I just couldn't handle the cold!

by Brian Stirling Wednesday, March 09, 2016 1 comments

As I look at my last Brian of Arabia post I see it was December 12th and but mere days before a long anticipated reunion with someone special! Shortly after that I'd go home to Paula too (just kidding of course). That reunion did not disappoint and it was so good to see her again. Strangely, I found that what I really missed most here was the warmth of another's touch. I would never have guessed that was such a big deal but as we hugged at the airport I realized it was. I guess I just took for granted the comfort of having someone by your side, even if it's just in the same room or building.

After such a long flight (another 30 hrs in planes and airports) and arriving in Winnipeg near midnight we stayed the night and drove home the next day. It was so good to get home and see everyone again... except the dog. Either he didn't really recognize me or just didn't care that much that I was gone but I got about two wags then he was on to something else. Fair enough, but some day you'll need me Wilbur and this day may come back to haunt you!

Family Christmas Break

Those first 10 days at home were a whirlwind of work, visits and Christmas as I met up with friends and family missed those last 7 weeks. It's funny, it certainly seemed a long time to me but many people actually said it didn't seem that I'd been gone long! On top of that there was absolutely no indication in Saudi that the biggest gift giving season of the year was pending so I still had all my Christmas shopping to do! Fortunately, for me I can do all my shopping between 7-11 and the Canadian Tire Gas Bar so I wasn't worried. The benefit of being a guy I suppose!

The view from Dinghy Dock restaurant in St Martin

Anyway, 10 days after me getting home we packed our bags again and headed out for a 2 week Caribbean vacation in St Martin. We'd been there before two years ago and loved it so we were anxious to go back. There wasn't as much exploring this time as we both seemed more interested in chillaxin' on the beach (Paula's favourite past time) than hiking all over hell's half acre. Still, we did some things from

previous like gourmet French dining in Grand Case and lounging on Orient Beach but added a few new things too like sharing Happy Bay beach with a herd of cows, and climbing the last of the way to Pic Paradis, the highest point on the island and a great view! Knowing that if it was up to me we'd return to the island anytime I asked Paula at the start of the trip how often she'd come back, "At least every 5 yrs" she thought. By the time we were coming home she had shortened that to "every two years" and a month after getting home she's already thinking about our next visit! It's that kind of island.

You need a special visa to get into Saudi Arabia and the one used for my

My passport is getting pretty interesting!

previous visit had expired so I needed a new one. That involves sending your passport to Ottawa so there would be a two week wait at home while we waited for the new visa. MHI even met us at the airport to pick up our passports and courier them in to get that process started ASAP. My return flight was booked and it was just a case of waiting for the passports to come back. It was during this waiting period that we found out that my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. He had had a mini stroke on New Years day and in the follow up CAT scan they discovered some cancer. So I delayed my return until we could find out a little more about what we'd be dealing with. In the end we came to a cross roads where I either needed to cancel my contract with MHI and stay, or get on the plane and go. Because we didn't have anything concrete that required me to stay and the fact that I could return at any time if necessary we decided I should head back to work in Saudi and await further developments. At the moment we believe it's a slow growing cancer in his neck area that they'll treat with chemo or radiation but likely no surgery. So, we'll take it day by day and re-evaluate as we go. In the meantime I'm never really out of touch with MagicJack and Facetime and we chat every couple of days or so. That's a benefit we wouldn't have had 10 years ago!

Now, getting back to the here and now, you may recall me bragging about my first class treatment on

Chinese New Year in London!

the way over last year. Yeah, not so much this year. To give us greater flexibility with Paula's travel I asked to be put on travel allowance and cover the flights myself. So, to economize and have some money for Paula's flight I flew "peasant class" this time. I forgot that my baggage allowance wouldn't be the same as business class and ended up paying an extra $250 excess baggage charges and that's just one way! I'll take the same hit on the way home likely. It wasn't all bad though because to break up the flight I took a one day stop over in London and took in some sights. I had a lovely fish and chip take away dinner in Picadilly Circus and managed to squeeze in one last delicious beer before prohibition took effect again in KSA! As an added bonus it was Chinese New Year and there were plenty of celebrations to take in!

I finally touched down in Riyadh at about 11 o'clock at night and was welcomed by my driver complete with a sign with my name on it, just like in the movies! Getting back into the groove this time was much easier than the first time I came on November 3rd though! The project I'm working on is to coordinate system frequency response improvement for the Kingdom and it's coming along quite well I think. It's certainly a handful for me and it seems as soon as you solve one problem another pops up! Still, I'm confident that when I leave at the end of June the situation here will be much better than when I arrived so I'll have some satisfaction in that.

I had agreed to come back until the end of June so I won't be back to Canada again until probably middle of July. This first leg is the hardest, a 7 week gap without seeing Paula but after that the biggest gap should only be about 4 weeks. At this point I'm about 3 weeks in and while the time seems to be passing very slowly there's lot's of excitement on the horizon! It's only 28 days until Paula comes to visit for a couple of weeks and what an experience that'll be for her! I'll show her some of the highlights in Riyadh and then spirit her away for an exciting weekend in Dubai and all that it offers. Then, if all goes according to plan, 4 weeks after she goes home we'll meet in Greece for a couple of weeks, then 4 weeks after she goes home from that we'll meet somewhere in Europe for a week or more although we haven't decided where yet. It could be London, Paris, Germany, Ireland, Amsterdam, Switzerland, well, you get the idea. Anything is possible!

So, now it's time to get back to exploring and sharing on Brian of Arabia what I see here . I've already been out a couple of times so should have another entry in less time than it took to get this one out! And by the way, I probably could handle the cold but why bother when you have options?