Wet, wet, wet!

Or so I’m told…. And this isn’t about the weather in England.  Apparently it rained here overnight (I didn’t hear it) and enough fell to create localized flooding.  It was sufficiently bad enough to prevent Ghalib (my driver) from reaching the compound until after 9.30am.  Of course I didn’t know this was the reason for his “no show” and it was pointless me phoning him to ask why as he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak much Arabic.  Even if he had been able to convey the cause I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.  I just stated working at the kitchen galley table until he arrived.  Whilst Riyadh is in the middle of a desert it’s not sand.  The land actually looks quite fertile if it were to be irrigated.  The problem is lack of water and the very high summer temperatures.  Obviously there wasn’t a lack of water last night but despite there being not much rain, the drainage system (is there one!) couldn’t cope.

The locals tend to fall into one of three categories when it comes to housing.  The wealthy live in mansions with a high wall around the exterior so you don’t get to see in unless the gate happens to be open.  The middle classes live in their own home which usually consists of a bare wall facing the street with a small courtyard behind and then the house.  Everyone else tends to live in apartment blocks.  Usually two or three storey.  Quite often there are shops or commercial outlets on the ground floor.

An example of apartment blocks.  Vehicles park out the front

Most of the “wealthier” expats live in enclosed compounds.  Actually, so do some of the more “liberal” Saudi’s.  However many of the compounds are closed to the local population. This is the entrance and wall of a compound a short distance from my own.

A high inner wall with a concrete base and an outer wall consisting of barriers with a hessian screen on top.  There is usually a long approach straight to a checkpoint.

As written in an earlier post, unless it is an ‘original’ alleyway, the the roads tend to be very wide.

This is a normal suburban street.  Note how the cars angle park and then a 2nd layer parallel parks behind.  The result is much sounding of the horn!

here are partially constructed buildings throughout the city.  Around the corner from my office there are three.

Well I’d better get on and make myself another tempting dish for dinner.