Saturday morning, week 11 and I am tired before I even start, self-inflicted though "burning the candle at both ends" but I want to enjoy the whole of my experience and If it means only sleeping a few hours on a weekend then so be it. I did get to experience number 2 on my tick list which was to go to the top of Kingdom Tower. Kingdom Tower is Riyadh's newest landmark and a truly stunning piece of modern architecture. It is Known as the 'necklace' for its unusual apex, it's particularly conspicuous at night when the upper part is lit with constantly-changing coloured lights. Rising 302m above the ground, its most distinctive feature is the steel-and-glass, 300-tonne bridge connecting the two towers. High-speed elevators fly you (at 180km/h) to the 99th floor Sky Bridge. We ate in the restaurant there Spazio 77, it is supposed to be 5* and very expensive but I was not overly impressed with the food but the experience and the view of the city whilst sitting in the restaurant was amazing. I've still not quite got the hang of the men and women thing though as I lifted my foot up to show my shoe heel to Valentina my abaya opened and showed my leg and I could feel the eyes of all the women in there burning a hole in the back of my neck.....yes the women, not the men.......I know it is there culture but it almost feels too ridiculous to explain. Another example of this was today at the spa, we had to have the maintainence men in this morning to clean the pool as the weather over the past few days has been extremely hot but windy so there is sand everywhere. Picture the scene......There are 2 men cleaning the pool, Maria in her abaya and head scarf (it's 46 degrees) and two cleaners stood over these 2 men to ensure they don't look anywhere other than the pool. The cleaners have attempted to screen the area that the men are working in with boards and see through screens.....it seems so far fetched.... the ladies that are in the spa are wearing gym gear anyone would think that they were naked but I suppose this is the law, men aren't allowed to see what is happening under an abaya whether it is good or bad.
Lore is back from her holiday looking very refreshed. She brought us all a gift. She is always so generous, many times I open my fridge in a morning and she has brought me chocolate or cake....bless her.
Also this week I was called to see the boss again!!! The only thing I think it can be is about my Iqama. I go to her office and there are already two Filipino girls who work in the spa (Prima and Shela). They are going back to the Philipines asap. They are classed as "runaways". They came to the country on one sponsorship but then did a moonlight flit due to bad treatment and working conditions (this is very common for the Filipinos) Anyway these girls have been working in the spa illegally, (almost everyone working at the spa is illegal, including me). So Prima and Shela have to exit the country quickly otherwise they will face jail.
The ladies leave and then it is my turn. Hanan starts with "We have to get your Iqama sorted" Once again I explain I don't want one till I come back in September. She tells me that if I don't get one then I won't get back into the country in September. I tell her I am willing to take the risk. The Government are enforcing lots of restrictions and have already started deporting immigrants and anyone here illegally (they have to be careful here though as this country cannot function without them), the Saudis would never do the jobs that these people are doing. Most Saudis don't work if they can help it, even though the Saudi workforce is increasing as men and women are now taking jobs and the city now has universities for women to enable them to study here rather than go to America, Paris or the UK. A lot of the ladies who work who come to the spa either work in Medicine or Banking. So I tell Hanan (and I was proud of myself for standing up for myself for once and saying what I actually wanted to say) that if she wished to get my Iqama she was more than welcome but I would not be paying for it and if she deducted the 3000 riyals from my salary then I would be informing somebody. I stated that according to the Saudi Labour Law that it was the responsibility of the employer to get the Iqama. She asks me to give a guarantee that I would return. My reply, as all Arabs would say Inish Allah (God Willing) She was gob smacked but I am learning to play her at her own game now. I leave her office after her agreeing to pay for it.
The weather is getting hotter, we seem to be reaching around 46 degree in the day and dropping to between 24 and 30 in the middle of the night. Hard to image how I am going to feel when I come home in August to our Summer climate......I think Steven might need to have the heating on for me......talking of Steven, (I knew you were dying to ask) he text me a few days ago after 2 weeks of not talking from our previous incident. I had assumed it was over being as it took so long but we are still hanging on by the skin of our teeth. I hope it will start to get easier for us. It is hard to make up when you are so far away so we will see how it goes and hopefully we will be ok when we get to spend some time together in August.
No comments:
Post a Comment