I finally managed to escape from Jouf, on Saturday 11th August. I'd been told to be at the airport at 9.30, so I took all the leftover food to the animals and filled as many containers as I could find with water for them, and then Reggie came in the bus to take me to the airport. Once Reggie had driven away, I discovered my flight was actually much later than I'd been told, and I had 4 hours to hang around in the airport by myself. Fortunately I had my Kindle, an...

So I realised my last entry was a bit negative, and there are plenty of positive and just generally interesting things going on here. So here's a bit of light entertainment between big posts. I kept going with lazy Ramadan for about 2 weeks, but when I started getting dizzy and having head rushes, I extended it from water only to liquids only, so I could have juice and milk and tea and the like. But not soup. That would be too foody. A few days ago when things...

Basically 2 things have happened since my last entry, one good, the other the biggest farce ever imagined, like something from a comic horror film. Let's start with the good stuff, especially as it was longer ago. One evening Emma, Halima and I were invited to a student's house to meet her sisters and her mother. Ibtisam is one of Emma's students, and I'd met her a few times through watching lessons, covering lessons, and invigilating exams. We took the compou...

I'm getting used to life here. It's slow-paced, but I think I'm managing to strike a good balance between relaxing and keeping busy, time with company and time to myself. I still haven't met everyone on the compound, but everyone I have met has been very welcoming and friendly, and people have gone out of their way to help me feel part of things, which is nice. During my first week here, one of our students died in a car crash. Saudi is notorious for dangerous ...

I'm afraid this is going to be even longer than usual, as I've been lackadaisical (it's been a good week for using good words - among other delightful specimens, I have successfully made use of "incorrigible" and "unruly", to good effect) in my approach to keeping you, my worthy followers, up to date on my adventures. My last few days in Riyadh were a lot of fun, which I shall attempt to summarise. Most of the time, I can't sit in the front seat of a car, beca...