Recent Comments
Category Archives: Here and Now
Ramadan Kareem
It’s finally here, after the big build up. Would it start on Saturday? Would it start on Sunday? The ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar is the month for fasting during daylight hours. It is called Ramadan. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
Tagged fast, feast, Iftar, Kraft, lunar calendar, muhammad, new moon, Ramadan, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tamimi, Tang, Vimto
1 Comment
What will they call Riyadh’s new metro?
When Lawrence of Arabia lay in the hills above Abu Na’am Station on the Hejaz Railway a little less than a century ago. His mind was on the destruction of the Ottoman empire’s main supply line through Arabia: The Hejaz … Continue reading
Archaeologists: They’re not all socks n’ sandals.
If you read my previous post you will know that I recently went to an Archaeological conference in Riyadh. Despite the difficulties in arriving at the meeting, it was an eye opening event, with a wealth of information about the … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
Tagged Arabian peninsula, Asia, climate change, dinosaurs, Dr Ben Kear, Dr Richard Leakey, Evolution, green arabia, Lucy, nomadic migration, Nothsaurs, Oxford University, Palaeodeserts, prehistory, Professor Michael Petraglia, Quarayyah, Saudi Arabia, Sauropterygians, tabuk, tayma, Titanosaurs, Uppsala University
Leave a comment
Classic Saudi Morning: You’ve gotta laugh or you’d cry.
I discovered a couple of weeks ago that May is Europe Month. A month of activities in and around Riyadh funded by the E.U. Unfortunately there is little advertising of the celebration in case the whole thing might be shut … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
3 Comments
Update on The MERS Virus
I thought as there has been another recent flurry of concern about Mers that I should update my readers on the status quo here. This week there has been a flood of articles around the world about the virus mainly … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
Tagged bats, Camels, Coronavirus, jeddah, MERS, middle-east, Riyadh, SARS, Saudi Arabia, WHO, World health Organisation
1 Comment
Breaking Bread, The art of cooking sourdough.
A fact you may not know about Saudi Arabia is good bread is very hard to come by here. Delicious and varied types of Flat bread are available, but properly fermented, boutique bakery style breads are not available apart from … Continue reading
Apologies: Life overtook blogger. Christmas keeps on coming.
Too long since my last post. So a bit of catching up here. Since my last post I have been doing a great deal of family wrangling, followed by a few minor killings of contractors around the world and such … Continue reading
Preparations for the Eid Al-Adha holiday
In Saudi Arabia there was an 11 day holiday for Eid Al-Adha this year. Eid Al-Adha celebrates Abraham’s proving that he loved God more than anything else by being prepared to sacrifice his only son. More than 100 million animals … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
4 Comments
Bats about MERS
Since I returned, conversation turns at every opportunity to “MERS” and it goes something like this: “What’s this MERS thing? “Some sort of flu” “Is there much of it about?” “You have to have contact with Camels” “Do you know … Continue reading
Posted in Here and Now
Tagged Camels, Egyptian Tomb Bats, Hajj, Professor Ian Lipkin, Riyadh, SARS, Saudi Arabia, the lancet, WHO
1 Comment
Mixed Bag
Apologies to all. I have been on the high seas pursuing a sailing odyssey interspersed with shouting at teenagers, building contractors, and so forth for the past couple of months so have neglected my blog. My children are now in … Continue reading
Oryxiana 