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