"Tikeh Nuneh Ba Ob Khrelleh Bezorg Va Khube Boyast Ino Begeram" OR The water soaked breadcrumbs are delicious, thank you. I must have the recipe.

LOCATION: Qatif, Saudi Arabia
26 33' 19.67" N 50 00' 23.01" E
Elevation: 17 ft


Well, we've been very busy this last month (hence the lack of phone calls back to Canada). The boys are loving school and have rapidly picked up useful Arabic phrases and are using them on a daily basis. Heather and I have been helping Ruby make our backyard more enjoyable. You can see below that Ruby (remember our gardener) has been working around the clock to convert Will's sandbox into a nice place to sit out every evening and sip a nice, frosty margarita mix or a T and T (tonic and tonic).

Will's sandbox is starting to take shape.

The reason for the rapid growth of our trees and grass is due to Ruby's brilliant idea of incorporating a sprinkler system into our landscaping plans.


Ruby installing the new sprinkler system in our backyard.

 We recently went on an adventure to the Qatif market where our boys got to use some of their newly learned Arabic phrases. If you have ever tried to learn Arabic as an English speaker, it is quite difficult. Will and Gabe however have taken mispronounciation to a new level.

Will and I disocvered numerous odd goats at the goat market. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

When Will and I went off to what we though was a Camel market and found this goat market, Will was polite enough to approach the owner of this goat and say "Kbar khali-kili haftir lotfan." translation Thank you for showing me your marvelous gun.

Trying to get a youth sized falcon for the boys for the Falconry Team "The Blue Jays", Qatif, Saudi Arabia

After discovering the Falcon section of the bird market, Gabe commented to the shop keeper about the headgear "Maternier ghermez ahlieh ghorban" translation The red blindfold would be lovely, excellency.

Window shopping at the market. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

When the boys wandered into the fabric area of the market and wanted to comment on the thread count of the Egyptian cotton sheets they exclaimed "Ekr gabul cardan davat parh gush divar" translation I am delighted to accept your kind invitation to lie down on the floor with my arms above my head with my legs apart.

William and Gabe at the bird market. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

When the boys discovered a number of wildly coloured birds at the bird market, Gabe commented to the woman beside him "Tikeh nuneh ba ob khrelleh bezorg va khube boyast ino begeram" translation The water soaked breadcrumbs are delicious, thank you. I must have the recipe.

Grocery run. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

I asked the boys to go over to this old man and ask if he needed help loading his groceries on his bike. From afar I noticed them say something and he quickly dropped his groceries and left with only 2 boxes. I later found out that they had stated "Ba bodeneh sheerell teegz" translation Truly, I would rather be a hostage to your greatly esteemed self than to spend a fortnight upon the person of Cheryl Tiegs.

Butcher shop, butcher shop, butcher shop and butcher shop. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

Will and Gabe noticed that there was a whole block of butcher shops with one store after another. When a customer walked out William asked about this situation by stating "Khren maternier gherah ah liehah ghorban bodenah" translation Much like yourself I too prefer turkey bacon and camel tenderloin.

Street scene. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

When this guy got out of his car to ask the boys directions to the Liquormart, Gabe said "Auto arraregh davateman mano sephaheh- hasti" translation It is exceptionally kind of you to allow me to travel in the trunk of your car.

Soccer field. Tarut, Saudi Arabia

The boys noticed the soccer field in Tarut and ran down to ask the lady if they could play. What they actually said to her was "Khrel, jepaheh maneh va jayeii amrikahey" translation I will tell you the names and addresses of many American spies travelling as reporters.

Are you sure it was the second left? Tarut, Saudi Arabia

When we got lost in this friendly neighborhood in Tarut, the boys knocked on a door to get directions and said "Howmaeh fekr tamomeh oeh gorteh bande" translation I agree with everything you have ever said and thought in your whole life.

Local mosque. Tarut, Saudi Arabia

We crested a hill in Tarut and found this nice view of a domed mosque. I stopped to take a picture and William said "Yasaternier ghermeih al fekr hlieh ghor baneih" translation I won't tell anyone who you are if you just let me go.

Shrimp fishing fleet. Qatif, Saudi Arabia

To the soldier in the guard house at the pier in Qatif, William commented to the shop keeper about the headgear "Botnier ghermez ahlieh khorban" translation Your royal navy has an impressive fleet.

Gabe's first triple. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Gabe had been having trouble getting on base all year. He finally whacked a motionless curveball that started down the pipe and ended right down the middle resulting in a well deserved triple. He was so excited and proud that he turned to the bleachers and yelled at the top of his lungs "Cashal-eh fashal-eh tupheman na degat man goftam cheeshayeh mohemarir behmeshvarehma." translation If you will do me the kindness of not harming my genital appendages, I will gladly reciprocate by betraying my country in public.


"M" for mosque, one of the more popular ones.

This particular mosque seems to have a very strong effect on the people here. Our boys chant "Balli, Balli, Balli" translation Let's go there, let's go there, let's go there (followed by crying when we don't stop) everytime we pass one.

We're The Fuggarwi!

LOCATION: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
26 17' 11.20" N 50 06' 30.00" E
Elevation: 130 ft

Nothin like downing an icy cold Bud when it's 50 C

Much like the elusive Fuggarwi Tribe that lives in the remotest part of the Congo jungle and walks around announcing who they are, the Harrington Family seems to have followed suit after arriving in Saudi Arabia. "We're The Fuggarwi" I exclaimed to the stewardess as we touched down in the very hot and extremely beige city of Doha, Qatar. I've never seen so many shades of beige. The sand, the buildings, the limestone walkways, the armored vehicles, the uniforms, the walls and the horizon - all beige in one form or another. How extraordinarily nondescript. I'm glad I wore my new XM (Extra Medium) fluorscent khaki shirt, shorts and sun hat to experience this. Arriving at the lounge I enjoyed a shower and coffee - an extremely civilized and much wanted way to be introduced to the Middle East knowing that there was only one flight left.


Front of our Saudi house



We then jumped on a hopper and were in the Kingdom of Sauna Arabia within 45 minutes. "Hot" took on a new meaning for us this day. Even the non-worn "Jesus was just a guy" T-shirt in my suitcase was soaked with sweat. I heard someone say it was 52 C the day we arrived then stopped talking cause they burned their tongue just saying it. It was so hot that day that Dick Cheney waterboarded himself. It was so hot that I learned that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron. It was so hot that I experienced condensation on my butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl. Hot water now comes out of both taps.



Suburbarabia (thanks Wendy)



We arrived at our home pleasantly surprised by the potential to make it our home away from home (we had convinced ourselves that we would be living in the back of a toilet bowl with a family of goats). I of course, rushed out to the backyard to see what I had to work with and was amazed to find 8 shrubs and a palm tree. I was also amazed that this was all I had to work with. I later found out that as soon as our house was vacated, the local gardeners come by and steal everything (topsoil, hoses, plants and the lawn) for their other clients. Fortunately Aramco provides a onetime landscaping service where I will be able to pick plants, get topsoil and replace the lawn. We have since hired Ruby our gardener who comes by everyday and hoses off our walkways and does the gardening. There is not much yet for Ruby to do but he has built me some stairs to access the back walkway. He also put in a little pool so that the kids would have some fun. Actually, Ruby is great and is looking forward to maintaining my present landscaping plan.



Ruby setting up the pool for the boys



On a side note, I would not recommend eating at Mamma Fu's Asian Bistro. I should have known better when Gabe had the "Ninja Noodles" and William ordered the "Scooby Fu". Gabe's first bight resulted in a ninja move by his stomach that lead him to be "full" all of a sudden after the previous hour had been the constant drone of his voice telling us "I'm hungry" every 15 seconds. William tried to talk after his first mouthful and sounded just like Scooby himself - "Trastes rike shrit Drad. RI'm frull too." Like most people, I ignored the warnings and took a bight each of the kids slop. "Zoiks!" well why didn't they just bring a family style salt lick to the table instead of Ninja/Scooby meals with Dead Sea sauce.



Will pumped about his new sandbox



Sand dunes at Half Moon Coast near Dhahran







From Hotdog to Frankfurt

LOCATION: Frankfurt, Germany
50 06' 37.17" N 08 40' 29.83" E
Elevation: 375 ft

I've seen most of you by now and we've had our fair share of abaya and alchohol jokes and now it's time to get serious. So where were we last time I typed at you. Oh yes...VISA's. So they came at 10:30 AM and we packed the rest of our belongings and loaded the truck as quickly as we possibly could and finally had Calgary in our rear view mirrors by 9:30 PM. By 4:30 PM the next day we were in Casper Wyoming and needed to use the Best Western pool to have a rinse. By lunch the next day we were back at home getting ready for the movers to come and enjoying our Denver life. Special thanks to the Moran's for having us over for numerous beers and glasses of wine. After 10 days of packing up the Denver place, we handed it over to our new tenants for a solid 3 year stint. 6:30 PM we left for Craig's cottage and by 6:39 PM the next day we were there and bloody exhausted after running the Denver to Carnarvon LeMans. A jaunt to Toronto then to Woodstock, then to Fenelon Falls - where Black Truck and I officially became an Ontarian again - then back to Toronto. So that sums up the last month.

"Ausdrunken" Bacharach, Germany

So, we pack up our 11 bags plus carryons and excitedly jump into our first class seats from Toronto to Frankfurt. "Geeze, in a few hours I will be in Saudi Arabia." I thougth to myself naively  and unknowingly while spilling some of the Air Canada "champagne" on my "I'm with Stupid T-Shirt", with the arrow pointing directly at some tired and angry business man. After getting the kids settled into their berths, I snuggled into mine only to find out that I had to watch Iron Man 2 with my shoulders touching both sides of my berth. AC designed the beds for stick people I think. Arriving in Frankfurt, Heather and I unknowingly said that it was too bad we didn't have a few days to explore what looked to be a beautiful and very green Germany. We proceeded to run to security where we waited for half an hour then off to the Gate leaving for Dammam Saudi Arabia. As we went through the passport inspection we were polietly, yet sternly informed that William would not be boarding the plane with us due to the fact that Heather, Gabe and I were issued 90 day visa's and William was issued a 30 day visa and we were on day 32 since issue. "Fine", I exclaimed with exhausted lack of caring, "William can stay at one of Heather's favourite hotels in the Red Light District of Frankfurt and the 3 of us will head off to Saudi Arabia and wait for William to sort out his visa issues". The Saudi customs agent did not find Jay humor very humorous and seemed also agitated as the arrow on my "I'm with Stupid T-Shirt" seemed to be pointing directly at him. He happily, it seemed, made a quick phone call and had all our bags removed from the plane - I have never seen this type of efficiency at an airport.

"A.F.C." on the Rhein

We went up to the lounge and made a few calls to Houston to get things sorted. The logical solution at this point was to get us into a hotel, thereby removing our hostile children from the business class lounge where they decided to make every business traveller wish they had flown coach. We arrived at the "Comfort Inn" and I use the term "Comfort" in truly the very loosest sense. Deciding that we had had enough of our children, much like all the people in the lounge, we bought them milks, a fruit plate and a big plate of fries and set them in front of their temporary babysitter the fernsehen to watch some karikaturen. Heather and I proceeded downstairs to drink copious amounts of Spanish wine and eat some schnitzel. When we awoke the next morning Gabe made it pretty clear that we needed to go to another hotel in Germany because everyone in this hotel AND the cartoons all talk in French. Both kids said they would prefer to go to a German hotel where the cartoons were in English and not French, as there is the language we speak and everything else is French.

"A.F.C". in Heidelburg

The next morning we awoke to a wonderful German breakfast of meats and cheeses and museli which we all gulped down enthusiastically. Gabe was a little too exuberant and ate so quickly and with such delight he proceeded to erbrechen all over himself, his "I'm with Stupid T-Shirt" and the table, almost exactly as Mr. Creosote had done in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. After that ordeal we instinctively decided that we needed to rent a vehicle.

We took a cab down to the bahnhof and rented a little VW. That little VW had no problem doing 170 km/hr on the autobahns while being passed by larger cars doing 240 plus. We found a FedEx office and "overnighted" William's passport back to Ottawa. "In 3 to 4 days we will be on our way." we thought naively. FedEx does not deliver in Germany on Saturday or Sunday for all of those people who care, thus, we were stuck in Europe for a full week. After, switching hotels and moving downtown, we decided our first road trip would be Heidelburg.

Moules and Frites, Luxembourg

The following days were filled with trips to the Rhein valley to taste some Reislings, the Frankfurt zoo to see "wild" animals in enclosures, Cologne to see the Cologne Dom or "Another F***ing Church/Castle", Luxembourg to eat moules and frites and drink wine and France to pass through as quickly as possible. With all the great food and wine and beer we also invented our own German dialect. Gabe and William were continuously Lettinfahrts while Heather was always Heidenfahrts or Sneekenfahrts. By Sunday August 28th we would be departing the fantastic area of the Rhein Valley and arriving in Doha, Qatar for a Monday morning shower and coffee.

Have fountain, will climb - everytime, Luxembourg

Packin & Waitin for the Elusive VISA

LOCATION: Kelowna, British Columbia
49 53' 27.58" N 119 29' 55.11" W
Elevation: 1122 ft

Guess who is a kindergarten graduate??? Heather, me AND William! You were thinking just William weren't you? He did so well we bought him a shirt that said "I Take the Really Long Bus!"

Well, on July 4th they came and picked up the truck (that was being picked up between July 7th and 9th) for the long sail across the Atlantic. First she goes to Ingersoll, Ontario then to Halifax, Nova Scotia then boards the ATLANTIC CONCERT for a 26 day journey across the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, through the Gulf of Aden (pirate capital of the world - I hope the truck doesn't arrive with a bumper sticker that says..."I made it around the Somalian coast, and all I got was this stupid bumper sticker!"), across the Arabian sea, through the Gulf of Oman and up the Persian Gulf to our sister port city of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Hard to believe her ETA is August 20th! (2012! - just joking)

By July 7 we had sent 1 E Box from Calgary to Dhahran containing kitchen stuff and bedding along with the kids 2 bikes. We also realized that obtaining our visas by July 9th is not going to happen so we had to make the best of it by going to the wineries of the Okanagan for 4 days with the intent of exposing our flabby white flesh to the sun and our bellies to gallons of the soon-to-be unattainable "wine".

A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Canadian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Canadian wines appeal not only to the Canadian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain. Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Kelowna Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines. Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn. Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Canadian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1971 Coq du Rich Baldry, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour. Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Peachland Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding. Another good fighting wine is Okanagan Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat. Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends. Real emetic fans will also go for a Vernon Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Ogopogo, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.

Upon arrival back to Calgary we jumped into organizing for 2 moves: 1) Calgary stuff to Ontario as cottage country will be our new North American base and; 2) Calgary to Denver with our on-hand items that need to go to Saudi Arabia. The Calgary stuff has now been shipped to Ontario and we are loading the U-Haul today with our Denver stuff while we wait for the arrival of our Saudi Visas. We don't really know when they will arrive, the only thing we are certain of right now is that Mr. Muggles can has sammich.

Stool Samples and Crab Legs or Your Waste is a Terrible Thing to Mind

LOCATION: Houston Texas, USA
29 41' 02.43" N   95 27' 26.29" W
Elevation: 56 ft

Good news everyone, Heather has finally achieved her CMA!

We arrived in Houston for the orientation session and visa medicals and were greeted at the hotel with a package containing 3 vials each for our "specimens". I love the lingo the medical community uses for this embarrassing yet humanizing experience. I have never once used the terms "specimen","stool" or "movement" to describe my poo. Specimen sounds too Darwinian - "that's a nice triple coiled specimen". Stool is something you sit on at a bar or put your feet on not "hey, who left the floater stool in there?" And movement is something that Mozart might compose not "I just dry docked a soft serve movement!" Why can't they use normal terminology like my kids use: Apu; Big O'l Texan; Booty cakes; Blind eel; Bum brownies; Corn massacre; Down periscope; Hell's candy, etc?

This was certainly a first for a job offer and I would describe our experience not as a deja vu but, for Heather, it was a jamais vu (a feeling like she had never experienced this before) and she ended up barfing after she frisbeed a bun fudge. I, who has experienced the wrath of Giardia, had a presque vu (a feeling like I had almost experienced this before) and ended up making sure each vial had one kernel of corn in it from the corn-on-the-cob feast the boys and I had 2 nights before resulting in me producing a corn eyed brown trout when I backed the big brown caddy out of the garage.

Anyway, after gathering our products of Uranus and placing enough of it in the proper containers to displace the preservation liquid up to the red line, we went out for crab legs at one of my favourite restaurants in Houston. Trulucks has awesome crab legs!

The next morning we rushed off breakfast and coffee - less to the Aramco Services building to complete our medicals and, of course, hand in our vialed butt gnomes. After 6 vials of blood, one urine test, a vision and hearing test, lung x-rays and of course the ever pleasant hernia test cough, cough - we received our orientation to the Saudi Arabian/Aramco world. The orientation fortunately excited us enough to negate the humiliation we had subjected ourselves to and I think we are just ready to get the heck over there.

Getting Ready for the Move

LOCATION: Calgary, Alberta Canada

51 02' 22.60" N   113 13' 10.77" W
Elevation: 4020 ft

So this is our first post on our first blog for our friends and family who are interested in staying touch without really having to stay in touch.

As you know we have decided to move to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to continue our careers in the oil industry whilst living abroad and seeing the world as a family - "Not in these pants".

The amount of time and energy to move to the middle east makes our Denver - Calgary jaunts seem like a tea party. Some of the things I have been doing instead of answering your phone calls are: Medical check; Background check; Space availability in the kids school; House availability in Dhahran; Religious declarations; Visa bloodwork; Visa acceptance; Benefit enrolment forms; Denver house rental; Shipping the vehicle to Dammam; Ontario storage for our other items; A combined 16 vaccination needles for the family; bla, bla, bla...

Regardless of the hassles of moving, the boys (and us) are rather pumped about living in a scuba diving mecca and helped us organize and service our dive gear as seen in the photos. The proximity to the nearest dive site (12 miles) and the Red Sea, Maldives and Seychelles made us quickly forget about beef on a bun or Bon Jovi at the Calgary Fair this summer.

We are all very excited about the new adventure and have been packing and organising for about a month. The boys have donated their old bikes and toys to a variety of charities (Gus Polley and Parker Findlay excluded). Heather has bequeathed nearly 20% of her shoe collection and I have decided that a variety of concert T-shirts should be with Sally Ann instead of me.

Our present timeline looks something like this for those of you who are planning on spending some time with us before we go...

• June 16-18 - Heather finishes her CMA in Regina
• June 20-21 2010 - Houston to meet with the Aramco people
• June 25 2010 - William's last day of kindergarten
• July 8 2010 - Ship vehicle to Dhahran
• July 9 2010 - Heather's last day of work
• July 13 2010 - Pack up our Denver house
• July 17 2010 - Go to Ontario
• July 29 2010 - Fly to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia out of Toronto

The above schedule will change and we will keep you posted.