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Thank you for keeping in touch!

First off thank you! I just wanted to thank you all so much for your efforts to keep in touch.

Life here is vastly different and is taking a lot of getting used to.  I am hoping against hope that once I have Temeeka here 3x a week (8am to 11am) cleaning etc and Jay in school, morning and afternoon, then I'll get myself into a routine and feel a little less stressed and out of control.  It's really hard not having a routine and no car.  Although I have been very fortunate in having the use of someone else's car the past 2 weeks, while they are "out of Kingdom".  Rex has had some pressure put upon him to rent a car for a week or so when we get back from our travels on September 5th.  My car lands on Sept 9th, but will probably take a week or two to get off the ship, through customs, registered and delivered to the compound.  It will be great to have it here for many, many reasons.

Our shipment arrives on Sept 7th, once again, subject to heavy duty customs inspections.  Who knows when it will actually appear.  We're ready for it, but of course it is the big wake up call that this is a permanent move for now and that is hard to accept at times.  Sometimes I just look at the desert and think what on earth were we thinking, but Rex is loving his job and we have financial security which we haven't really had in many years.  So the positive takes care of the negative.  Of course, the opportunities to travel are endless and to exciting places.  I guess once we get through the heavy lifting we'll all feel a lot better.

We are making lovely friends along the way and the camp is gradually filling up as people return for the start of school on Sept 10th.  Personally I am really looking forward to being able to get to the gym or the pool and have some time to myself to exercise.  I can't imagine playing tennis in this heat, but it does get cold here and is lovely for about 5 months of the year.  A lot like Houston, but of course our tennis courts are outside!  

We will be out of Kingdom, Aug 29th - Sept 1st in Bahrain, and then flying to Doha, in Qtar for 4 nights - 2 with a friend who works for Shell and 2 at a lovely hotel. It’s the end of Ramadan and the holidays are to celebrate the new year. The next big break will come in late Oct / early Nov. We plan to be out for about a week - 10 days. We’re considering Luxor, Egypt for a week, but haven’t made up our minds. The more people we talk to the more we change our minds!

7.16am, send you all a hug as the new day and week begins.

Bunni Rex and Jay

Starting out a new week...

Sitting in bed, sipping a coffee. Now I’ve just split the coffee on the new sheets that Harriet kindly sent from Houston, blast. New maid starts today, have to collect her just after 8am after I drop Jay and Tye at school at 8am. The following is an account of Saturday (which is our Monday) when I collected Tye for school....

Oh the excitement – a car, wheels, freedom! I feel just like a 16 year old all over again.
My friend kindly absconded to Paris with her husband, 4 and 2 year old daughters and graciously loaned me her car for 2 whole weeks. Can you imagine our collective joy and happiness at this generous offer. A rather aged 2 door Range Rover in white – hides the dirt. Honestly, it looks white even covered with sand – blends in – fabulous.
Jay and I hit the ground running on Saturday morning – our Monday. We drove to his friend Ty’s house. The roads here are structured with main roads and thoroughfares, which is fine and logical but the internal structure defies logic. At least my logic. So as we headed down the road, well within the speed limit, which took a lot of self control on my part – the Thelma and Louise spirit was coursing through my veins. We kept the desert to the right hand side and drove sedately down
Peninsula Blvd. We were looking for Abu Hadryah Avenue. We took a tour of the Fire Station Dhahran Hills and the car park of the Mosque opposite. Lovely buildings, a side trip on our way to Ty’s house to collect him for Day School at 8.00am. Minutes were ticking by and we were obviously going to be late. We did eventually find Abu Hadryah Avenue, and then we missed the first street on the right Saihat Drive, we took the second on the right – Manifa Circle, and it was circle, a complete circle, we know because we drove around it three times before we worked out that we had to get back to Abu Hadryaih Avenue we were dizzy with relief when we made it back Abu Hadryaih Avenue. So we pulled to the side of the road and looked again at the map. We got on Saihat Drive, and somehow, we don’t know quite how, but we made it to 626 Tanajib Circle – 8 minutes past 8.00am, 23 mins late. Anothter circlular road, with dead end spokes I will point out.
Inexplicably Erika insisted that Jay, Tye and I follow her in her car to the Little Bunny Day School and she insisted that she would collect Jay and bring him home. A wonderful new friend, who obviously didn’t trust me driving her kid ¾ of a mile in a 45mph traffic zone.
And so, I continued on down the “new” road. I drove home, via
Rollings Hills Blvd, which is nicely planted down the middle with housing on one side and yes, you guessed it patches of desert, you know sand and dust. Anyway I did make it home to 554 Remaal Lane. In celebration I had a cold cup of coffee and set about attacking my “to do” list. Dialing 939, 1 for Community Service Assistance, 1 for English, and I gave my badge number and proceeded to arrange for various home maintenance to be addressed. The date plam tree at the front of the house needs a major hair cut, before it’s seeds blacken and fall and make a mess all over the lawn. In addition, they will also make little palm trees which I really don’t want in my soon to be landscaped Garden of Versailles. The windows are filthy and there are leaves blocking the drains on the roof. 15 mins later I was contacted by Resident Housing Services and informed that they are not responsible for window washing and will have contractor call me about the washing. I was assured that the leaves and the plam would be taken care of.
I then called a friend who is a seamstress and arranged to drive to her house to have a dress hemmed before we head off to Bahrain and Qtar for the Eid Holiday in late August / early September. Her directions were somewhat familiar : Drive down
Peninsula Blvd, go past the Drahran Fire Station / Mosque, turn onto Abu Hadraiyah Avenue, and drive down a few blocks to a major intersection, Arabian Gulf Road go straight ahead and turn right onto Abu Ali Lane. I was in fact a 1/2 mile from Tye’s house! Having done the drive once, I was there right on time not one minute late or one minute early.
Then I ventured to the Commisary and partook in retail therapy – the purchasing of groceries is somewhat dulling to the mind however, I do miss the piped music. Three bottles of chocolate syrup for the chocolate milk monster who lives at our house, 500ml of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Dish washer detergent and rinse aid, and a couple of other sundry items set me back about $45 – the ice cream alone was $10.49US. If you lived with
PJ Rex (Pajama Rex you too would be buying ice cream to keep the roar at low level – at least for now.).
I got home just in time for Jay to be ejected from Erika’s car, having declined an invitation for lunch with Tye.
After lunch and 30 minutes of pirate ship war games on the iPad, Jay and I ventured further afield in the
Thelma and Lousie Mobile. This time we actually drove through one of the guarded gates.

Ladies Night on the Souk

Last night, I donned my trusty Abaya and a bright red handbag and headed out on an ARAMCO Tour Bus to downtown Damman. We left Camp Sand at around 9.30pm and arrived back at Camp Sand around 12.15am - my girlfriend decided to hold a lecture series on Abayas, Mutaween (religous police - sounds like “ma-taah-aah”) and Blondes. Dependent on her generosity of a lift home, I was held captive for 45mins and eventually staggered in the door at 1.15am. Could I have walked - yes, would I have been safe - yes, but, I learnt a lot and that was more important than the bags under my eyes this morning.
This was a Drahran Women’s Group outing - and it was fun.
Damman is larger than Al-Kohbar and less “touristy” - but that really doesn’t sound right because “touristy” is absolutely not Saudi Arabia. “Less sophisticated than” would probably be better. We wandered around what is called a “souk” which is small streets with individually owned shopped, although I would suspect that one person probably “owns” several. Rents are much lower than Al-Kohbar and for that reason the prices are generally lower. An Abaya purchased there with a little bartering is probably 75% - 50% of the cost of one purchased in Al-Kohbar. Those shops were in abundance - they are what I would call the “The Blue Jean” of Saudi Arabia - everyone woman owns at least 1 if not 10. Rex gave me permission to buy a “Sporty Abaya” - we’ll my gang of friends almost fell off the bus laughing when I mentioned that! There was no end of choice and I was totally bamboozled. One girl wanted an Abaya with Mardi Gras colors. The choice was overwhleming. I came home with a small canister of Saffron. I will return to Damman with friends for a shopping trip and will take another look at the Abaya selection. I definitely need one more.
I was hoping to see a few touristy things like hand made cards, little gifty thing, but nothing like that was in the area we were in.
On the other hand I did see some incredible coffee and tea sets in glass and china. Some exception German cake baking trays with Xmas Tree and Easter Eggs on them, which I was not expecting. Out of this world jewellery. It was mind-boggling to see the array of necklaces, earrings, bracelets in sets that were available. They were large, bold and intricate and would have weighed a ton. Some of the earrings were so large they would have pulled my little ears off and I’d have needed a month at the gym lifting weights to get in training to support a necklace without toppling over.
7.05am - gotta dash, the sleeping giant needs to be aroused from the land of nod, fed, dressed and escorted to the door for his ride to the Miss Bunny Day School - 8am - 11.am.

Bahrain - escape from Camp Sand

After one full month of Camp Sand we were all ready for a new experience. Rex took a day off work and we had three nights at the Sofitel Bahrain. Fabulous! and what a treat! The hotel is a few months old and parts were still being completed. For example the children’s play area which had been a big draw us. No big deal, but a little dull for Jay having to hang with us. Ramadan followed us of course with it’s restrictions. Nonetheless we had a great time. Our room on the 4th floor was right in the centre of the “horse shoe” if you will looking over landscaped gardens, the pool and to the beach / ocean.

Jay the nudist

Jay has been invited to numerous play dates. In fact, he has had a play date nearly every day this week. This morning he is going to join Agatha’s play group for and art class and will make a puppet of himself. Yesterday he ran around Ty’s back yard, stark naked with black swimming goggles on playing “Astroid Attack Shooting Aliens” which basically entailed blasting his new mate Ty (from Dallas, TX) with a water gun and befriending his equally naked 6 yr old sister Zoe and shooting her as well. She was armed with the garden hose and had the winning edge. Earlier in the week, he had a play date at Joy’s house, she has three sons, 10, 9 and 7. Jay adores all three and talks endlessly about them. Joy prefers bathing suits so he had to curtail his desires to run around naked although he did manage a good sprint through her house in an effort to avoid getting dressed to go home. Next week, I’m hoping to have him enrolled in a “play group” three mornings a week. Mummy Bunny is ready for a little time off! 7.45am to 11.15am sounds like a decent break. The bonus being at the end of the day when Jay should flame out to dreamland earlier rather than later, because I am currently letting him sleep for as long as he needs with bedtime officially starting at 8pm, after we’ve done story time. Karen, a note for you, Jay is almost word perfect on the “There’s Dirt on My Shirt” book. He can read / recite every poem in the book word for word. He even changes the words to make up his own rhymes which is actually quite clever, and can occur at any given time not just bed time. Of course, he gets most excited about this because he knows, that I know, what he is doing and he gets a real kick out of that. Rex on the other hand, doesn’t get it because he doesn’t participate in story time. Well he does, he just lies flat on his back with his eyes firmly closed and listens, or so he says. Jay and I are yet to hear him recite any of the rhymes, maybe one day he’ll surprise us!