Saudi Arabia/Bahrain

Just spent a week in Saudi Arabia. I flew into Bahrain, stayed with a colleague on the Friday night, then travelled over the causeway into Saudi the next day.

What an odd country...incredibly hot (47 degrees C) and no alcohol! I stayed in a place called Al Khobar as I was giving a presentation at ARAMCO (based in Khobar) on the Monday evening

http://isasaudi.org/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=22

I stayed at a Holiday Inn (where else) for 3 nights. The weirdest thing was watching the British Lions vs South Africa with a whole load of South Africans in a "compound". This compound was previously a British Aerospace facility and the security was incredible. It was also the only place you could get alcohol being brewed on site. Unfortunately there was a rite of passage of a chilli vodka shot...not great in the heat...and the Lions lost...

Saudi is an odd place really. On the one hand its somewhere that is a really interesting place to visit, on the other its somewhere I was quite glad to leave. Not many people get the chance to go to Saudi - they don't readily issue tourist visa's and so I feel quite luck to have been. What was weird was the shopping malls. First shop I saw was Debenham's followed by Marks & Spencer! How strange is that!

Jo'burg

Flew into Johannesburg on Saturday night for a week over there with our distributor. We were attending the S.A. Process Expo show and we also had some visits at a few customers. Its the middle of the SA winter akthough you wouldn't know it. Stayed at the Hilton. Was very nice. There's a lot of building work going on in to make the country ready for the 2010 World Cup. This is particularly evident on the roads as virtually every junction is being remodelled to make them more efficient.

Overall I was a little disappointed with Jo'burg - I never felt really safe and to me, the city had few redeeming features. Apparently Cape Town is where to go.

One thing that was nice though was the food and drink - the steaks were absolutely amazing, easily the best I've tasted, whilst the wine was on a par...

Summer Ball

We had some tickets to go the Capital FM Summer Ball. It was taking place at the Emirates stadium...quite an impressive place. The lineup was good too...Lionel Richie, Saturdays, Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, etc, etc (...ohh and Blue...they were rubbish...)

Austria/Hungary/Slovakia

Flew to Vienna on Tuesday. Was picked up by a colleague and then drive to Hungary. Very nice place indeed! The following day we drove to Slovakia and then back to Austria! There are no border crossings anymore so it was just like driving from town to town. Very picturesque though...

So, this weekend is a Bank Holiday here in the UK. This normally means rain, rain, and more rain...however this time its been different. Yesterday it was very warm, around 24 degrees - that's sunbathing weather here! Today its a little more overcast but still warm. Mind you it does mean the dogs get to go for a run this morning..

I think we're going to head into London today - SJ is after a messenger bag for her new laptop (HP Elitebook). Its a lot smaller than her previous laptop and a hell of a lot lighter!

In the UK...

Just trying to update where I've been so far this year - Rotterdam, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Prague (twice), Frankfurt & South Africa!

Unbelievable really...plenty of pics to post...I'll try and put up later.

Achema

Just returned from a show in Germany...ACHEMA. This is one of the big German chemical shows and we had a pretty big stand there. My first time to this particular show but was interesting. Quite a number of visitors despite the current financial climate...

Czech two times

An unexpected trip to Prague for work....it was one that I had not banked on, nor had I really wanted to go...still one can't refuse I suppose...

This was for two nights only, flying in and out of Luton. The only flight available was Sky Europe and I must say, this was the hardest landing I've ever had...we literally bounced along the runway...

Black Country Museum

For my parents birthday, we went back up to Staffs. It was my Dad's choice where to go and he chose the Black Country Museum. Unfortunately it was absolutely belting down with rain...still we did have the opportunity of seeing anothe Bean (not as good as mine [in my opinion]) but still nice!

Monsters vs Aliens

Went to see M v A at the IMAX this morning...was surprisingly good! It was a HP thing but I thought this one was OK...