Another weekend of fun fun FUN!!

Thursday 2nd April 2009
“Another Saturday Night And ....”

So sang Sam Cooke about 40 years ago. Well I wonder what he would be singing right here in Saudi Arabia in my position. I mean, there IS no option of having “anybody” around other than those people you work with. No, I don't dislike them – they're a very pleasant, amiable bunch of teachers. But you know, it's like all the time I am around the place I work, I see the same kind of people every day, I see the same buildings, I walk the same routes, I do the same things. And STILL I haven't started teaching yet. Well, that will come I know, and it isn't really the thing that bothers me as I sit here tonight.

It is another weekend. Yeah Yeah – you know by now that the weekend here is Thursday/Friday so don't pretend you don't understand that by now. Here the weekend is the time to get away from the confines of the compound and go down town to Khobar to the Shopping Mall Of The Week.

Shopping malls .... used to try to avoid them. Now they are the only entertainment there IS round here. Well, maybe there are restaurants and other eateries – and indeed there are many on view as we drive around in the various taxis we get around town. I say “we” as I mean myself and the other new guy. Oh, there is YET ANOTHER new guy who arrived midweek and also had problems on arrival. Ah, but not problems with not being met at the airport this time. HIS problem was non-arriving luggage. But maybe he's got it back now.

Anyway, so today's shopping mall activity involved the English-language book store chain, “Jarir”, of which there are at least two around town. As well as English language books (and the books the college uses for students), it also sells laptops and other computer accessories.

Now, before I go on, I should say that I have now signed up and paid for the DSL internet service that right now is the only option for new arrivals in SA until I have the “Iqama” (residency permit). As I understand it, after I have this Iqama I will have more options of longer-term contracts for things like internet service and the like. Well, that's what I assume since in Poland they wouldn't let me have a monthly contract for pay-by-month internet like in the 'Play' Mobile Phones office I tried. So I suppose the same applies here.

Options for having internet here seem to be:-

1) Zajil DSL – much hated and much cursed by everyone who has used it because of LOTS of downtime. Not much of a choice in speeds either and the top speed is only 512kbps which, by today's standards, is pretty average. However, is is easily available and easy enough to set up. But you need to have a DSL modem.
2) Orbit Satellite TV/Internet – satellite internet can be very fast indeed BUT it is VERY expensive to set up AND use. Too expensive to justify really.
3) STC/Mobily plug-in USB dongle Wireless – this is actually my most favoured one since no connections or wiring or engineers are needed to get going. Just a USB dongle, a simcard and some kind of account which I believe is pay-monthly. I don't know if they do a pay-as-you-go service. Neither of the websites is at ALL helpful in getting info on this. Most likely it is pay-monthly which probably would require an Iqama to allow an account to be set up.

NOT brilliant any of those! Well, I have opted for the Zajil option for now and I paid my money late last week. It is one of these packages which includes the DSL modem at a vastly inflated price. However, since my only visits to town are on a weekly basis, I didn't want to waste any more time or have any more delays on setup. So I paid my money, and A LOT OF MONEY it was too.

Today I was in the 'Jarir' book store with the other guys. And what did I see? DSL modems galore at prices from less than 100 riyals. The DSL modem that Zajil provide is 400 riyals. I had lost 300 riyals in one weekend of being too hasty in my choice! How DEPRESSING is THAT!!

300 Saudi Riyals is almost 60 pound sterling in the UK. Yup, 60 pounds I had thrown away just like it was water down a drain.

And seeing as I'd decided to try Zajil for only 3 months it made each month VERY expensive indeed (actually I have now found out that I am getting 4 months, ie, one month free. So this softens the blow somewhat!). Assuming the reputed rubbishness of Zajil continues, I will be throwing even MORE money down the bloody drain due to lack of access.

I hate finding out that something I have been looking for is cheaper elsewhere. And here it is a case of being 75 PERCENT CHEAPER!!

So that was it for the day really and I didn't care what else happened. It is one thing to be in a strange, foreign land like this but totally ANOTHER to be wasting the money that is to shape my future, and I don't mean a small amount here.

Something else interesting that I saw in this 'Jarir' was wireless internet network boosters that actually increase the range of your WiFi so you can latch onto wireless networks from further away that your existing WiFi card allows. But I wasn't sure if they were the things I needed or not. There IS one wireless network that I can see with the WiFi card in this laptop of mine, but currently it is too distant and the signal is too weak. Would I get it better if I had this booster? No idea at all. And the wireless network boosters in question were not cheap enough to take a risk with and buy.

Ah, and there was another thing that annoyed me too about the supermarket we were shopping in. I have seen “Carrefour” before plenty of times so it is nothing new. THIS one was packed with lots of stuff and looked good for some things but not, in fact, for all. I did manage to find some bread which looked OK (walnut bread and so-called 'Special Diet Bread'!!??). But the only cheese they had was Dutch Edam, Gouda and Emmental – none of which I like. So it was looking like I was going to return home cheese-less and have a whole week without any cheese at all which would be VERY bad news indeed! Yes, I do need my comforts. Ah, and speaking of those, I regret to say I bought lots of chunky Kit-Kats, two packs of Galaxy Caramel bars and two packs of McVities Hob Nobs biscuits. Very bad, but they will act as my comforters in these testing times to come.

As we were going home, we also stopped in the Tamimi's (Safeway) supermarket. It is much smaller than Carrefour or Hyper-Panda or the other big super / hypermarkets in Khobar centre. But I must say now that I really LIKE IT! They have great cheese, an excellent bread selection AND it is generally a smaller and more manageable supermaket where you are not overwhelmed by aisles and too much choice and it is not so in-your-face either. MUCH better! It is a little further to go than some others, but well worth it!

Buying the cheese and bread there And many other essentials that I failed to find in the Carrefour maze perked me up a little. Well, one thing I DON'T want to do here is become any more lost than I feel already. A bit of familiarity works wonders to help the time go by sweetly!

Got paid of course a few days ago. The process involved getting the cheque from Finance and taking it to the SABB bank (a renamed HSBC), picking a number for queueing purposes from the ticket machine, waiting (inevitably!) and then taking the cheque to the cashier. Well, we waited nearly an HOUR till our time came to get in the queue. But once there, I found the process quite painless. Just handed over the cheque together with my ID and the money came. The other guy had a bit more trouble for some reason – the cashier asked him for a mobile phone number!!?? WHY on earth should they want THAT just for cashing a cheque?? They didn't ask me after all! Is it some kind of security precaution in case the cheque is fraudulent? I suppose so.

The weather this week has been more of a challenge. Apart from seeing my first RAIN in Saudi Arabia (was very warm evening rain, and also there was rain at night and in early morning early in the week), there has been a large dust cloud around for most of the week. It looks like simple fog, but it IS dust because you can smell it and it gets EVERYWHERE. Makes breathing tricky too. On a couple of days too it has been much more humid and difficult to get around easily without a lot more effort than normal. Humid heat is a killer. Last Saturday especially was a bad day for this and I found that the usual to-ing and fro-ing which is a part of the day here was that much more difficult to do and my mood was that much worse than normal and I felt much more restless in my chair than normal.

Ah, by the way, if you're waiting for a report on when my class is due to begin, you'd better stop here. The latest info I have is that it “might” be Sunday or Monday. So this week I have, again, had nothing at all to do. Ah, but this week I have got by more easily. The answer? Crosswords and Sudoku! And I have never done Sudoku before in my life .... which shows because I cannot do anything more than the 'Easy' level of Sudoku puzzles without messing it all up after a while. And although Crossword #1 I did most of, numbers 2 and 3 proved to be much more difficult to get far on. Maybe I'll try an easier one next week .... or maybe the challenge is one worth rising to. Yes, I will take my thesaurus-dictionary in next week and that will help.

So now I have got quite a routine going. Week 1 was (after the medical and registration) tea drinking only with some talking., Week 2 I added book reading to my pastimes, but it was difficult to keep a book going for long. And last week (Week 3) I improved things further with crosswords and sudoku! So now I am fully armed, dangerous and fully prepared to go on as long with this tedious waiting as is necessary.

Aside from work there is this Recreation Center which contains a weights room, ten-pin bowling alley (four lanes!), table tennis tables, pool tables, table football, a cafe and a swimming pool next door. I have now submitted my application for a membership card which is actually academic since they let you in anyway! Have tried table tennis so far which, sad to say, I have been soundly beaten in. But it's the taking part and the exercise that counts, isn't it? The thing I'm really interested in is the weights room so I can get some proper exercise done. After all, I don't get the walking done here like I used to do in and around Krakow centre to and from lesson locations. And NO WAY will I be getting back to that 95kg blob-guy that I used to be about a year ago.

I just need a gentle “push” to get started .....

Oh, before I finish, I managed to get in a couple of short Skype sessions on the “internet computer” at work. Managed to speak to a couple of people, and that was nice they were there. This is something I am REALLY missing out here – keeping contact with those at home and those I know. Isolation Blues ..... :( But soon I will be Connected again :)

Oh, and one more thing. I do now have some picture postcards to keep as souvenirs and to send to people as well. Decided too that, as I can't take any pictures, I have to start a scrapbook like I used to do in early years in Poland. So far, it is comprised of only shopping receipts, my baggage tags (I think) and the remaining postcards that I do not send to anyone. And I did buy a LOT! So you never know – one may be coming YOUR way some time soon ....

Oh dear – this is now getting all very bitty as I am tired but keep just remembering things I have to write about. And THIS thing I'm now writing could be a serious problem. For some reason, my music player will NOT charge up. Even NOW I have it plugged in via USB to this laptop. The red light is on but no charging is taking place and I have NO IDEA why that is. I have tried it with my new USB hub, I have tried it plugged in exclusively to the USB port but it WILL NOT CHARGE UP! Is its battery dead? Is the voltage level not enough to charge it coming from the computer? Will I lose all my music like a similar thing which happened with my Palm Zire all those years ago? I don't think I will since my music player is a hard-drive based MP3 player rather than flash memory or card memory. Maybe I need to buy a separate charger here. But I don't know the voltage! WHAT TO DO?? The laptop does recognise that it exists but it does not show up in 'My Computer' when it is plugged in like now.

Without my music, things can only get worse so FINGERS CROSSED that I can sort THAT out VERY soon!!

OK, time to end. Friday awaits which means a lie-in and lots of washing and drying throughout much of the day. YIPPEE I can't want!!