SAUDI ARABIA 1976 TO 1979.
My original assignment was with an IAL manager Bill Young who was a very good friend of mine to set up a country wide Meteorological Network. This was to be a very big contract involving many staff not only in Jeddah but 6 other major airports. Unfortunately this all fell through and was put on hold and I ended up with a contract that had nothing to do with engineering.
When I arrived it was so hot I thought I would never survive. In the evening a friend invited me to a barbeque in his garden. He had many guests and I was overcome with the heat and had to go indoors where there was air-conditioning. I thought how do these people exist. However it didn’t take me long to acclimatize and I was soon outside enjoying the barbeques. This all fell through and the contract was put on hold.A pity because I was looking forward to the challenge and I ended up with a contract that had nothing to do with engineering..
Most Saudis were corrupt especially where money was involved and because of this I found myself in a rather unusual assignment which I was far from keen on.
Over the years IAL had completed a wide variety of installations in various airports and had not been paid fully for some of them. This totalled to around 1 million pounds. I then started a started a completely different and boring job from engineering trying to get this money back.These projects involved different departments ie meteorological, workshops, buildings, communications etc not only in Jeddah but in 6 other airports .I had to deal directly with the Saudi heads of these departments and they would gladly accept bribes just for adding their signature to a piece of paper saying the work had been completed. Most of this was in Jeddah. I would spend hours sitting down waiting around for people to turn up and I must have consumed gallons of cups of chai during the day. All these payments were in cash ranging from 10000 to 100000 Riyals depending on the amount that was outstanding. I would carry these amounts in my pocket and thankfully I never them or was robbed. I would get this cash from the accountant and on one occasion we had a new one. He stupidly asked me if I could get a receipt. This job involved many hours flying to Riyadh, Damman, Yanbu, Taif, Duba and Jizan often making return visits. Every week I would be sitting in a seat of a Lockheed Tristar aircraft and must have flown thousands of miles.
My general manager for this project was Bert Reed one of the old school of employers.I liked him a lot and we got on well together.All the time I knew him he never wore socks.I remember when I was invited to one of his parties there were some high ranking Saudis who finished off 3 bottles of scotch. I assumed as part of their religion they were not allowed to consume alcohol. That didn’t apply tn this country.
Many Saudi men were not polite especially where ladies were concerned. It would have been impossible for a women to sit on the beach because in no time she would be surrounded and ogled by them . They also had a habit of deliberately bumping into women on the streets. However there were many private areas on the beach where they were banned with guards on the entrance.
We lived were on a compound in a nice 3 bed roomed bungalow where the managers office was with 3 other senior staff members. We also had a 2 bed roomed cabin with a shower and veranda in a compound with 6 other cabins. We would usually end the day with a beach barbeque There was always a guard on the entrance both day and night which we all paid for. Unfortunately there were other empty compounds completely full of junk and other dirty rubbish put there by the Saudis spoiling an otherwise beautiful beach.
I brought out an inflatable dingy but when I tried it out in the sea I found in high waves you couldn’t see other boats or even the shore. I sold it the next day and decided to get a proper boat on my next vocation. Part of my job was importing spare parts required by all the departments. Previously I had used any importer but this time I asked one if he would import a 18ft boat for me, I would put all future imports with him. He agreed. Next time on leave I bought a very nice cabin cruiser complete with a 80HP and small standby 4HP engine. I took this down to the docks a day before it would be dispatched and sawed off a small length on the front of the trailer so that it would fit in the 18 ft container .I remember it being late so I slept overnight on a bunk in the boat. All I had to do when it arrived was to get the front of the trailer welded back on which I did and towed it to the beach compound were I had previously built a winch on the beach to launch and bring the boat in and out from the sea. This was the best thing I did and made our stay in Saudi a lot more enjoyable. We would stay overnight at sea in a suitable sheltered position and would on other occasions take out friends.
Also this was one way ladies if they wanted could go topless, without being ogled.
Fishing was another sport which all the family enjoyed. Unfortunately there were many sharks and when you were bringing in a fish it was useless trying to play them, you had to wind in as quickly as possible otherwise you would end up with just the head. The sharks having eaten the rest.
In Saudi wife’s were not allowed to drive. This caused problems for school children who didn’t live in compounds where a school bus was provided. Husbands would work on a rota taking up to 5 children to school. Another bigger problem was if children were sick the husband would have to take time off work to take them to the doctor which could take a long time.
I had a nasty fall when I tripped on a ball playing tennis. My left ankle was very painful and I went to hospital. They tried all sorts of test but eventually it was put in plaster and after 3 weeks it was still very painful so I went back to UK. I saw a consultant, he took off my plaster and told me to stand on my toes. My right foot stood up but my left one stayed on the ground. Immediately he said I had broken my tendon and why was I not diagnosed this before because it would now take a much longer time to heal. After he operated I was once again in plaster. After 3 weeks I was concerned about my job in Saudi. He said I could go back and have the plaster off in a weeks time. He didn’t foresee any problems but told me that when I had the plaster off it would take time to get back to normal. When I got back I told the Bert the general manager I couldn’t drive my car to carry out my work which was mostly driving because I couldn’t operate the clutch pedal. Straight away he went out and bought me a new automatic car. When eventually had the plaster off it was correct in what he told me. It did take time but after 2 months I was back playing my favorite game squash.
There was a swimming pool but it was for women one day and men the next followed by a family day excluding men. Driving was a nightmare, the Saudis had a habit of tooting their car horns especially if their was a hold up of the traffic. Just before they were about to turn a left corner they would put their hand out and flap their thumb and first two fingers up and down copying the normal car light indicator. For right corners they would just bend their arm backwards and do the same. Another annoying incident which happened frequently was you would come to a road sign saying diversion ahead which you would follow only to meet a heap of cars because the road went nowhere and they were all trying to turn around. When driving to Taif from Jeddah and not being a Muslim we had to bypass the holy town of Mecca which made the journey much longer. However up the coast Dwe would drive through beautiful scenic mountains to Yanbu a lovely seaside town to a very expensive hotel Jebel Ali where all the rich Saudis would go on Thursdays and Fridays being holy days. We would go up during the week when if cheaper and no Saudis were there.
It was palatial, there were lovely round beds covered in a white eiderdown. A television in every bedroom which in those days was a big luxury, beautiful furniture and a magnificent swimming pool divided in two parts.
Danie had a good knowledge of French and became a secretary to Pierre Digaud who was the manager of a French construction company. We took him fishing one day and he was sea sick but caught a big Barracuda which he had never done before, his sickness disappeared. Although being a good typist she had to start all over again learning how to use a French typewriter because the key layout was different to that of the British. After 18 months the company closed down. She then got a secretarial job with Saudia Airlines medical services which had an English layout keyboard which took time getting used too. This not only provided an income but most importantly it gave her the chance to get out of the house. This could have been a problem taking her to and from work but we both had the same working hours and her jobs was near the airport where I worked. When you visited friends round in the afternoon you were never offered tea it would be either Jeddah gin a home made very alcoholic brew which I didn’t drink or wine and beer for which we would need hops often brought in hidden in pillows etc.
On one occasion English non alcoholic beer was imported, we were in heaven because all we had to do was to ferment and drink it. However the Saudis soon caught on to this and buried hundreds of cases in the desert. Of course the Expatriates found them even though they had been all buried over a vast area. In the afternoon we would all go out with shovels on beer hunts .On one occasion I hit the jackpot digging up 3 complete cases.
AVOCADO FARM ESTAPONA SPAIN 1978.
In 1978 we had a two week holiday in Estapona a beautiful small sea side town. We spent most of our time on the sandy beaches and swimming in the blue Mediterranean sea. On our first evening we went to a restaurant were the food was excellent and we eat there most of the time. On other occasions we would eat at a mobile shop who sold excellent British style fish and chips.
There was also a lively night club next door and would jive the night away. It was good exercise and fun. People nowadays don’t do this they just stand in front of each other and move their shoulders. Anyhow whilst there we bought a large area of land on the hills. You had a wonderful view of Estapona below and along the coast you could see Gibraltar to the right.
We then had Avocado plants put in all over the site. It was all going well after 2 years(see picture) and we were looking forward to them being picked and to have some return for our investment when there was a hurricane and we lost all our plants. We were devastated. There were some houses on the site and we got permission to build a house but decided to put the land up for sale. Looking back we realise that we should not have sold the land then but waited a few years when it would have been worth a lot more. After 2 years we eventually got a buyer and became millionaires in Pesetas. At that time you could only send back to UK a small amounts of money so it stayed in the Banca de Atlantica gaining in those days 9pc interest. I was at my bank one day and explained this to the Managerand he said he would try to get the money back for me. I had forgotten all about this and put my card in a hole in the wall one day draw out some money and found I had some thousands of pounds in my account. At first I wondered how it got there and was I going to keep quiet about it but soon realised it was all the money I had received for my land sale. What we most regret now is we should have left it there!