Well I’m getting to know my way around Jeddah a little bit more now, it’s designed in a grid system with obvious American influence. It’s impossible to walk anywhere and the only people you’ll see doing so are those too poor to be able to afford a car, Jeddah is pretty huge so you’d be hard pushed to get anywhere but the local shops even if you could find a pavement (sidewalk).

 The poor unfortunates that have to walk everywhere (there is no public transport except taxis) often fall victim to road accidents, I have not seen any but have had reports of bodies seen laying by the roadside. Their common fate is not surprising to anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes driving around and witnessed the average level of driving care exhibited.

If there are any common road rules or laws in Jeddah then i’m hard pressed to identify them the roads which are usually about 4 lanes wide have no lane markings and individual cars wobble between lanes as they please; u-turns against 8 lanes of traffic are not uncommon, the whole experience feels like a go on the dodgems at a fair ground.

We had our first little scrape the other night when turning left at a junction, a car in the far right (4th) lane decided it too wanted to turn left and wanted to be in the lane we were in needless to say there was nowhere to go and the driver of the car gave up with his manouevre after hitting the side of our 4×4. However after a quick bout of name calling and horn blowing we were on our way again without even stopping to check damage, apparently any claim for insurance here is a long drawn out process involving the police (hmm sounds familiar) and usually ends in a 50/50 split anyway.

The disparity in wealth here is obvious in the cars as well as the buildings, it is not uncommon to see a very young looking Saudi lad driving a sports car or blinged out Hummer next to a huge Indian family crammed in a tiny old battered car.

Hanans Dad has asked me if i would like to drive, however i have to say i feel reluctant to at the moment I fear I might not get very far sticking to my familiar way of driving.

Well here I am in Jeddah, Saudi and already settling into a different life style which will be mine for the next two weeks, i’m excited to come and stay with Hanans family and get a taste of their everyday living.

The compound (there must be nicer name for it) that Hanans parents and younger sisters live in holds 8 houses and encircles a tennis court and a swimming pool.  It feels a very secure and friendly atmosphere helped by  the single point of entrance which has a friendly security guard who waves and says S’alaam Alaikum when we come and go.

The residents kids all play together in the center of the compound kicking a football around and using the basketball nets and the whole setup feels more family orientated than back in Britain, there is even a large family of cats who have the run of the grounds and seem to go around creating mayhem and doing what cats do.

I have met a lot of the neighbours already all who have invited me round for dinner at some point in my stay, I feel I might become fat by the end of my stay with all the good arabic food on offer

The next door neighbour Mohamed is Egyptian and married to a Syrian lady whom i haven’t met yet, he works as the finance director for a medical supply company and is a frequent traveller to Dubai, Qatar and UAE I’ve already received my first job offer here from him although i think it may just part of the hospitality to offer guests a work at your company

The next neighbour I met was Rhoda who is Palestinian but brought up in the French colony of Martinique, her daughter lives in Abu Dabi with her Afghany husband. Rhoda is very lively and entertaining and likes to do eccentric little hobbies like beekeeping in the garden she has made in her section of the compound. She has also dug and lined an oven in the garden and has promised to make some of her renowned wood cooked chicken during my stay.

Basima and her husband are from Lebanon, their two oldest lads are at university in Canada. Basima is another larger than life character, very friendly and full of energy. Again I have the offer of more food at some point in the stay, I think they are trying to feed me up before i go back to England to prepare me for the cold British weather as Mohamed said, he did a round trip of Britain a few years ago but was not particularly impressed by the weather.

Mohamed also commented on how many rules the British have and how he felt scared to do anything for fear of being told off. Don’t smoke here, don’t drink at this time, fill in this form, drive like this… I have to agree with him. It is strange how we sometimes think of Saudi as a very strict place with little personal freedom, in many senses it is but when contrasted to some of the rules and regulations we have, we are also strictly controlled; even more so in our own homes where we cant even do some wiring without it being approved by a government regulator.

Last night we went out to the local Mega Mall, a very Americanized place lavishly decorated with huge marble columns and shops of every conceivable kind. I definately stood out like a sore thumb there and got my fair share of stares all of which felt either mildly inquisitive or friendly, these were justified really as 75% of the men were wearing the traditional white robe and headress that Saudi men wear whilst I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The women were for the most part wearing black robes and head scarves some with the face covered and others not, it was interesting spotting the fashions among the ladies robes which by the way look very smart, almost suit like and quite elegant. They were often worn with high heels and Victoria Beckham style sunglasses.

It’s unfortunate that photography is not allowed in public here as there are some fantastic images of people to be had, it is hard to describe the feeling of being stood in a clothes shop with a hoard of blackrobed women stood around examing the levis jeans and trying on Nike sneakers in their Abaya black robes.

Today we also paid a visit to see Hanans dad Jalal at work in the EN&T department of one of the local hospitals, it’s a very smart private hospital extremely clean and airy. We sat in the waiting room whilst Jalal finished with a patient and exchanged greetings with some of the patients there, one old Saudi gentleman took great pleasure in trying out his english with me which was very good, much better anyway than my smattering of Arabic. The waiting area has a separate room for women waiting, most of whom were again clad in their Abaya with face covered; Jalal often tells stories of women who come in and say “why you must remember me doctor?” from behind their veil.

Right well must dash time to go out and have some food again, I have so far had Tagine, fried fish, Shwarma (pieces of Grilled Lamb), Kebab and various other tasty arabic treats. There are thousands of restaurants in Jeddah to choose from so who knows what it will be tonight

More sketching practice today, this one is based on one of my favourite photos by Steve McCurry 

Woo! my birthday present has arrived early; it’s a lovely Wacom graphics tablet courtesy of Hanan. It’s a bit cheeky of me to use it already as my birthday isn’t until the 26th, but as we’ll be away in Saudi then I’ve allowed myself to start using it

Here’s a quick test sketch done in photoshop, cartoony eyes and of no one in particular.

OK I’m pulling this straight from 3pointD, but this could be a biggee. Sony showed this video at the Game Developers Conference, a PS3 based vitual world using the latest physics and graphics engines.

In comparison to SecondLife it looks stunning and a lot more technology rich, the user created content aspects may not be there but the social aspects certainly seem to be. The stated ability to meet friends and head off into multiplayer games is a powerful one indeed, as a result the environment will no doubt gain traction and may become a strong differentiating factor for the PS3.

Anyway take a look at the video and form your own opinion.

Thanks to a great deal of effort on the part of Hanans dad, I will soon be in receipt of a Saudi visitors visa

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit really as its not possible to get in as a normal tourist, Hanans parents will probably only be living there for another year before they move back to the UK, so now is a great time to visit. A few things I’m looking forward to on the trip are…

Snorkelling in the Red Sea - I’ve heard that Red Sea off the coast of Saudi is some of the most unspoilt diving going, and much less crowded then Egypt due to the restrictions on visitors.

Visiting the mountains on the way to Taif. I’ve been promised some interesting wildlife here, included camels and babboons

I’m also looking forward to visiting makkah and the old town in Jeddah.

I’ll obviously be taking my camera, but might have to be a bit more discreet than normal. I dont want to carry on my tradition of being told to stop taking pictures by overeager security guards etc.

The BBC is reporting on the manufacture of a new type of generator that uses wave movement to generate power. It’s not new in terms of concept obviously, but watching the video it’s obvious that these new generators are not just a prototype trial but ready for serious use and a viable source of alternative energy.

The first major deployment of the generators is happening now off the coast of Portugal with a few small trials around Britain. If these are successful I hope that the government will pour money into the company developing the Pelamis, this is the kind of renewable energy source we need to be focusing on in the next 20 years.

Amazing to think that the Sun, Earth and Moon are all perfectly in line at this very second.

During the course of some investigations into 3D Flash options by Jay Dykes our Meadan graphic designer (and ace photographer) he came across the Papervision3D open source project.

Its a 3D library written in action script for Flash and looks pretty interesting, it supports a variety of formats including the Collada standard for digital asset exchange.