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!

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!

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!

"Fragile" in airport jargon actually means: hit me!

Apparently tortillas and Mexican sweets are dangerous  (thank God KLM is watching my weight!)

¡México lindo y querido!

Mexico was...

Huge

Taking off from Mexico City

Delicious

Breakfast in Mérida: chilaquiles and huevos a la mexicana

Green

Riding free bicycles in the historic centre

Amazing

Lots of flamingos in Celestún, Yucatán

Prickly

Henequén fields in Yucatán


Eccentric

Mayan  jeweled - and live! - beetle 


Astonishing

Cenote, Yucatán



Friendly

Iguana at Uxmal, Yucatán



Party-friendly

Bringing food and drinks into a hotel for a wedding after-party with the help of the bellboy!



Stylish

Most ridiculous hat contest at a wedding



Grandiose

                                                                                                       Uxmal archeological site, Yucatán

We obvisouly had an awesome vacation in Mexico, thanks again to all our friends and family who made this vacation so special!

Ramadan Kareem to all my muslim readers! Have a blessed month!

See you soon cabrones!

I am only 24 hours (and 3 suitcases) away from going away!

It won't be that big a change though, I'll go from this:

To this:

Hahaha I'll be back before you (and I) know it! Enjoy the summer everyone, I'll be posting the highlights of our Mexican vacation in August incha allah!

Fight the heat (and recycle your old Keffiyeh!)

Hello everybody and sorry for not posting so frequently these days... You know, not much going on, many people leaving on vacation, some leaving for good (Florencia and Anelise, miss you already!), and the rest of us getting ready for our vacation, finishing things off so we can enjoy our well-deserved holiday!

It's getting so hot and humid here, and in many other parts of the northern hemisphere - I heard some parts of Europe will get high temperatures in the coming days, and Mexico must be as hot as usual - so I thought I'd bring you something useful for once, so useful it could save you from a sunstroke!

Typical story: you go out for a nice walk on a nice sunny afternoon, and you're just out the door when you realize you forgot your baseball cap / trendy Panama hat / romantic straw hat / charro hat (?!). Well, it's too late to get it now, you'll be fine! And then once you're in the middle of Saint Jean de Monts beach / Chichen Itza ruins / the Sahara / a petanque court, you desperately search for shade, but there isn't! What to do???

That's the moment to turn your keffiyeh (or any other large fabric square) into an improvised, efficient hat! (the Bedouins use it; is it a good enough reason to suppose it's efficient?)

Cool, uh?

You can wrap it in different ways: in the above picture, the triangle point is left longer at the back.
I will show you how to wrap it completely. 

Fold the fabric square in two, in order to obtain a large triangle. Then position the triangle point facing down on the back and fold the upper part on your forehead.

Take one top edge of the triangle and start twisting it while you wrap it around your head.

Once you wrapped it around your head, tuck the end under the wrapped fabric.

Take the other top edge of the triangle and do the same: twist, wrap, tuck

Done!

Now you can travel to the Arab world and just fit in ;)

A world away?

The Saudi youth:

- have Blackberrys and use Facebook and other social networks

- study for a degree; many of them go to American or European universities

- watch American series and Japanese mangas

- care about how they look and love shopping

- enjoy going out with their friends

- like love stories (even though there aren't so much, they dream about the few ones they've heard of, like this 

woman falling in love with her driver and marrying him, or this other one who ended up marrying the doctor she worked with at the hospital)

- are tired of stereotypes: