Moving

Well, I'm surrounded by a large number of very efficient men shrink wrapping my furniture to move us to Bahrain tomorrow....hmmm I'm also somewhat concerned about what we're going to sleep on tonight considering our bed is currently covered in three sheets of plastic and is about to be loaded on a truck! ...ve shall see

So while I'm sitting here feeling completely inneffectual I thought I'd load up a photo of some Calligraphy done by a Bahraini guy we know who is taking care of our visas n stuff. He turned up at our house the other night and gave us the most beautiful framed origional piece of work because I said that I'd love to see how arabic calligraphy was done, so I'm currently working out how to repay him.

I'm not sure what it means because my arabic is still on the monosyllabic-spoken word side of things but I'm getting there...I'll have to ask him.

So here goes,





On other news, our apartment is pretty much all done now (we've been getting bannisters, railings, curtains, plastering etc done over the last few months) and its completely dusty and filthy so its going to be a fun few weeks getting it into shape. I spent a whole day just sweeping yesterday and came up with three colesbags full of dust and sawdust shavings...fun! Although we still haven't got our phone or internet connected out of sheer can't be assed yetedness...probably going to do all that tomorrow afternoon but depends on what captian mover and his sidekicks decide.

We're also ramping up to Ramadan here, which means a lot of the local guys are starting to practice fasting so its not such a shock to the system. You already see a lot of guys walking around with these chewable stick thingies in thier mouths which are halal during Ramadan. It genuinely feels like its coming up to a major holiday like Christmas with the TV advertizing Ramadan sitcom marathons, movie marathons, publications for best ramadan recipes, you name it.

So in celebration of our official status as complete infidels AJ and I went to the bottle shop in Bahrain and stocked up to the max...Although I am suffering from some anxiety that we don't have enough for all the visitors set to come over and take advantage of us. Bahrain has agreed not to serve booze in the hotels or restaurants or to have the bottle shops open during Ramadan this month because the young Saudi guys used to head over and debauch insead of being devout and watching TV with the family. Actually, the cynacism aside, the editorials and letters to the editor in newspapers here are pretty heated in debating whether or not people have lost the real meaning of Ramadan in much the same way you get people bemoaning the loss of the meaning of christmas at home.

Anyways, I'm off to try and look like I'm not here around all these Saudi guys in my house who are pretending I don't exist:)

Thailand:)

So here's some pictures from Thailand. There's many other but I've got to go help a fellow lady through a quater life crisis with knocked up home brew cosmopolitans. I think I've uploaded firstly a picture of the Phuket Big Buddah, then some pictures of our room and the view from our window, ending with some charming pictures of Anja and Anthony having a blokey night out in an Irish pub on Patong beach. (Just don't ask). I'll publish some other pictures hopefully later this week, net permitting.

Barbie at the yacht Club.

Here's a few pictures of a BBQ/take out pakistani arvo we had at the RT yacht club a few months ago, the first picture is of AJ (obviously) and Craig Kingston, a fellow aussie bloke. The second is Anthony stealing Rex's (Craig and Aumi's son) bike and taking off on it and the third is of Aumi and the Khans...I think Aisha, Kamal and their daughter Maha are in this picture...

Miscellaneous Pictures of Saudi

So here's a few photos of everyday Saudi from the road. I'd love to take more out and about downtown but the authorities can get a bit feisty if they see a camera...so here you go.


This is a picture of the Saudi Causeway from the Bahrain side. The spaceship looking building holds a restaurant at the bottom just in case you want to catch sight of Saudi Arabia accross the water...




This is a picture of looking down the main streed headed into downtown Khobar.




MELONS! There are little utes all over Saudi arabia at the moment carting these juicy morsels to sell on roadsides. You have seriously never tasted watermelon until you've had it in the middle east. I don't know what they do to them but they're unbelievable!





This is a picture of a nursery on the way to Khobar that I find pretty amusing because its the Kangaroo nursery and all of the plants you get there jump off of lifes mortal coil within about one week of buying them.




Misc Road Signs




Below is a picture of one of the Rigs you see along the road wherever you go. This one was right next to the road so I could get a pretty good shot of it. It was shut down for prayer time when I took the photo so there are no evil henchmen wandering around.