Week 3 gone by

Time sure flies! Feels like I just landed in Saudi Arabia not too long ago. At the same time I feel like I've been here for ages. This place messes with your mind. At least I still have a mind to mess with, I'm surprised I haven't lost it! Anyhow, many have been asking about the kind of accommodation I live in here. Well, the majority of expats here live in what is known as a compound. Its like a community within walls and each entrance/exit is guarded. Security is pretty good in these compounds and the people living within don't have to worry so much about the restrictions that are in place everywhere else. So women can walk around in shorts and T shirts and a man can talk to a woman even if they're not married. Wow! How about that?

Anyhow, photos of the security aren't allowed in these parts so I secretly snapped one while I was driving home the other day. Here you can check out one of three machine gun installations that guard the entrances and exits.


First time I saw it I was thinking to myself "Holy cow! Is that for real?" What kind of crazy people do they have here to warrant that kind of setup? Quite worrying. And its not like the pissy rifle that I handled during my NS days. Its more like a full-on Rambo badda badda (Celine's sound) machine gun.

Ok, so moving on, after you reach the guard house and let them inspect your resident's label on your car, resident's card from your wallet, recite the secret resident's pass phrase and finally give them the secret resident's handshake and wave, you go through and then pull up into the driveway of your unit. They call it a "villa" but I think its too posh a word. Villa stimulates thoughts of a luxurious establishment by the beach adorned with high-end fixtures with german brands that cannot be pronounced without sounding like you're clearing your throat. A villa is something that will feature in tatler magazine or the latest Architect's digest. What I have here, is a box from the 80's with bits of wood nailed to it.


And yes, thats my amazing grey Honda Civic 1.6 with ABS. No, not Assisted Braking System. Its Air-Bags Short. Once you're parked and through the front door, you see the kitchen.


Its pretty good sized and has all the basic components of a kitchen. No complaints here. There's even a water dispenser thingo coz apparently, if you drink the water from the tap, you'll be filled with so much metals that it'll react in your guts and make you a walking time-bomb. So don't drink from the tap unless you wanna commit suicide (bombing). Now, if you look behind, you'll see the maid's room (which I have decided to use as a store room since I don't have a live-in maid) and next to it is the laundry area.


So walk past the kitchen and you'll find yourself in the dining area. The unit comes with a full sized dining table and huge cabinet to display all your wares. Pretty useless since I live alone and don't have huge meals. But its pretty good for having my morning cereal and reading the newspaper sprawled across the whole table.


So from the dining area, we then transit to the living area. I converted one end into my "work" area. Got my trusty mac setup there. All my music, entertainment and most importantly, the link to the real world is here. The other end has got the sofa set and TV with cable. I haven't sat on the sofa since I got here. Its green. It'll be like seating in a sea of moss.


Phew! This blog post is getting a bit longer than I expected! Tell you what, I'll leave you with a shot of my back patio and that'll conclude the tour of the ground floor. I'll take you guys upstairs in my next post! Hope you enjoyed the guided tour!