Back to School and back on a Plane

Hi everyone, today I'm writing my blog from Kuwait in the Middle East.   I returned home to Dubai from Saudi Arabia at the weekend and then flew out to Kuwait on Monday morning.  I am really enjoying my job at the moment but I'm not sure how some people travel all the time (I'm shattered lol).  It's the travelling that takes it out of you especially when you're having to wait around in airports (OMG it took 1 and a half hours to get my visa on arrival in Kuwait). 

Anyway, when I wrote my last blog I was half way through my business trip in Saudi.  For the first time since I started working there, the team went for dinner as a motivational team building event.  It was a really good evening and everyone on the team had a good time.  There is a mix of nationalities in the team including Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Saudis (and obviously myself and my boss who are westerners).


Me in the office in KSA 

We ate dinner relatively early in the evening so the restaurant was quite quiet, however it got very busy later on with approximately 90% of the clientele being women.  Most of all of them wore abayas but did not wear their veils.   We had great fun and I realised that you can have a good time without alcohol (lol).   

The driving over there is worse than in Dubai, and as we all know, women don't drive there so there is no excuse to blame women for being bad drivers lol.  Unfortunately though, one morning we saw a dead person on the road who had been knocked down by a car (It was awful). By the time we passed him he was covered over but a few minutes earlier one of our colleagues saw the initial impact of the accident which affected him all day (not nice). 

So, needless to say, every time we were being driven anywhere my boss and I were nervous wrecks.  Honestly, once we went around the same roundabout about 3 times because our driver couldn't get off it and cars were coming at us left, right and centre.  Needless to say, my palms were very sweaty and I'm sure I was having a 'tropical movement' lol.

Anyway, after a delayed flight and arriving home early on Friday morning, I slept for a few hours and then went early to have my hair coloured by my friend.  Later on in the day we had a BBQ and then went to the Irish Village to watch the 'Proclaimers'.  Normally, artists come on stage late and play for at least an hour.  Unfortunately, we arrived a few minutes late and were just settling in watching the band and then they finished.  We couldn't believe it, apparently they only sang 5 songs (such a shame but at least we got to sing '500 miles' lol).

On Saturday, hubby and I decided to purchase 'Apple TV' as we currently have a 'DU' account and it costs us a lot of money for programmes we hardly ever watch.  Anyway, we bought the box and registered for a VPN account so we could watch UK TV.  Unfortunately, we had an issue with our firewall on our computer and it took 'forever' to set up correctly.  Anyway, I've not really had enough time to evaluate it as yet so I save my judgement about it until later.

On Sunday, I attended my first session of my new Masters Degree at the  Middlesex University in Dubai.  I'm a bit of a geek sometimes and decided to use the 'school bag' which we were given during induction (OMG I felt like a 5 year old on her first day of school with my satchel).  Even though other people in my class had their bags, I decided next time I'll use my own lol.  There is a mix of nationalities in the class which I expected (obviously), but no other Brits apart from my lecturer.  She seems nice and down to earth and is very articulate (which is good considering the job she does lol). 

We discussed a number of things and there were a number of people in the class who were very vocal and as usual in these situations, I felt like the ‘dumb bunny’ (being my first class, I kept a little quiet decided it was best to not say anything as I didn't want to get things wrong).   However, hopefully I’ll get back into learning sooner rather than later. 

So, on Monday I took another plane to Kuwait.  It was an early flight and took ages to get the visa on arrival, but otherwise it was OK.  I tried to explain to the taxi driver where I wanted to go and unfortunately, trying to pronounce Arabic words in my Yorkshire accent, doesn't go down well and eventually, I had 4 taxi drivers trying to work out where I wanted to go (even when I showed them the address on paper).  Luckily my Arabic colleague gave them the proper pronunciation over the phone and I managed to get to the office in one piece (after the taxi driver conned me on the price of the journey - but hey ho, never mind).

The hotel is one of the nicest places I've stayed on business and it has a number of extra facilities in the room that I don't generally get, including lots of freebies which obviously I like lol (I don't usually get a kettle in the room in KSA).  Anyway, work is going well and it's a short trip so I'll be back home tomorrow evening.  Needless to say, I can't wait as my BFF will be at the airport waiting for me, I'm so excited.