Monday, October 12, 2009
Using Wordpress for now
The blog that I keep up to date is at wordpress - irisheyesksa.wordpress.com
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Pennies on the Dollar
Pennies on the dollar – that’s what we’re going to get for our stuff. What we get for it doesn’t bother me so much as the fact that I chose it all carefully for this house in order to make it a home. I have been through enough in my life to know that it’s the people in the house and the relationships they form with each other that makes a home, not the “stuff”, but still I have a pang or two when I realize that the dining room set that I love will sell for about 10% of what we paid for it. Will whoever buys it treat it with the proper tender loving care, I wonder? Oh well, I have enough to be doing that I don’t need to be looking for a “good” home for my stuff. Good in this case, translates to the highest bidder. That’s all there is to it.
We’ve started to deal with the medical exam and tests necessary for our move to KAUST. It is quite extensive and a little anxiety creating, in particular for Noel our eighteen year old (autistic) son. Despite the obvious anxiety though, he came through the whole thing like a trooper. What a great kid. He puts me to shame sometimes with his positive attitude. We still have a little blood work to go – something to do with the fact that one of the requirements for the medical is a blood test for something that the doctor has never heard of. A little investigation revealed that it’s a parasite only found in tropical countries and totally unheard of in the US.
My friends in the Desperate Kaust Wives group on FB tell me to pack as much as I can into the luggage that I take with me on the plane. It takes a while, apparently, even for the air freight to get to Jeddah. I guess I need to go buy suitcases. I still don’t know if we can take Cyclone – the cat – with us in the cabin. I am not sure that I even want to since he hates being in the carrier and shows his discomfort by pooping in it. In addition to which, he screams the entire time as well. I hate to think of him in the cargo area though – would he even survive the trip? We have been his bondservants for eleven years now, but he has taken care of us well too, in his way. He hunts regularly, often depositing gifts at my feet. Usually, the gifts are dead but sometimes, a smart chipmunk will just play dead, and then miraclously revive to run about my house. At this point, Cyclone has typically bored of the game and retires to our/his bed to recline on the pillows or – his most favorite – freshly washed laundry. Meanwhile, I am chasing a tiny, but incredibly fast animal around the house trying to get it to run out the door.
The first week of classes is over at KAUST now. Wow. I wish I was there to experience it all. However, much as I would like to be a part of it all, and much as I miss my husband, it would be very difficult for Noel to be there while things are still in start-up mode. From the pictures I have seen and the anecdotes I have heard, it is shaping up to be an amazing place, quite spectacularly beautiful
We’ve started to deal with the medical exam and tests necessary for our move to KAUST. It is quite extensive and a little anxiety creating, in particular for Noel our eighteen year old (autistic) son. Despite the obvious anxiety though, he came through the whole thing like a trooper. What a great kid. He puts me to shame sometimes with his positive attitude. We still have a little blood work to go – something to do with the fact that one of the requirements for the medical is a blood test for something that the doctor has never heard of. A little investigation revealed that it’s a parasite only found in tropical countries and totally unheard of in the US.
My friends in the Desperate Kaust Wives group on FB tell me to pack as much as I can into the luggage that I take with me on the plane. It takes a while, apparently, even for the air freight to get to Jeddah. I guess I need to go buy suitcases. I still don’t know if we can take Cyclone – the cat – with us in the cabin. I am not sure that I even want to since he hates being in the carrier and shows his discomfort by pooping in it. In addition to which, he screams the entire time as well. I hate to think of him in the cargo area though – would he even survive the trip? We have been his bondservants for eleven years now, but he has taken care of us well too, in his way. He hunts regularly, often depositing gifts at my feet. Usually, the gifts are dead but sometimes, a smart chipmunk will just play dead, and then miraclously revive to run about my house. At this point, Cyclone has typically bored of the game and retires to our/his bed to recline on the pillows or – his most favorite – freshly washed laundry. Meanwhile, I am chasing a tiny, but incredibly fast animal around the house trying to get it to run out the door.
The first week of classes is over at KAUST now. Wow. I wish I was there to experience it all. However, much as I would like to be a part of it all, and much as I miss my husband, it would be very difficult for Noel to be there while things are still in start-up mode. From the pictures I have seen and the anecdotes I have heard, it is shaping up to be an amazing place, quite spectacularly beautiful
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Moving to KAUST
I have reposted this from my previous blog site as it seems to be the one that is of most interest. I was having some issues accessing wordpress so I have decided to try blogger. It seems to interface more easily with google, gmail and facebook.
We move at the end of October. Our house is under contract and, with a little luck, it will close. Now, all I have to do is get rid of the accumulated furnishings and bric-a-brac of 20+ years. This, of course, is easier said than done as we will need much of the stuff until we walk out the door for the last time. I anticipate that will be hard. We have been happy here, and unhappy too. We have lived through a lot in the six years we have lived in Glencoe: the near fatal illness of my lovely husband Brian, the loss of a much loved brother-in-law to cancer, the tragic, violent death of a nephew are the obvious dark spots while marriages and births and new beginnings are the clear and wonderful points of light.
Who would have thought that at the age of almost fifty, we would up stakes and move to, of all places, Saudi Arabia. Certainly, not me, not in a million years. My life in Glencoe is downright close to perfect – a loving (and handsome) husband, a terrific son, a beautiful home, and an interesting and often profitable career in real estate. My basement doesn’t even flood – and believe me, that’s a rarity for an older home in this here neck of the woods. What possessed us to do this? I have to assume that it’s the same thing that motivated us to move here to the US from the west of Ireland all those years ago – a mixture of curiosity, ambition, and hope.
Our house at KAUST is ready now and my husband has already moved in. He tells me that it is large and that mostly things are working. Hmmm. He assures me that he has not spotted any livestock in the house and that any creepy crawlies are easily dealt with. I tell him that I lived most of my life, before meeting him, right on the water. I know what that involves. Perhaps our cat will actually earn his keep. Or maybe not – Cyclone has been our friend and companion for eleven years. I am not sure what that makes him in cat years. A little past his prime, is my guess. Still, maybe he will make up with experience whatever he has lost in speed.
I am excited and apprehensive about this move to the other side of the world, more the former than the latter though. What an amazing opportunity to be involved with a project of this breadth and scale. It’s mind boggling to think what has been accomplished in such a short period of time.
We move at the end of October. Our house is under contract and, with a little luck, it will close. Now, all I have to do is get rid of the accumulated furnishings and bric-a-brac of 20+ years. This, of course, is easier said than done as we will need much of the stuff until we walk out the door for the last time. I anticipate that will be hard. We have been happy here, and unhappy too. We have lived through a lot in the six years we have lived in Glencoe: the near fatal illness of my lovely husband Brian, the loss of a much loved brother-in-law to cancer, the tragic, violent death of a nephew are the obvious dark spots while marriages and births and new beginnings are the clear and wonderful points of light.
Who would have thought that at the age of almost fifty, we would up stakes and move to, of all places, Saudi Arabia. Certainly, not me, not in a million years. My life in Glencoe is downright close to perfect – a loving (and handsome) husband, a terrific son, a beautiful home, and an interesting and often profitable career in real estate. My basement doesn’t even flood – and believe me, that’s a rarity for an older home in this here neck of the woods. What possessed us to do this? I have to assume that it’s the same thing that motivated us to move here to the US from the west of Ireland all those years ago – a mixture of curiosity, ambition, and hope.
Our house at KAUST is ready now and my husband has already moved in. He tells me that it is large and that mostly things are working. Hmmm. He assures me that he has not spotted any livestock in the house and that any creepy crawlies are easily dealt with. I tell him that I lived most of my life, before meeting him, right on the water. I know what that involves. Perhaps our cat will actually earn his keep. Or maybe not – Cyclone has been our friend and companion for eleven years. I am not sure what that makes him in cat years. A little past his prime, is my guess. Still, maybe he will make up with experience whatever he has lost in speed.
I am excited and apprehensive about this move to the other side of the world, more the former than the latter though. What an amazing opportunity to be involved with a project of this breadth and scale. It’s mind boggling to think what has been accomplished in such a short period of time.
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