Hello from Blighty!!

I am at last in England; well I have been for a few days. The flight from Bahrain was great and I landed at Heathrow 30 mins early so I was through customs before Pippa and Katharine arrived. For the record, they were on time I was early.

All the winter blast that hit England last week was still hanging around just for me, as I expect most Brits were well over it. I basically slept most of the first day here and potted around the village.

The corner shop has re-opened with a little cafe and deli and the breakfast is brilliant. They have a full English vegetarian with sausage, eggs, tomato and bubble 'n squeak. Pippa and I had a brief trip to Tiverton yesterday to begin the arduous process of setting me up with bank accounts etc. A bit awkward when the manager said we needed ID to be sure I was not a 'terrorist' and I produced my Iqama (Saudi ID) written in Arabic and asked if this would do. He requested a passport so we are off to the bank tomorrow with more acceptable IDs like Australian passport and drivers license.

I have been in two minds about returning to Saudi, I essentially trust the offer Marieta gave me, but I just do not trust National Guard. So I have decided not to return. It will go against me in Saudi as it will be considered absconding from my job and I will not get a reference form them, but considering I am still waiting for my BLS certificate from August I will probably have a job here before any reference would arrive.

I will put a final entry about Saudi Arabia in this blog in a few days after I have written it as I really want to say what I feel for the place. But given I am doing a 'runner' the general idea should be that I hate the place and don't care if I never set foot in the country again.

On a much happier note, today was Eve's birthday. As far as Pippa and my nieces and nephews go I briefly met Michael 4 years ago, but all the others came along while we were in Australia. So we have spent a wonderful day at her birthday party.