This morning I was finally, after almost 4 months of twiddling my thumbs and checking my emails every 5 minutes, given a date of departure. I will be flying to King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, KSA, on Monday 25th June. In honour of the occasion, I have eaten some pork. I've been told the name of the hotel I'll be in to start with, but no indication yet of how long I'll be there - if it'll just be a couple of days before they relocate me to AlJouf up in the North, or if I will in fact be in Riyadh over the summer until the university term starts again and I am relocated in time for that.

Like all the other times, I know the first few days will be tough, but I'll manage one way or another until I get a bit more used to it, and some familiar faces and places are established.

For once I don't need to buy any new clothes before I can pack (already have my abaya etc), so hopefully I shouldn't have any luggage problems.

I should have access to this blog while I'm there, as well as to Facebook, normal emails, Skype etc, so in theory I can keep in regular contact with you all. Once I have a postal address I'll make sure you all know it THEN YOU HAVE TO SEND ME LOTS OF LETTERS AND PARCELS, but don't put pork or alcohol in or it'll get confiscated before it gets to me.