January 2011
9 posts
Lunch with Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown, in front of two to three hundred university academics and teachers, starts explaining the premises of The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den. I look around the room for sniggers or surprise. Nothing, just me then. While I creep round the back of the room to get a better position with my camera, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Is he really describing the rules of Dragon’s Den? Yes, he is....
King Saud University, Riyadh
King Saud University Preparatory Year Building. The main university campus is behind this area - its huge, a small town in itself. The Preparatory Year Programme is a one-year course which aims to prepare students for their degree courses on the main campus. During the year they study English, Maths, ICT and Critical Thinking Skills. Many believe it reflects the new direction the country is...
Booze Torture
Nonalcoholic beer in the supermarket. Budweiser, Holsten, Efes… WHY BOTHER?! It’s like smelling a bag of coffee but not being allowed to drink it. Or like having the Internet but not being allowed to look at the good bits. Oh, hang on, ….
Killing time at King Saud University
Many people who come to Saudi Arabia to work return to their countries a belt size or two larger and it’s not hard to see why – no pedestrian areas, a car-based society, the full spectrum of fast food restaurants and few public sports facilities (they exist on expat compounds, where you have to be signed in, and at pricey hotels). There is another factor though, and that is boredom. It’s commonly...
Blacking Out
Sometimes it’s done artfully to the edges and looks like the person is wearing a wetsuit, other times it’s scrawled or scribbled carelessly leaving the orginal visible beneath the marker pen (defeating the object). Even though I was warned during an induction on arrival, it was still shocking to see the blacked out figures in a shop when I was looking for a multiplug adaptor the...
Dinner in Riyadh
Phil, Ed, Mike, and me in ‘Usmania’, a cheap-as-chips Pakistani restaurant. Best food we’ve had yet. An important find among the rows and rows of US fast food chains.
Saudi Riyals
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
After a year and a half volunteering in Ethiopia and a further six months signing on at home in the Fens in East Anglia, my bank account needed some love and attention. When I received a call in October offering a tax free teaching job in Saudi Arabia, I only had to think for a few minutes. It definitely wasn’t on my list of places I wanted to visit and I’d told myself I’d ground myself in the UK...
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Cold mornings in The Fens