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........
