Update required...

Time to catch up... 

Last time I posted I had just discovered the beach. As I said the only problem with it there is not being able to sunbathe. I'm now happy to report that this issue has now been resolved. There are two other trainers who live about a hundred yards away from my building who arrived not long after me. Over the last couple of weeks I've been helping them find their way around and get the basics sorted and last week the investment paid off when one of them who works in a different department found out from some students that us teachers are actually allowed on the Rahdwa campus where the students stay. It's a side-part of the Najma compound and has it's own facilities including six tennis courts, two basketball courts, two full size football pitches and most importantly a heated outdoor swimming pool with changing facilities that rival the best hotels I've stayed in certainly! The best of it is that at the swimming pool you can wear what you want and in fact sit around sunbathing in just your swimming shorts. Neeless to say since finding this out the last few weekends have been spent there...

I'm now playing football twice a week (Saturday and Tuesday evenings) and each time I play the aches and pains the morning after get easier and easier so I'm hoping that this is a sign of me returning to some level of fitness which has long since been lost. No doubt it will take a long while to get back to anything like I used to be but I have plenty of time. The football, coupled with the amount of walking, cycling, tennis, basketball and swimming I'm doing should have me looking like an Adonis in no time (or so I, along with all the others with similiar ideas, like to tell myself!). 

I bought another TV the other day. A 50" plasma LG one similar to the one Andy used to have in the flat a few years ago. Knowing what he paid back then for it I can honestly say the £300 I paid was a complete bargain (it was on sale I should point out but in general electronics here are a bit cheaper than back in the UK). I also bought a subscription package to BeIn sports which has all the coverage of the Formula 1, Moto GP (including practices etc), Premier league and World Cup along with all sorts of strange and random sporting events - the other day I watched the finals of the British Triathalon. The vast majority of the channels are in foriegn languages but aside from the sports there are the usual international ones (BBC world, Bloomberg, CNN etc) which are good just to have on in the background of a morning while I'm making my sandwiches.

The current quandry is now about whether or not to lease a car. It's just starting to warm up now having broken the 30 degreeC barrier in the daytime now and no longer dropping below 20 at night so even the 'relatively cool' slow cycle to work can leave you in a sweat. I've had to buy a basket for my bike so I don't have my rucksack pressing on me making it worse. Come a few weeks it will start heading towards the 40's apparently and wont be stopping there so the idea of even walking would be ill advised I'm informed by the guys who've been here a while. The options boil down to either leasing a car on a finance deal similar to home, renting one, or getting taxi's everyday. 

Most of the decision lies with how long I expect to be here. It almost certainly isn't worth leasing one if I decide to leave at the end of this 12 month contract. In the opposite sentiment renting one on a long term basis (whist not hugely expensive) would be costly beyond 6 months. Both of these options have the advantage however of being able to return the vehicle to the lease/rental company at any time. This is a valuable condition given that any permanent exit visa will only be issued provided there are no outstanding finanacial obligations against your Iqama (such as car ownership). The final option here, Taxi's everyday, is frought with problems. The most significant one is availability (there are only about 20 taxi's in the town and most of them are booked up for school kids meaning if teachers want one of a morning they have to be picked up at 6am (a time at least one of my neighbouring colleagues who may share the expense is unaware exists!). The other is reliability given their demand and additional dependance on the others your sharing with to drag themselves out of bed on time - something that has already been a minor issue and resulted in two of us leaving at 6:15am for work on our own because the others alarm hasn't gone off yet...

There's a bit of time to continue to mull over the positivies and negatives of each yet anyway and I certainly won't be doing anything prior to my first visit home, by which point when I return I will hopefully have a good idea if I'll be doing a second year. 

The last week and next has been teacher training. For the first time in 20 years apparently the course has been brought to the ITC rather than us go down to Dammam in taxi's every day. Last week was Phase 1 which basically involved a presentation using power point to a given format for 15 minutes and being one of only four native English speakers, I'm pleased to say I passed no problem. Next week is a variation on the same theme but requiring a demonstration of a physical item. To be honest it's all just a bit of a tick box exercise and had we actually been properly assessed I doubt half of the guys would have passed. I'm not entirely sure as yet how some of the Romanians are going to get on communicating with the Saudi's who struggle with English but we'll see. 

The board on which the trainers names and badges are displayed in the corridor of the ITC was updated last week too and shows that a few of the new hires (two Romanians and one of the British guys) are 'Senior Trainers' a job grade higher than those of us who are just 'Trainers' (including most the guys who've been here a while). Obviously it's just a title and there is no actual difference in job roles but it does mean another 25% of the salary. There's no merit basis to who is and who isn't senior, it's purely down to the fact that these guys were willing to refuse the first offer at the interview and walk away if need be - something which I certainly wouldn't have felt confident enough to do at the time. Thankfully, I don't care and the way I see it if I decide to stay another year and I can prove my abilities are beyond these others then I'll be in a position to negotiate a pay rise to that level (with the 10% pay rise on top that is the norm anyway). There are a couple though who seem to have taken the news in a less positive way (mainly the few that say they only want to do a year here and no more).

So to recap, I now have a relaxed job (which although has challenges unique to it's classroom environment, doesn't compare to the continuous danger of working on what is effectively a controlled bomb), sunshine all-day every-day, cheap costs of living (an 8oz rump steak is about £1.50) and as time goes by more and more of exactly the type of things I like doing to keep me occupied! Bad news for those back home but I'm not exactly dying to get it over and done with in order to head back to the UK...

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!

Settling in now...

Unfortunately it's now Saturday and over the course of the last few days I'm finding it difficult to pin-point the specific days anything happened. It's the inevitable downfall once you establish a routine I suppose. 

Each morning I get up at 5:20am, have a shower, get dressed, make myself either a bowl of cereal or scrambled egg (depending if I've been motivated enough to wash my one bowl and pan the night before) and head out to work at 6am sharp. Once there I'm typically met in the staff room by two of the English trainers and greeted in passing by the rest. After a coffee it's usually time then for everyone else to go to lessons leaving me and my mentor to carry on chatting about anything that pleases us. We check our e-mails (although being relatively new I'm suprised when I get anything and they are often about local events going on in the area sent to everyone) and my time sheet (which my mentor says is the most important part of this job!) and then resume the mission to keep out of the way and look like were being productive. To be fair quite often we are, although informally, with a few new words of wisdom during every conversation from him to me and we both enjoy comparing notes of our experiences over the years of where we worked previously. 

We'd been asked by the department head to do some proctoring throughout the week which although is very dull, makes me feel that at least I do have some use at this stage. Prior to our first one however, my mentor was asked to look after a class for one of the other teachers leaving me to go it alone for the first time. I was quite daunted by the idea initially, the thought of actually having to interact with the students of my own accord wasn't something that I was looking forward to at all. Nevertheless I make my way to the test room 10 minutes before the scheduled start and knocked on the door. A test administrator opened it and let me in, handing me a piece of paper with the names, ID numbers and an allocated workstation at which to take the test. When I had signed myself in and was ready he asked me to begin calling them in. Opening the door I was immediately met with over a dozen young faces all impatiently waiting for thei number to be called. Calling the first one a student stepped forward to the front. Holding up his ID I checked the name and number corresponded with that written on the piece of paper and told him his allocated number. After the third or fourth my nerves subsided and my pathological fear of public displays was temporarily overcome - something that I know I need to work on and I hope to make the most of this role to get over.

That evening my mentor and I decided we would meet up for a coffee and doughnut in Crispy Creme in hte middle of town seeing as I was too unwell over the weekend to make it previously. Insisting that it was customary not to buy on the first occasion (though I'm not sure this is such a long standing tradition enough to have developed such guidelines yet) he paid. Really this was no different to what we had spend most the last few days doing anyway. We sat there, eating our two doughnuts and drinking our coffees continuing where we left off as we'd parted ways at work. By now I wonder where we find the subjects for our conversations and beleive it's a miracle we haven't run out of things to say but in a new country so different to what either of us is used to and with so many different customs to highlight it may yet even be some time before the conversation truly comes to an end and in fact is even less liely given that there will be a few new UK guys arriving soon, thus beginning the entire affair again from the beginning, and the fact that my mentor will soon be gone anyway. 

On the way home from Crispy Creme I decided to see if I could find the bicycle shop. One of the other trainers has offered to take me there sometime to show me its location and did say it was on one of the tributarys between the two main shopping streets so each time I'm in the area I make a point of trying to locate it. Having not found it following extensive searching I'm starting to wonder if it's not just some back-alley place that only re-sells old rusty ones about 30 years old - not really what I have in mind. Although I couldn't locate the bike shop I did notice a corner shop selling sportswear with a huge 50% discount sign plastered over the outside. I decided to go and have a look at what trainers they had. 

I looked them all over one by one and decided on a pair that were less than $100SAR that would do fine. I asked the Indian shopkeeper if he had them in my size, which he did and I tried on. For some reason though they were tiny! The Cat boots I'd bought were only a size 7 and I'd asked the man here for an 8 but in the end after trying on a few pairs it was a 9 1/2 that was the right fit. Unfortunately though there were no pairs of the particular trainer I had singles out in such a size and asking what there was the man said only Addidas. All the Addidas trainers were typically double the price of the cheaper makes but having scoped them out in Dharan they were still cheap. At $250SAR (£40) they were still quite a bargain and I when I tried them on they were justifiably more comfortable than the cheaper make so I decided to go with them. I bought a top and some long shorts along with some sports socks and walked away happy. 

There's a gym in the ITC. It's not exclusively for teachers but apparently it's very rare to find a student in there. Because somebody on the local Najima compound gym had a heart attack (I'm not sure if they survived) and was unsupervised Aramco have stated that a gym supervisor must be present at all times and thanks to this the ITC gym is now restricted to opening only after 2pm. Still though, afternoon lessons finish at 2:35pm and the teachers are not supposed to leave befor half 3 so there is an hours windown at the end of every day to spend in the gym being paid! The equipment is all pretty new and top of the range, most of it you'd find at Total fitness back home in fact. Theres changing rooms and showers with lockers and because so few people tend to make use of it (why, god only knows!) you can leave your gym kit there all week and just take it home to be washed at the weekend if you like. The best part about it though is that the other guys using it are teachers and therefore not steroid addicted idiots trying to be the next Mr Universe. There's a small free-weight section with all the dumbbells nicely stacked on the racks perfect for any normal persons requirements. As you can tell I'm made up I've discovered this little gem of a place and makes it all the better that we're actually allowed to do it in works time (not that it wouldn't be nice to have it to kill time outside work too mind...). 

So far this week then I've spend the last hour of every day in there. Sadly though I had a baptism of fire on my first visit. I decided to ease myself in on the treadmill, doing 5 minutes at 8km/hr. An American guy in his 50's was on the one next to me and the young Philipino teacher who I had made friends with on my first day was on the third. I had my ipod in so couldn't hear anything going on around me and was in my own oblivious little world plodding along. At the 5 minute mark I increased the speed to 10km/hr and then at the 15 minute mark begain increasing it toward the 15km/hr where I intended to stay for 20 minutes. The next the was the machine lost all power and came to a stop. WOndering what had happened I took my earphones out only to hear the American next to me laughing. Apparently it turns out due to the electrical supply there can't be any manchine going faster than 10km/hr if theres more than one being used at a time! As I had been increasing it I had obviously tripped the breaker. It took about 15 minutes for the gym supervisor to find a building mainenance guy and a further 10 minutes to find the reset, by which time the American had given up and gone home. Although everybody else was laughing about it I have to admit I felt a bit sheepish. 

An added bonus (and one that was beginning to be much needed!) of buying my trainers is that I now have a comfortable pair of shoes to walk around in. As I'm typically walking for about 4 hours on average, not including when I'm in work) then it was starting to take its toll on my feel whilst wearing either my safety boots or my flat soled Box-fresh shoes. My mentor had told me about another small supermarket store on the Najima compound. The first time I had gone to find it he hadn't given me specific directions and I had just gone looking. Assuming it would be on the outher edge and that I'd see if from the road I had given up when I couldn't and ended up wasting about an hour walking around. After asking him the next day I had returned following his instructions and managed to locate it no problem. It turned out it was on the compound and just to the side of the main entrance gate there is a pedestrian access through a small gate-house (where apparently there should be a guard but I've yet to meet one) where you show your Aramco ID and you are allowed through. Officially your not allowed onto the compound without an invite and Aramco ID with the exception of this commissary store, however it soon becomes clear that entering via the pedestrian entrace and leaving via the main car park exit would land you on the far side of the camp check point at which point you would be free to go about at your leisure really - not that I have any particular desire to mind. 

This commissary store was far more westernised than Panda although sadly no where near as big. It did sell several recognisable brand names though that I hadn't been abe to locate elsewhere (PG tips and Bisto gravy being the main two). I stocked up on a number of things and made my way home again. As it's on the base there is little else between it and my own apartment so the walk always feels longer than that from Panda, along which there are numerous small outlets of all varieties, but when timing it it's actually almost exactly the same distance. The big advantage though will come when I source a bicycle as the roads are quiet down to there and will therefore be a lot safer so if I get a backpack too I can cycle there for my groceries in 5 minutes each way.

Last night (Friday night) my mentor text to invite me to Crispy Creme again. I met them just after the last prayer call at about 7:20pm. We stayed and chatted for about an hour and then went back our seperate ways (Al-Suaidi camp is in the opposite direction so it's a convenient mid-point anyway). I decided to stop in at Panda on the way back as everything is open till 10pm. It was quite busy and is obviosuly a time when families come to do their weekly shop but I intended to buy a small oven as by now I was getting a bit fed up of frying chicken or cooking mince in a pan. In the end I didn't bother with the oven but did pick up a grill toaster (like a George Foreman) along with a measuring jug, drainage board, a few plastic containers for food storage and most importantly deicded to splash out the $37SAR (£6) on a folding chair like you'd find with an OAP sitting in along Blackpool front. After a decent wait in line at the till I eventually paid and walked home carrying my bulky but not heavy items. 

The chair has since been the most thankful thing I've bought. After continuously not being able to sit anwhere other than on my mattress with my legs stretched out it's an absolute god-send! All of the items I bought in fact could by that point have been classed as 'critical' despite their usually oblivious nature. Last night, whilst talking on facetime to the family I had the pleasure of making myself some jam on toast with a cup of tea and actually sitting down on my chair to eat it - brilliant!

Back to work

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5:15am. With the best intention last night when I'd set it I turned it off and turned over again for another 5 minutes until the next one went off. 

I got out of bed and made my way through to the bathroom. I'd managed to locate a small DIY shop in town on my travels yesterday on the way back from buying my router on 'Man Street' (there are two roads running adjacent to one another nicknamed 'Man' and 'Lady' street though there is no particularly obvious reason as far as I have discovered yet) and purchased a replacement shower hose following literally ten minutes of translatory complications and the assistant handing me several different shower heads when I tried to gesticulate. Waiting for about a minute for the water to warm up I had my shower and got dressed. By now it was ten to 6. The thought of breakfast crossed my mind but realising it would only be a chocolate criossant which I could take to work I decided not to bother there and then. I made my way out the door and set off for the ITC. 

There are several different options when it comes to what route to take, each having good and bad points. On this occasion I had picked a decent enough route but ended up having to walk from one path across 20 yards of grass to another - I blamed poor planning on their part with the pathways. As I walked back up the road leading to the ITC (after having to cross what is effectively the end of the main freeway entering Ras Tanura - thank god it's not like Khobar here!) I saw an alternative entrance leading to a point inbetween the main ITC building and the portable classroom block. Daring to be bold and knowing I had time to spare I thought I might as well give it a go and potentially save myself a good 10 minutes walk to enter the ITC from where I had usually been dropped off by Ricky in the car around the back. It worked! The guard gave me a cursory glance from his hut in the middle as I walked by on the outer pedestrian pathway. 6:35am - 35 minutes then, bonus.

My mentor trainer was already there and had been since 6am along with one of the other UK trainers. who prefers to get in early and do any admin before the day starts rather than waste time he could be at home apparently. If my mentor wanted a lift from this trainer (who has been here for seven years and consequently has a car) then he has to come at that time too. 

Following the morning chit chat with me filling my mentor in on what had happened to me over the weekend (which is about as exciting as it gets apparently around here) we decided to get to work. I began to compile a document outlining each and every process within the job, whether it was for teaching, invigilating exams (which here is known as proctoring) or just getting books from the stores. Once I had compiled it with the help of my mentor I felt I had a really good grasp of what it was I was going to have to do and was ten times more comfortable about stepping into the alien environment of a classroom. We had several trips to the seating area outside with a coffee just as a means of keeping out of the way when my mentor thought we may get suddenly asked to cover a class or something and even took another trip over to see the younger UK trainer based over in the portable classrooms just to kill some time. 

We had a proctoring session at 11:40am of about 15 pupils. My mentor decided he would do the roll call and ID check and the exam administrator asked me to sweep each individual with a metal detector wand just like those in an airport - a strange experience I have to admit. Upon finishing within an hour we went back to our avoidance of anyone just to keep out the way, eventually calling it a day about 3:15pm. 

I made my way home via the same route I had used. Dropping my stuff off and a quick bathroom break I immediately headed back out the door. I'd been given very rough directions to the Caterpillar shop in town and had to buy some steel toe capped shoes. After about 15 minutes I eventually found it on one of the tributaries between Man and Lady streeet. I'd looked in the Cat shop in Dharan and seen some steel toe-capped shoes ideal for the classroom for about $250SAR but they didn't have quite the same selection and I ended up with a pair that resemble hiking boots instead. Still comfortable and a bit more expensive at $310SAR (about £50). I bought a couple of pairs of thick socks from there too and a couple of t-shirts as by now I'd run out of clean clothes. 

I headed back via Panda to pick up some more bits and bobs but typically arrived just as prayers began so gave up and went striaght home again. I decided half an hour later to venture out one last time for the evening and see about getting some washing done. I couldn't remember the exact location of the laundrette but I knew one wouldn't be hard to find here. Sure enough only a few hundred years and I noticed what was quite a large one. I entered and the man behind the counter welcomed me in. He took the bag of clothes I'd brought and immediately emptied it out on the counter. Two Saudi gentlemen walked in at this point and a discussion took place in Arabic for a couple of minutes between the shop assistant and these men with my Hugo Boss boxer shorts sitting atop a pile of clothes now strens across the shop counter. Upon finishing the conversaion the man began sorting and counting each individial item. He asked what I wanted dry cleaning and what I wanted laundering so I seperated the good things out and he resumed his tallying. 37 items in total and he handed me a slip for $114SAR (£18)! Bargain... I won't be buying a washing machine or an ironing board.

I ventured to one of the small local supermarkets for the few things I had wanted earlier from Panda and found most before returning to my apartment. It was now about half 8pm so I did a bit of blogging for a couple of hours and called it a night...

The weekend turnaround

Thankfully it was now the weekend (Friday & Saturday here). Not that it meant anything significant like it really would at home for I've yet to discover anything to do to get excited about doing even if I wasn't crippled with food poisoning (self diagnosed but confirmed by the pharmacist afterward). It did mean I could remain in the flat and even better, in bed. I know that sounds incredibly bone idle but I will point out again that I have nowhere to even sit other than the matress anyway (I am on it as I type in fact propping myself up against the wall). 

Friday was indeed a write off with again only a single venture to Panda for more basic supplies. I was still as bad as the day before with regard bathroom trips (and by now I wasn't sure where it was all coming from!) but the aches and pains had dies down which gave me hope the medication was working - or at least the one for that particular thing anyway... By Saturday morning though I felt perfectly fine again. My stomache had calmed right down and I wanted to make the most of it and get some fresh air. Conscious of having told the department head I was sorting out my flat I thought I'd go and actually try to make progress so grabbing my wallet I went on a mission.

I came back with a brand new fridge for $650SAR (just over £100) and a second hand air conditioning unit for $600SAR which I had the guys install in the kitchen. It's most likely I'll have to buy two more untis when it gets warmer but I thought I'd see how I get on with just the one for now. After they'd installed it I went back out again to go and get some fresh milk and a few other bits that I could not refrigerate (another thing I think people take for granted until they lose it). I scoured Panda as best I could (once they let me in because it was prayer time when I got there so I had to wait 20 mintues) but all I could find was a pack of 12 spoons to make do with for the time being. 

As I was leaving I had a phone call from Ricky saying he was at the apartment and had my Iqama! Such a fantasic suprise because it was my ticket back to wifi and civilisation by proxy. He drove to meet me and then dropped me off outside a store which sold routers so for $1100SAR (£190) I got a 4G router (they don't have landlines here so everything is 2G, 3G or 4G) with a 12 month unlimited SIM card. No suprise then I couldn't get it out of the box and turned on fast enough when I arrived back at the flat. 

I rang home and ended up spending hours on facetime to my Mum, Dad and Nan which really just topped off a day that had turned me right back around again. By the time I had finished, made myself spahetti bolognaise for dinner (which was lovely) and was ready to turn in for the night I was really looking forward to getting up at half 5 and going back to work again.