"WHAT!!??", you say. "Is this going to be a more upbeat and optimistic blog entry today?". Has Pete the Pessimist finally been evicted and the locks changed??
Well, err ..... not quite. But Ollie Optimist is definitely in the building and seems now to be more solid in form than in the past.
"Where there is life, there is hope", some other wise speaker once said. And yes, I suppose in a sense I am slightly more optimistic today.
There have been some developments. A new possibility has been opened up. Not in Riyadh (THAT one is still as unknown as last time I wrote), but in another smaller Saudi city called Dhahran which is over on the north-east side of the country right near the Gulf Sea and quite near the border with UAE and with Qatar. All I know so far is that in summer it is INCREDIBLY hot and humid because of that proximity to the sea. AND the fascinating fact that it holds the world record for the highest 'dew point' ever recorded! Know what that is? Well, you're a better person than I am for sure! Go look it up!!
So the details are this: amongst my many CV sendings way back in late 2008 was one to another Middle East recruiter who recruits for Oman, Saudi Arabia and others in the region. For ages, they had had little contact with me except to do with the Oman job which, in the end, I didn't get after a hastily arranged interview on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago. Yeah, I was unprepared and quite frankly who WOULD BE on a Saturday morning with only a few hours notice. Anyway, they also had this other job which they had submitted my details for at around the same time.
Neither had produced anything until about a month ago with the Oman interview by phone (as mentioned). They told me I had been unsuccessful, and then suggested I fill in this form to be sent to yet ANOTHER prospective employer.
Now I found THAT extremely annoying. This recruiter who had done almost nothing was NOW, at end January, suggesting I start a whole new process with a whole new application with a whole new Saudi job!! As if I hadn't had enough delays already! WHY would I want to start from scratch?
Well, I told them this pretty much in my emailed reply. I said too that I wasn't going to say NO to this Dhahran job but I wasn't willing to start anything new at such a late stage. And I thought that would be the last I heard of them.
Not so! A few short days later they replied with something quite positive. I was told that the Head of Department who had been championing my cause and who was keen to get me on board HAD finally got his way with "the Committee" who had finally agreed that my application COULD proceed after all!
A little explanation is needed here. The thing is, Saudi employers like their English teachers to be "pure bred" arts degree graduates. An "infidel" like ME with, of all things, a SCIENCE degree is, for most employers out there, NOT going to get very far with his CV. Never mind the fact that I've been doing this English teaching thing more than 12 years now - no, no! JUST the fact that I have the "wrong" degree is enough for my CV to go to the Trash can.
Tell you what though - this is one thing that surprises me quite a bit. I am now being considered for TWO jobs in that country. And ME with the "wrong degree" too! How did it happen? Well, I don't know. But what I DO wonder is .... are the Riyadh lot reconsidering me now because of THIS fact? Well, with no information, I can only speculate.
Anyway, back to the mainstream. Dhahran, it seems, has opened up for me. According to what I've been told, it is only the medical and work visa which need to be completed. Those could take another 3 or 4 weeks.
ANOTHER THREE OR FOUR WEEKS??
Yes yes, OK. It IS a heck of a long time to wait. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was in England in a March - let alone a February. Ah, apart from 2007 and 2008. OK, so quite recent then - but those two years were more voluntary .... sort of.
So .... the situation is now this. It's a straight fight to the end between Saudi Employer no.1 (Riyadh) and Saudi Employer no.2 (Dhahran). To put it another way .... it's a battle between an Unknown Amount Of Time and a Possible Three Or Four Weeks More. The "Unknowners" may have the advantage of surprise on their side since, at ANY given time, they may turn up the goods and the phone call/letter/email might come to say that My Contract Has Now Been Received And APPROVED.
Oh yes, that's one more thing: the Dhahran job doesn't need the Saudi Ministry to be involved. And THAT will cut out all the Unknown Time that the Riyadh job has painfully put me through. WHY should one job require their involvement and the other not?? Anybody's guess I'd say.
I suppose that, as far as optimism goes, it isn't enough to bake a cake. But compared to the unknown amount of time left with Riyadh, it IS at least a finite amount of time left. No, of COURSE I do NOT want to STILL be here in mid March, which I will be. But at least there are signs of a distant spot of light at the end of this VERY long tunnel .....
.... or is that a firefly?
Hope is all I have, though you'd need a microscope to see it. Maybe I've created a micro-organism, a new species. I am TRYING to keep to that which I have quoted in my blog title header. But it is by NO MEANS easy!
Still .... I'm getting a lot of secondhand books in. And I found a nice cheap leather jacket at a charity shop. Oh, and a suit jacket too! THAT will do nicely for Saudi.
But I am yet to find a decent coffee shop in my part of London. Quite a routine I'm getting into - books into a plastic bag, on the bus to the Coffee Shop Of The Day ..... which tomorrow will be a new one. Yes, I am determined to find some good coffee in London. Wish me luck!
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