This morning Werner, Pat, Don, and I headed for Khobar. I am now an official Khobar tour guide. However, one place that I had seen - and had even been in - is Latif (La-teef) bakery. It has been recommended to me by several people, so I wanted to give it a try. The place is really a hole-in-the wall. I suppose the most decorative attraction is the box of stacked water, or perhaps the discarded industrial size mixer that is by the door. However, if you ask nicely, you can get a box of tissues to use as napkins (that’s pretty common here, by the way). Pat had eaten here previously and had a few suggestions. It’s called a bakery, but it’s more like Wolfgang Puck designer pizzas. Take a look at the menu. I ... read more

I have no idea whether this will work or not because I've never tried to upload a video before, so let's see what happens. This is a video of the jelly fish I saw in Khobar on April 23. Enjoy!... read more

Today was a great day! I went to the city of Dammam for the very first time. There weren’t any Aramco buses that travel on Saturday (today is an Aramco holiday), so I chartered a van for six of us (Bob, Glyn, Adrian, Eric, Don and me). This was a great way to do it because it cost each of us less than $4 each way. Transportation is pretty inexpensive here. The van driver was going to wait for three hours for us to do our thing in Dammam, but we convinced him to come back and meet us at 12:30 pm for the ride back. Glyn had a map of Dammam which worked out well until we saw there were two sets of streets. From north to south the streets were labeled 12th Street, 11th ... read more

I don’t want you to think that my time here is a day at the beach. Well, actually I did spend today at the beach! This morning Pat and I went to the “Hobby Farm” for breakfast. That’s in the Aramco compound, about 15 minutes away. Actually it always takes Pat about 45 minutes because he gets lost every time. And since we didn’t know how we came, getting back was a challenge too. Fortunately I had brought my beach stuff with me and we got to the bus with about two seconds to spare. Pat dropped me off, I boarded the bus, and off we went. Ras Tanura is another Aramco compound that is about one hour northwest of Dhahran. The best part about Ras Tanura (at least for me) is that it has about ... read more

I’m sorry I’m getting a bit spotty about doing these blogs. My days have been really long and I was afraid that if I stayed up any longer, I’d have to wake up before I went to sleep. Doing all-nighters may be OK when you are 19 but when you are let’s say considerably older than 19 it’s not such a good idea. Falling asleep when you are doing a briefing or snoring during a presentation is somewhat frowned upon. Go figure. Despite some software and procedural issues, I really am enjoying myself. I’ve already had some interesting conversations with the Saudi participants and I’m enjoying the work. Also, even though I have yet to get out of the Aramco compound this time around, it’s very pleasant here. One thing unique is that you hear constant ... read more