Thanks for reading
Saturday 13 September 2014
Saturday 30 August 2014
Planes, pains and automobiles, part deux!!!!
It couldn't happen again could it? Surely not!!!!
It bloody well did.
After a final night out in Texas with a few friends we'd met there and a few lads who's just arrived to start their training I woke up feeling slightly worse for wear, finished my packing and went to meet the minibus that was taking us to the airport at 10:30 on Saturday 23rd August. I left Houston, slightly delayed by 45 minutes, at 16:35 as the plane suffered a puncture on landing that needed to be repaired however the pilot made this time up during the flight and landed as scheduled at 08:35 Sunday 24th August in Frankfurt. With just over 5 hours to kill before our flight to Dammam I had some breakfast, had a shower and put some clean clothes on (I can recommend this to anyone travelling long haul, clean underwear and a clean t-shirt felt like winning the Lottery), had a wander round duty free before heading to the gate ready for my flight.
So far so good, as you've probably guessed it goes a bit pear shaped now!!
We were told that the flight from Frankfurt to Dammam was overbooked!!!! how do you overbook a flight where you know exactly how many seats you've got, it's not like you can just add a couple or get a few people to stand up. We were told our options:
Option 2 meant landing in Doha at 22:30 some 25 minutes after I should have landed in Dammam and with another stopover of 2.5 hours before the onward flight. It has to be noted that the new International airport in Doha is a stunning piece of architecture, built specifically for the World Cup in 2022 it's all shiney and new with excellent shopping if you've got very deep pockets (Harrods, Bulgari, Rolex and Burberry to name a few all have shops in the terminal). I boarded the flight for the short hop to Dammam at 00:40 landing at 01:40 on Monday 25th. Bonus points here go to Saudi passport control at King Fahd airport, arriving there with an Iqama and a re-entry visa is a piece of cake, I was through customs with my bags in hand 45 minutes later although I was still stood waiting for Chris and Jordan another 45 minutes later. They weren't so lucky, of the 4 suitcases they put on the plane in Houston only 2 made it Dammam, Chris had a massive panic on as 1 of his cases contained his life possessions the other contained his guitar, he was like a kid at Christmas when his clothes arrived and not his guitar. We did our good deed for the day as another lad who'd flown in from the UK that day had said on Facebook that his bike never arrived, whilst stood waiting for our luggage I noticed his bike flight case so collected it for him.
We met our taxi and set off at around 03:45 for the drive to Jubail. I arrived at my new home, Jubail Views, at 5am to be told the keys for my villa weren't there so the security guard started ringing around trying to locate the compound manager, who eventually turned up at 05:30, showed me to my new home and left me to it.
Ok, so it wasn't as bad as when I flew out to the US but it still took some 35 hours door to door starting on Saturday morning and finishing on Monday morning. One thing that's for certain is that I won't be heading back to the US any time soon, I've spent 75 hours of my life travelling there and back, that's more than 3 days of my life lost in the ether that is Lufthansa long haul!!!!
With just over 24 hours before I had to report to work I collapsed in a heap!!!!
It bloody well did.
After a final night out in Texas with a few friends we'd met there and a few lads who's just arrived to start their training I woke up feeling slightly worse for wear, finished my packing and went to meet the minibus that was taking us to the airport at 10:30 on Saturday 23rd August. I left Houston, slightly delayed by 45 minutes, at 16:35 as the plane suffered a puncture on landing that needed to be repaired however the pilot made this time up during the flight and landed as scheduled at 08:35 Sunday 24th August in Frankfurt. With just over 5 hours to kill before our flight to Dammam I had some breakfast, had a shower and put some clean clothes on (I can recommend this to anyone travelling long haul, clean underwear and a clean t-shirt felt like winning the Lottery), had a wander round duty free before heading to the gate ready for my flight.
So far so good, as you've probably guessed it goes a bit pear shaped now!!
We were told that the flight from Frankfurt to Dammam was overbooked!!!! how do you overbook a flight where you know exactly how many seats you've got, it's not like you can just add a couple or get a few people to stand up. We were told our options:
- Take our chances and board the flight however if we didn't get on we'd be put up in a hotel and fly the next day
- Change our flight and go via Doha on Qatar Airways guaranteeing our arrival in Dammam.
Option 2 meant landing in Doha at 22:30 some 25 minutes after I should have landed in Dammam and with another stopover of 2.5 hours before the onward flight. It has to be noted that the new International airport in Doha is a stunning piece of architecture, built specifically for the World Cup in 2022 it's all shiney and new with excellent shopping if you've got very deep pockets (Harrods, Bulgari, Rolex and Burberry to name a few all have shops in the terminal). I boarded the flight for the short hop to Dammam at 00:40 landing at 01:40 on Monday 25th. Bonus points here go to Saudi passport control at King Fahd airport, arriving there with an Iqama and a re-entry visa is a piece of cake, I was through customs with my bags in hand 45 minutes later although I was still stood waiting for Chris and Jordan another 45 minutes later. They weren't so lucky, of the 4 suitcases they put on the plane in Houston only 2 made it Dammam, Chris had a massive panic on as 1 of his cases contained his life possessions the other contained his guitar, he was like a kid at Christmas when his clothes arrived and not his guitar. We did our good deed for the day as another lad who'd flown in from the UK that day had said on Facebook that his bike never arrived, whilst stood waiting for our luggage I noticed his bike flight case so collected it for him.
We met our taxi and set off at around 03:45 for the drive to Jubail. I arrived at my new home, Jubail Views, at 5am to be told the keys for my villa weren't there so the security guard started ringing around trying to locate the compound manager, who eventually turned up at 05:30, showed me to my new home and left me to it.
Ok, so it wasn't as bad as when I flew out to the US but it still took some 35 hours door to door starting on Saturday morning and finishing on Monday morning. One thing that's for certain is that I won't be heading back to the US any time soon, I've spent 75 hours of my life travelling there and back, that's more than 3 days of my life lost in the ether that is Lufthansa long haul!!!!
With just over 24 hours before I had to report to work I collapsed in a heap!!!!
Wednesday 20 August 2014
The end of another chapter, a reflection on Texas.
It's been a while......
Today officially marks the end of my training in Texas, my flight leaves on Saturday.
I don't quite know how to look back on my time here as I've got mixed emotions. There have been times where I've hated it, equally there have been times where I've enjoyed it. I don't think I'll look back negatively as some real good has been achieved, not so much with training on PMDI but with the relationships forged between the other lads here. The barriers that exist when you bring UK expats, Indians, Saudis and Filipinos to work together would have taken an awful lot longer to break down and friendships to form had it not been for this environment. Learning about others cultures, what they personally consider to be funny/offensive, what interests them and generally conversing on the same level has been the real positive. Yes the training has been an important factor as ultimately that's what we came here for but the interaction has been just as important.
I think that perhaps I got myself off onto the wrong foot as going to KSA was a new job, new adventure, new life and that training in Texas was seen as a hurdle I had to get over before moving back to Saudi and having my family back with me. I was also first told when I was offered the job that my training would be in Germany which I was really looking forward to and, it suited my situation better as it would have meant being to spend time with my family more frequently, when I found out I was coming to Texas I kind of resented it a bit without even giving it a chance!!
So what do I think of Lake Jackson/Freeport? As I've said before it's probably not somewhere I'd choose to live, there's an awful lot of heavy industry but I'm going to get that wherever I live in the world because of what I do. That said there can't be many places in the world where the humidity is so oppressive and the mosquitoes so bloody vicious!!! During one round on Freeport Golf Course I was bitten on my legs no less than 27 times and during another round on the Wilderness I couldn't concentrate on what I was trying to hit as sweat was running into my eyes and dripping off my nose. That said, the people here are, for the most part, really friendly and there's everything you need here. Notable mentions go Kristi, Byron and Jim our trainers at Dow, to Dave, Dyllon and Pate, Chonno and his staff at Ricochets, the couple who run Sista Whites cafe (the best pulled pork and hot sauce sandwiches in the world).
I've got some good memories to take away with me, visiting San Antonio and Orlando with Lindsey and Tilly, a golf trip with Johan that was great fun, deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (I caught MahiMahi and Kingfish among others), NHRA drag racing at Baytown, Jordan busting his moves in Kicks (you had to be there to appreciate it), fishing for catfish at L.D's, drinks round the pool watching Jordan trying to tackle sunloungers and drown himself!!!! we didn't let him obviously but it was funny watching him try.
As I've said before the living arrangements here have been less than ideal, it's not that me and John don't get on, I've just found it quite challenging sharing an apartment with someone I wouldn't choose to live with.
Which leads me onto 'so what's next?'
Well, my flight leaves Houston at 15:00 on Saturday and arrives in Saudi at 22:05 on Sunday with a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt crossing 8 time zones on the way. A 1 hour taxi ride up to Jubail and I should be in our new home at around midnight. After living in a hotels, Las Dunas compound and The Residence at Lake Jackson over the last 6 months I am looking forward to having somewhere to call home again where i can properly unpack and settle in knowing this is it for the foreseeable future. Home will be a compound called Jubail Views that has 40 villas and 64 apartments, I already know there will be 4 other lads with their families that I used to work with at Growhow.
Also once I get back to Saudi I can start the process of obtaining my 'yellow slip' which is the last hurdle to complete to get Lindsey and Tilly there, that should be done by mid September all being well.
All that remains is to close this chapter of my journey, for anyone who I haven't bored to death already I'll more than likely start a new blog to chronicle the 'What happens next' and what it's like to work and live as a family in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
Thanks for reading!!
Today officially marks the end of my training in Texas, my flight leaves on Saturday.
I don't quite know how to look back on my time here as I've got mixed emotions. There have been times where I've hated it, equally there have been times where I've enjoyed it. I don't think I'll look back negatively as some real good has been achieved, not so much with training on PMDI but with the relationships forged between the other lads here. The barriers that exist when you bring UK expats, Indians, Saudis and Filipinos to work together would have taken an awful lot longer to break down and friendships to form had it not been for this environment. Learning about others cultures, what they personally consider to be funny/offensive, what interests them and generally conversing on the same level has been the real positive. Yes the training has been an important factor as ultimately that's what we came here for but the interaction has been just as important.
I think that perhaps I got myself off onto the wrong foot as going to KSA was a new job, new adventure, new life and that training in Texas was seen as a hurdle I had to get over before moving back to Saudi and having my family back with me. I was also first told when I was offered the job that my training would be in Germany which I was really looking forward to and, it suited my situation better as it would have meant being to spend time with my family more frequently, when I found out I was coming to Texas I kind of resented it a bit without even giving it a chance!!
So what do I think of Lake Jackson/Freeport? As I've said before it's probably not somewhere I'd choose to live, there's an awful lot of heavy industry but I'm going to get that wherever I live in the world because of what I do. That said there can't be many places in the world where the humidity is so oppressive and the mosquitoes so bloody vicious!!! During one round on Freeport Golf Course I was bitten on my legs no less than 27 times and during another round on the Wilderness I couldn't concentrate on what I was trying to hit as sweat was running into my eyes and dripping off my nose. That said, the people here are, for the most part, really friendly and there's everything you need here. Notable mentions go Kristi, Byron and Jim our trainers at Dow, to Dave, Dyllon and Pate, Chonno and his staff at Ricochets, the couple who run Sista Whites cafe (the best pulled pork and hot sauce sandwiches in the world).
I've got some good memories to take away with me, visiting San Antonio and Orlando with Lindsey and Tilly, a golf trip with Johan that was great fun, deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (I caught MahiMahi and Kingfish among others), NHRA drag racing at Baytown, Jordan busting his moves in Kicks (you had to be there to appreciate it), fishing for catfish at L.D's, drinks round the pool watching Jordan trying to tackle sunloungers and drown himself!!!! we didn't let him obviously but it was funny watching him try.
As I've said before the living arrangements here have been less than ideal, it's not that me and John don't get on, I've just found it quite challenging sharing an apartment with someone I wouldn't choose to live with.
Which leads me onto 'so what's next?'
Well, my flight leaves Houston at 15:00 on Saturday and arrives in Saudi at 22:05 on Sunday with a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt crossing 8 time zones on the way. A 1 hour taxi ride up to Jubail and I should be in our new home at around midnight. After living in a hotels, Las Dunas compound and The Residence at Lake Jackson over the last 6 months I am looking forward to having somewhere to call home again where i can properly unpack and settle in knowing this is it for the foreseeable future. Home will be a compound called Jubail Views that has 40 villas and 64 apartments, I already know there will be 4 other lads with their families that I used to work with at Growhow.
Also once I get back to Saudi I can start the process of obtaining my 'yellow slip' which is the last hurdle to complete to get Lindsey and Tilly there, that should be done by mid September all being well.
All that remains is to close this chapter of my journey, for anyone who I haven't bored to death already I'll more than likely start a new blog to chronicle the 'What happens next' and what it's like to work and live as a family in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
Thanks for reading!!
Sunday 15 June 2014
Getting on with things and a family holiday.
Well, it's been over a month since I updated this so I think I'd better make an effort (and my Father in Law has just told me off for not doing it). A fair few things have happened since my last blog, some good, some not so good. I'll start with the good bits.
I've been told that due to operational requirements my training won't be finishing in October but around the 21st August so I should be back Saudi about the 26th August. This means I can get on with the process of obtaining visas for Lindsey and Tilly so we can be a family again 2 months sooner than we thought. Speaking of them both, we all had a fantastic 2 weeks when they had a holiday here. Not only was it great to see them we visited some fantastic places and some quality family time. The 1st weekend we spent a few nights in San Antonio, which I have to say is a real hidden gem. If ever you get the chance to spend some time there it's well worth it. We visited The Alamo, spent a lot of time on the river walk including a boat tour, went to Seaworld and visited Louis Tussauds which has to be the worst wax work museum in the world but it was a good laugh, we generally had a really good time there.
It is without doubt the best theme park I've been to. Although we got round it all in 1 day we didn't see it all if that makes any sense. Walking along Diagon Alley is something else and the ride inside Hogwarts is something everyone should do, it's just brilliant. There are themed areas for The Simpsons, Transformers, Comic Book superheroes, Jurassic Park etc along with roller coasters and the usual stuff you find in a theme park but it's huge!!!! After those 2 days we were absolutely worn out, there is so much to see and do in Orlando that a 2 week holiday would hardly scratch the surface so the 4 days we spent there gave us a taster of what to expect if we should ever make it back. All good things come to an end though and we said our goodbyes in Orlando Airport, only 10 weeks to go to the end of my training.
I've been out alligator hunting with great success, a walk around Brazos Bend State Park saw to that, in fact Chris almost stood on one as we didn't see it basking by the side of the path, how non of us actually noticed an 8 foot alligator just laying there is beyond me. I can add alligators, turtles, snakes, armadillo and raccoons to the list of animals I've seen in the wild now.
Another positive is that my golf clubs made the trip across the pond with Lindsey so my sanity has been saved!!! been out a couple of times but it's hard to explain how therapeutic walking round a field for 4 hours hitting a little white ball can be. There are 8 golf courses in Texas that rank in the top 100 courses in America, I'm going to try and visit them all.
Ok, the not so good bits!! Although I'm enjoying my training the routine of going to work and coming back to my apartment has set in, when I started off on this journey it was all new and exiting and my feet didn't really touch the ground as there was always something needing doing or sorting out but now I'm here the monotony of work life without a home life balance is pretty rubbish. There are married lads out here doing this but their families won't be joining them in Saudi, they'll be living as bachelors going home 3 times a year. I have nothing but admiration for them as I know I couldn't do it. Although I like and get on with the lads I'm here with (Jordan, Chris and John most of the time) it can be a little difficult living, working and socialising with the same group of people, you just feel like you're living in each others pockets which isn't something we're used to. I think I just need my own space with the people I choose to live with rather than the people I'm forced to live with a bit more.
Now that I'm getting used to Texas I've learnt that it's not somewhere I'd choose to live and probably not somewhere I'd visit again. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't like it (that makes perfect sense to me I think). I go into what I do and don't like about Texas at a later date.
Enough for now........
I've been told that due to operational requirements my training won't be finishing in October but around the 21st August so I should be back Saudi about the 26th August. This means I can get on with the process of obtaining visas for Lindsey and Tilly so we can be a family again 2 months sooner than we thought. Speaking of them both, we all had a fantastic 2 weeks when they had a holiday here. Not only was it great to see them we visited some fantastic places and some quality family time. The 1st weekend we spent a few nights in San Antonio, which I have to say is a real hidden gem. If ever you get the chance to spend some time there it's well worth it. We visited The Alamo, spent a lot of time on the river walk including a boat tour, went to Seaworld and visited Louis Tussauds which has to be the worst wax work museum in the world but it was a good laugh, we generally had a really good time there.
The river walk is a hive of shops, malls, restaurants, bars and is a really nice way to spend a few hours. We walked for miles on it and didn't get to see it all.
I took us a while to realise it's Prince William and Kate!!!!
The second weekend they were here we thought it would be a waste if we didn't treat Tilly to Disney World, Orlando, so that's what we did. We had 4 nights there and spent the day at Disney Magic Kingdom which consisted mostly of standing in queues waiting for Tilly to see all her favourite Princess' but she loved it, all 11 hours of it.
Her particular highlight was meeting Anna and Elsa from Frozen. It's difficult to comprehend just how big Disney World is until you've seen it. We saw about a 3rd of Magic Kingdom which is 1 of 4 parks, we didn't get close to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios, it would take a 2 week holiday at least to get round it all.
Then we spent a day at Universal Studios and The Wizardly World of Harry Potter.
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It is without doubt the best theme park I've been to. Although we got round it all in 1 day we didn't see it all if that makes any sense. Walking along Diagon Alley is something else and the ride inside Hogwarts is something everyone should do, it's just brilliant. There are themed areas for The Simpsons, Transformers, Comic Book superheroes, Jurassic Park etc along with roller coasters and the usual stuff you find in a theme park but it's huge!!!! After those 2 days we were absolutely worn out, there is so much to see and do in Orlando that a 2 week holiday would hardly scratch the surface so the 4 days we spent there gave us a taster of what to expect if we should ever make it back. All good things come to an end though and we said our goodbyes in Orlando Airport, only 10 weeks to go to the end of my training.
I've been out alligator hunting with great success, a walk around Brazos Bend State Park saw to that, in fact Chris almost stood on one as we didn't see it basking by the side of the path, how non of us actually noticed an 8 foot alligator just laying there is beyond me. I can add alligators, turtles, snakes, armadillo and raccoons to the list of animals I've seen in the wild now.
Another positive is that my golf clubs made the trip across the pond with Lindsey so my sanity has been saved!!! been out a couple of times but it's hard to explain how therapeutic walking round a field for 4 hours hitting a little white ball can be. There are 8 golf courses in Texas that rank in the top 100 courses in America, I'm going to try and visit them all.
Ok, the not so good bits!! Although I'm enjoying my training the routine of going to work and coming back to my apartment has set in, when I started off on this journey it was all new and exiting and my feet didn't really touch the ground as there was always something needing doing or sorting out but now I'm here the monotony of work life without a home life balance is pretty rubbish. There are married lads out here doing this but their families won't be joining them in Saudi, they'll be living as bachelors going home 3 times a year. I have nothing but admiration for them as I know I couldn't do it. Although I like and get on with the lads I'm here with (Jordan, Chris and John most of the time) it can be a little difficult living, working and socialising with the same group of people, you just feel like you're living in each others pockets which isn't something we're used to. I think I just need my own space with the people I choose to live with rather than the people I'm forced to live with a bit more.
Now that I'm getting used to Texas I've learnt that it's not somewhere I'd choose to live and probably not somewhere I'd visit again. It's not that I don't like it, I just don't like it (that makes perfect sense to me I think). I go into what I do and don't like about Texas at a later date.
Enough for now........
Saturday 3 May 2014
At last, I'm back on a chemical plant!!!
It's been six and a half months since my interview, 4 medicals, 2 visa applications, 11,000 airmiles and a few days when I've questioned my own sanity but last Monday I finally got to see what I'll be working with in Saudi Arabia. Polymeric Methylene Diphenyl Di-Isocyanate (PMDI). It's used to make foams and insulation for the construction industry and in things like memory foam mattresses. I've had to re-engage my brain and think again, I never thought I'd miss working but it's been a good week. The plant I'm training on is part of Dow Chemicals Texas Operations in Freeport, the biggest complex in North America, I've been round the plant a couple of times but spent a lot of time in the classroom learning the process from our trainers for the next 6 months, Kristi, Byron and Jim, who are excellent. Something I didn't know was that Sadara are licensing the technology from Dow and at some point in the future Sadara and Dow will be competitors in the same market so although our trainers are doing their utmost to teach us there are certain things that they can't tell us as Dow protect their technology fiercely, we're not allowed access to full plant technical drawings, we can't take photo's or recordings of any kind and although we can take our own notes and produce our own drawings we're not allowed to take them off the plant. It makes it a bit more challenging.
I've started to get used to my new surroundings, been for a couple of walks in search of alligators although I've yet to see any however I have seen turtles, racoons and an armadillo in the wild. We took a drive down to Galveston which is about an hour from Lake Jackson, it's a seaside resort with a funfair on the pier and things like that, we had lunch in Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co, for anyone who hasn't seen Forrest Gump it won't make sense but we thought it was excellent.
I've started to get used to my new surroundings, been for a couple of walks in search of alligators although I've yet to see any however I have seen turtles, racoons and an armadillo in the wild. We took a drive down to Galveston which is about an hour from Lake Jackson, it's a seaside resort with a funfair on the pier and things like that, we had lunch in Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co, for anyone who hasn't seen Forrest Gump it won't make sense but we thought it was excellent.
We also had a day out in Baytown at the Royal Purple Raceway watching NHRA Drag Racing, I've been to watch F1 before and I thought they were quick but nothing can prepare you for the speed and noise of Top Fuel Dragsters. To put it in perspective a high end supercar can do 0-60 in about 4 seconds and take over a minute to get to 200mph, Top Fuel Dragsters go from a standing start and cover just over 300 meters in 3.8 seconds and reach speeds upwards of 320mph, phenomenally quick!!!
As I've said previously the local nightlife isn't exactly bouncing but I've had a couple of good nights out with other lads who are here with Sadara, some have just arrived like me but others have been here for months so it's been good hearing what others have been getting up to. We're planning on a couple of weekends away, 1 of them back to Houston to see what we missed on our flying visit and it would be rude not to go to Las Vegas as it's only a 2 hour flight away!!
Places that I would never have visited are on my doorstep now so in that respect this is a fantastic life experience. I just hope that it continues to tick so many boxes.
Something that I'm really looking forward to is Lindsey and Tilly flying here in less than 3 weeks so we're going to go to New Orleans for a long weekend as well as a weekend in San Antonio at a ranch horse riding and the like, it'll be good to have some family time as it's been 92 days since I left England and we've been apart for 84 of them. One of the things I've struggled with since arriving is that we don't have as much Skype time due to the time difference, Saudi is just 2 hours ahead of the UK so we could spend most nights chatting about nothing much, just chatting. The time difference here is 6 hours so when I'm at work Monday to Thursday by the time I get in it's 11pm in England meaning Tilly is usually in bed so it's quite tough getting the time. As I've said before nothing in life worth doing comes easily, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now though.
Anyway, I'm going alligator spotting again............
Friday 25 April 2014
1st impressions of Texas
Well, I've been here for just over a week and it's probably the right time to give my 1st impressions.
After our less than wonderful flight to Texas we stayed in the Hotel Indigo in Galleria, Houston for the 1st 2 days to do some HR stuff and orientation. On Tuesday we spent the day doing paperwork followed by dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy in Galleria which was superb, following that we were free to do as we chose so we sampled a few bars before heading off to catch up on some sleep. Seeing as we left Houston on the Wednesday I don't feel qualified to put much about the place so I'll leave it until I've spent more time there. Wednesday was another full day checking out of the hotel and travelling the 60 or so miles South West to Lake Jackson, checking into our apartments, sorting out a hire car and mobile phones.
Home for the next 6 months is a gated community (not sure why they're called compounds in KSA and gated communities in the US) called The Residence at Lake Jackson where I'm sharing an apartment with Cockney John who's training to do the same job as me, there's a gym and a small outdoor pool and it's very comfortable but doesn't have anthing like the same amenities of Las Dunas. I think we were spoiled a little bit there.
What I've seen of Texas isn't what I'd imagined, I thought the landscape would be closer to that of Saudi in that it would be dry and barren but it's quite the opposite, it's more like the UK with lots of trees and greenery but flat, very very flat. It's also huge, if I set off driving from here and head North West to the State Border just past Amarillo it would take about 20 hours, head west to El Paso which would take about 16 hours, heading East is something I plan to do as about 4 hours gets you to Louisiana and New Orleans.
Lake Jackson is quite strange in that it's classed as a city but only has a population of about 27,000 which is about same as a small town at home but it's spread over a massive area, nothing is close together. Supermarkets and shops are in abundance and with the Brazos Mall there is everything you need. Restaurants and eateries are plentiful and there's every type of food on offer except a curry shop, I miss a good curry. It was a struggle to find a jar of curry sauce in the supermarket so I shouldn't have been surprised. Another oddity is that there are very few bars, apart from The Wayside and Ricochets Billiards Bar where you can go for a beer and game of of pool there are no other pubs/bars , 2 bars in the whole town, and no taxi's!!!!
Things I've noticed about Texas
After our less than wonderful flight to Texas we stayed in the Hotel Indigo in Galleria, Houston for the 1st 2 days to do some HR stuff and orientation. On Tuesday we spent the day doing paperwork followed by dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy in Galleria which was superb, following that we were free to do as we chose so we sampled a few bars before heading off to catch up on some sleep. Seeing as we left Houston on the Wednesday I don't feel qualified to put much about the place so I'll leave it until I've spent more time there. Wednesday was another full day checking out of the hotel and travelling the 60 or so miles South West to Lake Jackson, checking into our apartments, sorting out a hire car and mobile phones.
Home for the next 6 months is a gated community (not sure why they're called compounds in KSA and gated communities in the US) called The Residence at Lake Jackson where I'm sharing an apartment with Cockney John who's training to do the same job as me, there's a gym and a small outdoor pool and it's very comfortable but doesn't have anthing like the same amenities of Las Dunas. I think we were spoiled a little bit there.
What I've seen of Texas isn't what I'd imagined, I thought the landscape would be closer to that of Saudi in that it would be dry and barren but it's quite the opposite, it's more like the UK with lots of trees and greenery but flat, very very flat. It's also huge, if I set off driving from here and head North West to the State Border just past Amarillo it would take about 20 hours, head west to El Paso which would take about 16 hours, heading East is something I plan to do as about 4 hours gets you to Louisiana and New Orleans.
Lake Jackson is quite strange in that it's classed as a city but only has a population of about 27,000 which is about same as a small town at home but it's spread over a massive area, nothing is close together. Supermarkets and shops are in abundance and with the Brazos Mall there is everything you need. Restaurants and eateries are plentiful and there's every type of food on offer except a curry shop, I miss a good curry. It was a struggle to find a jar of curry sauce in the supermarket so I shouldn't have been surprised. Another oddity is that there are very few bars, apart from The Wayside and Ricochets Billiards Bar where you can go for a beer and game of of pool there are no other pubs/bars , 2 bars in the whole town, and no taxi's!!!!
Things I've noticed about Texas
- They love fishing, the fishing tackle sections in Walmart and the local sport store are massive.
- They love Pick-up trucks even more!!! I read somewhere a few years ago that the most popular vehicle in the world was the Ford P150 Pick-up, after being in Texas for a week I can say that it is without doubt the most popular vehicle, Pick-ups probably account for 30-40% of all the traffic!!
- You can go into the Sports Academy and buy shorts, t-shirt, trainers and a shot gun or an assualt rifle or a hand gun or a crossbow. The right to bear arms is something most Americans protect fiercely.
Speaking of traffic it's nice to be back in a country where people drive sensibly and courteously, traffic signals and speed limits are obeyed and the sound of horns beeping is a distant memory, for now.
Apparently the next town from here, Clute, is the mosquito capital of the world, they even have a mosquito festival each year. I can understand why there are so many as the land here is very flat with plenty of rivers, lakes & swamps for them to breed and the climate is ideal, mosquito season starts in about a month, I'll let you know how it goes.
I've spent the last week doing induction exams, health & safety, permit to work, confined space entry and other site specific stuff as well as hurricane training which is a new one for me. Had another medical which is my 4th in the last 6 months, all things that are required before I get my site pass onto the plant next week which is when my training really starts so that's something to look forward to.
Till the next time..........
Till the next time..........
Saturday 19 April 2014
Planes, pains and automobiles!!!!!!
For anyone who has just found this Blog it's part of a chronicle of my life from living and working in the UK to living and working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) via a 6 month spell in Lake Jackson, Texas. If you want to read the 10 weeks leading up to the start of this Blog you can find it at www.whoneedsbeer.blogspot.co.uk.
For those of you who have already read it this is the next step.
I'm finally here!! After a 10 week wait it's actually happened although the transition from KSA to the US was slightly more traumatic than the UK to KSA. My flight was from Dammam to Houston via a 4 hour stop over in Frankfurt, if I knew what was in store I would have refused to get on the plane! The schedule was 23:35 depart Dammam. Arrive at Frankfurt 06:25 local time. Depart Frankfurt at 10:00 and arrive in Houston at 13:45 local time. A total travel time of 22 hours 50 minutes spanning 9 times zones.
The reality was as follows......
We set off from Las Dunas in Khobar at 8pm on Sunday evening for the 40 minute ride to King Fahd Airport in Dammam, arrived in good time and checked in. 2 hours to kill meant lots of sitting around drinking coffee and eating peanut M&Ms (I can't help it, they're too nice). The flight left on time for the short 45 minute hop to Kuwait City for refuelling and more passengers, we left Kuwait at around 01:30 for an uneventful 6 hour flight to Frankfurt. Found the gate at Frankfurt airport, which is massive by the way, for our connecting flight and found a bar for a well deserved beer and some breakfast. The flight boarded at about 09:30 and took off on time for the 10 hours 30 minutes to Houston, so far so good. This jetset lifestyle is easy although I don't think I've ever been so bored in my life, until I started this life journey the longest I'd been on a plane for was 5 hours to Egypt so 8, 9 and 10 hour flights were uncharted territory. The flight should have landed at about 13:45 but seeing as we still had 400 miles to go at that time we reckoned on maybe a 45 minute delay, after doing a 360 degree loop about 300 miles away we started our final decent although with about 220 miles to go the plane did another 360 degree loop, not to worry we thought, the airport must be busy. As I was watching the TV monitor that tracked our GPS position during the decent we got about 140 miles from Houston and the plane started to climb and turn to the left again, surely not another loop round, we were already 1 hour behind schedule!!!
It is at this point that it all went pear shaped although just how pear shaped we couldn't have possibly imagined.
The Captain then announced that due to severe weather at Houston we were unable to land and due to a fuel shortage we couldn't continue to wait for the weather to improve so we would have to divert to Dallas and wait there. At around 3pm we landed at Dallas-Fort Worth where we taxi'd to a refueling point and waited.......and waited........and waited. At 6pm the Captain announced that the we still couldn't land at Houston and the Aviation Authorities wouldn't extend his flying time so we would have to disembark. Another issue that then arose was that Dallas isn't a major airport and seeing as we were in a 570 seat Airbus A380-800 they weren't equipped to deal with a plane that size so we had to be bused the half mile or so to the terminal. We headed off after being told that we had 3 options available
When we considered our options the hotel stayover was out of the question as we had to be in Houston and the thought of sitting on a coach for 4+ hours then getting a 30 mile taxi to the hotel didn't appeal so Jordan, Chris and I decided to get a one-way car rental and have a Texas road trip to drive the 277 miles to the hotel, the best of a bad situation but not brilliant to be honest. We picked up the car at 10.30pm and set off via a service station on the outskirts of Houston for a McDonalds and Red Bull, not that we needed wings because we were bloody sick of them and for the 1st hour or so we changed drivers every 20 minutes due to fatigue but once we'd had a kip and some caffeine we were away. We arrived at the Hotel Indigo in Galleria, Houston at around 2.30am, some 40 hours after we set off absolutely shattered, and feeling slightly less than clean so the 1st thing I did what have a shower and shave and eventually climbed into bed at 3am.
As journeys go I've never experienced anything like it and if I ever have to do it again it will be too soon. We stayed in the hotel in Houston for 2 nights before travelling the 50 or so miles down to Lake Jackson on Wednesday to move to where we'll be living for the next 6 months, I'll go into that in more detail at a later date but for now I'll leave it there.
If someone said to me now that I have to get on a plane I'd probably shoot them!!!!
For those of you who have already read it this is the next step.
I'm finally here!! After a 10 week wait it's actually happened although the transition from KSA to the US was slightly more traumatic than the UK to KSA. My flight was from Dammam to Houston via a 4 hour stop over in Frankfurt, if I knew what was in store I would have refused to get on the plane! The schedule was 23:35 depart Dammam. Arrive at Frankfurt 06:25 local time. Depart Frankfurt at 10:00 and arrive in Houston at 13:45 local time. A total travel time of 22 hours 50 minutes spanning 9 times zones.
The reality was as follows......
We set off from Las Dunas in Khobar at 8pm on Sunday evening for the 40 minute ride to King Fahd Airport in Dammam, arrived in good time and checked in. 2 hours to kill meant lots of sitting around drinking coffee and eating peanut M&Ms (I can't help it, they're too nice). The flight left on time for the short 45 minute hop to Kuwait City for refuelling and more passengers, we left Kuwait at around 01:30 for an uneventful 6 hour flight to Frankfurt. Found the gate at Frankfurt airport, which is massive by the way, for our connecting flight and found a bar for a well deserved beer and some breakfast. The flight boarded at about 09:30 and took off on time for the 10 hours 30 minutes to Houston, so far so good. This jetset lifestyle is easy although I don't think I've ever been so bored in my life, until I started this life journey the longest I'd been on a plane for was 5 hours to Egypt so 8, 9 and 10 hour flights were uncharted territory. The flight should have landed at about 13:45 but seeing as we still had 400 miles to go at that time we reckoned on maybe a 45 minute delay, after doing a 360 degree loop about 300 miles away we started our final decent although with about 220 miles to go the plane did another 360 degree loop, not to worry we thought, the airport must be busy. As I was watching the TV monitor that tracked our GPS position during the decent we got about 140 miles from Houston and the plane started to climb and turn to the left again, surely not another loop round, we were already 1 hour behind schedule!!!
It is at this point that it all went pear shaped although just how pear shaped we couldn't have possibly imagined.
The Captain then announced that due to severe weather at Houston we were unable to land and due to a fuel shortage we couldn't continue to wait for the weather to improve so we would have to divert to Dallas and wait there. At around 3pm we landed at Dallas-Fort Worth where we taxi'd to a refueling point and waited.......and waited........and waited. At 6pm the Captain announced that the we still couldn't land at Houston and the Aviation Authorities wouldn't extend his flying time so we would have to disembark. Another issue that then arose was that Dallas isn't a major airport and seeing as we were in a 570 seat Airbus A380-800 they weren't equipped to deal with a plane that size so we had to be bused the half mile or so to the terminal. We headed off after being told that we had 3 options available
- Board 1 of the 14 coaches chartered to drive us the 247 miles to Houston airport
- Check into a hotel in Dallas and Lufthansa would arrange our onward travel the next day
- Make our own way to our final destination
When we considered our options the hotel stayover was out of the question as we had to be in Houston and the thought of sitting on a coach for 4+ hours then getting a 30 mile taxi to the hotel didn't appeal so Jordan, Chris and I decided to get a one-way car rental and have a Texas road trip to drive the 277 miles to the hotel, the best of a bad situation but not brilliant to be honest. We picked up the car at 10.30pm and set off via a service station on the outskirts of Houston for a McDonalds and Red Bull, not that we needed wings because we were bloody sick of them and for the 1st hour or so we changed drivers every 20 minutes due to fatigue but once we'd had a kip and some caffeine we were away. We arrived at the Hotel Indigo in Galleria, Houston at around 2.30am, some 40 hours after we set off absolutely shattered, and feeling slightly less than clean so the 1st thing I did what have a shower and shave and eventually climbed into bed at 3am.
As journeys go I've never experienced anything like it and if I ever have to do it again it will be too soon. We stayed in the hotel in Houston for 2 nights before travelling the 50 or so miles down to Lake Jackson on Wednesday to move to where we'll be living for the next 6 months, I'll go into that in more detail at a later date but for now I'll leave it there.
If someone said to me now that I have to get on a plane I'd probably shoot them!!!!
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