We had an early start yesterday. I'd set four alarms to make sure I got up, on three different devices. Half 7 I got up in the end after alarm number three. It had been another night of not getting to sleep before about 2am and the furniture being moved for cleaning etc. I keep getting annoyed about it whilst trying to get to sleep and telling myself I'm going to say something in the morning, by which time I've calmed down and it doesn't seem worth the hassle anymore... Typically English. After my shower I rang John to make sure he was awake (he was just about awake enough to answer the phone), got changed and went downstairs to sit in the lobby and type up the events of the day before. It wasn't long before I was interrupted by Serban (the Romanian whose name order I'm now totally confused about!) joining me. John was only a few minutes behind anyway wearing the same shirt he'd had on yesterday. His usual wardrobe only includes shirts for special occasions and nights out with the boys it seems and I think he's used them both up.
We were picked up by Ricky just after 8:40 and taken to the ARAMCO ID processing centre about a minutes drive away. It's right next door to the Saudi Interior Ministry for Petroleum and Mineral Reserves which around here must be the top dog! Ricky made sure we all had our seat belts on this time. ARAMCO have a strict on-site policy and he would be responsible if we didn't. I already had mine on anyway and so did John in the front but Serban couldn't seem to understand the concept of wearing one in the back of the car - apparently not customary wherever he'd been... We sailed through a checkpoint upon entry onto the compund and proceeded straight to the building for ID processing. This was our first impression of ARAMCO and I'd heard a lot of hype. They really do carry god-like status here.
It wasn't disappointing. The ID processing centre, which back home would have been done by the security guard from behind his desk, was a nice clean waiting area like a doctors clinic big enough for about 50 with five numbered doors behind which men at desks with cameras took pictures for ID cars and a room at the side with two men processing fingerprints. Ricky told us to have a seat and went to the front desk to do all the processing for us. There were all sorts of people there as you'd imagine. ARAMCO employs over 80,000 people so the number of ID's being turned over must be pretty high. There were only about thirty in total here today so it didn't seem busy but with their strict policy on what is needed to get one it's impressive that it runs so efficiently.
As we sat there it would have been a perfect time to continue with the blog but I was stuck in the middle of Serban and John and didn't want them reading what I was typing at this point to protect future experience from the Hawthorne effect. They're both aware of the blog but neither has expressed any particular interest in it other than John asking me 'how many pages is it?'. Eventually we were called through one at a time. When I got to the finger print scanner the old Saudi guy said "I want to ask you a question". I though 'here we go, what have I done to stand out now?' He just wanted to know why so many westerners he'd seen had tattoos though. I kept trying to say I didn't really know and that I didn't have any but he wouldn't relinquish his persuit of an answer. At this point I told him it was a form of expression, or at least tried to because his English wasn't particularly brilliant. Eventually he just said OK, clearly not understanding what I'd told him and said to me "my skin has many colours as given by my god, why you want to change? Is not a good thing Mr Chris." Once he'd brought religion into the conversation I decided to politely nod and go along with his opinion anyway. Luckily I was just about done. After a picture and another 10 minute wait Ricky said we could leave now.
Serban wanted to go to the Extra store we'd been told about after getting frustrated at what was on offer inside the mall and it's prices. He was most unhappy about not knowing where he would be staying and hence not knowing what, if anything, he needed to buy while there before making the 2 hour drive to the area of his training school in Al Mubarraz. Understandable, but if he'd have done his research beforehand he'd have known that's how it works therefore I was taking quite a chilled approach (plus I'm only 40 minutes drive away from here anyway not a big deal to come back again luckily). Apparently the store was about 3km further than the hotel and Ricky was a bit uneasy about driving anywhere he'd not been instructed by the office to do so. Serban was quite insistent though and Ricky eventually had to give in, afterall we were the clients here. We said we'd get a taxi back. When we got there it was basically like Comet back home, full of all the usual electrical appliances. Not actually intending to buy anything John and I spent about half an hour meandering through the isles looking at huge TVs and posh gadgets followed by a brief glance through the domestic things like irons, fridge freezers and kettles just to get a rough idea of the prices. To be honest John took no interest at all after the TVs. This approach of researching anything before jumping both feet first isn't in his DNA.
Now approaching half 11, having not had as much as a cup of coffee so far and John commenting on it every 2 minutes, the pair of us decided to leave Serban browsing to go and find somewhere that would sell snacks and drinks. We saw a guy with a take away Costa cup and headed in his upstream direction. There was a large home accessory chain store (which I'd never heard of) next door with the Costa at the back corner inside. We went in and walked straight through to it, ordering an Americano for myself and a Cappuccino for John with a couple of cookies. As we were being served the call for prayer came over the tannoy. If this had been a small outlet then we'd certainly have been asked to leave but this was a big chain store staffed by Philipinos which led to uncertainness between us. We decided to air on the side of caution and took our purchases outside, after all it was about 20 degrees and just perfect for sitting in the shade outside. I'd packed my half baguette into my bag as I'd left that morning just for such an occasion and offered to split it with John. I think he'd been eyeing up a big piece of cake until I say I'd pay for coffees after he got the juices the other night (which weren't cheap) and instead just got the cookie out of guilt. He didn't want it anyway he said, although again I think this was just him being polite.
As we sat with our refreshments we started talking about how we'd both ended up here, our interviews down in London, and what we'd been told about everything after them. Then John started telling me about the times he'd worked abroad. He'd only done it twice and both times had flown out to meet ships, sailing back on them while doing the work he had to. Every night of it had been a party and on the second ship he'd gotten ill from alcohol poisoning and had to get off for medical treatment before returning to find he'd been replaced (such is the life of a contract welder it seems). After that he'd spent a month partying with mates in Thialand before returning to a job welding pre-fab untis for ships down near Portsmouth and then applying for this position some time later.
Serban rang to say he was finished looking, complaining quite inisistently about the shelves being dusty (not that we had noticed and certainly no worse than back home) and the fact that they didn't stock the Samsung Galaxy S5 (which turns out doesn't yet exist). John and I thought it was funny. We saw a taxi driving across an adjacent car park and hailed it down. After negotiating the price down from $50 to $40 we got in. Up until now we'd only experienced Bandoy or Rickys driving and had been concerned enough at them for different reasons but this guy was far worse! A combination of ignorance and incompetence is the only way I can describe it. Several detours from his clearly desired route were taken along the way because he couldn't quite force his way over the three lanes in time to make turnings - anticipation and planning ahead were not his strong point let's just say. Thankfully we made it back in one piece, splitting the fare. We considered going back to the mall again for food but I wasn't particularly hungry and the cookie had been enough to get John over his dire need for sustenance it turned out. He decided he was going to go for a run and invited me. To be fair he doesn't seem the fittest of guys so I think this was the start of a New Years resolution whilst here with no alcohol to get fit and decided against it. Firstly for the fact that it was almost guarenteed to be no more than a gentle jog for not very long in this heat, secondly because every few hundred yards was a junction to cross and it would be continuous stop/starts, and finally because it dawned on me my trainers had been culled in the necessity of fitting my stuff in my cases anyway - the perfect excuse. Instead I sat in the hotel lobby making use of the free wifi to catch up with facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, e-mails and type up my blog entry.
Now I'm back where I left off after last time... I'm quickly pressing save!
By the time John had decided he was going for his shower and I was done calming down from my idiotic error it was about six o'clock. Time to go back over to the mall. Once again, just as we got near the food court the call for prayers... I really need to get my head around prayer times but following set intervals between dawn and dusk they change daily and have so far been difficult to predict. Anyway, we decided to go outside to wait. Whilst sat there two guys came up to us, one of them white and the other of Indian descent. They asked us if we were British and turned out Steve (the white guy) was an Electrical Engineer from Portsmouth and Carl (the Indian) was a Project Manager from London. They were with a Philipino friend Janus who was also an engineer and lived in Reading. Carl was an Al Hoty employee with not very many positive things to say about them. He'd been here three weeks and worked in Abu Dhabi for three years before spending a few back in the UK not working. When he'd run out of money he'd decided to come here.
Up until the other day it turned out he'd been staying in the hotel room next door to John but was now living in an apartment block about a hundred yards away. There'd been a processing error with his Iqama application saying he was South African and so was having to get it all changed. Telling him it would take 8 months, he'd said to Al Hoty to send him home, so then they said one month... I don't know what it is about fast talking cockneys but he didn't come across as someone to take without doubt so again I just went along with what he said about it and agreed, deciding not to believe anything until I'd found out for myself. Out here you hear so many conflicting things it would be silly to take any one persons opinion on anything anyway. Speaking to Steve, who was a lot more down to earth, was more productive. He was about to move out to a refinery project a few hours away and had been given a company car. Both him and Carl did say not to take Al Hoty at their word about having to always surrender either our passports or Iqamas at any one time as the law had changed now and to get our wages paid back to our UK accounts so that if anything went wrong it wasnt tied up here. Both these points seemed quite alarmist and as it turned out the pair of them had no intention of doing more than a year no matter what and held almost everything in Saudi Arabia in contempt being quite upfront about only being here to collect a pay packet before moving on so this tainted their opinion further. I can understand why people like that are the way they are but I prefer to stay open minded about the future and see what it holds and John is definately of the same opinion claiming to want to spend the next 20 years here before retiring back to the UK!
The five of us went to the food court for dinner and then to the Carrefour briefly before splitting up and going our separate ways. Getting back to the hotel we met Serban at the entrance. He said he'd had a headache and was getting some fresh air, blaming it on the room being too cold. I'd had one earlier in the week and suspected more to do with dehydration from spending a lot of time in air conditioned environments compared to usual. We all sat outside for about 2 hours and got drinks from a posh cafe right opposite. I saw a fresh orange juicer and had a glass of that knowing I'd never sleep if I had coffee after a day of not really doing much anyway. Upon my return John decided he wanted one too, after initially refusing the coffee idea, and went to get one for himself. I started asking Serban about his previous employments although the only thing he was interested in talking about was Nigeria. He clearly wishes he was still there for numerous reasons, mainly revolving around the cost of everthing there. I'd previously noticed a wedding ring and asked him if he had family back in Romania. He said he did and then immediately started telling me about his 2006 Freelander - "the one from joint venture of BMW and Rover" he said. "Very good car, better than new one". Not wanting to argue I nodded and said "OK".
Shortly after we decided to head back to our rooms. Turning on MBC2 to see what film was on and finding Seargent Bilko screaming at Private Pile I decided I wasn't in the mood for it and started watching one on the ipad but only getting about 15 minutes in before deciding it was time to go to sleep.
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