1000

Well, that's luck : I turn on the PC to log in on the blog and I just see there's been 999 visitors already. That means I am my own 1000th visitor :-)
Today we got started on developing training courses for the soon to be new operators who will join us at the end of June. I'm working together with some fantastic Indian people who have a lot of experience in the field of refining. The biggest problem for me is to try and remember their names :-0
Working with them gives me the opportunity to get to know their culture and they are also interested in ours so it's bound to be fun.
Before we knew it, it was time to go back home. After working out for about an hour and a refreshing shower I called home to find out that the heater exploded today. Lucky enough my wife was home so the damage was limited. There was a small fire, the neighbour checked it all and it seems to be fine again. The thing is working, but will be checked every 30 minutes.

Howdy again ...

My apologies to those who are reading this blog frequently : I didn't feel like putting anything on here yesterday. The reason is because I got a phonecall from the hospital saying that they will postpone my Iqama application. They want to do more research on my blood-sample.
Considering my medical past it is not realy something I wanted to hear, so I went straight to the gym to work of my frustration. The doctor said I don't need to worry about my health, but then why do they need to examen it further ? Well, I will know in a week's time I hope.
As for the rest, we know now what our definite job will be (allthough it can still change ?!?). So, we're all kinda working to it and getting ourselves organised more. We also received our email now and we can log-in into the intranet. Any of you who are interested can always ask for my contactdata.
At 06.00pm we joined together at the gym where we got our first lesson in boxing/karate. The teacher is Jean-Marie Beschemin, one of the two guys who are representing the security for Total personnel in Murjan Village. They are all in some way related to the Legion Etrangere (you'll need to think the "accent aigu et accent grave" yourself, because I didn't find it on this PC, and actually I was too lazy to go look for it aswell).
We exercised for one and a half hour and then did some stretching afterwards. It felt good to sweat for a change :-). Next meeting is on wednesday and yours truly will be there again.

First weekend is passed tense already ...

Today we had a volleyball meeting with some other people in the compound at the beach. It started out a little frisky, but around 10.30am temperatures began to rise.
We met a lot of other Total expatriates, most of them french-speaking, but being the good belgian that we are, that was no problem for us.
The small tournament ended at noon and when we returned back to the appartment, we were surprised of the impact of the sun on our faces : all red :-)
A quick shower and fresh as a fish we went back to the meeting-hall where we were expected by no-one less then Santa Claus. Well, actually it was for the 80 something children that run around here, but we liked it also. They all got a gift and then afterwards there was cake : Gateau de Roi. In each cake there was a bean and the one who had the piece where it was hidden in, became the king of the table and had to put a crown on his or her head. At our table Tom was the lucky guy.
Oh I forgot about lunch. We ate at the compound-restaurant and everybody liked their food dispite the rumours of it not being that good. We'll definately will go back in the future.
In the late afternoon we did some shopping downtown at Qatif City Mall. The rest of the evening we kept it calm, becoz tomorrow's another workingday.

First day off ... it"s weekend !

Finally got a day to sleep a little longer. Instead of 06.00am I woke up at 06.10am ... didn't realy work now, did it ?
We ordered a taxi to come pick us up at 08.30am to bring us to Al Khubar to do some shopping.
We went to the second biggest mall (I think) of the city : Rashed Mall. First of all we were kinda nervous on how it would be with all the muslimas walking around now because of the weekend, but it turned out very well. This is another country and it's got rules, but actually everything went realy smooth. After, let's say half an hour, we didn't even notice all those black dressed women anymore.
We all got us some sunglasses, other bought some more clothes to go fitness and we ended up at the local Carrefour. Seems they have a shop in every city in the world, do they ?
We were back at the compound around 03.30pm and went for a run and some fitness. Now watching some tele and read a book. Sleep tight folks !

Day 4 in KSA ...

Today it's wednesday and that means it's the last workingday here in KSA. The weekends are unlike the non-muslim countries not on saterday and sunday, but thursday and friday. Here our mondays are your saturdays.
I talked about the meeting yesterday, and well ... it got postponed. But we got a better idea already what direction our field of work will be. And we took another tour around the site.
We still don't have an email yet, so we can't actually start. We're still dependant on our Indian collegues.
So as far as that's concerned we have the opportunity to get to know eachother better. Socializing!
Tomorrow we've ordered a taxi to bring us to Al Khubar for shopping. Most of the guys whom got their Iqamas are off the Bahrein or another foreign country. We're eager to get ours, but it will probably take some more weeks.

We got it !

Today we finally got the permanent badge to enter the premises without getting stopped at the gate .. again. So thank you Eric (de Roos) for pushing things a little.
Today we started to explore the site a little, be it on our laptop only ofcourse, because we don't have permission yet to log in on the intranet. But a thank you to all the expats for giving us their copies.
Eric also took us around the site itself. Amazing how things changed in a year's time. Last january all we saw were a few coke-towers (3) laying on their side in the sand waiting for the rest to come (another 3) and a bunch of concrete structures. Now it's full of towers, reactors, exchangers, pumps, pipes, cranes, people, and lets not forget : sand !
The middle lane, where all the battery limits are positioned, is 1.7 km long, so you can imagine ...
Tomorrow the superintendants and the supervisors will have a meeting to compose the start-up teams so everyone can start preparing for the next fase.
Well, that's it for today my friends ... see ya tomorrow.

First "working" day ...

This morning we got up at 06.00am to leave for work at 06.45am with our new driver King Gerry.  That's what the locals at work call Gerrit, one of the guys who is here a little longer then us already. The people from TRA will know whom I'm talking about :-)
We met up with our superiors and had a brief introduction with the rest of the team. All guys with difficult names to remember, but if you'll cut us some slack, we'll know them by heart soon enough.
I'll give some examples : Hani Al Shamiri is our shift supervisor, Ali M Al-Ghamdi is our assistant superintendant, Majed Ashraf Al-Qurashi is an Operation Engineer, etc ...
But all these people are realy nice to us and we got to know a lot about the culture already. A lot different then ours, but if you stick to the rules, then it's no problem at all.
Today we also got to learn the word "inshallah" ... we knew the meaning already, but now we also experienced it. The only thing we acomplished today was get a signature and an ID-number to get us our temporary badge which is valid for only three days. After that we should get a permanent one.
We went to the restaurant at the workplace and it was more then we'd expected : food is cooked by indian and indonesian people and it's just great ( for me, I couldn't have been anywhere better then here).
At around 04.30pm we al got together to drive back to the compound where some of us went shopping and others went to the fitness or played a little soccer. Some combined 2 of these activities (yours truly for instance). After some Skyping with the homefront it's time to turn in. Tomorrow's another day.
Leela saaieda (goedenacht).

Arrived at the compound ...

After leaving Amsterdam and a short stop-over in Kuwait, we arrived in Bahrein airport at a little passed midnight.On board the meal was provided by the kitchen of Peter Goossens from the restaurant Hof van Cleve, which in itself would be top of the bill, but for my taste wasn't worth the three stars he's known for. But then again, maybe I'm not easily satisfied.
The flight attendants were also kinda lost in figuring out which jacket belonged to which chair. Seemed they mixed up the tags for that one ... bummer.
We went through customs fairly well ( I got a small refund for the broken suitcase I received) and then straight on to KSA.
Our driver, mister Abdul, took us to the Saudi Arabian customs and believe it or not : that went like a piece of cake.
By the time we arrived at the guesthouse in Al Khubar it was 02.30am already. The envelope on the table thought us that the next morning we were gonna be picked up by another driver to take us straight to SAAD hospital for the medical tests. So after a very short night of sleep we were all ready to have our blood drawn from our arms, our athletic bodies X-rayed and sculptured muscles weighed and measured. It took them less then an hour. Please don't comment on this phrase ;-)
After the medical, we met David Welby who cleared out the adminstative part of the things we need to get done to get our Iqama (permit to work and re-enter the KSA).
After this we went straight to Jubail to meet the security officers and to have a briefing on the things they expect from us. Then the appartments were assigned which made me and Johan very happy, but was a real dissapointment to Paul. And he's got every reason to it, because they put him in a realy small dormroom. Hopefully they will re-assign him to another place soon.
It was 16.00pm already when we finally had something to eat at the Murjan Village Restaurant.
Realy good food and prices like they were in Belgium 15 years ago.
Tonight we will meet up with the other guys of TRA whom been here some time already.
Take care ya'all.

Arrived in Amsterdam

Had a good flight, everybody was on time and no problems checking in. Well, except for the check-in lady : she didn't really understand why we had a visa for Saoudi Arabia, but had a flight to Bahrein. After a minute or 2 she got the point and off we went.

Arrival in Amsterdam was okay. The flight was a little bumpy at the end, but nothing to be nervous about. After landing, the plane took about another 15 minutes driving around the track before we stopped at the bus that would bring us to the transferhall.

Now the three of us are enjoying the lounge, calling our loved ones and updating the emails and blogs.

Next stop is Kuwait.

Start packing ...

I'll need to start packing soon I guess, it's getting pretty late now.

Today it has been raining all day and the wind added the extra chill-touch. A nice way to say goodbye to Belgium !
To all you guys : talk to ya later when I get the chance. It will be a little busy tomorrow !

I'll be adding some extras to the blog if I can find them.

This one hurt !

Yep, it did ! I went to get my repetition for the vaccination of Hep B today. Lifting up my arm makes my shoulder ache already, so that's promising for tomorrow :-$
Next one is in 12 months, I guess I'll have gotten over it by then ;-)

Got myself a new phone today : I will cancel my number soon and I had some stars left (bonus you get with every invoice). The guy at the Mobistar Center seemed a bit surprised when he saw I had over 21500 stars. I got 215 euro off for the phone. Good deal.
All I need to do now is study the damn thing, because it's got more features then my portable computer ! Something to keep me busy when we are stuck in the compound again.

Tickets are here and safe arrival of the first 2 ...

Yesterday we (the 3 'leftovers') got the tickets ! It will be a long day for us though : starting in the morning we need to catch the plane from Brussels to Amsterdam. There we need to wait for more then 3 hours for the next flight to Bahrein. Sadly it's not a direct flight because there is a stop-over in Kuwait. We'll be arriving at a quarter passed midnight local time, then we need to make the trip to Al Khobar by taxi, which isn't so bad concidering we don't need to drive ourselves. Only customs can make our day more long.

This morning had another really nice lady from Interdean Moving Company visiting here at home to come pick up the stuff I wanna bring to Jubail. Only 2 small boxes, which surprised her since we are going to be there for 2 years.
 After I told her where we were gonna stay, she understood. We have all the accomodations needed to live like a prince ( king seemed a bit exagerated ;-)).
It took her only 30 minutes to load everything (didn't even have to help her pack, even after I asked her). A nice smile and a goodluck-wish for the trip and off she went. If any of you should ever decide to move abroad, I strongly suggest this company.

I also received an email from Mark this evening. Everything went extremely well-organized. All the paperwork was there, the pick-up driver was expecting them at the airport, the customs went well, everything was nicely prepared at the hotel. So if you are reading this too, mister David Welby, ... we raise our hat to your proffesionalism !
Only downside seems to be the ATM. Argenta cards don't seem to work there. VISA on the other side is working like a charm. The rest of us are eager to go there.

On the move ...

Today 2 of us 5 have received "green light" to go to Jubail tomorrow. Mark and Tom will take the train from Brussels to Paris CDG from where they will fly straight to Bahrein ... in business-class seats ;-)
Hope they will remember to check in first because there might be some seats available in first class.
All is scheduled already and by this time tomorrow they will have their first Saoudi meal in their stomach and they will bunk off in their Saoudi beds.
If you read this guys : have a good flight and see you in a couple of days !!

The state of affairs

It's been some days, but up to a couple of hours ago nothing really exciting was happening.
Just now we finally got the call that our visa are approved. That means we can slowly prepare to leave cold and rainy Belgium and trade it for the warm and dry KSA.
In a few days we will receive our tickets and off we will be !

Comments anyone ?

It's nice to see some visitors on here, but it would be more nice if someone put some comment in there aswell.
Feel free to comment at any time, make some suggestions, etc ...
Make this thing a little more interactive ...
The only thing I'd ask for is to keep the comments decent, that's all.

The "naughty"-house party !

Well, you have to agree : the "naughty"-house did get your attention, right ? Since I decided to make this blog in english, so everybody can read it, I do have some strange translations popping up in my mind. This is one of them.
Be honest, how else would you  translate " 't Pakhuis" ? ... "The Packagehouse" ? "The Boxroom" ? Not so imaginable, is it ?
Ofcourse, the word "pak" is only for dutch-speaking people understandable, so I apologize for any other readers.
Anyway, the service was good, the snacks were good and the drinks aswell. The wind outside was hurricane-worthy and eventhough all the doors and windows were closed, it still swept some people of their balance ... or maybe that was because of other reasons ;-). Ah, it was nice to see all those colleagues again. I hope everybody had a good time. I appreciated it a lot and I'm sure all 5 of us were moved in some way or another. Thanks to all for showing up and wishing us the best !

As for the "comment"-section : it was only available for members, which I believe to be members of the Blogger-website who already have their own blog. So I've changed it to "registered users" and I think the problem should be solved now. There's one more option, but then everybody can comment, even anonymous. And I always like to know whom I'm talking with, so that's not an option.

Some progress ...

This morning I got an email from the shipment company : they have received "green light" to finalyse the logistics. Things are starting to come alive.
Also, tonight we have a little "saying goodbye"-party for all the colleagues. Just in time it seems.
Only need to wait for the visa now ... and the tickets ofcourse. Walking would be a little too far ;-)

As for the greenhouse I talked about yesterday : seems the biggest challenge is yet to come. Damn, the wind is blowing really hard this morning. Haven't seen it quite so strong before. But it's (the greenhouse) still there.

Calm, sigh, breeze, gale, storm, hurricane, ... ?

Today I didn't hear anything about any progress to go to Jubail. I guess everybody is still in holiday-mode ... or drunk :-)
Not that it matters because for the moment I've got my work cut out for me already. The storm that passed our region last night (well, actually all day and night) tore up my green-house.
Okay, it's walls were made of plastic foil for the most part, which I now had to go look for at the neighbours, but still ... it did it's work.
Started this morning with some new "ingredients" and by 4 o'clock this afternoon I had a brand new greenhouse-wall in firm plastic boards. Let the storms come !! We're ready !!
Hope my confidence in my work still stands tomorrow morning ;-)

A little tuning

Didn't really know what to put on here today, so I decided to change the layout a little and play with some extra features. Hope you all like it.

A fresh start

Eventhough I'm not a big fan of all these holidays, it shouldn't keep me from saying the following :

May the new year bring these wishes to all of you
Warmth of love, comfort of home, joy for your children,
Company and support of family 'n friends
A caring heart that accepts 'n treats all human beings equally
Enrichment of knowledge 'n richness of diversity
Courage to seek 'n speak the truth even if it means standing alone
Hopes 'n dreams of a just world 'n the desire to make it happen
A light to guide your path
Helping hands to strengthen unity
Serenity 'n peace within your mind, heart 'n soul
Food for thought 'n soul, a hand to hold ...

That about summons it ;-)