Gulf encounters: August 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Eid Mubarak!

The month of Ramadan is almost over. It will apparently end tomorrow night, if the new moon can be spotted somewhere in the Kingdom.

Fasting days will give place to the Eid-al-Fitr festivities, where families will gather, new clothes will be worn and money will be given to the children.

Ramadan is a very nice time for Muslims, it's supposed to be a time of peace, generosity, kindness. All the streets were decorated, there were many special offers in the shops, it would almost feel like Christmas in the western world.

Our local supermarket dressed up for Ramadan

The avenue at the corner of our compound, looking festive

Despite of all that, I must admit that I'm happy Ramadan is over, since it's a quite boring time for non Muslims: there's virtually nothing to do during the day, and the business hours are all messed up, some shops opening in the morning, others in the afternoon, and most of them only opening after 9 pm.

I wish Eid Mubarak to my Muslim readers, and I'm happy to get back to business as normal!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

As per Royal Decree...

This is the place where Richard used to work:

And this is where he works now:

It's still 120 km away from home, still in the middle of the camel-filled, greyish desert, actually, it is the same place!

Only, the mineral industrial city's name did not fully convince the King. So he changed it. So we've passed from a completely unpronounceable name (at least the way it's written in English is nothing but confusing) to a not-so-unpronounceable name meaning "good, charitable, indulgent, gracious".

And if you want to know more about it, just ask Wikipedia!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Tale of three brave suitcases

Once upon a time, three brave suitcases undertook a trip far far away across the ocean. They discovered many wonderful places and after a while, they decided it was time for them to head back home. So they went to the airport and explained they wanted to go home, so they asked to be sent to Bahrain. But the airport employers told them they first had to go to Mexico City, then find the other terminal, then go to Amsterdam, and then they could finally reach Bahrain.

"But, we can't walk!" they said.

"That's OK, we'll just write your destination right there so when you arrive at Mexico City people will take care of you to take you home".

And so they went. But arriving at Mexico City, they realized nobody really cared about them, and nobody picked them up.

The suitcases were sad, because they wanted to go home.

A couple of days later, someone noticed them and sent them to their next stopover: Amsterdam. But once in Amsterdam, people couldn't figure out where their home was so they were put in a storage room with hundreds of suitcases which looked just the same (black, upright design... like 99% of the suitcase population).

"D'you think they'll be looking for us?" one of the suitcases asked.

"Of course they will!" the other two answered confidently.

But as the days passed by, their hope diminished. One day, a big guy entered the storage room, forced them open and inspectioned every single item they were carrying (how embarrassing!). Poor Fragile suitcase was already so hurt, she had to suffer yet another mishandling. The suitcases were even deprived of the food they were carrying with them.

And one day, they were transfered from the storage room to a plane's baggage hold, were stuck there for eight long hours, arrived in Bahrain and were finally picked up and taken home.

They arrived so worn out they made their owners swear they would never have to travel again without a GPS tracker!