Jaunting Along

Extracts from an email sent home just before we left Saudi Aramco for good -  Well, I am delighted that so many of you do read the, admittedly rather long, emails. But when else do I ever document what is going on in our lives? N-ever. So yes to all the queries, Fem has resigned from Saudi Aramco and we are embarking upon another new adventure. As to why? Well, there are the push factors and the pull factors, on both sides. Decisions are always multi-variate, particularly when you have now to take into account the needs of six people (including Doris), rather than those of the two who embarked upon the initial foray into the foreign territory of Saudi Arabia. We always came to Saudi Aramco with a five-year plan in mind. After five years Fem’s end-of-service benefits and amount we get to ship home change significantly – for the better – and it seemed like a reasonable time-line in terms of saving for the future and then getting out of here while the kids were still young enough fo...

There are some things in life that, in retrospect, you are glad you have experienced – once. Though possibly not at the time. Such an experience happened a few weeks ago, when we found ourselves camped, Saudi style, close to the airport and just off the highway. Having grown accustomed somewhat to the noise of airplanes departing, the incessant hum of the traffic and the highway lights blazing along two of our four horizons, we fell asleep, only to be woken in the wee hours of the night by young Saudi men going dune-riding in the dark, packed ten to fifteen in an open-backed truck. Our tents, full of seven sleeping children, were close to a road the young Saudis could have used, but didn’t, preferring, instead to traverse the desert, back and forth, in search of some excitement in their otherwise mundane lives. I suppose there is only so much coffee that you can drink in large, sprawling malls. After that you have to do something with all the caffeine in your system, so you may as w...