Blogging from Jeddah, Saudi.

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