Masalama, for some, and Xmas Greetings to Others

The last Blog entry for 2011, and near the end of the first full year in the Magic Kingdom. With the passage of time there has been much time to reflect.

December has been a time to say goodbye to some good friends (masalama), as they leave the Kingdom "exit only", and a time to ponder the upcoming holiday season. In public here there is no sense of the Christmas Season, just more days like any other time of the year. This makes it all the sadder as we have always enjoyed the festivities of the holiday season - and of course the emotional aspects of not seeing family and old friends who we miss dearly. The things we sometimes take for granted but never should. Oh and to see some snow again (really!) to give that seasonal feel - instead the continued warm sunshine, blue skies and palm trees.
Life here in Jeddah just continues on as usual.

A view of the small street below our apartment balcony at night. Now look at the cars - not atypical driving habits here, so many people driving in a rush to go nowhere. Here we see two lines of traffic facing each other, neither line wishing to give way! Of course lots of honking horns. Now you understand why I didn't purchase a vehicle here.  Another evening in December where the only seasonal colors are the tail lights.

A "masalama" during the holiday season. Jim (in the middle on the couch) was a major strength in our small expatriate community, leaving to take up a faculty position at a university in the American midwest. A sad time for us but happy for him.

The three "masalama" people in December - Jim, Julie and Denice. All will be missed. However these events become part of the expat experience here as at some point we will all be leaving. One understands that life here is transient not being on the more solid grounding of life at home. Despite this developing relationships and "community" events become important.

     Yes preparing for these events takes a lot of effort.

It does not take much of an excuse to develop these events. The western expat community is much smaller than it was in the 80's and 90's, things being different since 911 and recently with the "Arab Spring" activities in the region. Although the Magic Kingdom is stable and safe, the images one gets from the news makes people in the west less likely to come than they did in the past.

     The merging of mindsets -  of masalama and Christmas.

The closest we will get to snow in the Kingdom is this snowman next to Santa.

     Christmas in the desert decorating our small tree.

Our two small Christmas trees in an attempt to bring in the holiday season.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all, both far and near.

November, Routine & Other Ramblings.

No international trips this past month - just toiling at work and the environs of Jeddah.
It is now December 1st, hard to believe that we have now resided in the Magic Kingdom for fourteen months. The months get measured here, as although time flies by fairly fast, it is still not an easy adjustment. Sacrifices have been made. That being said we do adapt, remember why we are here, and look at the positive aspects of our "adventure" life journey. At this time of year one thinks more of family and friends back home, having gone past Thanksgiving and with the Christmas season around the corner. It is probably the hardest time of the year that one is reminded of being away from "home".

Yes we have developed variations on our usual life routines. We accept the fact that the expat community, and life in this environment, is a transient one.This is likely similar to having "gone cruising", although we are still constrained by our work routines. However we make the most of our opportunities, and our "usual" life, although similar in some respects to our "home routine", leads to a different pattern in other aspects. Our western expat community becomes a key element to our quality of life, in addition to the local recreational resources.

As we have both Canadian and American friends our Thanksgiving was hosted in November between the two dates. Our friends here become our "family" away from home. One of our Irish colleagues had never had a Thanksgiving so he educated us via Google on his phone regarding its history! And yes we had turkey.

A good time was had by all at our CanAm Thanksgiving - another opportunity to engage our "support group".

As it is warm to hot all year round, sunny nearly every day, and sitting next to the Red Sea, part of many weekends lead to the water. In November the weather is beautiful being in the high 20's C - this will last until about March when it will start getting very hot. The middle of summer is actually uncomfortable at the beach (mid to high 40's C) so the season from November until March is ideal for outdoor pursuits.

There are several private beaches in Jeddah, open essentially to expat passport holders. Privacy is clearly an issue here. Previous Blogs have shown one of the popular beaches, this is another. These are November pictures, but no Fall colors or bare trees here.

Some of the Jeddah skyline in the distance - new construction. The facility on the shoreline seen on the left is a beautiful facility, with many trees planted, owned by a Prince in the Royal Family.

Off the point at the end of this beach one can enter the water close to the shore side coral reefs to do snorkelling or scuba diving - there is a shore based dive shop/facility at this resort. The top image shows this individual going down the steps built into the side of the rocks for easy entry.

As can be seen this could be much like a beach facility in the Med or the Caribbean, although private with partitions or walls (as can be seen here) along the sides. Warm clear water, nice sand and sunshine - the essential ingredients. Outside this facility we would have to adapt to the strict dress codes when in public.

 Boat based offshore dive trips are popular with the expat community. Yes aspects of this have been covered before but this, along with the beach, have become one of our "routine" weekend  choices, analogous to visiting our boat on summer weekends at home.

Getting to the dive boat early is a nice way to start the day avoiding the crowd in setting up, seeing the soft morning light, and having a donut and peaceful cup of coffee on the boat.

For the mariners it should be noted that it is not "red right returning" here, the buoys being reversed with "red right exiting" to the sea.

The ride going offshore scanning the horizon is always a pleasant part of the trip, while enjoying the journey not just the destination.

Some of the offshore reefs are marked by beacons, such as this one, other reefs are not - hence the large number of ship wrecks - good for divers, not for mariners. These reefs are ten to fifteen miles offshore.

This reef is not marked - but a good spot to stop to do some scuba diving, snorkelling, swimming or to just enjoy the sunshine.

Before the plunge - here fairly shallow, being about 40 - 50 feet deep.

Here snorkellers can be seen navigating through the reef system.
Despite the reputation the Red Sea has for sharks they are actually only seen rarely.

     Waiting for divers to return - lunch is being heated.

Between the first and second dive, one has lunch provided. A requirement on scuba dives is to have a two hour window between dives, to avoid the risk of decompression sickness. Actually a nice break to recuperate and socialize.

Although there was time for two dives the coast guard had asked the boats to return a little earlier as a storm system was moving in from the North. We could feel the wind getting up and the waves beginning to build. This was our sister dive boat on the way back - two go out at a time.

Although not appreciated on this still image the wind and waves had been building from our stern - to me a more enjoyable ride back than if it had remained calm.

This episode has included three separate events during this past month of November. A window of sorts into one aspect of the expat life here. In a society that has a very different code of conduct to what we are used to in the West it is not only important, but essential, to make the effort to develop a community and to engage in the recreational choices that are available - these factors are important to either make or break one's outlook on life in the Magic Kingdom. Although psychologically and emotionally challenging at times, and needing our periods of solitude, we are attempting to keep life as full as possible.

ABC and Cabo da Roca

"I'd recommend the ten year old Tawny sir".
I'd checked into my hotel in Lisbon, Portugal after a long day of flying with three flight segments (Jeddah, Amman, Milan to Lisbon) and was seeking some local refreshment. The Tawny was in fact very good, a lively colour with a fresh taste. This was to be expected as I was in a hotel bar in the country of Portugal where Port is made and produced. But to get to that liquid sustenance it had been a long day in planes & airports.

Leaving Milan on flight segment three with the Alps in the background.

I was booked into a hotel that had been converted from an old palace originally built in the 1800's. Unfortunately it was raining as can be seen in this image taken during the evening, on my way to the bar to look for my liquid night cap.

I was in Lisbon to attend the European Advanced Breast Cancer Consensus Conference, a two & half day meeting. Joy unfortunately was in Jeddah slaving away at her work duties. During my time in Jeddah I had decided to reinvent myself, with some new challenges, to add "breast cancer" to my clinical activities, and hence had to do a lot of work in moving up my new learning curve.

That is the "ABC" (Advanced Breast Cancer) at the conference centre.
As physicians in Saudi Arabia we are fortunate in that "Big Pharma" (the large Pharmaceutical firms) are quite generous in sponsoring us to more meetings than I had been used to at home. This would be my fourth international conference trip in 2011 made possible due to their support. It is curious to ponder why this would be the case in this part of the world, although it is true that we don't have the more rigid controls on drug use that I had at home - for example it is not a problem with our drug budgets for me to order the newer more expensive drugs such as Cetuximab, Bevacizumab, Sunitinib, or Lapatinib, for example, if their use may be justified by the medical literature.

From the patio of the conference centre one can view part of the "ocean inlet - river exit" in Lisbon. Clearly masts of sailboats can be seen (on the left of the picture), although many of these vessels are relatively small.
Lisbon, although a beautiful city, gave the air of having seen better days, being caught up in the European debt crisis issue. Portugal had been a major maritime power in its past, has had some interesting history, but now, much like Greece, is in a different era. Despite this the people appeared friendly, and the locally produced Port helped at the end of a grey day!

What was an old monastery & church, built in the 1500's, now a museum and church, close to our conference centre.

The splendor of this old church, built in the day when the Catholic Church had so much power, again a different era in history.

During the evenings we managed to eat at some nice restaurants, this one by the water - through the reflection on the window one can see a small marina in the background. Sea food is a major staple here being a maritime country.

We managed to get a driver & guide to take us up the coast just north of Lisbon to Cabo da Roca, the most western point of land of continental Europe. From here one can look out over the Atlantic towards the vast ocean where in times past the world was believed to be flat and there were sea monsters and mermaids to be found beyond the horizon. It is from these, and nearby shores, that the great Age of Exploration started with sailing vessels from Spain, Portugal, England and Holland.

Looking out on to the Atlantic from Cabo da Roca on this foreboding day.

 The old light house on the bluff over looking Cabo da Roca.

The wild coast line of Cabo da Roca - the vegetation was low lying due to the almost constant wind in this region. It was cold coming off the Atlanic in early November.

Moving South (towards Lisbon) one can view "Cabo" in the background. Of note is the large surf in this region, where it is popular with surfers and windsurfers. Apparently this is one of the locations for some of the world surfing championship events.

Moving down the coast as the sun begins to set in the West over the Atlantic.

Unfortunately not a good view, with the car on the move. However, although we were not able to stop here, this is the location of Cascai a beautiful, clearly wealthy, part of the coast as one heads towards Lisbon. There were pockets of obviously well off regions, although as noted much of the Lisbon area appeared to be going through more difficult times.

It was time to hit the airport in Lisbon, again for a three flight segment (Lisbon, Barcelona, Amman, Jeddah) to arrive back in Jeddah after mid night to appear at work only a few hours later. A very good conference, an interesting trip, and nice to see some rain (being a rare event next to the desert sands).