Time before now

Many of you may be questioning why I didn't write anything between March 2010 and now. I guess the simple answer is life just got too busy. I started the blog as a focus for my writing and an outlet for my feelings. However, my depression and annoyance at being in Saudi was never going to be of much interest to readers. So I tried to make light of the experience by creating an iweb site and being a tour guide around Riyadh for my family back home. In doing so, I got myself out of the black hole.

And that is probably the best thing about blogging for me. It's not really a diary - that is too intimate and no-one is expected to read it until perhaps after you're gone. You are writing, knowing (or at least hoping!) that someone else will stumble across your words and take the time to read them. So in order to respect them for doing that, the least I can do is provide words worthy of being read.

So to broaden the subject field I will write about the other things we got up to and dealt with in our other postings round the world. I'll start with the most recent first - Saudi Arabia. The link below takes you to the earlier travel blogs about days out and about from Riyadh.

http://web.me.com/solenzara/Life_Around_the_World/Blog/Blog.html

Escarpment west of Riyadh

The first thing that hits you here is the heat, especially if you arrive between April and September. The weather is quite pleasant Oct, Nov, Feb and Mar. But it can get quite chilly over Dec and Jan.




The heat reaches 50 degrees C and is almost suffocating. Everyone scurries from air-conditioned cars, to air-conditioned malls and air-conditioned houses. The pools are welcome places to cool off. At least we can do that in a relaxed western atmosphere. It must be harder for the locals as the majority of their houses are behind high walls, with little garden space and no pools - only the well-off have the space and money.

Faisel's Finger

Coffee pots are popular

Just in case you forget where you are!

Old Diriyah - the original settlement of Riyadh

You are never meant to be more than 800m from a mosque!

Some people are trying to break with the norm and bring colour to the streets

The sun bleaches all colour from the sky and ground. It is all a hazy orange, sandy colour with the strip of pollution adding its own orange haze. I think one of the hardest things I have had to adjust to is to the lack of beauty in my surroundings. Everything is concrete or desert covered in lumpy rocks. There are no beautiful sunsets, sunrises, or even expanses of blue sky to break the monotony of man-made grey. Sometimes on low days I just wish I could witness beauty in nature to give me that little boost to remember where we are in the universe.