Greetings from Riyadh and another day of sun (albeit rather dusty)!

The other weekend we headed off to visit Al Masmak Fort which is the centre of old Riyadh. Built of mud and clay in 1865 the fort is where the rulers of Riyadh lived. It was stormed in 1902 by King Abdul-Aziz who went on to found the modern day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – ie he is a V BIG DEAL in KSA!!

Back in 1902 the population of Riyadh was just 8,000 – today it is over 8 million (oil wealth) – a HUGE population jump in just over 100 years and still growing.

Visitors can wander around the Masmak fort where there are displays on the history of KSA including the succession of kings dating back to Abdul-Aziz. Inside the thick mud walls make the fort cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They have also recreated an traditional meeting room covered in thick carpets and cushions and the walls decorated with swords.

Outside the fort you can take in the view with a cup of Arabian coffee – qahwa (made with green unground coffee beans and flavoured with cardamom) and couple of juicy dates! (Note the typical Arabian style coffee pot with the oversized spout).

Back in 1902 Riyadh was surrounded by a fortified wall which King Abul Aziz and his men had to scale before storming the fort. Very little of the walls remain – except for one small portion with one of the original city gates:

In contrast to our trip to the fort we decided to make a rather more contemporary outing to the popular fast food phenomenon that is Nando’s. We are partial to the odd cheeky Nando’s at home – given our love of all things Portuguese and the child in everyone I think is still thrilled by a bottomless fizzy drink. We were interested to see how Nando’s operates in Saudi – and, it’s not the same!!

It’s table service (self serve is not really a Saudi thing) and there are no bottomless fizzy drinks :0( . Also the half chicken came served on a skewer. Suffice to say I think we will be giving Nando’s a miss until we are back in Belfast!!

Afterwards we went into the huge nearby Riyadh Park Mall which was absolutely BUZZING. It is also home to one of the first cinemas opened in Riyadh last year, after a 35 year ban on public screenings, which draws a young crowd. Apparently there are plans to open 600 screens across the country in the next five years.

Finally I spotted the sign below at another plaza… it’s a different take on the recent fashion for wearing pyjamas at home ;0)

And that’s all for this week’s update! I hope you enjoyed it, until next time,

Anne :0)

Hello and greetings from Riyadh where it’s another day of sun!

This has been a busy week for social events and meeting new people.

This morning I experienced my first ‘Coffee Morning’ – this is where one compound hosts women from other compounds for a social event. They are a mainstay of compound living and each compound takes its turn to host. A breakfast buffet is put on and there is a bazaar with a wide range of craft stalls.

There were about 250 women at this morning’s event so there was a great buzz all around. It is the first Coffee Morning our compound Wadi Qurtoba has hosted so there was a bit of extra excitement about that and people were interested to come and see what our new compound is like.

The coffee mornings are social events, but they are also an opportunity for the compounds to do a bit of self promotion and perhaps get people thinking about signing a lease and moving in so they had been working hard in the few days previous to make sure everywhere was looking perfect!

The food was amazing too:

I should have taken photos of the stallholders and some of the lovely crafts for sale, but I am going to another Coffee Morning at a different compound next week, so I will get some there. (I was too busy talking!)

This week I also went to an event held by the Irish Business Network. It was a breakfast event at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Riyadh. The speaker was Dan O’Brien a Chief Economist at the Irish Institute of International and European Affairs. He was over to talk about (you guessed it!) Brexit and its impact on the Republic of Ireland (by chance it was on the morning of the Westminster vote).

It was v interesting and so good to be in a professional environment again. I met lots of people from Ireland, Scotland and US who are working and living in Riyadh. Apparently there were over 6000 Irish in Saudia Arabia – who knew?!

Finally, I also attended an event held by the Women’s Skills Bureau KSA which is a networking and professional development organisation. It was at a really cool venue called the INTO Center which offers space for training and talks. It has a New York loft decor and has a very chilled and friendly vibe. (One of the good things is that as it was a women only event we could take our abayas off which immediately made it more relaxed).

I met some really interesting women – including a lady originally from Co Armagh, Northern Ireland who has been living in KSA for 38 years! She has her own business making and selling natural fragrance candles. Find out more about Shamouaee on Facebook. (Shamouaee in Arabic means little light).

We had two talks, one on mental health and another on yoga.

Yoga, it turns out was only legalised in KSA last year (2018). The woman who gave the talk is from the US and she opened the first licensed yoga studio in Riyadh last year under another new law, also introduced last year, which allows foreign nationals to open their own business – you can check out her business: OZ Yoga on facebook.

And that’s all for this week folks! Hope you have a good one,

Anne :0)

Greetings from Riyadh and another day of sun!

So life in Wadi Qortuba compound is beginning to take on a bit of a rhythm. People are returning from their winter vacations and new people are moving in so there is a little bit more of a buzz about. Next week they are also holding a ladies’ coffee morning where ladies from other compounds will come over to ours, there will be stalls and a breakfast so that will be a really good opportunity to meet new people. I am also going to two other events next week so I will update on all of those in a future blog.

Meanwhile for this week’s blog I thought I would round up some updates and observations I have made on life in KSA (Kingdom of Saudia Arabia) so far.

Firstly I have a new app on my Saudi phone which is v important – the Call to Prayer App:

This is important because you need to check it before going out and plan your trip around the call to prayer – for example if you arrive at the shops just before a call to prayer you will have to wait outside for half an hour until they re-open, the same if you arrive at a coffee shop or restaurant – however if you’re in before the call the prayer you can continue your coffee or meal (you just can’t pay or order anything else). The times also change slightly every day which is why you need to check!

You can also see the first call to prayer is around 5am in the morning – we have four mosques near us and they all play the call to prayer (slightly out of sync) for each call – although now I generally sleep through it!

A funny thing here is that there are London black taxis here – and when you come out of the airport there are parking spaces for general taxis, ubers and London taxis – I don’t know why they have them – but there you go, that’s Saudi lol!

They are also mad for their honey here! Supermarkets have huge ranges of honey from all different parts – Yemeni honey is particularly delish! When we were in Oman there was a honey festival in one of the malls…

Finally an update on the abaya hunt which I mentioned in my first blog post. I went shopping with two lovely women from South Korea who are our neighbours in Wadi Qortuba and we went to a traditional souk in Riyadh. It was a successful expedition, we all got new button-up-the-front abayas and there was even a tailor on hand to alter them for us. So now I have it hanging by the front door to pop up whenever I go out of the compound (which also means the usual uniform under the abaya is either black leggings or jeans with a T-shirt – no glamour here lol!)

Finally, something I didn’t get a photo of but I wish I had – I was being driven through central Riyadh when we were passed by a pick up truck with three baby camels in the back – two white and and one dark brown – they were so fluffy and cute, but I was too slow to get my camera out before they were gone – will work on that for future blogs!

Until next week,

Anne :0)

It’s beginning to feel … a little less warm in Riyadh as the temperatures cool down to a very pleasant 20 degrees, in fact this morning it’s 17 degrees and cloudy which meant I was able to enjoy a foray out to the local shops on foot – but more of that later.

This week we went to Abu Dhabi. It was effectively my husband Stephen and his US work colleagues’ Christmas-do which they invited me to tag along on. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on the Corniche and had a fabulous time!! Travelling within the GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) is a little different for one thing there are no limits on liquids which is v helpful! Riyadh airport is made up a number of terminals which are all quite striking in their design but are all quite small:

The duty free is also rather limited but it does sell this…(spoiler alert for homecoming presents ;o) !!)

We travelled Saudia airways and before take off, after the security and safety announcement there was an additional film – a prayer to Allah:

We had a great time in Abu Dhabi – there are some photos on my instagram (anne.mcgrath248) if you want to check them out.

Today as I said it is cooler and cloudier than it has been so I took myself out for a walk to the local shops – the general area we live in is still under development so it is not very pretty and it feels a little nerve wracking to step out on your own, but I decided I was just going to do it – and I had a great time! I found a row of shops including a fruit and veg, nut and spice shop, pharmacy and a mini supermarket.

The guys in the nut shop and fruit and veg shop were great craic – they were all keen to chat and teach me words in Arabic. Everyone here also asks where you are from and to a person no one has heard of Belfast or Ireland! I think I will try and get a small map of the world to carry around so I can show them!! Anyway, in the nut shop I got some raisins from Yemen and they are the most delicious thing – I think I will be a regular at these little shops! The fruit and veg man said he will do free deliveries so when it comes too hot to walk I can just phone him up with my order = result!!

Anyway that’s all for this instalment – it’s definitely NOT beginning to feel like Christmas here but I have made an attempt at a Christmas tree:

So Christmas wishes to you all from the desert – the blog will be back in the New Year!

Anne x

Greetings from Riyadh and another day of sun in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)! I arrived late last Wednesday and have been acclimatising and orientating myself since then. I thought in this first blog I would reflect on some of the initial things I have noticed about general life in the Kingdom.

So first of all I have to wear the abaya (pictured) when out of our compound. Not being Muslim I don’t have to wear the headscarf. However I am hoping to get a new abaya – one that you put on like a coat rather than mine which I have to put on over my head and is a bit more fiddly  so I am currently trying to find where I can get a new one – I had thought there would be abaya shops everywhere given that everyone wears them but they appear to be rarer than hen’s teeth lol (apart from very expensive designer ones in the fancy malls)! The search continues …

Speaking of the malls there are so many of them all across the city with many more under construction. They have all the brands we recognise – Zara, Mango, TopShop, Debenhams, M&S clothes etc etc plus a lot of American brands – but where the malls differ is that they don’t have any music in the malls or in the shops. Also, most shops don’t have fitting rooms for women – you have to buy and bring it home to try it on and then you only have three days to return = pressure lol!

There is also A LOT of construction everywhere – Riyadh is expanding in every direction – new offices, accommodation and shopping malls are springing up everywhere, which also means there are a lot of construction sites everywhere and they are building a brand new metro system which is due to come on line sometime next year.

 We live in a western-style compound which is designed around a wadi (a pool of water surrounded by plants and vegetation – like a small oasis. The architecture of our compound is Lebanese, but I will do a future post about the compound and compound living.

So that’s all for the first instalment – more to follow in the weeks to come! Anne :0)