Len makes it for 12 paychecks!

Dear Friends and Family

Yep, it has been a full year that I have been employed here in the Middle East by Saudi Aramco.  There haven't been any major celebrations in the office or anything, but I thought I would mention it in my blog.  Other than going to the office, I thought I would share some of the photos  (that you haven't seen yet) through the year.

As you know, I have a townhouse on the 'Dhahran Saudi Aramco Camp'.  Inside of camp it is a lot like small town USA.  Except there are people from many other nations throughout the Middle East, South East Asia, Europe and of course the good old USA.  We have a couple grocery stores, small restaurants, work out gyms (with pool) and my favorite place -- the golf course.  We have one of the three grass courses in Saudi Arabia located on camp, and yes I get to play it a lot!

Of course, any time we want to go off camp we can.  For those of you concerned with security, it takes two gates to get off of camp.  Each gate has armed security and there is a concrete wall / barbed fence that goes all around camp.  On camp is fairly well protected, off camp it is most dangerous for the bad driving habits here.  As an example, I am not the slowest driver in the world, but I've been passed by cars on the right and left side at the same time of a one lane entrance ramp to a highway.  Anyway, the local town is called Khobar and looks a lot like you really are in the Middle East:

As you may be aware, the Middle East is know for gold (of course, in addition to oil).  22 and 24 carat gold is available in anything you want, at the per ounce cost of gold.  There are about 15 goldsmiths in Khobar and it is a lot of fun to shop in the little local shops.

Just to compare, I have traveled to Dubai, and it is really a fast growing city.  They claim to have 2 million people living there, 1.8 million are expats.  It is another man-made oasis in the desert, and has the most high rises I have ever seen.  Here is a good example:

The other big news in our family is Lauren going to Joffrey in NYC next year.  (I probably mentioned, but we do like to brag about her!)  Jane and Lauren have been very busy over the past month or so getting ready for this big deal -- setting up an apartment in the Pittsburgh area for Jane (she will go back and forth between The Woodlands, Pittsburgh - where our family is, and NYC).    Special thanks to my brother Dan for helping out.  Anyway, we went to NYC on one of my repat trips back to the States to visit the Joffrey.  We also visited the building shown below.  IF ANYONE CAN EXPLAIN WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THIS PLACE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Take care and keep in touch!

Hello Friends and Family

I recall that many of you have asked for photos of the desert in Saudi Arabia.  Well the desert around Dhahran (where I am located) is not that interesting.  You do see some camels walking around every here and there, but its a lot of sand with some grubby plants growing here and there.

Well a friend of mine went to visit the real desert and took some nice photos.  I asked him if it would be OK to share with my friends, and he said he is more than happy.  His name is Steve, so everyone say 'Thank you Steve'!

These three photos were taken late in the day and show off some of the desert color against the blue sky, quite a contrast!

Take care!

Len goes to Europe

Dear Friends and Family

I was in Europe last week on a business trip.  It was rather busy, a different city / appointment each day Monday through Friday.  Naturally I found some time to take some photos to share with you, hope you enjoy them!

Traveling from the Middle East to Europe is different from US business travel.  All the flights leave about mid-night or shortly thereafter and arrive early in the morning in major European airports.  The flights back are just the same.  So on a 5 day business trip, I only spent 4 nights in hotels and the rest in lounges / airplanes.  Well at least it was Business Class travel!

First stop was in Germany, where I was able to take some photos of Dusseldorf.  I learned that Dusseldorf was much like Pittsburgh in that it had a heavy coal mining and steel industry that are serviced by the Rhine river.  Unfortunately, much of WW II activities took away that industry and Dusseldorf has been rebuilding since.  They have hired some unique architects!

First a photo of the rebuilt areas along the Rhine (including my hotel at the end on the right)

you may notice one of the buildings in the middle has come colored things on it, here is a close up!

and if that isn't strange enough, they have hired some very famous architect to develop 3 buildings that look like they are falling in on each other.  One is red brick, one is white brick and one looks like it is made out of aluminum foil!

We then went to France to visit a few other companies.  Most of the time was spent in Lyon with a bit of travel to a small town in the mountains that had a fabulous restaurant (called The Radio, named as such because people gathered around the radio to hear news during WWII).

A view of a snow capped mountain near Cleremont- Ferrot in France

Lyon is the second largest city in France and wants to remind Paris of that.  They have built a version of the Eiffel Tower on top of the closest hill

Lyon had some very pretty older buildings along the 2 rivers that come together there (the Soane and Roan), I particularly liked this church scene

an old statue in the town square

and a river scene in Lyon

We finished the trip in London for 1/2 day meeting and dinner and then a mid-night flight back to Saudi.  I didn't really have enough time for photos, but I've also been to London enough times.  (I just had to say that, to sound like a real world traveler!)

Take care and keep in touch!

April in Saudi

Hi Friends and Family

It's April now and time for the weather to start to turn back to high heat in the Middle East.  The past couple of days have been in the high 80's and lots of sun.  As it turns out, one of the departments I work with at Saudi Aramco has their picnic this past weekend (remember weekends here are on Thursday and Friday).  So we drove down the coast about 10 miles to the Saudi Aramco Beach for a picnic.

We were able to hold the picnic at the sailing beach, which seems to have the least number of visitors.  Just to let you know, there is also a beach / dock for motor boats and then a separate 'family' beach.  A family beach means just that, it is only for Aramco families to come and enjoy the surf and sun.

The sailing beach is used only by Saudi Aramco employees who have a small one or two person sailboat (sunfish or laser) and all boats are stored and maintained at the beach.  The photo below shows the sailboats that were out that day.  The dolphin you see in the near ground is actually a shower that you can use to wash the sand off.

Soccer is the primary sport of choice for most of the Middle East, and Saudi is no exception.  Children of all ages engage in the game at any chance they can get.  The photo below has several of my colleagues enjoying a game on the beach.  It was all for fun, until they decided that a championship game would be held between the VP's team and the Finance team.  You would think those Finance guys would have learned who should have won that game by now!

Picnic had all kinds of kids games and tents to eat and smoke / drink coffee.  Just to give you an idea I took a photo of the smaller tent.  Note that there are carpets on the ground to allow folks to rest and feel at home!

Interestingly, one of the entertainment items was a falcon trainer.  This Saudi apparently trains dozens of these types of falcons at a time.  They fly across the Arabian Sea from Iran, Pakistan, even Russia as part of their annual migration process.  Apparently they can fetch several hundred thousand dollars for a well trained bird.

Last, but not least, I mentioned that I traveled home to Houston for spring break with Lauren and Jane.  One of the keys to the trip was to visit NYC.  Lauren has been accepted into the Joffrey dance school.  The three of us visited the school to decide that yes, she will go there next year for her Junior and probably Senior years.  Lauren will receive a vocational degree in dance and complete here high school requirements in an on-line program.   Naturally, like any good woman, she did some shopping in NYC...

Hope that you are enjoying the blog!  Take care and hope to see everyone soon.

Len is back at work

Dear Friends and Family

It is February in the Middle East and that means the cool mornings and evenings are starting to come to an end.   Many of us are hoping spring time this year will be more weather related and less politically motivated than last year!

That being said, I have been working some long hours the past month or so.  I've got two major initiatives that are starting to show some progress, so I am quite happy about that.  Not much for public discussion, but it is very interesting when we develop a spreadsheet outlining our position in the refining industry and a week later that same information shows up in a speech made by the CEO.

I was able to purchase a triathlon bike from someone on camp, so I've started riding again!  There is a good 10 mile loop that has some nice uphills (longest about 1.5 miles) and some down hills you can really hammer on!  I've been staying in shape with the swimming and biking and Pilates (on my own).   I am actually feeling like I am getting in shape again!

A couple highlights from the local area.  I'm not sure I mentioned the restaurants, but at the two malls off camp (about 1 mile away) have just about every US restaurant from McD's to Macaroni Grill.  A number of us have been going on Wednesday night to have a 'guys' night out dinner.

One night my neighbor and I went to look at Harley's (for him naturally).  It was an interesting experience, meeting the Saudi biker crowd..  Not quite the same as the older professionals in the US looking for a second adolescence. Mainly a lot of young Saudi's looking to have some fun.  Anyway, I took a photo of one of the more interesting bikes, it was essentially list price in the US.  ( I couldn't get the photo to rotate, not sure why).

I also had a business trip to one of my favorite cities -- London.  Had a few good meetings, plus got very lucky on the crowds and weather.  I took a few photos that I thought would share (those of you with teenagers may want to let them know what a phone booth is....).  I also included a photo of the original Big Ben (not to be confused with good old number 7).  Speaking of the Steelers, I thought they had a very good season but were just too beat up to go far in the playoffs.  I also wasn't sad to see the offensive coordinator go, they had way too much clock mismanagement for my tastes.

Finally, I did manage to have a birthday last month and went to Bahrain with a few friends for dinner.  Had a great Italian dinner and a good bottle of wine, then they surprised me with a cake.  BTW thanks for all the birthday wishes on FB!

I will be in Houston for Spring Break for my next trip to the States.  Hope to see some of y'all then!

Len returns from repat trip

Hello Friends and Family and welcome to 2012!

As you may recall, I was in The Woodlands for my first repat trip this past November / December and have been back in Saudi Arabia for about one month now.  I have a few things that I'd like to share, some have photos and some don't.  Some are from Texas, some from Saudi.  Some are interesting, some you may have already heard of.   So this blog will be mixed!

As you may have heard, I returned and have been working through the Christmas / New Years holidays.  It has been a weird experience going to work on both days, but everyone at work was very positive (many of my Saudi and expat friends went out of their way to wish me both Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!). One thing I wanted to share, before going to the 8:00 PM Christmas Eve mass, I went out for a short jog on our camp running trail. I went in the direction so I was running down the hill overlooking the golf course, downtown Khobar and the Arabian Sea.  One thing was different, the North Star was extremely low on the horizon and looked like the 'Star of David' from the Nativity scenes.  I thought this was really cool, that this part of the world is in a position so that star is that low in the sky on Christmas eve!  (Perhaps a coincidence, but still pretty cool).  I tried taking a photo, but it didn't come out.

As you can tell, I am posting the non-photo items first to keep your attention.

The other cool thing, you may recall there was a total eclipse of the moon a few weeks ago that took about 60 minutes.  Well, we played 9 holes of golf that night and the eclipse started about hole 3 and lasted through hole 7.   I did  try taking photos, but you need a better zoom than I have with me.  It made a great conversation topic (much better than my golf game that night)!  With the low humidity here, the eclipse was low in the sky and you could see the whole thing.

OK, a couple photos.

First, from the trip to Texas, Lauren danced the Dew Drop Fairy in the Nutcracker.  So naturally as a proud parent I need to share this with as many people as possible.  She is also trying to get into the Houston High School for Performing Arts next year, wish her luck on that!

When I headed back to Saudi, Jane and Lauren decided to spend a week in Destin Florida to enjoy a nice vacation.  They took some nice beach / dance photos that I thought good to share.

Back in Saudi, we needed some computer supplies at work one day, so we went into Khobar to see what we could find.  Our first trip was to the mall, but didn't find quite what we needed.  The fellow with me tells me, I know were to get this.  I asked him if we were going to Best Buy?  He said better, and we went to this store. Not quite best buy, but you could buy everything in this store that has been sold over the past 10 years or so. Some with manufactures warranty, many without.  Interesting stores...

Finally, I mentioned night golf.  Well I birdied this hole the other night and the friends I was playing with took this photo.  I told them it isn't really that rare of an event, but they wanted to make sure I put this on my blog, so here it is!

Well Take Care and I hope everyone is off to a prosperous, healthy and happy new year!