How absolutely true those words of wisdom are. It's all you need to do! REALLY it is!!
OK, so I think now I can stop eating my humble pie. Don't want to put on too much weight now. Need to be in good condition for ....
THE GREAT DEPARTURE!!!
Hold on. Did you read correctly? Yup, you sure did. Like the sunshine after the rain, like pudding after yer roast beef, like the weather report after the news, IT IS COMING!!
OK OK, let's get down to reality for a while. No, in fact I don't ACTUALLY know my departure date and no plane ticket is yet in my hot little hand. Yes, there is still the matter of the work visa to be successfully got through the Saudi consulate here in London, which might well go belly-up. In fact, OK, yes you are also right that in actual fact I am at the same position as I was back on 24th December 2008 when I had just had Medical Examination Number One followed by the now infamous Interminable Wait Of Neverending Duration (which is still unchanged).
BUT .... I am still sitting here with a goooooood feeling in my head and a new, renewed, .... hmm .... optimism? Well, yeah in a very tired and battle-weary kind of way. Tomorrow when I wake up at a reasonable hour I will feel more YEEEE-HARRRRHHH than I do right now simply because a 7am wake-up followed by London intoxication isn't the most health-giving experience anyone could ask for.
In fact, my whole good mood was almost ruined by the crowds and CROWDS of ridiculously slow-moving, stopping and DAWDLING people who seem to think Oxford Street is a fun game for all the family. You know, I wish they HAD brought in that speed limit and those walking lanes that were rumoured down that road a few years ago. I mean, I ask you - WHAT IS IT with people who stand in the middle of the bloody pavement in groups talking or chatting as if they were on a mountain trek? Not to mention those people who you're walking behind fairly quickly trying to get through these stupid crowds who then decide to stop without ANY WARNING right in FRONT OF YOU!! Ohh .... and they're SO OFFENDED when you crash into them like you couldn't actually see they were there. Yeah well where were your BRAKE LIGHTS IDIOT!! And I'm talking about PEDESTRIANS HERE - NOT drivers!!
Bring back the freezing cold weather I say!! Walking down that same Oxford Street when it was biting cold was a doddle. Even lulled into a false sense of security and I found myself saying, "Ohh, Oxford Street isn't so bad these days!!"
To summarise, I HATE WALKING AROUND IN THE CENTRE OF LONDON!!
OK, nuff said there. Let's get back to the Good Mood of the day .... Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.
I think I already said in the previous blog entry that I'd had an email from the 'new' guys who deal with the Dhahran job who seemed to be FINALLY getting things moving. So, today I was due to get to their offices to see, sign and discuss the contract followed by the medical. So I was up early, got myself all ready and off I went. Actually I was so well organised that I'd got my passport photos done and was on the bus nearly an hour before I needed to be. Well, better THAT way than the blue-assed fly way!
OK, so got to my destination nice and early, followed my TFL map to the street I needed to be at and there I was at about 10.15am with plenty of time for a coffee. Last time I did the medical exam, I had decided not to "dirty" myself with coffee as it might affect the medical in some way. This time I guess I didn't think about it and had a coffee and very cocoa-rich cookie in a quiet little coffee shop at the end of Goodge Street. Didn't have much of a view outside except a big open space fenced off and the back ends of buildings which were definitely in some need of repair and looked like they really missed the other buildings they were once joined to. Not exactly naked, but it was as if they'd lost a vital other half of their existence and were embarrassed to be in public view for so long.
Coffee over, I wandered about a bit more and then in I went to the offices. As I approached, the enormity of what was about to take place was very much in my mind. Was this to be the most important morning of my 2009 life? A lot has depended on this Saudi experience for way too long now without bearing fruit and I have been numbed by it all. I was trying to tell myself that but instead I was jumping for joy. Something WAS actually happening for a change, someone inside those offices WAS actually doing something to help me. No more excuses, no more BS, THIS was actually gonna be IT!!
In and up the stairs. A nice Polish woman greeted me, showed me to the meeting room and asked if I wanted a coffee. How ironic, I thought, that my final connection to Saudi, my NEW destination should be through Poland, my old one! But how nice too! So, I had some coffee, got my notes out, visited the toilet and when I returned to the room, the recruiter was there to greet me. And again, a Polish man!!
He was prepared in some ways but not in all, but he managed to bluff those areas he didn't know about well enough. Well, I'd made a long list of questions about the job and the teaching which, to be fair, weren't really his area of knowledge. He would forward them to the Head Of Department, he said who would either email or call me back.
He had ready the work visa form, which quite surprised me but at the same time it assured me that things really WERE going to get done today. These last two stages - medical and work visa - were BOTH going to be dealt with in one session. GREAT!
Then the contract. PHEW - that sure WAS a MOUND of paper there! Never seen such a long document in any school I've ever worked, but maybe that's because I've never studied them before. Or maybe because the font size was bigger. Well, I supposed I wouldn't have much time to read it but I started anyway. All fairly standard stuff, but I was running out of time and had to speed up and get it signed before going to the medical.
It was all conducted quite informally, all was signed and work visa form filled in. So off to the medical for which I had to hurry a bit. Wasn't sure if that was such a good idea (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.), but better not be late for Harley Street Appearance Number Two. This one was the other end of the street, and I passed the one I'd been in before at the top end.
Got there a few minutes late, had to wait a bit and then up the stairs. Maybe I looked a bit shagged out, but the receptionist asked if I wanted to use the lift. Cheeky woman! OK, I hadn't shaved and my coat was a bit dirty, but the LIFT?? Ahh, maybe this is what nearly two months of stress has done to my face - that old battle-worn look.
Well it wasn't so far up. Knocked, and in I went to the doctor. A typical doctor-type I suppose - didn't smile I think even ONCE, instructed me to strip off down to my pants and go lie on the couch, which I did. All he did though was the blood pressure check and a few squeezes from my stomach downwards to see, I suppose, if there were any nasty lumps that shouldn't be. Didn't ask much except had I been in hospital at all and was I in good health generally. Oh, and he remarked that my pulse was a bit high. I explained that I had been under stress recently and that I had also run the length of Harley Street to be on time and he didn't ask more. You never quite know with such people if they don't ask more because they're SATISFIED or because they think you're HIDING something. Anyway, all was done, I dressed up and then it was over the road for the chest X-ray which, after completion, brought me back to that same doctor who looked at the X-ray, said it was OK, took some details and that was IT! Shook my hand again without any emotion and out I went. Nice and easy! But it all took much longer than last time - but it didn't matter. IT WAS DONE!
Out I went, and after another long wander and the Battle Of Oxford Street I mentioned earlier, I was on the bus home.
So .... all sounds pretty mundane but now it goes like this: my passport is going together with other documents and the work visa form to the Saudi consulate down in Mayfair. That will take a week or so and then I will return to the offices of the recruiter to collect it. It will then have a nice new, shiny SAUDI ARABIA WORK VISA inside it! And then? They get me a plane ticket and OFF I GOOOOOOO!!!!!
I can't believe i have FINALLY reached this point! OK, there is still the next few weeks to get through. But I am safe in the knowledge now that I KNOW what is happening and I KNOW the timescale involved and, lastly, I KNOW that I DO have the future I left my job in Poland for back in December.
Yes, now it is a different location in Saudi Arabia - the town of Dhahran. Basically it is an oil-producing town having around 95,000 inhabitants and it is on the north-east coast. The job and the contract and package that goes with it is very similar to that I'd been offered before - a little less money but more holiday days. And, quite frankly, a better location - I will not be stuck in the middle of the desert but will be by the sea!
Better watch the humidity in the summer!! Supposed to be something like 85 to 100 percent humidity at its height ....
(Benjamin Franklin, American Statesman)
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