Procedure Procedure this is your Exit Time

Tuesday 16th February 2010
PHEW!! That was an ANGRY ending to yesterday's blog post. And quite right too since it REALLY did get to me and doesn't matter if last day or not it is still just WRONG what they are allowed to get away with. But I'll say no more now cos I think you got the picture.

Ahh onto more peaceful things. Ohh, and how could I NOT mention up until now the nice “goodbye” food made for us by “the ladies” of our department. They are so good at doing that kind of thing, and they excelled themselves last Tuesday morning when it was laid on. Well, we had already been told to be in the office for 11am as there was this happening.

I was there first. Kind of loitered for a bit till they saw me and then the other two came – AmericanMan and DutchBrit. Into the office of the one woman who doesn't share since there is more space there. And WHAT A NICE spread there was!

So what was there food-wise? Well now – I don't know the names of all these food things since I am not well up on Arabic food names. However, I have found a few sources on this online and some things that I THINK you will know are Hummus, Shawirma (gyro), stuffed vine leaves (dolmas), Baklava, Falafel, Taboula, and Cuscus.

Well, not all these were there. Of those that I know, there were houmous (maybe spelled hummus), the stuffed vine leaves and some kind of pastries which looked a bit like sausage rolls (but with other things in the middle). Oh, and there were larger, flat, rounded pastries which also had fillings.

Well, these are nice and tasty, they are not that spicy though maybe they could be. And one thing you can be SURE of is that they were in PLENTIFUL SUPPLY. One definitely POSITIVE thing to say about Arab eating is that they don't do things by halves and there is always food to excess.

Ah, and the last thing there was was cake. It seemed to be a kind of sponge cake with poppy-seeds in the middle though not too much. You COULD compare it with the poppy-seed cake that they make in Poland (the name of which is “makowiec”) but there is MUCH less poppyseed in the Arabic version (good because I don't like its taste!).

Well, this was all very nice. Ahh but they had a card and a present for the three of us too. It was a nice Goodbye Card with messages from the three ladies inside and good luck messages and email addresses. And then there was the present. Quite a lot of wrapping paper – three layers I counted and the last layer was crepe paper.

What was the present? Well, unfortunately I have to admit that although the thought was a nice one, it did not appeal to me. Basically it was a small, framed and crafted insignia of the Saudi Arabian palm tree and cross-swords. The first thing I noticed was that that it was not straight in the frame – the swords were wonky. Typical, I thought, they can't even get THAT right. I did not mean the ladies – I simply meant the people who made the insignia.

Obviously we all thanked them for all these things. But secretly I knew then that I would not be taking this home to England with me. Did I need any more reminders of my time here than I already had? For sure NOT! Even though it has only been a year, it is not one I shall forget in a hurry!

Well, we all sat there and ate and talked for a while. It was nearing lunchtime. I was still sure I was going to go to lunch despite all the food here (though I didn't need to).

One thing which happened was when we somehow got talking on the subject of the year that had gone by. And for some reason, DutchBrit decided to have a go at AmericanMan because of the fact that in semester one he had rarely been in his office when he was not teaching and, technically speaking, when he “should have been” there.

Almost NONE of the teachers are around in the staffroom when they are not teaching even though, according to the contract, we all SHOULD be there every day till 4pm. And why WOULD you be there just to sit on your behind doing nothing for the rest of the day?

Anyway, it was rather uncalled for this “rebuke” especially from the guy who had been very late back from his holiday THREE TIMES in a row causing disruption to HIS classes. And AmericanMan said so back to him, and quite rightly too. It passed long ago that DutchBrit had any “ammunition” to preach about OTHER PEOPLE'S so-called “violations” of contract. And YET he still feels he has the right to bring THIS topic up!

Well the argument didn't go very far as AmericanMan played it down and said we didn't really need to go on about this NOW on this occasion. And that was as far as it got.

It seems that the college still values his opinion. Apparently the Dean upstairs suggested he could make a list of Things To Improve Around Here, which he was happy to go and do. You know, I STILL can't make this guy out. The walls of his credibility are breaking down and STILL he feels he can make a contribution here. He is leaving a few weeks after myself and AmericanMan and on his grumpy days it is like he holds that against us.

I went in today to the college to hand in my ID card. And there he was moaning about how there was “no teamwork” around the English department and how nobody would take responsibility for anything. Huh! So what's NEW, matey! Was he surprised by this? Was it something NEW that had happened? Absolutely NOT, and yet he still grumbles and moans about it like it matters any more.

WHO THE HELL CARES I say!! yes, we know WELL what the faults and bad things are about this college we are in. But to HELL with it! We are LEAVING and as far as I'm concerned they can all drown together in their own “lakes” of inefficiency and chaos!

Ach enough of THAT. Anyway it was a nice last day and a very nice gesture from the ladies. I do hope they can make changes, though I very much doubt it. Actually I think there is more chance of a Saudi skier winning the Men's Downhill at the Winter Olympics right now in Vancouver, Canada! But there you go!

So anyway – all need to go into the college has gone. I have been quietly getting on with the business of my Exit Plan. All has gone smoothly, all signatures have been collected. Basically, so long as one keeps a cool head and doesn't let the nonsense of the bureaucratic process get to you, it is a simple process. All you have to do is “follow the yellow brick road” and do as the instructions say you need to. It is just a matter of signing out what the college may have given to you for the job (mostly nothing), getting the housing checked, getting your flight ticket, arranging your flight and Exit Visa, handing in ID badge and keys and stuff and arranging transportation to the airport on the day.

Packing too hasn't been too much of a burden. I have two nice big suitcases and a backpack for the laptop. Well, a few things I will not be able to take with me, but those you already know about – coffee maker, juicer, voltage transformer, kettle, three boxes of tissues and a few odd food items from the fridge. No big deal. Just a case of cramming it all in and making sure you can zip it up without too much risk of that zip breaking.

I feel sure I will be well over the 30kg that Saudi Arabia Airlines (Saudia) allows me to have. And then I am not sure WHAT happens. Will I have to pay a big, fat excess or not? I guess I'll find out on the day.

If I DO, then it will have to go on the credit card since I now have almost no Saudi riyals left. I HAVE now received my last pay cheque and yesterday afternoon I took it down to the bank. What I wanted to do was (1) pay it in, (2) get some British pounds for when I arrive in London and until I get my new ATM card, and (3) transfer the WHOLE of what is in my SABB account to the UK.

All was done! Took quite a long time, but got it all done. The only thing that bothered me as that I was trying to do this with only a copy of my Iqama and a copy of my passport handy. I had to go in to see the Operations Manager of the bank, and it was all OK as he pointed out that on the Temporary Iqama it was written (in Arabic) that all was OK and I was a fully “legit” kind of guy.

So no problem. Hmm – had I known THIS, I would not have bothered to go down the previous month to do the bank transfer. But I wanted to be safe, not sorry. If it had turned out that they would NOT allow a bank transfer, then I suppose I would have had to withdraw it ALL in cash and have the stress of carrying THAT all the way to London.

One slight thing that worried me for a while was that I would be rather short of money to last me my last few days here. As I wrote the bank transfer form, I realised that all I had was all that was in my wallet, and it wasn't a lot. With five days still to go, and with the need to eat, I could have had a problem.

Ahh, but thanks to the bank teller, I was able to have my last 70 riyals in cash. A slight miscalculation on HIS part meant that I could do that. We had to keep re-doing forms and there was the matter of the 70 riyal fee for doing the bank transfer which was forgotten about and then remembered and then … well anyway, I got those last 70 riyals as cash and WILL survive.

I am assuming that there is nothing else to be paid for between now and the airport. Nothing big anyway. There was a 50 riyal “airport tax” which I paid in the Finance Department. Some countries do have a kind of Departure Tax levied at airports which can catch you out if you are not aware of it, and I got caught a bit like that when leaving Thailand some years ago (luckily I had enough money on me!).

Thee is nothing else really to talk about. The only slight problem I have had with this signature-collecting was two days ago when the man in Human Resources was not there just before lunchtime to sign. I was told to go to the COLLEGE Personnel Department and look for this other man. He was not around - “on vacation” they said and gave me the name of ANOTHER man downstairs to go and see. THIS man, in turn, did not want to sign and his reason was unclear but I think it was just he did not quite know the process. Being given the runaround there, I gave in, but was told helpfully back in college that if I went back in the afternoon to HR near prayer time, then the man I was looking for in the FIRST PLACE would be there. And indeed he WAS, so problem solved!

All I have to do now is phone transportation to check that my Transportation Request HAS been received and they DO know I exist. I have also been advised to get my passport BEFORE I get to the airport, and this IS a good idea. If you remember, the procedure is that THEY meet you AT THE AIRPORT and only at THAT point do you receive the passport in your hand. However, ANYTHING could happen. Road traffic delays, an accident, the guy to meet me could get ill etc. etc. and then NO PASSPORT! Best to have it in YOUR hand BEFORE going there. Well, it is said they WILL give it to you if they trust you. So … would YOU trust this man not to run away and not to sneak back into the country for another job?

I'll leave THAT to your own initiative to answer … I'm SURE I know the answer already.

Not many more blogs to go. Not many more days. If I feel the need, I will write on Saturday morning which then WILL be the last in the series. There are a few things I'd like to close with. And a few “loose ends” that need tying ...

See you then!