Christmas

So Christmas has been & gone. It was definitely different out here, although everyone went to a lot of trouble to try & make it as normal as possible. We were fairly lucky this year as it fell on Thursday/ Friday, although quite alot of the guys here had to work through and some had to go in on Christmas afternoon for a few hours but luckily for us not him indoors. We started off by having a "Carols by candlelight" service on Christmas Eve, organised by one of the ladies here, she did a fab job, although as we were all singing, prayer time started, so for a while We Three Kings etc was competing with the local Mosque (Iam not sure what they thought of that, but no-one came to tell us to shut up!)Afterwards we had mince pies in the Social Club and the kids from the school here put on their Nativity play again for all the adults. Then as we live in the desert we all had a BarBQ. It was actually a very pleasant evening, we came home the girls went to bed and we all got up on Christmas morning, opened presents etc as normal.......then we went swimming...because it was 25degrees and we could! The lady who had organised the carol service & her family came to the pool as well and she disappeared off to put her turkey in the oven & came back with mulled grape juice (almost like mulled wine but not quite!) Anyway we managed to have a pretty normal Christmas dinner, we deep fried the turkey in the American's turkey fryer, and had most of the usual veg but no sprouts, leeks or any pork obviously..so almost like Christmas dinner but not quite. It was a pretty quiet day on the whole as boxing day certainly did not exist - everyone was back at work at the normal time. We are off to the beach for New Year for a couple of days, which again will be like swimming on Christmas Day - a first!. Happy New Year to you all.

Christmas & guilt about the weather

We have been really busy here the last week, Kids Christmas party (bloke who played Santa was a good few years younger than me (Are you susposed to feel the same way about Santa as you are policemen ? - in which case I am now officially very old!) According to the kids he was apparently nowhere near "fat enough" to be Father Christmas & he had red Adidas trainers on which caused some discussion amongst the kids - however as they all got a present they were not complaining too hard. We have also had our school Christmas production and term ended on Wednesday so 3 weeks. I have not yet finished the shopping as I still need to get some stocking fillers, so will now have to manage that with the kids in tow. Everyone here seems to muck in - we have been "Lent" a Christmas tree - although the day after we managed to get one of our own, we are sharing supplies of wrapping paper and other stuff as everyone seems to have thought of different things but no one has everything under control. It is a really funny atmosphere as no signs of Christmas outside our compound (for obvious reasons) but inside we have street lights, houses are decorated, trees are up and we have our very own carol service on Xmas eve. I have so far managed to source most of the food necessary for a proper Christmas dinner - the smallest turkey I could find however is about 25lbs so I guess there will be an awful lot of turkey curry to be had. The weather however is doing it's utmost to make it feel anything other than the middle of winter. Whilst the UK freezes we are all out and about in shorts still. We were all at the pool by 9.15 yesterday morning as him indoors was scuba driving in it before we go to the Red Sea for New Year, and although the kids didn't go swimming til later on, it was still plenty hot enough in the sun at that time in the morning. It does make me feel somewhat guilty that we are still worrying about sun cream, whilst everyone at home is hoping their heating doesn't breakdown but at least you are all in a position where you can have Christmas day with some nice sausage & bacon rolls and a glass of Shiraz or Chateauneuf Du Pape

picnic anyone?

Our Internet has been down again but all sorted now. We took the 2 1/2 hour drive, each way, to our nearest big town on Thursday to get some Christmas shopping. Long way to go but was worth it as only place we could guarantee to get everything we needed. Couple of strange sights whilst we were there. Firstly a brand new Aston Martin DB9s - I was truly amazed ...I have no idea why anyone living here would want to spend £huge amount on a car on order to drive it on roads full of absolute nutters (it was very nice though & bloke driving it actually seemed to be driving in a completely sensible manner - which is about the first time I have seen that) I reckon on what I have seen he literally has a number of days/weeks before it gets dinked at the very least. Still I suppose that if you have that amount of dosh spare then you can drive whatever you want when you want. On the way home we passed our usual Thursday afternoon picnics - I have noticed it alot up where we live - the Saudis seem to love their picnic's (nice family thing - men plays with kids - woman sits dressed head to foot in black, in sun, watching kids have fun but not allowed to join in) They seem intent on having their picnics in the weirdest places - mostly from what I can make out at motorway intersections, junctions, & beside on and off ramps. It is really quite a bizaar sight - the country is huge & full of open space - why would you pick a place to sit on a rug right beside a dual carriageway. This weekend I did spot some cars further away from the road, those people that had got out of them however had stopped to picnic right by their car - & I mean right by - within about 3 feet!! I am beginning to wonder what this still to be re-arranged picnic with the Saudi family that was put off a couple of weeks ago is actually going to be like - I will keep you posted.

Answer to the question below

According to http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/ the BBC have sent 35 Journos - the site also has some other interesting figures about the cost of it

Climate Conference

Just as a matter of interest there are apparently 5000 journalists covering the climate change conference for the next 2 weeks. So far I have counted 6 BBC journos (online, UK BBC, BBC Radio, BBC World) I assume that there are more than that as I don't have access here to all the BBC stations that are available at home. I assume also that they are accompanied by researchers, cameramen, sound crews and producers. I would be very interested to know how many BBC employees whose work is being duplicated by others that we are paying for to have a 2 week freebie!

The Economy today

I have spent most of the morning trying to avoid the newspapers and tv, this has become a bit of a monday habit out here is it is monday night before we can watch the x factor results show - sad but addictive (especially for the kids - obviously I wouldn't be watching it if it wasn't for them!) Anyway I just sat down to have some lunch & put on Sky news - & my blood pressure is now well & truly boiling! This could be just because I have an Ecomonics degree and therefore I apolgise if I am being a particular anorak here but unfortunately I have just had to listen to the biggest load of rubbish I think I have ever heard Gordon Brown spout (& bearing in mind that I am a political junkie - I have heard an awful lot of his c**p before.) He has just been up in front of an audience to spout of about how he is going to reduce the deficit & bring in efficency savings in government. this load of tosh has lead me to some observations:

1) presumably Alistair Darling (the privately aducated chancellor)is about to announce all this waffle in Wednesdays PBR to parliament so why has McDoom had to "pre-announce" it and circumnavigate Parliament - Apart from to try & get some headline obviously!
2) bearing in mind that McDoom has been in charge of the ecomony for 10 out of the last 12 years (& realistically for the other 2 as well) if there are effiency savings and "Fat Cat" wages to be culled then WHY THE HELL HASN'T HE DONE THIS in the previous 12 years.
3) The answer to 2) above is because it is only now that he has run out of OUR money!

Unfortunately the bottom line is that this big announcement will save us "about 3 billion" quid - let us put £3 billion into perspective - for the last months figures available (october) this governments deficit was 11.4 billion for that month - on my calculations that means that he has identified savings that will account for the deficit that his government ran up between the midnight on the 1st October 2009 and about 4am on 8th October 2009.
I may be in Saudi Arabia but I am increasingly worried that certainly Liebour, and to a certain extent the Tories, have absolutley no idea how they are going to get to grips with this gargantuan deficit, I can only hope that Dave (Brown might have mentioned he is public school)Cameron and George (Brown might have mentioned that he is public school too - but failed to mention that Harriet Harperson went to his "sister school" - St Pauls School for Girls!)Osbourne have a plan because if they do not then the UK & it's future are in serious trouble.

Ok Rant Over!

Obama & Afghanistan

Personally I think that Obama's need to have troops from the surge on their way home by summer 2011 has a lot more to do with the run up to his re-election campaign than any military objective. As Iain Martin from the Wall Street Journal points out below it is completely flawed thinking - It is a bit long winded but worth a read!




"Try a little thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that you’re an experienced Taliban commander.

You’ve been fighting for a very long time, and have been responsible for the deaths of a great many people. Guerrilla warfare is your family business and it’s pretty much the only job you’ve ever had.
In 30 years you’ve seen them all come and go, starting with the Russians. You saw the CIA arrive with arms shipments to help kick out the Soviets and you fought the rival Mujahedeen warlords in the aftermath of the Communists’ departure.

Your friends took control of much of the country and then fought a bitter civil war with the Northern Alliance. You also sided with Al-Qaeda’s terrorists, which wasn’t a smart move. After 9/11 the CIA and allied special forces turned up to clear them, and you, out. However, the Americans failed to press home their advantage and quickly diverted their attention to another war. This allowed you space to start up operations again, bit by bit.

Then, in 2003, the allies scaled up their efforts and NATO arrived alongside a large U.S. contingent. You saw the allies make some progress, but you and your friends have a lot of experience of the terrain. Of course, it’s tough fighting with the Americans and the British, but eventually - you calculate - the westerners will want to go home. You, on the other hand, are not planning to go anywhere. You and your friends have all the time in the world.

And then you hear about this new President of the United States, called something Obama. You say you don’t watch satellite television on religious grounds but if it’s for reasons of war planning then you can make an exception. You turn-on the TV in the corner of your cave and Obama is making a speech on the war in which you fight. Your young trainee from Leeds, England, is good at simultaneous translation and promises to talk you through it.

This infidel Obama is a certainly a different character from the infidel Bush, you observe. A very smooth operator. He says he’s sending more troops as part of something called a surge, as many as 30,000 of them. That’s a bit worrying; it looks like the war is about to get tougher. But you remember that by 1985 the Soviets had 118,000 troops in your country and they still lost. Now, what’s the American president promising? He’s going to train-up the Afghan army? But you know that lot inside out - this pledge doesn’t worry you one bit.

And then, what’s this? The key point. After a year of this surge, says Obama, the allies will start withdrawing their troops and scaling back their effort. This, you reflect, sounds like a very weird way for your opponents to run their side of the war. It looks like they are saying ‘give it one last heave’ and then, whether it works or not, they will start leaving in 2011.

You turn off the television, thank the young guy from Leeds, and set about discussing it with your friends. Well, that’s very interesting. Perhaps, says one colleague, if you all just lie low and hide for a year then the Americans and the British will think they’ve won. They’ll leave and you can quickly get back in control. Hmmmm… the Americans and NATO are cleverer than that, you say, they’ll come looking for the Taliban.

No, it sounds like you’re going to have to steel yourself for a year more of increased fighting. But what’s one more year in Afghanistan’s long and troubled history? And your opponent has just told you, on television in front of the world, that after that he’s going to start withdrawing.

Now, Taliban commander, do you feel depressed or perhaps rather encouraged?"

(Iain Martin used to write for the Telegraph before he moved to the WSJ - he is actually a brit)

Driving in Saudi

The Saudis love their cars unfortunately my top tip for driving in Saudi is don't! It is only for the brave (men that is as it is illegal for women to drive here - so for once I have the perfect excuse not to drive home from the pub - unfortunately there are no pubs either) We drove into our local town the weekend before last - it is only 15 mins away - but in that time we came within a centimetre of being side-swiped - not once but twice. It is not unusual to see 10 year old lads driving great big SUVs as when they are the oldest male in the family then it is their responsibility to drive, some of them can hardly see out of the windscreen! Driving around in the evening is also dicing with death as all the lads who in the UK would go to the pub, have nothing else to do but to drive round and round showing off. I have without a doubt become possibly the worst back seat driver in the world - all in the space of a few weeks - I work on the theory that him indoors needs the extra eyes and ears - he insists however that I am panicking for no reason. Apparently I am also told that unmarried Saudi men are not allowed by law to have an SUV (4Wheel Drive) until they are married - up to that point they have no family and therefore no need for one!