purchases. 

This morning I got up just after 8am. After showering and getting dressed I spent half an hour rearranging things in the flat (there's not a great deal still in here to make it messy thannkfully) and decided to take a ride up to the Al Sueidi camp where I'd been told by one of the Philipino trainers they would be playing tennis most of the day. When I got there however, there was nobody to be seen on or around the tennis court or the pool. I stopped in on my colleague who's door I noticed was open just to say hello and then left about ten minutes later. As I was already out and about on the bike and I had taken a big bottle of Ribena with me in aniticipation of sitting around most the afternoon I decided I'd ride to the beach. I knew the direction and that it didn't seem that far when I was looking on the map. Low and behold though it was further than I thought. It took me 40 minutes from the camp and on my heave full suspension mountain bike with less than fully inflated tyres I'd estimate about 8 or 9 mph so probably a total of 6 miles perhaps. When I got there I was amazed though. I could literally have been back in Mexico or any other resort. There were proper volleyball courts, basketball courts, football pitched and no doubt had I continued exploring tennis courts somewhere. A wall at the front stood at the back of about 50 meters of white sandy beach before entering the gorgeous cyan coloured waters or the Arabian Gulf. It was fantastic! I really couldn't get over how nice it looked. I'd seen a street sign before I'd turned off the main road saying no photographs (which is pretty much the norm anyway here) but I managed to sneakily snap a couple with my phone on the way out without anyone noticing. There weren't many people there anyway. If I'd have counted there would have been less than a hundred spread out over the few miles or so of beach and coastline. The majority were either Indian familys who had pitched tents and were having barbeques or guys fishing off the wall out into the shallow waters. I only saw one small boy entering the very edge of the water in shorts and t-shirt and almost nobody actually dwon on the sandy beach.

The downside of this magnificent place however, is that it clearly would not be acceptable to actually strip off and sunbathe. I guess you'd get away with shorts but I doubt you'd last long if you took your shirt off in the presence of the ladies there in nicabs. Such a shame... Still, there's plenty to enjoy anyway and it just means swimming in shorts and t-shirt which isn't a bad thing given the intensity of the sun etc. Today had actually been the first day I'd put sun tan lotion on before going out conveniently and I stopped twice to top it up just in case (one of the SABB drive through ATMs which display time, date and temperature was reading 24 degrees already by this point). It only took me 20 minutes to get back to my apartment thanks to a favourable wind and being slightly downhill (which is all you get here really being mainly desert) and my average speed I think would confirm my earlier estimate of about 4 or 5 miles from my place. Unsuprisingly by this time I was ringing wet and was straight back in the shower again...

What goes around comes around...

It's been a busy week. Two other new trainers turned up on Sunday morning. One, another UK guy, is Scottish but worked with a UK trainer already here and the other another Romanian. Only the Scottish guy has any refinery experience (seems they struggle to find people with it) so I'm a bit more at ease. I've been looking through the course material and although most of it is pretty simple and basic it does go through all the different refinery processes which obviously I will have to get my head around in advance.

My Ikea furniture turned up in boxes on Saturday afternoon as expected. I had to go and meet the delivery driver at Panda to show him where exactly I lived but no major suprise there. The address system here has all the appearance of a system similar to the UK (apartment number, building numbers, street names and postcodes) but for some reason they aren't used as they should be and anything sent by mail is guarenteed not to make it to a personal address. For this reason I've now obtained the address of the ITC and will use that given that it will be easier to find for basic mail deliveries. 

After sorting through and unpacking the boxes I noticed there was no dining table (despite two coffee tables). I'd only paid for one of the coffee tables but on closer inspection noticed the dining table wasn't on the bill in the first place. I mustn't have noticed at the time that the guy transferring my hand written list into electronic form had made such a number of errors - serves me right for not paying more attention. It just means next time I'm down that way I'll have to stop in again.

I made my bed and put together my sofa, all with the aid of a folding screwdriver on my pocket mountain bike tool which was a nightmare! I ended up giving in with the rest of it that evening and decided to buy a small tool kit I'd seen in Panda for £15 the day after to compelte the rest. I perservered enough to build the frames of the kitchen unit and bedside drawes just to get some of the food and other items off the floor, by which time it was fairly late and being up early for work again I went to bed. 

The following evening after work (and having a nice new tool kit) I finished off the furniture assembly, most of which was the wardrobe taking about 3 hours on my own. At least now though my clothes aren't lying on the floor getting dusty! Unfortunately on my way home that evening the pedal had given way on my bike (being made of cheap plastic in China) and for some reason the rear brake was sticking making it ten times harder to pedal. As cool and funky as my $370SAR (£55) childs BMX from the kids toy shop is, it really isn't up to the job and I resoved myself to having to buy a new one. 

As I said these other new guys turned up along with the guy from last week, who's name it turned out wasn't what I'd been told it was (I think there was confusion on the Senior Trainers part) so my mentor spent the day giving them the beginnings of the orientation I'd had two weeks previously. I wasn't really able to join them because I ended up babysitting a class for one of the Saudi trainers who hadn't turned in (a common event I've noticed) but to be honest I didn't really mind being out the way. Unfortunately my mentor was fininshed that day and with the other two remaining UK guys both teaching full time it's since been left to me to take them through everything and answer the hundreds of questions that I probably asked myself. With there being three of them though it has become somewhat tedious, imparticularly the new Romanian who, like Serban, is very highly strung and will definately need to relax somewhat before he gets into the classroom. 

As much as possible I'm still trying to work through some of the refinery stuff but inevitably progress has ground to almost a complete stop with helping the new guys. I did manage to sneak away for an hour to put together a more comprehensive pacing schedule breaking down each module of each unit and allocating how many pages I'd need to cover each period of each day in order to achieve completion of the unit in time for the scheduled test day (which is effectively the deadline and being pre-set before the course starts and involving the coordination of test rooms, test analysts, protctors and several other factors isn't negotiable). It worked out on average about 4 pages for each 40 minute period with a few days reviewing for the tests and a number of other contingencies allowed for.  

I went for a coffee and a doughnut with my mentor who ended up having to delay his departure another night due to visa issues which I was hlaf glad about because I'd previously said a brief goodbye outside Panda expecting to see him again over the weekend but hadn't ended up with the chance. At least this gave me the opportunity to tell him how much all his help had been appreciated and to wish him luck in Baku. It also gave me the chance on the way back to stop in one of the local shops and buy a couple of rugs. One was pretty big to go under the area where the sofa is so the guy ended up delievering it which also meant I could get a ride home rather than walk - two birds etc... I have to say that the furniture had been a massive enough transformation from empty rooms to livable area but the rugs add that touch of extra homeliness that was still missing. With the exception of my dining table and two A/C units I am pretty much complete with my furniture/appliance shopping spree. The only other thing I want really is an acoustic guitar which I'll have to go back to the Rashid mall in Khobar for. 

As it happens, I got an e-mail this morning from Al Hoty requesting me to go back down there to sign my employment agreement so if I can also sort my sight test for my driving license at the same time I might be able to stop in at the Rashid mall and Ikea all in the same journey. Best laid plans of mice and men however... Around here there's no way that everything will go so swimmingly. 

I bought my bike last night. Slightly kicking myself for not having just got one in the first place and wasting the original £55 yet on the otehr hand not regretting how fun the little thing actually was and the experience gained from making the mistake, I opted for an almost full size (it is an adult bike but feels small) full suspension mountain bike for $460SAR (£75). It's still pretty terrible, the suspension hitting the stops everytime you drop down a kerb (which are over a foot high most of the time here) and the gears not really being properly set up. I asked the guy if he would fix it if anything broke but he was adament there was no guarentee and although they would fix it if something was wrong, I would have to pay - probably a sound business policy with such poor product quality!

Furniture flurry

I can't remember the last time I wore my sunglasses but it's been over a week now, not something I thought I was signing up for I have to admit! I've even had my jumper on the last two days... I know I shouldn't really complain though, afterall I'm not really in a rush to meet the inevitable heatwave that will arrive sooner than I'm sure I realise! 

I'm sitting here now in a combined state of relief and anticipation. With the exception of a couple of air conditioning units, following a trip to Ikea I've now ordered pretty much every essential item of furniture I think I'll need for the foreseeable future.  Unfortunately though it won't be here until Saturday evening so I am still bound to my deck chair in amongst the tins of food and bottles of water lining the edge of the floor for now. 

The ITC has been almost as mundane as outside of it this last few days. My mentor has been getting quite wound up over the process by which you have to leave the country (though it's more down to his extensive postulating on the matter than any actual problem existing) and has consequently been down to Dharan on two consecutive days to question it leaving me alone to my own devices. I've read through a significant part of the course material I'll be teaching now (which isn't difficult to say the least thankfully!) and now and again get asked by the Senior trainer to babysit classes for odd periods. 

Babysitting, I imagine, is worse than actually teaching. At least when trying to teach students they realise they're obliged to pay attention even if they don't. When babysitting then there really is no method to stop them playing on their phones etc, which I don't have a problem with but is technically against the rules, or gathering around one persons desk in a group and having a discussion that gets continuously louder to the point they have to be told to calm down again. In the meantime the only thing I can do once I've checked my e-mails (and I haven't been getting many as the department head had me mixed up with another skills trainer called Chris Allan I found out today) is continue reading through course material on the intranet. 

My mentor has been back around today thankfully so before he leaves at the end of the week I've been picking his brains on refinery processes. Having never worked on one the entire process is new to me (although it's not rocket science and pretty logical when you go through it step by step and most of the equipment is the same as I used back home) so I thought it'd be a good idea to get him to take me through it - turns out he was more clueless about it all than I was (he's never worked on one either) but had been teaching it anyway so it really can't be that hard - especially as the intent is to teach the course content parrot fashion anyway...

I managed to escape a bit of the boredom on Monday whilst my mentor was down seeing his contract company by going to open my bank account. Having had my salary and my letter from Al Hoty dropped off by Ricky on Sunday I thought the sooner the better. To be honest apart from mind numbing forms asking for quite a bit of stuff I didn't know (employer address and reference names of 2 people in Saudi etc which I ended up using the name and address of the guy on the letter they gave me) it wasn't too much hassle and only took about 20 minutes so I went to Panda on my way back, bought and oven and took it home just to kill another hour prior to heading back to the ITC for the last couple of hours. 

From there I ordered a taxi to pick me up at half 3. When I got in I told him I wanted to go to Dharan which was met with slight suprise and then an 'OK'. Consequently we ended up back at the taxi office in Rahima and I had to wait for someone else to be summoned to take me that far. I'm not sure if it was because that guy wasn't allowed to go there by the taxi company or the fact that there was a good chance his car wouldn't make the journey but either way it delayed me by about half an hour. 

I think I'm becoming a lot more accepting of the terrible driving now thankfully. Whereas initially I was in shock and awe at what I was seeing, now I seem to anticipate and accept it. Getting down to Dharan I made my way straight to Applebys for a steak dinner. I ordered exactly the same as my previous visit with John and Serban (whom I still keep in touch with and are doing well if anyone is wondering) and sat eating alone. Being concious of preyer time after I had finished I quickly made my way out and headed into Ikea just opposite. Theres really no difference between this Ikea and the one near home other than everything has two labels - one for Arabic and one in English. The other difference is that during prayer time the staff disappear. This was quite annoying when you needed something and ended up going through the next two section and having to make your way back 20 minutes later (those familiar with the layout of any Ikea store will understand why that is so...). Eventually I made my way around, wrote down what I wanted and deliberately not being tempted to start buying minor furnishings that I didn't absolutely need, got to the collection area where you go find what you want. At this point a Saudi employee asked me if I was OK and if there was anything he could help me with. I asked him where the trolleys were and he asked me for my list. Seeing how many things were on it he suggested I make use of the picking service for $79SAR (£13) and let them go and round everything up for me. Sounded good so I did that. I paid with just a piece of paper and one or two minor items and went to wait to collect it. Following another prayer time (there are two just over an hour apart in the evening at the moment) my items were brought out and I took them over to the TNT desk. I arranged for them to be delievered on Saturday which was the earliest possible time and told them I didn't require the assembly service. This was met with confusion and mild contempt by the TNT assistant though for which I can only assume that my enjoyment of assembling Ikea (it's like a big jigsaw effectively isn't it?) combigned with the fact it was something to do was costing a poor Indian a few hours wages - oh well. 

After negotiating the price of a taxi back and having to then get him to turn around just before we got on the freeway (using wild gestures met with ignorant smiles due to a complete lack of English on his part and Arabic on mine - the negotiating had been done by entering figures on my mobile!) because I had realised I'd left my rucksack in the locker as I'd entered the store (something you have to do with any bag in any store over here), I returned home about 9pm in time for bed. 

After work last night I had to return to the bank. The assistant had said he would ring me with my account number but hadn't. Thankfully he remembered who I was and after a quick database search against my Iqama number wrote it down on a piece of paper. I thought 'Great, I'll e-mail that to Al Hoty and thats that sorted too now' but no. Apparently I need to give them an IBAN number which is a combination of the acount number, identifier digits, country code and bank number - all in all a 24 digit code. You'd think the guy in the bank would have known that I needed the whole thing and written that down too but no! I'll have to go back again sometime but I'll be back there to pick up my ATM card in about a week and theres almost a whole month before payday yet so no point making another special journey now. 

I'd ridden my bike up to the bank and so headed for the commisary on Najma camp afterwards to re-stock. It really is a lot better than Panda which I'm coming to loathe now! I even found protein shakes there, which when your going to go the gym every day for no other reason than just to kill time are almost essential to recover fast enough! I got home fully intending to make myself chilli and rice until I realised I hadn't got kidney beans or tomatoes so ended up taking a walk to Panda anyway... It was worth it in the end but had me annoyed at myself slightly until I asked myself what else I would have been doing anyway, at which point I stopped caring about my mistake.

A new guy turned up today. Craig his name is from Northampton, UK (although he's clearly not from the UK and is actually from Trinidad and Tobago) so at least tomorrow I'll either leave Tony to give him a final day farewell tour and go sit in with a couple of the lessons to get a feel for some teaching methods or help give him a bit of an orientation and at least get him up to speed with where I am so anything from now one I can have someone else to face it with. 

Anyway, for now that's about it. Chilli for tea again (leftovers), and then maybe a book or some Arabic to keep me entertained until bed time... The fun never stops!