Sauntering through Saudi: Settling In

Well so far I have been to the Mall twice and done the supermarket rush, I only mean rush because we had to get in before prayer time and my poor beloved could not believe we managed to stay inside till the next prayer time, whereby we had to throw our groceries through the checkout, hoping to get the beep from the till before the call finished and we were stuck at the till, luckily we managed in double quick time, we are used to shopping and the super quick speed of the Tesco employees, whom I have to say I have sorely missed over the last few years, never take for granted your local checkout workers, having been in different countries where sitting on your mobile phone is the done thing at your work station, I never take Tesco peeps for granted (other supermarkets are available), said work station can have a dozen or more people waiting to be served but that mobile still needs checking, answering and best not forget to check your facebook.....

The food in the supermarkets was brilliant and the variety of stock pretty impressive, well apart from my Thai 7 spices which I'm having flown in via a man from Maud, funnily enough Bahrain didn't have 7 spice either.

Since arriving in Saudi the weather has been horrendously cold, we were only three degrees higher than Lou Lou's, and we have no heating having left our little fire in Cyprus, so we had to go out and buy another, this one will be coming with us where ever we move to next...

I have gotten to grips with the house and organising all our belongings where I want them, hanging pictures and trying to dry clothes without using the tumble dryer, quite a feet in a house with no heat and when the sun does shine it almost laughs at you as if to say 'heat really!!'

Stitch and I have been getting acquainted with the youngsters and mothers in the compound, and I am now on the Whatsapp list for the Ladies on the compound, which amazingly appears quite a long list, so I could be meeting up with the locals very soon. Stitch I think is going to be King of the Compound, the mothers love him, the kids want to play with him, but I am not sure how he will get on once he figures out that smell that has been driving him mad on our walks is in fact two cats that live over the back of us, it could go either way.

Queenie is laid up just now having broken and impacted her wrist, had it reset twice, fallen down the stairs because her pain meds made her extremely dizzy and had her stomach lining trashed by the anti-inflammatories, so much bad luck for one person, I always said she should be wrapped in cotton wool I just always thought she would grow out of it....