After a week

Well it has been just a little over a week now. I have managed to sleep the whole time I have been here so that is good. International travel can be a killer so I just try and manage the best I can usually, so you might imagine I am elated!

The week started out in Saturday, with an early wake up at 3:30. I decided that since my boss can get up and go in, so could I. I just adjusted my schedule, what else did I have to do. Out of bed and into the shower, a semi cold shower, shaved, dressed, and heading out the door just a tad before 4am. Just a short walk across the street and wait for the dinning hall to open at 4:15. About 5 or 6 of sit there and wait, mostly KBR Management a few stragglers from other companies. Finally the door opens, we file in and get in the line. At this time of morning it is pretty much help yourself. A quick grab for a piece of hot wheat or white toast, maybe some scrambled eggs, beef sausage or beef bacon, French toast, or an omelet to order or pancakes, some baked beans, potatoes, Yogurt, oatmeal, assorted cereals, jellies, peanut butter, assorted juices and coffee.

The guys don't take long to eat, amazes me that they aren't getting indigestion (might be) from eating so fast. Once they hit the table they are back up in less than 10 minutes headed out the door. I am just finishing spreading butter and jam on my bread and peppering my taters and eggs. John is a patient boss, he tries his hardest to eat slow and wait on me, I do like to enjoy my food. I try to enjoy and eat fast enough, but no sooner than I drink my last swallow of Grapefruit juice he is saying you ready to go? So we get up, I stop by the coffee Urn for a quick warm up, grab our bagged lunch we signed up for the night before and we are piling in the SUV.

The drive takes us about 30 to 45 minutes everyday, one day a huge wreck happened in front of us, absolutely obliterated the front end of a dump truck who had slammed in to the back of a crane. Like Kuwait the wrecks are unbelievable, total destruction of man and metal. Once off the main highway, we meander through the well paved side roads towards the refinery. There are three cross roads between the main highway and the entrance, two have traffic lights one a stop sign. Arabs are pretty respectful of the traffic lights, but not so much the stop signs. We are good up to the stop sign and we have to be very cautious, not that we aren't at every intersection, but especially at that one. We make it through daily without incident which is a relief to both of us. No one wants to be a traffic statistic especially over seas.

As we approach the gate, we get out our credentials just in case we are asked for them. Most of the guards recognize you after a few days so it is just a habit. A couple of short turns and we are driving up to the complex. Once in the day begins. I start up my computer and while it is booting, I go to the kitchen and wash out my MiGO, a wonderful desk coffee mug my son and my new daughter in-law got me for Father's Day. I throw in a couple of teaspoons full of Nescafe Gold and some hot water out of the water cooler. Back in my office, which I share with Ardie my right hand, and log in to the server. For the first two days, it was quite a chore waiting for my computer to log into Houston but since we had my account moved here it is very quick. Check email and look at the To Do list and my day starts.

Not a lot of excitement I know but that is my day at work. We usually eat between 11 and 12 depending on what you are working on, and most of the time it is at your desk while you continue to work. Now and then I can catch a quick 15 minute nap of watch a few minutes of TIVO from my Sling connection, but most of the time it is continue with my huge list.

The drive home is about the same unless we need to stop of at the store or somewhere else. Once we are past the security check point and in the gate, we park and go in for some dinner. Usually John will get his food to take back to his room but I like to hang out and chat with some of the guys because I know the only thing I have left is go back to the room, change and chat with Diane for a few minutes and them back under the sheets around 8:30. There are a few things to do here, they have a small gym, a swimming pool, billiards and snooker. The library is lacking, mostly Korean and other novels that only English ones I saw were romance, go figure! That's about it, I will try and make life more interesting for you once I get in the swing. I hope you are all well and enjoying the well needed rain. I also hope you are enjoying the Adventures of Flat Stan. All for now.....

Another Flat Stan adventure

After drinking some coffee

Flat Stan was a little anxious today as some major events were planned (i.e. getting a badge, and free food). Awaiting the arrival of Security, early bird Flat Stan paced the counter in the lobby of Bldg. 3. After dancing around, Flat Stan realized he had yet to get any breakfast. He saw Lance headed to get breakfast and hitched a ride. Upon arrival at the cafeteria, Flat Stan wanted something from the breakfast bar.

After touring the bar and nearly falling in the pot of oatmeal, Flat Stan lost his appetite. Lance continued to get something from the grill while Flat Stan gabbed with Robert.

Finally, Flat Stan finished wrapping with the cashier and we headed back.



Upon entering Bldg. 3, Security spotted Flat Stan without a badge and it almost got ugly. Flat Stan jumped on the counter and requested a visitor’s badge, and I reluctantly agreed to sponsor him. After Security verified some information, they took several photos (per his request,

something about the lighting).

Flat Stan started growing impatient while waiting on his badge to print and he tried to expedite (aka escalate) the process, and he had no luck with that. In the interim, Flat Stan slipped out his flatberry and started reading some flatmail. Finally, the badge was printed and back upstairs we went.

For lunch, Flat Stan had a team luncheon to attend for the 20th anniversary of Barbara Chisholm where fajitas were served. Flat Stan perched in the front of the room,

while the team lost weight waiting on the delivery of Aramark’s famous fajitas. The team shared stories of Barbara while Flat Stan continued to sit, smile, and be quite! Before ending the luncheon, Flat Stan requested a photo with Barbara and her big prize. As both prepped their hair, the cameras were getting ready and snap.

Barbara finally opened her gift and what happened next was caught as well.

She was overwhelmed with excitement (I think thats what they call that).


Until next time……….

A funny from my old group

Many of you may of heard about a project that a professor created in 1995 called Flat Stanley. The project was created to improve literacy and develop community and has been a great success. Anyway you can read all about it as it is becoming a sad story for the professor. Well my former colleagues at KBR developed Flat Stan. To me it was a real honor first because I knew nothing about the Flat Stanley project, I just thought they missed me, and also becuase it was just a neat idea. Well I shared the email with Diane and she got a kick out of it and I told her I should share it with you. So here it is, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Out to Jax Grill – Flat Stan accompanies some team members for an offsite lunch at Jax Grill.
While enjoying the adventurous drive with Barbara,
Flat Stan questions…Where are her shoes? Of course, we made it there safely. While eating our lunch, Flat Stan was in the middle of every conversation, tried grab Ed’s buffalo burger, tried to get some of Barbara’s salsa,
and eventually just kept his eyes on the crowd. Watching the team leave the table, Flat Stan wanted to yell, but was relieved when Lance quickly returned and saved Flat Stan from dish duty. Upon returning to KBR, Flat Stan stayed out of view of Security, as he has no employee badge for site entry. Barbara kindly dropped everyone off at the building so Flat Stan did not get too hot from a long walk.

Until next time…….

A Day of Rest

Well Friday came and I didn't budge an inch when my body clock went off. I was comfy and I was not about to get up so I just drifted back off to sleep. The good thing about here as opposed to Iraq is that we actually get a day to sleep in. I lay in bed most of the time asleep, until almost 11:00 when lunch was supposed to be served. I finally drug out of bed and got dressed and wandered across the street. The dinning hall was supposed to open at 11:00, but it wasn’t so I sat down outside the door and waited. Many nationalities are here, Korean, Japanese, Nepal, and Philippines, British, Aussie, US, so it was fun to watch and listen to the different cultures talking to each other. I caught myself dosing off about the time I saw the Manager walking to unlock the door.

Once inside the dimly lit room, the line had begun to grow already. They always have a soup, two or three entrees and a couple of vegetables, freedom fries of course, a couple of sauces and then 3 or 4 different salads. They do have a Korean dish they serve also and they seem to enjoy it everyday. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to try the Kemchee because I was spoiled in Korea and I don’t want to be disappointed. I selected the barbecue chicken some freedom fries and a salad with French dressing. I topped it off with a couple of glasses of iced tea, not as good as I make, but it will do. I took my time and listened to all the sounds in the room, the Korean slurping their soup and noodles, the Brits enjoying a good laugh with their meal. The chicken wasn’t half bad and I pretty much finished it all.

Back to the room and log in for a good chat wit the little woman. I beat her to it because she was still asleep. It was about 12:45 my time which was 4:45am for her. I worked on my Blog some and found myself dosing again. I left her a message in case she got up before I was back and told her to buzz me. Well I had no more lay down and closed my eyes when the A/C and half of my lights went off. I got up and called the front desk and they said they would call maintenance. Satisfied it would be handled I laid back down and closed my eyes again. I had dozed about half an hour when I was wakened by the phone. My boss had just come back from the site and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the grocery store. Well of course I wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity like that so he said he would meet me in front in about 15 minutes. I got changed back in to me jeans, which is a must if you go out here, they don’t seem to understand that part of the American culture and they pretty much look down on you if you go out in public dressed like that. Grabbed my sneakers threw them on and was out the door. John was just parking when I came out he said he had just about given up. I hopped in the front seat, buckled in and we were off on an adventure to town.

We were about 10 minutes away from the store and don’t ask me where it is because I couldn’t get there again if you asked me. I am pretty good with direction but I still haven’t gotten my bearings here. We pulled into The Giant and grabbed a cart. It was squeaking the whole way in so John went out to find another one. He started going up and down isles and said I don’t know what you are looking for but if you need something let me know and we will find it. He’s a great guy, always thoughtful making sure I am fitting in. I told him I wanted to look at coffee pots because the coffee they make at the site is terrible. Oh did I mention that they don’t know how to make coffee here either? Well we finally found them and they had one Bunn, it was around $45 US not bad but I wasn’t prepared to buy it. We continued to browse up and down isles I found some peanut butter and some Ritz crackers, a case of water, a case of Diet Coke, a Snickers bar and a Galaxy Bar. The total came out to SR 85.00 which is about $22 US. I think the exchange rate is pretty close to ours just sounds bad. The case of Coke was like $5.88. The sacker pushed the cart out and loaded the car, John tipped him and we were off headed back to the camp.

On the way back John said that they usually have a cook out on Friday evenings and he had asked if he could bring me along. They said sure so we planned on him coming by about 3:30 or so and we head that way. I went to my room and unpacked my goodies and sat down to chat with Diane for a little bit before he came. I filled her in on the morning and told her I would be back in awhile and we could talk before I was ready for bed. John showed up right about 3:30 and we started walking. I didn’t realize this place was on the compound but it was just a short 5 minute walk. This is a small 3 bedroom villa that some of the guys live in, they have a real kitchen, dinning room, living room, bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, not bad for Saudi. Mike was already outside cooking, John said that he comes over on Friday and cooks all his food for the week and hardly eats at the dinning hall at all. He was cooking hot dogs, shish k-bob, and hamburgers. He got through and they put our dinner on, nice juicy steaks. I was a little skeptical but I would give it a try. Inside John and Jeff were cutting up potatoes and onions to be fired, and a pot of green beans. It immediately started smelling delicious right out of a Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meal show.

We sat and talked while everything was cooking and before you know it, Don came in and said you better go claim your steak before they get well done. Now I like my meat a little pink so I was out there in a heart beat with a knife and a plate. I cut one open and it was almost perfect. John said grab me one too so I cut one open and he said it was fine. We headed in with our plates and loaded up with the potatoes and green beans and sat down to dig in. The meat was a little tough but it was seasoned well so it was pretty good eats. We finished up and sat around for a few more minutes and then said it was time to head back. They had just started up a card game and neither of us were interested so it was pretty much useless to stay around they were sure to be absorbed in the game before long. One of the other guys, Fenwick who was the Construction Manager, was driving back so we caught a ride. He dropped us off at the office so we could go in and select our yummy lunch for the next day and then head back to the room.

I got back in the room and chatted with Diane for awhile and then realized it was after 10:00 and I needed to get to bed. We said our good nights and I took some meds and lay down. I had been feeling kind of puny all day, I had somewhat of a sore throat and my nose was running a little but I blew it off and tried to sleep. Soon sleep came and I rested, well that was until about 2:00am when I woke up and my throat was on fire. Well dummy me I had no meds for a cold, or sinus just some Advil and Tylenol. I dosed back off but then it was toss and turn. I knew it wouldn’t be long until the alarm was welcoming me to a new day……

The first few days.....

Well Tuesday morning was a great start, I woke up around 5:30 and knew I needed to get started. I was told that since we got in so late that I was not expected in at the regular start at 6:00 AM. I got up and showered got dressed and walked across the street to the Dinning Hall. I had made arrangements the night before with Ray the Sr. Construction Manager to ride in with him. He was the other passenger we had been waiting on. He had just come off his rotation and was not really in a hurry to get in. Breakfast was nice and cold, almost like it had been sitting out for awhile. Well since it opened at 5:00AM I would imagine, this was like 6:45 or so. Anyway it was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, Beef sausage (of course) coffee and orange juice. I forgot how watered down juice tasted in the Middle East but oh well.

After breakfast I walked over to the room and got my bag and headed back to wait for Ray. He strolled out about 15 minutes later and I was glad because it was beginning to heat up and I could feel the wetness on my skin. Ray wanted some coffee so he headed in for a cup and then we were off. The drive was another typical, through Eastern block buildings to the highway. It took about 30 minutes to get to the site but the scenery, well prety much the same, sand, palm trees, wrecked cars, and oil and chemical refineries in the background. After giving the guard at the gate my drivers license and temporary gate pass, we were there.

As we pulled up to the office complex, I noticed the familiarity of the style, and another typical of the Middle East, canvas covering to park the cars under so they wouldn't burn up in the heat. We went in and I was introduced to a nice chap from the UK. He was the F&A (Finance and Administration) guy and Ray asked him to show me around and find John my new boss. As we walked down the long hallway heads turned to see who the new guy was and I met a few of the people I would be working with. Most seemed to be in a good mood so that was a good start as well. We made it to John's office but he wasn't there so Mick called him on the Cell and told him I was there. He said he would be along shortly he was down at our Superintendents building. It is another complex that is closer to the site where we are building the units. As we waited he introduced me to a couple of the guys that would be working for me, and some chit chat about IT stuff. He eventually left me because John was taking longer than expected. I told him I would be fine I sat down got out my Laptop and started logging in to check email.

After about 10 or 15 minutes John came in and we introduced ourselves and sat and talked for quite awhile about what he expected and what they had been working on. We immediately hit it off and I knew that I had hit a gold mine in a boss he was going to be very easy to work with. You know you never know what to expect when you are going into a new environment but God provided. While we were talking there was noise in the hall and finally he said that he guessed they had finally got my furniture moved in and was I ready to settle in. I said sure and we went into the IT office and talked for a few minutes more. It was a little akward with Ardie my lead who had been there for quite awhile, I wasn't sure how he was going to take having a new boss and all. He is from the Philipines as are one of the two guys that works for me the other is from Napal. I immediately tried to break the ice with him and I think he responded fairly well.

The rest of the day was getting settled in and going through all the emails waiting on me, and the new things I needed to start working on. Around 4:30 Mo our local guy who takes care of getting our clerances, drivers license and Agame (i'll explain this one later), came and got me and said we needed to go to the clinic. I asked him what for becuase I had already done my medical in Houston. He said that it was a new Saudi law that all new Expats (Expatriot)who come into the country must have a Hepititis test, eye test and chest xray before they could submit their paperwork for home status. We stopped by and told John and Mo said he would drop me off at the camp after we were through. We went out to his car and headed to town. The ride was about 20 minutes and we talked about everything, his family, where he lived, how long he had worked for KBR, etc. He even was shocked that we were paying $4 a gallon for gas because they were paying somewhere around 45 cents a gallon here. I was floored I knew it was cheaper but had no idea it was that cheap.

We arrived at the clinic and went inside. Typical Middle Eastern clinic, tile floors, concrete walls, everything painted white. We went upstairs to a waiting room next to the check-in desk where three lovely fully dressed in their buca's including facial veil. He told me to take a seat and he would take care of everything. He knew his way around and he knew EVERYONE. He got us in and out in less than 30 minutes. As we were walking down the stairs he said see I told you it wouldn't take long, ya if I had tried to do that by myself, I would still be sitting there waiting. We got back in the car and headed back to camp. The drive was short considering we had traveled three quarters of the way to town and he dropped me off at the front gate. Before he left, he got in his trunk and handed me a selection of the local fruit, dates. He said you wash these and you will love them, eat them with your coffee and you will have tastes you have never tasted before.

I proceeded to my room and put down my items I had been hauling, my backpack with Laptop and other essentials which weighs in the neighborhood of about 40 lbs. I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and headed across to the dinning room for dinner. To my pleasant surprise, they were serving curry chicken and rice, one of my absolute favorites. They did a good job on it and the green salad and tomatoes with your choice of French, Thousand Island, or Blue Cheese dressing. Now remember we are in the Middle East so they look like what we have at home, but don't nearly taste as good. Anyway I finished up with a quick pice of Apple pie for dessert and a cup of coffee to wash it down with. I headed back to my room and chated with Diane for about an hour before it was time to hit the hay again.

Wednesday and Thursday left nothing to the imagination, pretty much the same ole. Oh we carry a packed lunch everyday because there is no place close to get lunch, usually consist of a couple of sandwhiches, a couple of juice boxes a piece of fruit and a piece of fruit bread. Not bad when you are hungry but I wonder how fast that is going to get old. Well Friday is a day of rest so I will hopefully be able to sleep in and get some much needed rest. Hope you are enjoying, please be sure to leave comments if there is any questions or ideas you have.

And we're off

Well the day finally came to head off on my new adventure. Got up around 7:30 had a lite breakfast, tried to get my thoughts together, look at my list and scratch off anything I had completed already. Of course the last day you always forget something so we added that to the list as well. Josh and Cassie came down Saturday night and we had a nice quiet evening, well other than me stressing that I was running out of time and I couldn't find everything.

We decided to get all the things we needed at Walmart and would meet them for dinner at Lupe Tortilla's close to Intercontinental Airport. Diane and I took off for Walmart and Radio Shack around 2:30 and we were going to try to be back in time to leave by 3:00 ;) ya I was pretty sure we wouldn't make that one, but hey we tried anyway. Of course it took way too much time at Walmart and then the stop at Radio Shack, well you guessed we weren't even close to being home, and we still had to pick Kimber up at her apartment. Long story short, we got home and I repacked all my suitcases, each weighed less than what they were supposed to and off we went, at 3:55. Ya I was pretty sure that we wouldn't have enough time to get there and eat and be at the Airport an hour and a half before the flight.

We tooled out on 45 North and called Josh to find out where they were. It was too late to eat so we told them to just meet us at the Airport. We arrived about the same time and found a parking place. As we loaded a cart with my ton of luggage, we trugged through the cars towards the elevator. After waiting about 10 minutes, we were on and headed down to check-in. I decided we had enough time for a quick Starbucks, probably would be my last for awhile. We got our drinks and went back upstairs to sit and watch the security line. That is one thing that will get you in trouble if it is too long, it can keep you from your flight. We just sat and talked for a few minutes and then I decided we couldn't drag it out any longer so I said my good-byes and got in line. Good thing I did too because all of a sudden behind me were about 15 people. Went through with no issues, got my stuff and put it all back in its proper place and waived bye.

Well I will spare you with the other details but the incoming flight was late so we were late. When I finally got on the plane, the Continental Flight specialist came on the plane and said well you are our only issue. I said really why is that? He said that if we didn't get to Amsterdam in time for my flight to Saudi I would be in Amsterdam for 3 days before the next flight. Nice, really nice and me with nothing to do but sit back and wait and see.......

The first leg of the flight was really quick we had a nice tail wind and got there about 10 minutes after we were supposed to be there before the flight was late. We landed on the farthest runway from the terminal so it took like 15 minutes to get there. At least I slept about 5-1/2 hours and felt pretty good. As we pulled up to the Jetway, it took them forever to get it pulled up to the plane and finally they opened the door. They were all saying Good Luck hope you make your flight...... nice don't help me get there or anything, oh well I was off to find the monitors. I ran down the Terminal hall, which is another crazy thing, you have to park at the last gate in the last Terminal so if you wanted to make a quick flight, no way, nearly impossible. Doing this mind you with a new pair of steel toed boots which I am breaking in for the first time.... ya you guessed it, very uncomfortable. Found the checkin desk for KLM and she pointed me in the right direction. I made it to the gate and they had just started checking people through security so I was good. A matter of standing in the cattle line for about 15 minutes and I was on the plane. Had to call Diane and tell her I made it so we were chatting while I was getting on the plane and finding my seat. I got all set in my seat and we talked for a few minutes until they shut the door and then we were off again.

The flight was estimated at 5 hours and 36 minutes and the plane wasn't as full as it looked when I got on. As I looked around there were a lot of seats vacant. Oh well not to worry we were in the air and that was all that mattered. I skipped lunch because I was feeling pretty hot still, for some reason I couldn't seem to cool off. Anyway I watched a couple of movies on the way which made the time go by relatively quick. Before we knew it we were heading down and making ready to land. It was interesting watching the Tracker as we got closer to ground, the temperature of course is colder in the upper atmosphere but we went from -41 degrees F to +98 really quick. After about 10 minutes the pilot came on and said we were landing. We touched down at 7:59 PM 24 hours from when I had left.

Once in the terminal you have a very long walk to customs, every country does that including the US no clue why because you are already dead tired from the long flight so it really takes a lot to endure. After about 10 minutes of walking we finally arrived in Customs, the wait wasn't bad and I was through and retrieving my bags. They came off pretty quick too so I loaded them on the cart and headed to the Xray machines. I made it through with no check and headed out into the lobby where my driver was to be waiting. I found him and he said he was waiting on another passenger so we waited about 5 minutes for him to show up. Once he arrived we headed for the garage and waited for the driver to bring the car around. After finally getting all of my luggage in the car, well I am going to be here for awhile, we headed off for Al Jubail Industrial City.

The drive wasn't bad, you couldn't see anything with it being night and of course the dust storm. We arrived at the Al Razvat Residential commpound about 9:30 ish. They had my room all ready so I gave them my Passport and signed the papers and they showed me to my room. Not much to it a bed, desk, a couple of chairs, a coffee table, tv, bathroom and a bureau to put my clothes in. It was all good, I was just ready to get unpacked and go to sleep. I was pretty excited about that because normally my trips West end up with me being up for a couple of days while my body tries to adjust. I unpacked got ready for bed, popped an Advil PM and fell fast asleep.

Welcome to my Blog. The jest of this Blog is to be able to share old and new pictures and keep you up to date. I will also post family information, birthdays, etc and of course trip notes while I am on my World Travels. If you want to see something I am not covering, let me know and I will be more than happy to add it. Welcome aboard!