Riyadh Trip (part 2)

So if you think that touching at Riyadh was the end of my bad luck, well, think again ! :P

Arriving at Riyadh:

I managed to finish with the customs guys in a record time of 6 minutes and was out of the arrivals area in 10 which was a nice thing to do after all the trauma I faced in the way to the capital of Saudi. I dashed through huge sliding doors and looked for somebody holding a board with my name with a huge smile on my face (I've been told that I would find one on my arrival) this yielded nothing, but anger ! Yup, you've guessed it ! Nobody was holding a board with my name ! :x anyway I managed to get out of the way of the stampeding arrivals behind me and continued looking for the driver for around 15 minutes (by this time I was exhausted and very grumpy) and finally I noticed the ignorant twat sitting at the cafe having a nice Mocha Grande ! :o I almost died right there and then ! :x It took me all the will power to not go there and kick his ass ! :x He looked puzzled as in "how on earth did you find me ?!", so he took my bags and dashed to his car. After 20 minutes we arrived to the beautiful hotel "Fahad Crown Plaza", I was greeted with the traditional coffee (and all) and checked in.

The hotel's Oasis SPA was nice, I know the picture doesn't give it any justice !

Got to my suite which was nicely decorated, so what do you do after that ? Look out of the window obviously !! Well, my luck just continued to go against me ! The view which I was greeted with was a huge heater/boiler (Smack bang infront of my view and nothing else!) :x And that was when I thought OK ! Where is the razor ? it's time to slash my rests ! :D

The Conference:

The sole purpose of me visiting the grimmest city in the gulf was to attend a vocational/blue collar training standards workshop/conference, which I enjoyed ! (Wouldn't dare and bore you with the details) :P :D Anyway, I'll let the photos do all the talking :)

The sign ! Nothing too fancy (This is a Good Example of the sense of style which WE Engineers benefit off !) :D

The SEMTA Rep. (Bill Sutton) Giving a presentation on training standards at the UK

ME giving a presentation on Blue Collar Development (While doing my David Copperfield impression "Notice the hands") :D :P

NVQ Mates from my days at dudley ! Saif (Oman), George Orr & Sanjeev Ohori plus this other guy Chillin' at the lobby after a tiring day !