Almost a year

In the last year (when this poor blog was on the back burner) SOOOOOO much happened - tha'll be my excuse for neglecting the poor blog :)
Andre moved jobs/companies and so we moved house. When we arrived in kingdom 8 years ago, Andre was contracted to Aramco. Aramco is the largest oil company in the world and basically the kings bank account :) Well July 2009 Andre was employed directly by the company and returned to work at the refinery he started at in 2001. Rastanura is a coastal town - now its confusing when people say I live in Rastanura because .... the town is Rahima, the housing complex is also known as Najmah and its actually the refinery itself that is Rastanura. We do not live IN the refinery.
Life is good here, Andre starts work at 7am, and is done by 3:30pm. He has time and space to cycle more and run along the beach if he so desires. The ones really hard done by is the girls and I. We have stayed 'working' in the same location and so must catch a bus everyday. The bus leaves the compound at 6:30 (which means we leave the house a little after 6am) - we get to school approximately 7:40 (with traffic) and we get home a little before 5pm ------ loooooong days.

BUT a year down the line, we are still happy and settling in slowly. Here follows some photos, from the last year, of our new home :

Rastanura - Triathlon #1

Some of you may recognise the name Rastanura because Andre worked at the Rastanura Aramco refinery for the first 3 years of our stay in Saudi. On Friday (05/09/08) we left before the crack of dawn - well maybe not literally but it felt that way to head out to Rastanura for a triathlon, so it was 5:40am ! There are no photos to go along with the post not because we weren't allowed to take photos, not because we had nothing to photograph, but because .... because my darling husband rushed us out the door so early we were on the road before it 'dawned' on me that I'd left it at home.
So... Andre has been going to spinning class twice a week for the past month or so and this was to be his first triathlon in mmmmm 6 years :shock: He was only going to do the cycle and run though because swimming is just not his thing.
I keep saying going to, was, instead of did, anyone notice that ? Andre bailed 16kms (sorry Andre has corrected me....it was 16.8kms) out of 20kms on the bike :( seems an empty stomach and Isostar do not go together and he ended up, very unceremoniously throwing-up along the route, and not feeling up to continuing. I would like to say as the girls enjoyed the beach and splashing around in the water, I sat feeling just a touch warm wondering why on earth anyone would even want to be putting themselves through the exercise in this heat hehehe
He did look good and there is always next time. Needless to say the girls are chomping at the bit for 'next time' and a chance to visit a clean, western beach that looks and feels a little more like home :) AND one where mom doesn't have to wear an abaya ! AND AND 'next time' we may just have some pictures to share !