Saturday, May 30, 2009
Heat and Dust
Last week of work has been really hot and dusty. The temperature has been around 115-117F everyday, the only 'good' thing is the humidity has been <10% most of the time. It was so hot the other day when I was on top of one of the taller towers, my sweat droplets would evaporate before they reached the ground. It was so hot and dry that you could even take a cold can of soda outside and there would not be any condensation on the sides of the can. There just wasn't any water in the air to make the can 'sweat'. Although, there was more than enough heat to make me sweat in less than a minute. Trapesing around the plant for 7 hrs or more outside in this heat has made me really appreciate frequent water breaks. I do not know how the general laborers on the construction crews are able to do manual labor all day long here. Even if they don't work at too much beyond a snails pace some days.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Back from England
Surprise, surprise! I'm late doing another entry. This really shouldn't come as a shock to anyone by know (that is if you know me).
Been back in Saudi for a week now after my 13 day excursion to England. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend 4 days with Toni and Shaun in Rugby, England right after I arrived. Although they were not able to serve as my own personal pub crawl guides, they did find a suitable standin...Shaun's nephew, Simon. Unfortunately, I was a little let down when we went out drinking Friday night. My previous experiences with pub crawling with an Englishman was with ex-pat's playing rugby in the States. I was always the one who was crawling and asking for mercy when I went drinking with them, so I figured I would have some issues when I went out on the town with Simon and his band mate Stix 13. They were half of a rock and roll band called Jukebox Junkies (http://www.myspace.com/jukeboxjunkiesmusic) (Free plug you guys!!!), so I figured they rocked all day and partied all night. That notion was rapidly dispelled as the night was still young and both of them were rather glassy eyed. Although I must admit Simon was able to motate under his own power at the end of the night, whereas Stix was rather unsteady and we made sure we escorted him over to his upset girlfriend's place (she wasn't happy we got him all liquored up...imagine that!). The next night (Sat) was Simon's b-day and he was having his party at a local pub (The Courthouse) where his band was actually playing. Due to a bungled dinner arrangement, Toni, Shaun and I were late getting to the pub, but we were able to catch about 80% of the show. Even playing a full set of songs while continously inebertating Jack's and Coke they played really well and the crowd didn't slow down or get quite the whole night. To add to the night, the band even had me come to the front of the crowd so they could thank me publically for getting them piss ass drunk the night before. Not to let them down, I did come up and have a drink with them and proceeded to out drink them again after the set was over. I'm not sure if they will want to go out drinking with any of Toni and Shaun's American friends again. Although they were always free to say 'no' to the rounds I bought. I did have the 'pleasure' of introducting both Simon and B-bop to a shot called the 'cement mixer'. it is a shot of lime juice followed immediately with a shot of Bailey's Irish Creame. You actually hold the lime juice in your mouth until you shoot the Bailey's and then you either swish the drink in your mouth or have the server (hopefully a good lookin' waitress) shake your head vigoursly and then attempt to swallow. For those who haven't tried this, the lime juice reacts with the creame in the Bailey's and 'currdles' forming solid chunks in your mouth that you then have to swallow. The taste isn't bad, but the texture of the shot is really horrible, so bad that it was listed in the "Ugly" section of the "Good, Bad and Ugly" shots at the college bar I went to at OU (O'Connells).
During my visit to England I went to London, Rugby, Sherwood, Nottingham, York, Coventry, Hastings, and Dover. I really screwed up in my historical visits though. It wasn't until 3 days before I was scheduled to leave that I found out I could have purchased a Traveller's Membership to the England Heritage Society. This basically meant I would have been able to get into ALL of the England Heritage Sites for free instead of paying the 3-10L pounds per site. One other issue that was frustrating was the hassle to find available parking at any of the sites and then having to dig around for the "pay and display" fees. I didn't bother trying to keep track of how much I spent on parking fees alone. My visit to the Dover castle and the White Cliffs was really fun. Although the wind was howling and the castle keep was closed for renovations it was probably the highlight of my visit. The second highlight would have been going to Castle Warwick with Toni and Shaun. The castle is now run by Madam Tussauds which means they have a lot of wax figures spread throughout the castle to give a better feel of how it might have looked. Personally, I thought they sort of detracted from it, but if it brings the crowds in, why not. Shortly after arriving we were able to watch a falcony exhibition be put on. The trainer had every thing from a young owl to a 21 year old Bald Eagle. All of the birds were fantastic to watch fly around and the trainer had a great sense of humor.
As with the Ireland trip photos, I am still searching for a reasonable way to get all of my photos up on the web so everyone can see them finally.
Got to go as my dinner just arrived (my roomie ordered pizza!).
Been back in Saudi for a week now after my 13 day excursion to England. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend 4 days with Toni and Shaun in Rugby, England right after I arrived. Although they were not able to serve as my own personal pub crawl guides, they did find a suitable standin...Shaun's nephew, Simon. Unfortunately, I was a little let down when we went out drinking Friday night. My previous experiences with pub crawling with an Englishman was with ex-pat's playing rugby in the States. I was always the one who was crawling and asking for mercy when I went drinking with them, so I figured I would have some issues when I went out on the town with Simon and his band mate Stix 13. They were half of a rock and roll band called Jukebox Junkies (http://www.myspace.com/jukeboxjunkiesmusic) (Free plug you guys!!!), so I figured they rocked all day and partied all night. That notion was rapidly dispelled as the night was still young and both of them were rather glassy eyed. Although I must admit Simon was able to motate under his own power at the end of the night, whereas Stix was rather unsteady and we made sure we escorted him over to his upset girlfriend's place (she wasn't happy we got him all liquored up...imagine that!). The next night (Sat) was Simon's b-day and he was having his party at a local pub (The Courthouse) where his band was actually playing. Due to a bungled dinner arrangement, Toni, Shaun and I were late getting to the pub, but we were able to catch about 80% of the show. Even playing a full set of songs while continously inebertating Jack's and Coke they played really well and the crowd didn't slow down or get quite the whole night. To add to the night, the band even had me come to the front of the crowd so they could thank me publically for getting them piss ass drunk the night before. Not to let them down, I did come up and have a drink with them and proceeded to out drink them again after the set was over. I'm not sure if they will want to go out drinking with any of Toni and Shaun's American friends again. Although they were always free to say 'no' to the rounds I bought. I did have the 'pleasure' of introducting both Simon and B-bop to a shot called the 'cement mixer'. it is a shot of lime juice followed immediately with a shot of Bailey's Irish Creame. You actually hold the lime juice in your mouth until you shoot the Bailey's and then you either swish the drink in your mouth or have the server (hopefully a good lookin' waitress) shake your head vigoursly and then attempt to swallow. For those who haven't tried this, the lime juice reacts with the creame in the Bailey's and 'currdles' forming solid chunks in your mouth that you then have to swallow. The taste isn't bad, but the texture of the shot is really horrible, so bad that it was listed in the "Ugly" section of the "Good, Bad and Ugly" shots at the college bar I went to at OU (O'Connells).
During my visit to England I went to London, Rugby, Sherwood, Nottingham, York, Coventry, Hastings, and Dover. I really screwed up in my historical visits though. It wasn't until 3 days before I was scheduled to leave that I found out I could have purchased a Traveller's Membership to the England Heritage Society. This basically meant I would have been able to get into ALL of the England Heritage Sites for free instead of paying the 3-10L pounds per site. One other issue that was frustrating was the hassle to find available parking at any of the sites and then having to dig around for the "pay and display" fees. I didn't bother trying to keep track of how much I spent on parking fees alone. My visit to the Dover castle and the White Cliffs was really fun. Although the wind was howling and the castle keep was closed for renovations it was probably the highlight of my visit. The second highlight would have been going to Castle Warwick with Toni and Shaun. The castle is now run by Madam Tussauds which means they have a lot of wax figures spread throughout the castle to give a better feel of how it might have looked. Personally, I thought they sort of detracted from it, but if it brings the crowds in, why not. Shortly after arriving we were able to watch a falcony exhibition be put on. The trainer had every thing from a young owl to a 21 year old Bald Eagle. All of the birds were fantastic to watch fly around and the trainer had a great sense of humor.
As with the Ireland trip photos, I am still searching for a reasonable way to get all of my photos up on the web so everyone can see them finally.
Got to go as my dinner just arrived (my roomie ordered pizza!).
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