Holiday Inn Olaya Riyadh

... guy sitting across the aisle from me is doing his prayers in his seat. I wait until after he is finished to order a glass of Johnny Walker and commence my ode to alcohol since this is going to be the last time for quite a while! Johnny Walker, Campari, Aussie Whites, Italian Reds, Spanish Tempranillo are my co-passengers for the next few hours! Out of respect for the Muslim passengers and to make sure no one arrives at immigration intoxicated, the ...

I apologise for the lack of actual information on this page. It has been a fairly hectic few days. Needless to day, I have already been in contact with most of you by now and updated you on how the new job was going.<br><br>I, along with another colleague, rented a rather batter, manual gear, Hyundai Accent and took it for a spin for about 24 hours around Riyadh and also out to Ad-Diriyiah. Al-Diriyah is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the ...

... popped my passport in my wallet and decided to go and explore outside.<br><br>I made my way to the only big landmark I could remember, a big McDonalds just in the corner and walked up Sitten St looking at everything. After making some calls to family to let them know I&#8217;d touched down safely, I went in search of a mobile phone shop. After walking around quite a bit I found a small Mobile Soug where I bought a sim-card and cheap mobile phone because my British one is ...

... the Faisaliah are impressive. Being Ramadan there wasn't much traffic...more on that later.<br><br>The compound, al Jazeera, is nice...small, central to the city, good amenities - pool, gym, tv room, small coffee shop. Glenn has a 1 bedroom apartment which has everything he needs, and it is cool. After a quick tour of the place i had a cuppa and off to bed...i mean i haven't seen glenn for months :)

... passed through Mina and Muzdalifah, which if you're familiar with the annual Hajj rites, is where the large tent city is that the Hajjis stay in. Looking at the tent city, it is easy to see how perilous it could be if people try to have open fires, and while regretting the tent city fire a few years ago, one can only wonder that there haven't been more accidents. The scope of the public services necessary for accommodate the millions who come for ...

When you are entering Riyadh from the east, you pass a lot of agricultural spots -- date farms, dairy farms, fields with modern irrigation equipment. Leaving the city heading west it's as if you have come to the edge of a vast cliff and are now headed down into an enormous valley. Our ears ...

We reached Riyadh close to midnight. My husband's aunt's (by marriage) brother lives in Riyadh, and we usually sleep at their villa and have a meal before heading out again for the longer segment of our journey. Riyadh is a huge city; unfortunately it has only been a stopover point for us, we haven't had the opportunity to spend much time exploring. <br><br>After dinner and a night's rest we left, making a short stop at Starbucks for a Frappucino. I ...

... ventilated, do go straight to ICU, but often we look after ICU "stepdown" patients in recovery before sending them on. I've seen some pretty interesting stuff already - a few MVA's and a partial liver donor this week. Its just taking some getting used to, with all the damn paperwork (so, so much paperwork!) and also their way of doing things. You can't even do the simplest thing such as apply oxygen without a doctor's order! Patients who have a motor block ...

... all seem so lovely. They all keep telling me that you work so hard here, and its your mates that pull you through, so the sense of comradeship is quite high (That sentance sounds like it was written in the war times!) I had a brilliant time. I'm still getting used to Wednesdays being their "Fridays" and relaxing Thursdays and Fridays being the weekend. When it gets to Saturday and Sunday, I feel bummed that I have to go into work, even though i've just had two days off! Its like my ...

... a 24 hour crossing). After paying more Jordanian dinars to get out of Jordan we paid some Saudi Riyals to get back into Saudi and had our vehicle contents inspected in the bargain. They didn't even open up anything, but we pulled it all out and put it on the table next to the Trooper so they could see we were honest. What WAS really interesting was that there was a special room for the ladies! Yes, ladies received special treatmet. This consisted of a Saudi lady who waited in ...