A Christmas in Riyadh 2005
Merry Christmas from The Delbridges
Paul, Alison, Henry & Claire
Riyadh 2005
The season of fun and fervour is upon many, a time when cheerio’s to one and all take on the passage of one for all. A chance to fill your stocking with news from afar and flip the calendar page on the year that was for yourself and for the Delbridge Quartet shackled by the venerable accord behind the veil. Our yearning for home stay draws near as has been said before, a reality each time meant but thwarted by circumstance. The half filled suitcase sits by the door, and the Ramadan disruptions can bother us no more – clap hands. At the risk of bleating similarities to Tom Waits vernacularisms, we uphold the outlawed chalice and wish to family, friends and partisans a safe and playful Christmas.
Christmas this year in Riyadh will be as always -aloof- and what one dares to make it. Centered quietly on the forbidden yet sanctimonious values and traditions of Christianity, augmented by the festooning of gifts onto Henry and Claire whose ideology of Christmas remains focused on the goodies awaiting their delight at the end of the bed. But then - don’t all kiddy ? Ourselves and a few ex-patriot chums remaining in camp desert Riyadh and will pull together, cook a chook or two, quench daring palates with illicit fermented potations, and steal civil liberties in the face of oppressions. Indeed we hope this will be the last Christmas celebrated in clandestitude that is the necessity required when living under the blanket of an illiberal society - but don’t get me started.
Earlier this year, we spent time in Melbourne and Perth, ushering in a container load of furniture and materials, a feat about to be repeated very soon. June 2005 we traveled to Milan and spent time with the British consul, a distant relative to Alison. While our sense of fashion surely failed to measure the lofty standards of the chic Milanese (unsurprisingly as Aussie clobber sadly pales the world over), to our credit we did manage to muster up some traditional pastas for our generous hosts Richard and Linda Northern. Followed on to England to spend time with dear friend Dorothy Whitlock on the Whitlock Farm 90 miles north of London. Two weeks relaxing in the English sunshine was a super tonic. Henry and Claire thrived in open space covered by grass of all things missed, surrounded by hues of green and bound only by the sight of the horizon. A far cry from barbed compound walls intensified by the presence of military, tanks, machine guns and sandbags that footmark almost every optical gaze on Riyadh’s landscape. A bonus at the closure of the British tour, was the hookup with Clive and Chris Delbridge rounding out their own European / Slavonic vacation. Together we visited Cambridge and Woburn Safari Park, the latter an adventure especially for the kiddy, ensuring they were happy, meaning that we were all delighted.
Our forecast for closure on the Saudi affair was scheduled for Dec 12, instead we will be pushing through till contracts end and arrive in Melbourne on March 31 having completed 8 contracts, a slight overshoot on the projected 2 years from 1998. Can’t say we will really miss the place when we leave, but we will definitely miss the people. The hospital is a cacophony of nationalities, personalities and peculiarities, whose oddments are no more observable than our own. Perhaps I should spare Alison, Henry and Claire and say – oddments no more observable than my own - but we are the Delbridges of Riyadh and must stick together. WE still collect things off the side of the road, to the point now that Henry especially has a keen eye for roadside refuse otherwise know as “treasure”. Our house is a living warehouse of things strangely odd even to me, like sets of pull down stairs; a 6-meter boardroom table; and the showstopper, a 44-gallon drum of oil. Imagine…a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia ! We have a small bulldozer in the car park that gets test-driven around the compound each weekend and we have a Jacuzzi spa bath parked in the building foyer. We hadn’t found a way to get it in the house already and were most keen to test out the Jacuzzi functionalities. It must have been quite a surprise to the neighbours spotting the Delbridge family sloshing about in the spa frothing at full capacity, in the building vestibule just recently. In terms of accumulation, stockpiling, hoarding, assemblage and white collar hoboism we are in a league of our own, out-hoarding most Saudi’s, which is rather strange in itself, as we are really just visitors here. The real conundrum is having 3 times the volume of goods and chattels sitting in boxes in sheds back home with still not the house to adorn it all. More oddly again, most of it IS the house.
Henry has completed 6 months at kindergarten level at the British school. An environment that offers gym, swimming, and some basics in the 3 R’s that are assisting his development rather rapidly for his tender 4 years. Claire is still home with the Nanny; she is well-nigh 3 and livens up a room with her entertaining and whimsical behaviour.
Wishing you all a safe and prosperous Christmas and New Year and we’ll be sure to confabulate with all in 2006.
Love to all from
Paul, Alison, Henry & Claire
XXxxOOoo
Paul, Alison, Henry & Claire
Riyadh 2005
The season of fun and fervour is upon many, a time when cheerio’s to one and all take on the passage of one for all. A chance to fill your stocking with news from afar and flip the calendar page on the year that was for yourself and for the Delbridge Quartet shackled by the venerable accord behind the veil. Our yearning for home stay draws near as has been said before, a reality each time meant but thwarted by circumstance. The half filled suitcase sits by the door, and the Ramadan disruptions can bother us no more – clap hands. At the risk of bleating similarities to Tom Waits vernacularisms, we uphold the outlawed chalice and wish to family, friends and partisans a safe and playful Christmas.
Christmas this year in Riyadh will be as always -aloof- and what one dares to make it. Centered quietly on the forbidden yet sanctimonious values and traditions of Christianity, augmented by the festooning of gifts onto Henry and Claire whose ideology of Christmas remains focused on the goodies awaiting their delight at the end of the bed. But then - don’t all kiddy ? Ourselves and a few ex-patriot chums remaining in camp desert Riyadh and will pull together, cook a chook or two, quench daring palates with illicit fermented potations, and steal civil liberties in the face of oppressions. Indeed we hope this will be the last Christmas celebrated in clandestitude that is the necessity required when living under the blanket of an illiberal society - but don’t get me started.
Earlier this year, we spent time in Melbourne and Perth, ushering in a container load of furniture and materials, a feat about to be repeated very soon. June 2005 we traveled to Milan and spent time with the British consul, a distant relative to Alison. While our sense of fashion surely failed to measure the lofty standards of the chic Milanese (unsurprisingly as Aussie clobber sadly pales the world over), to our credit we did manage to muster up some traditional pastas for our generous hosts Richard and Linda Northern. Followed on to England to spend time with dear friend Dorothy Whitlock on the Whitlock Farm 90 miles north of London. Two weeks relaxing in the English sunshine was a super tonic. Henry and Claire thrived in open space covered by grass of all things missed, surrounded by hues of green and bound only by the sight of the horizon. A far cry from barbed compound walls intensified by the presence of military, tanks, machine guns and sandbags that footmark almost every optical gaze on Riyadh’s landscape. A bonus at the closure of the British tour, was the hookup with Clive and Chris Delbridge rounding out their own European / Slavonic vacation. Together we visited Cambridge and Woburn Safari Park, the latter an adventure especially for the kiddy, ensuring they were happy, meaning that we were all delighted.
Our forecast for closure on the Saudi affair was scheduled for Dec 12, instead we will be pushing through till contracts end and arrive in Melbourne on March 31 having completed 8 contracts, a slight overshoot on the projected 2 years from 1998. Can’t say we will really miss the place when we leave, but we will definitely miss the people. The hospital is a cacophony of nationalities, personalities and peculiarities, whose oddments are no more observable than our own. Perhaps I should spare Alison, Henry and Claire and say – oddments no more observable than my own - but we are the Delbridges of Riyadh and must stick together. WE still collect things off the side of the road, to the point now that Henry especially has a keen eye for roadside refuse otherwise know as “treasure”. Our house is a living warehouse of things strangely odd even to me, like sets of pull down stairs; a 6-meter boardroom table; and the showstopper, a 44-gallon drum of oil. Imagine…a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia ! We have a small bulldozer in the car park that gets test-driven around the compound each weekend and we have a Jacuzzi spa bath parked in the building foyer. We hadn’t found a way to get it in the house already and were most keen to test out the Jacuzzi functionalities. It must have been quite a surprise to the neighbours spotting the Delbridge family sloshing about in the spa frothing at full capacity, in the building vestibule just recently. In terms of accumulation, stockpiling, hoarding, assemblage and white collar hoboism we are in a league of our own, out-hoarding most Saudi’s, which is rather strange in itself, as we are really just visitors here. The real conundrum is having 3 times the volume of goods and chattels sitting in boxes in sheds back home with still not the house to adorn it all. More oddly again, most of it IS the house.
Henry has completed 6 months at kindergarten level at the British school. An environment that offers gym, swimming, and some basics in the 3 R’s that are assisting his development rather rapidly for his tender 4 years. Claire is still home with the Nanny; she is well-nigh 3 and livens up a room with her entertaining and whimsical behaviour.
Wishing you all a safe and prosperous Christmas and New Year and we’ll be sure to confabulate with all in 2006.
Love to all from
Paul, Alison, Henry & Claire
XXxxOOoo
posted by The PIATA Estate @ 5:27 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home