The Start of the Big Adventure
August 14, 2024 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
After almost 8 months of planning and preparation the big day had finally arrived, I had my visa sorted and my travel was booked ... I was actually doing this, moving to Saudi Arabia to take on a new role with Red Sea Global. It felt like an eternity since Joan's ex colleague Tony had contacted us and asked whether this move would be something we would consider doing. After a few Teams calls back and forth and a few other things happening for Joan, the girls and I that we decided to take a punt and do something crazy and I accepted this new role and resigned from Stride, where I had been working for the past 8 years.
I will be working on the Red Sea Global hotel and resort development project, one of the government's many giga projects that are happening across the country here at the moment.
I will fly back and forth to New Zealand for the first part of my time away and then the plan will be for Joan, Scarlett and Frankie to relocate to Fermanagh for a while to spend some quality time with their grandparents Ernie and Linda, and Uncle Shiner and Aunty Louise which also means I will be considerably closer to them for visits.
After a 28 hour journey with flights via Doha, Riyadh and Yanbu I have arrived at my home for the next 2 weeks, Waves Hotel just outside Umluj and have settled in to my room, caught up on some much needed sleep, have swum in the pool and am doing my best to acclimatise to the 36 degree heat after coming from winter at home. The plan is that I will be here for a couple of weeks before relocating into apartment accommodation on the work site.
My work induction starts tomorrow bright and early and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some work after being "between jobs" the past 6 weeks or so.
I don't see this being a daily update kind of blog but more of a tool to keep the people who care up to date with what's happening where I am and how the whole experience is going when there is something interesting to write about.Read more
Week 1 of work done
August 19, 2024 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ 🌬 36 °C
My first official day of was 14th of August and it consisted of a fairly standard induction to Red Sea Global and how the site that I was now visiting each day for work operated.
The site is approximately 1 hour by bus north of where I am staying in Umluj at a site called Turtle Bay. The site itself is enormous and on land consists of the main offices for the project, accommodation for construction workers, hotel operators and RSG staff spread across the Construction Villages (circa 20,000 beds) and various types of apartment and townhouse accommodation. There are also a number of communal facilities such as entertainment centres, places to eat, gyms, swimming pools, shops (including a supermarket), a mosque and much much more. I am yet to see much outside of the offices though because I am still located at the hotel and it looks like I will be for some time to come.
Then when you go out to the islands there are circa 10-15 hotels and resorts under construction currently - google Shura Island development to get an idea of what is being built here. The scale is quite mind boggling
I am leading a team of 8 people at the moment made up of a males and females from NZ, Pakistan, Ukraine, India and Saudi Arabia and my boss is Irish so we are a bit of a United Nations for sure. The work looks to be really interesting so far and it looks like I will be applying what I have learned after 20+ years in NZ and the UK to a completely different asset type i.e. Accommodation. The change has been really refreshing actually and its great to be able to share my insights and experience with the team.
Life in the hotel is OK, the hotel itself is lovely, the food is good, the facilities are top notch but it is a fairly lonely existence some times once we get back here from site so I am enjoying the daily video calls to Joan and the girls a lot and they are helping me feel like I'm not as far away from home as I am. The weekends are particularly hard as there isn't much to do outside the hotel itself but we have the option to work every 2nd Saturday and receive pro rata pay for it as well as a additional 12 days annual leave per year so I will be looking to get onto that programme as soon as I can given that's what I'm here to do.
Yet to find any rugby coverage whatsoever so resorted to listening to the Newstalk ZB radio coverage of the 2nd test v Argentina, which I was very happy with after the dismal performance the AB's put in the week before in Wellington. On the plus side the time zone works quite well for EPL coverage so that is keeping me occupied as well.Read more
Rest in Peace Ernie
August 24, 2024 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
It never ceases to amaze me how life, as you know it, can change unexpectedly in an instant. Tuesday the 20th of August 2024 is one such moment.
I received a phone call from Joan’s brother Gareth informing me that their father, my father in law, Ernie had passed away suddenly at the family home in Mullaghmeen that afternoon. After speaking with Joan, our attention turned to making sure our girls were taken care of and making plans for both of us to get back to Northern Ireland as quickly as possible.
Ernie was a giant of a man in every sense of the word, known to some as The Bear he was a large, tough, ex policeman from Northern Ireland who also loved his family, his faithful companion Daz, his friends and most of all his grandchildren. He spent his time in recent years growing incredible organic veges, maintaining the lovely gardens at The Rowans and volunteering his time to help out his beloved Enniskillen Rugby Club.
Ernie was always a great sounding board for me personally and we have had many important discussions sat around the dining table in the family home, usually early in the morning after a few pints or glasses of Oyster Bay Sav, which was his absolute favourite. In recent times Ernie was a big supporter of my move to Saudi and has told me on a number of occasions that its family first, and everything you do as a father should be to benefit your family.
Ernie’s passing has left an enormous hole in the lives of everyone who knew him and I am so thankful that we got to spend the best part of a month with him in the run up to Shiner and Louise’s wedding back in July. Seeing Scarlett and especially Frankie strengthen their bonds with their Granny and Granda was the absolute highlight of the trip, outside of the wedding, and is something that will stick with me forever. We are truly lucky that our memories of Ernie are so strong and so recent. The memory banks are full of amazing memories of donkey derbies, Granda’s crunchy bacon, Linda’s 70th birthday celebrations and for me personally the weekend that Ernie and I spent at The Open at Troon.
I always enjoyed any time that I got to spend with Ernie, but the weekend in Troon was special. We spent hours in the car together talking about anything and everything and getting into lots of family related chats that taught me a lot about life as a Dad who works away and has to spend time away from the people you love the most. I’m still not convinced to this day that Ernie actually enjoyed watching the golf, especially when we got rained out of Troon on the Saturday, but if he didn’t enjoy it he never let on and always seemed genuinely glad that I was nerding out and fan girling over all the pros we got to watch at my first live major tournament. We also had a couple of incredible meals, pints and laughs at the Thai Orchid in Dalton, one of Joan and I’s favourite places to eat anywhere in the world.
Ernie’s funeral was beautiful and an extremely fitting send off for a man widely respected and loved across Northern Ireland, New Zealand and anywhere else he went in between. The procession from the house down to the rugby club will stick with me as long as I live, the road lined with mourning club members old and young, including 5 of the Enniskillen Women’s team who were playing for Ulster on TV a couple of hours later, black arm bands on as a show of respect. Club members switched in and out as pallbearers as Ernie made his final journey. An incredibly moving and emotional outpouring of love and respect from the club and wider community.
The coming days, weeks and months will be extremely hard for the wider Beatty family, which I am very proud to be part of, but we will all get through it together in time. Joan has been a tower of strength for Linda in her darkest hour and her calmness and clear thinking has been an inspiration to see. This has also confirmed for me what I already suspected, but this is irrefutable proof – that one of us is highly emotional and was in pieces since receiving the news, unable to think straight … and the other one is Joan.
I can’t help thinking about the age old adage that you truly don’t know what you have until it is gone. Everything that has happened has shown me that Ernie has been a huge, influential part of my life for the past 20 years. He is someone that I respect immeasurably and alongside my own Dad, has been a guiding light for me in my adult life. Ernie was loved and respected by people from all walks of life in Northern Ireland, something that not many can say truthfully in a country which has undoubtedly moved on positively from the dark days of the Troubles, but still carries the scars of what has happened in the past. After witnessing the outpouring of love and respect over the past week, I hope that when my time is finally up, if half as many people say half as many heartwarming things about me as has been said about Ernie, I will be immensely proud of what I have achieved in my life. I will miss him so much.
I just wish I had one more chance to tell him that.Read more
One month in
September 15, 2024 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ 🌬 34 °C
The first month onsite has been a bit of whirlwind with everything that has been going on but I feel like I’m getting into a bit of a routine now. The good news is that I am no longer in the hotel and am now based onsite, which makes a huge difference. Being part of the accommodation team certainly has its advantages, as most of the people I joined with are still at the hotel and may be there for another month at least.
I am now in a really nice studio apartment which has a kitchenette with kettle, microwave, fridge and a washing machine/dryer, decent TV and couch etc, loads of storage space and a dining table/desk area too along with a really nice bathroom.
The work itself is really ramping up in terms of a handful of high priority, historic items that really need to be resolved so the days are going by really quickly. My team has also been moved to a different department in the last couple of weeks, which doesn’t really impact our day to day activities directly, it just means that I report to a different director.
Having my first Father’s Day away from Joan and the girls was really hard but the lovely cards that Scarlett and Frankie made me and the awesome presents of golf shirts and a Guinness water bottle and coffee cup certainly helped make it a bit easier.
Also managed to watch the second All Blacks v Springboks test live with a workmate of mine, which despite another last quarter capitulation was a really nice connection to home. Even managed a couple of non alcoholic beers during the match.
After Ernie’s passing I am also determined to get healthier and lose a good bit of weight for myself, Joan and the girls. Nothing quite like a wake up call like that to make you realise you need to make the most of every day you have available to you. So I have been going to the gym or swimming lengths first thing in the morning every working day since I got back from the funeral as well as trying to be really careful in terms of what I am eating here and I already feel much better for it – long may it continue.
One month down, two to go until I get to head back to NZ and see the people that mean the most to me.Read more
Saudi National Day and Ireland
September 23, 2024 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Saudi National Day is celebrated on the 23rd of September each year to commemorate the date on which a proclamation was made by King Abdulaziz ibn Saud that renamed the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 by way of a royal decree.
Saudi National Day is a public holiday here and an opportunity for the Saudis to showcase their culture, customs and traditions. All across the site, the common shared areas were all decorated in the national colours of green and white and there were a few events during the week to celebrate culminating in one large event held down in the beachside community tent.
There was traditional music, food and other cultural activities along with other displays including falconry and basket weaving. I managed to eat my body weight in some incredible dates covered in crushed pistachios and filled with other nuts, which were unreal. I was less keen on the Arabic coffee I tried which was quite bitter and a light brown colour.
The other benefit of the public holiday being on a Monday was that our work also gave us the Sunday off (Friday and Saturday are the weekends here) so we had a 4 day long weekend. So after talking to Joan and Linda I booked some flights and headed back to Ireland to see the family and to help out with a few things around the place.
Landing back in Dublin to 14 degrees was a bit of a shock to the system after starting to get used to temperatures in the mid 30’s here. Managed to watch a couple of Enniskillen RFC games while I was back, heading over to Omagh to watch supercoach Shiner’s 4th XV play and then also got to watch the 3rd XV at Mullaghmeen on the Saturday and catch up with a few old friends over a couple of quiet pints of Guinness on the sideline. Also managed to get a few tidy up jobs done at their rental property, which was getting ready to go back on the market to find new tenants as well as help to draft up some template tenancy agreements for Linda to use going forward. Its not very often my work skillset is actually of practical use to people so it was nice to contribute something to the cause – ha ha.
The highlight of the trip though was a visit to the Nun’s Pool in Bundoran – a semi natural rockpool area where we took cold water plunge and swim on the Sunday morning – the pool was brutally cold to start with, but after a while was actually really enjoyable. Couldn’t stay in for too long but it certainly energized everyone that went along, especially Shiner and Louise’s awesome friend Katy, who loved it so much she decided to give birth that evening. Our trip to Bundoran was finished with the best coffee in months and the best sausage roll I’ve had in a long long time. We were also treated to a fantastic Sunday lunch with Louise’s family on our way home to round out easily my favourite day since I’ve been away.
The weekend went by so fast and the journey back to site was long but I am so glad I did it – always great to reconnect with family whenever possible.Read more
First 3 months done and dusted
November 6, 2024 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
My third month in Saudi started off in a very embarrassing way when I fell for what is apparently a very widely know about telephone scam. I received a call allegedly from the Ministry of the Interior telling me I had to reverify all my data in relation to my residence permit. Now I have done more IT and Technology training programmes than I care to remember over the past coupe of years but I still managed to get suckered in and they ended up stealing my mobile number, which controls access to all your important information here and they tried to access my bank account but thankfully the awesome Government Relations team at work managed to get me protected before they drained my bank account - lesson learned ... trust no one.
The weather here has definitely started to change and on my way to the gym early morning a few weeks back now we actually had some fog and I thought we might get some rain. No such luck yet though but apparently its coming and we will get a couple of days of torrential rain when the weather breaks and it starts getting cooler .
We've had a magnificent run of sporting results in the past month though with the All Blacks winning a great contest at Twickenham and an absolutely unbelievable 3-0 test series whitewash to go along with the America's Cup with and the ladies winning the T20 world cup - great time to be a kiwi sports fan
But the best thing about my first three months coming to and end is that I'm heading home for a week to see the girls and Joan and I couldn't be happier about that. Its been an incredibly challenging first 3 months away for a number of reasons but the thought of going home and being able to give Scarlett, Frankie and especially Joan a massive hug is incredible.
Oh and I've also just run out of Vegemite so the timing couldn't be better - ha ha
And I almost forgot to mention I'm going to see Pearl Jam the night I get home, so lots to love about the next week or so
Next stop Maraetai !!!Read more
Home sweet home - Part 1
November 8, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
My trip home to see Joan and the girls was a roller coaster of emotions to start the trip off. After getting on the bus to get down to Yanbu Airport everything was going smoothly until we were about a hour and 15 mins down the and our bus made an unscheduled stop, where we sat and sat and then sat some more before I realised something might be up - I got out of the bus and in the drivers broken english I deduced that we had broken down, which is when the panic set in because if I missed this flight there wasn't another one to Doha for 3 days, which meant I would have missed my connection to Auckland and the trip was a write off. Long story short a mechanic arrived from a town up the road presumably and we were off again with our driver attempting to set the landspeed record in a 50 seater bus. The good news is we made it with time to spare and I was on my way.
The trip took a significant turn for the better when I went to board my flight to Auckland and was informed that I has been upgraded to Business Class - I was so happy I could have cried . I can report that business class is everything it is cracked up to be - the food and drink was great, proper coffee and best of all the laydown bed meant I got 8 hours sleep.
I managed to get home at 5am where Joan and Bella were up and waiting for me with a cup of tea I'd been waiting for for 3 months. Scarlett and Frankie woke up around an hour later and we had an amazing reunion where we all hung out and laughed, hugged and cried a little bit - it was just what I had been hoping for. Scarlett went off to school and she didn't know it at the time but we would be back at the school later that afternoon to see her receive a principal's award in front of the whole school at assembly. A very proud Mum and Dad moment timed perfectly for me to be able to see.
So then, just in case there wasn't enough happening on my first day at home I went off to see Pearl Jam with Mum, Mike and Liz at Mt Smart Stadium. It was so awesome going to a gig with Mum and we were treated to the best Pearl Jam concert we could have hoped for, and the best I have seen them in the 3 times I have seen them live. Also managed to catch up with Stef, Cat, Sven and Jules pre gig which was awesome too.
After a much needed night's sleep it was up and at 'em again on the Saturday when I took the girls to Scarlett's swimming lessons before heading home to get ready for Uncle Boat's 80's party for his 40th birthday. Scarlett and Frankie were decked out in their fluro space kitties costumes and Joan and I were dressed up as Ghostbusters in the awesome costumes Joan had put together and made for us. We had a brilliant night with our friends but after 3 months of not drinking in Saudi the hangover the next day was not much fun.Read more
Home sweet home - Part 2
November 14, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Sunday at home was a lovely day where I took the girls out for a swim at the awesome Otara pools and we headed home and everything was going well until at around 6pm when the girls were playing around and all of a sudden Frankie was not happy and her arm was suspiciously swollen just above her wrist. Given Scarlett had just come out of an above elbow cast which she had on for 6 weeks we hoped for the best as we headed to East Care to get checked out. After 3 hours waiting we finally got seen and the doc confirmed what we were hoping wasn't the case - Frankie was in a cast after getting a small green stick fracture. Just what Joan needed, another girl in a cast.
We couldn't afford to be slowed down though as Monday was a big day, our annual trip to see Santa at Smith & Caugheys. After Frankie spending the day at home with me, the girls and I took the ferry into the city and managed to have enough time to call in and see some of the old crew at Stride on our way up Queen Street.
This is the last year apparently that Smith & Caughey's are doing their annual Santa photos due to their financial problems, which is a huge shame as we have always enjoyed coming in to see Santa each year with the girls. Because it is the last year and with everything else going on it was a shame that they had really noticeably scaled back the scale and quality of the famous window displays, Santa's forest and the number of Santa's available for the photos, but on the plus side Santa was a proper legend. He spoke to the girls like they were long lost friends and they were so pleased that Santa remembered them from last year. The girls were impeccably behaved, which does not happen that regularly - ha ha, so we treated ourselves to a ginormous pizza from Sal's as a treat before heading home.
I managed to sneak a cheeky 9 holes in the next day at Formosa after a trip back into the city to catch up with a few more people and get a much needed haircut from The Shortland Barber, my go to barber in the city. The golf was predictably awful after 3 months of not swinging a club at all but it didnt matter - it was just great being back playing and doing the thing I missed the most after Joan, the girls and Bella. \
The highlights of Tuesday and Wednesday were the local running races, where Frankie just did her own thing as per usual - when her first race started she ran off in the opposite direction to where she was heading to and in the second race she just sat down, which was hilarious. Wednesday was touch night where Scarlett has just started playing with a team made up of her friends locally. She was a little nervous as this was her first game back after getting her cast off but after some great words of encouragement from Coach Mark and Coach Kate she was off and running, quite literally. Scarlett scored a magnificent try from halfway out pacing everyone and scoring in the corner - it was poetry in motion, but then I am very biased - ha ha. The try on debut earned Scarlett the Sportsmanship Trophy for the week and the wee pet was so proud she slept with the trophy and then took it to school the next day for news. It was awesome.
Scarlett was so keen to take the trophy to school for news she decided that she wanted to do that rather than coming out to the airport the next day to see me off, but I was more than happy with that - it was so nice seeing how happy she was from being part of that team.
I had an absolutely amazing week at home with Joan and the girls, it was far too short, as I'm sure all my trips home will be. It was amazing to see what an incredible job Joan is doing with the girls and home life in general considering all of the other things that she is dealing with after Ernie's passing. I am so proud of her resilience and how good a Mum she is to our girls.
After a teary but determined and strong farewell with Joan at the airport, I made my way through everything hoping for another upgrade on boarding, but alas it was not to be - back to cattle class for me., and back to the sandbox.
A month or so of hard graft ahead to try and close out some big issues at work and then back to NZ again for Christmas and New Year. Counting the hours and minutes already.
Ka kite AotearoaRead more
The countdown to Christmas
December 18, 2024 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
The last month or so in the run up to Christmas was crazy at work with a load of different mini projects and some major pieces of work due to be completed by the end of the year . I managed to walk out the door on the 19th with most things completed or as much done as we could possibly have done so I was able to get excited about my trip home for Christmas with no work stresses at all which was awesome.
After getting an upgrade on my last trip home I arrived at the counter in Doha full of hope and expectation of maybe snagging another one, but as the saying goes – it’s the hope that kills you and I boarded the flight and headed for my seat in economy slightly deflated but massively excited about getting home and seeing Joan, the girls and most of the whanau over the next few days.Read more
Meri Kirihimeti
Dec 22–27, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
The flight itself was packed and uncomfortable after I made the rookie error of not changing my window seat for an aisle seat so ended up not getting up and about anywhere near as often as I normally do so after landing pretty tired in Auckland at 4am the trip took a very unexpected turn for the better when I was greeted at arrival by Joan and the girls in their matching jammies with an amazing Welcome Home Daddy sign, which got the happy tears flowing early. Frankie then held my hand all the way to the car which was super cute as well.
After getting my arrival day wrong and actually landing a day later that I thought I was going to, we then had no choice but to get in the ute and head straight to Mum and Dad’s place in Clive after dropping Bella at the kennels for her holidays. It was so awesome to see Mum and Dad again and to see the new house for the first time. The new house is awesome and is a little bit like the tardis in that it looks a little small, compared the what we have been used to, from the outside but once you get inside its not small at all and has everything you would ever need. Loved it.
Managed to sneak in 18 holes the next day back at the home course Maraenui with Rocket, Ennor and Cosmo which was brilliant. No golf whatsoever for almost 4 months meant expectations were very low but I actually managed to play a decent round and scraped together a respectable 85 which I was really happy with. So great to be back playing the course where it all started for me with a group of my best mates – hard to beat. Only dampened very slightly by the fact that inexplicably the bar was closed 2 days before Christmas, when everyone was on holiday. Go figure.
After a BBQ dinner out at the beach, getting Santa’s Guinness and cookie and the reindeer’s carrot ready and the now standard Christmas Eve present wrapping marathon it was on to the main event – Christmas Day !!!! As expected things kicked off bright and early with Scarlett bursting into our room massively stoked that Santa had come and that there were loads of presents to open. Once Frankie had finally decided to wake up we had a fairly leisurely start to the day opening presents, talking to everyone in Fermanagh and Texas and getting food prepared for the big Christmas lunch out at Chris and Michelle’s place at Waimarama. Seeing how much the girls get excited about Christmas is one of my absolute favourite things in the whole world, and I think we are right in the sweet spot now where they are both old enough to get really excited about Santa’s visit and they are both 100% into everything about it. We have something special planned for the girls next Christmas when we will be in Europe, so that will hopefully only galvanise their love of Christmas, and maybe some day they will love Christmas as much as their Mum does – ha ha.
Chris and Michelle’s place out at Waimarama was so awesome and we had such a chilled lovely afternoon and evening with Mum, Dad, Hud, Taz, Carys, Oti, Chris, Michelle, Ethan, Dom, Maureen, Claire, Phillip, Audrey, Randy and a couple from Canada who work with Michelle. We just all hung out, ate an incredible feed – special shout out to Muka’s brisket and Peb’s smoked fish dip .. stand outs in a table of amazing food, listened to music, went down to the beach for a couple of swims, video called Mike, Liz and the girls down south, rode the scooters, kicked the football around and just generally had an awesome Christmas Day. After being a little unsure how the day was going to go this year after everything that has happened lately I honestly don’t think it could have gone better – 10 out of 10. Can’t wait to do another one out there, next time with Mike, Liz and the girls hopefully too.
My birthday was pretty chilled, as it always is these days – a great day with Joan and the girls followed by an outstanding meal at Madame Social in Napier – highly highly recommended. After a lovely relaxed day we packed up, said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back to Auckland, slightly delayed by my bloody ute deciding it didn’t want to start. The delay meant we had to postpone our surprise for the girls back in Auckland but we got that rebooked and headed home to Maraetai.Read more
Back in the 09 and the arrival of Granny
Dec 27–Jan 2, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
After a brilliant few days in Hawkes Bay with the whanau we were back in Auckland for a busy week or so before I got back on the big bird and headed back to Saudi. One of my big goals for my time at home was to do a big clear out of the garage and the house and yard in preparation for the sale of the house, which will happen later in the year. So a large pink skip bin arrived on the 28th and we set about clearing things out and filling it up before we packed the girls into the car and headed into the city for the treat we had organized for them, and for ourselves too.
Over the years Joan has absolutely loved being able to get away from time to time and spend a night in what used to be The Langham, now The Cordis hotel in central Auckland. We booked a night away for all of us and were treated to a massive family room, with incredible views out over Auckland City, which blew the girls minds. We relaxed in the club lounge, ate and drank lovely food and cocktails, swam in the rooftop pool and spa and generally chilled out and enjoyed spending quality time together. It was brilliant and something we have decided we will try and do each time I am home.
The next day a very special visitor arrived off her flight from DFW via Fiji. After spending Christmas with Richie, Noreen and Chloe, Joan’s Mum was in New Zealand for 6 weeks to spend time with the girls and to help Joan out during the school holidays. After a bit of a rest we headed down to the beach for the first of many visits over the next 6 weeks I’m sure.
We all spent New Years Eve day with Deanna and Ollie at Rainbow’s End, thanks to a brilliant Xmas present for the girls from Gran and Pop. It was absolute carnage as the girls and Ollie ran themselves ragged going on all the rides including the space ships, the flying bikes, the sheer drop ride and loads of others. Frankie absolutely loved the Car Wash ride and went on it about 10 times and Scarlett couldn’t get enough of the roller coaster, which she was tall enough to be able to ride by herself, which she was very proud of.
We spent New Years Eve evening at Ruth and Jeff’s place with their awesome friends and family. After a chaotic, fun day with the girls this was the perfect place for us to be for great company, food, laughs, dancing and some questionable bilingual singing – ha ha. Scarlett stayed up until midnight which was a miracle after spending all evening doing cartwheels, so much so that she inspired a cartwheel competition amongst the adults, which could have ended very badly but the standard of which was surprisingly high.
New Years Day was my last full day at home, which we spent doing more things around the house while Linda kept and eye on the kids. Something that seems so trivial but made such a difference to Joan and myself. We had a lovely fish and chips for our dinner before turning in and getting ready to head back to work the next day.
After saying goodbye to the girls at the house Joan and I headed out to the airport and had our now traditional coffee and almond croissant before another now all too familiar farewell. It’s always so hard leaving Joan and the girls but this time was different, I knew that Joan was going to have lots of support and help with the girls while Linda was with us and that the girls were also going to have so much quality time with their Granny, which really is priceless. And then once Linda headed back to Texas it would only be another 6 weeks until I was back again in NZ. It’s never easy leaving but this was as close to being fine with going back as I have ever, and will probably ever be. Ka kite Aotearoa – see you soon.Read more
The Gathering
February 3, 2025 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After a busy few weeks back onsite after the Christmas holidays our department at work scheduled a team building evening to celebrate our recent successes and prepare us for a busy year ahead.
The gathering was held at a really beautiful desert site about 25 minutes from site, slightly inland from where we are on the coast. The site was set up with a traditional Arabic tent , a big central area and a dining area – all really impressive. We were at the base of a huge sand dune/hill that a few of us scrambled our way up and the views across the area were something else.
The scenery is so different to New Zealand, and in a very different way to home, even though its mainly sand, its really quite beautiful.
The evening itself was full of traditional Saudi music, Arabic coffee, sweet black tea, fun games that everyone got involved in and was rounded off with an excellent meal of a whole roasted lamb cooked in the Saudi equivalent of a hangi – it was cooked in a smoky fire pit dug into the sand and covered up. They don’t use sacks soaked in water so the meat is much more roasted than steamed like in a hangi but it was so so good.
I enjoyed the evening a lot and it was a great chance to see more of the Saudi culture first hand. My biggest take away is that is really similar to Maori culture. Many of the Arabic people greet each other with khashm-makh, which is touching of the noses, identical to a hongi. The tent we were in for the gathering reminded me a lot of a wharenui, as you can see in the photos the walls and pillars are decorated with designs that reminded me of tukutuku. The way dinner was cooked and then how important music and singing is in traditional events. The similarities are quite striking.
All in all it was a really great evening and hopefully there will be more to come.Read more
An evening in Souq Waqif
February 5, 2025 in Qatar ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
I have been hanging out to play some golf since I got here and with an eye firmly on my annual trip away with the boys in March I packed up my clubs and jumped on a plane to Doha for a few days of golf and to see the sights.
Doha itself is only slightly larger in area than Hamilton, according to Wikipedia but from my journey in from the airport, the scale of the development that has taken place over the last few years was mind boggling. Dozens of massive skyscrapers, ultra luxurious hotels, a brand new metro system and no less than 8 world class international football stadiums that were built for the 2022 World Cup.
A colleague of mine used to live in Doha and she gave me a really great list of recommendations of things to do and most importantly places to eat and enjoy a drink, so once I got to the hotel and got settled I headed out to explore the city.
I ended up spending most of the first evening and night wandering through Souq Waqif - a beautiful old market area that has been operating for over 100 years. The streets were wide and filled with people and families out and about, eating dinner, drinking coffee and generally just hanging out. After walking through the market and getting my bearings I stopped at a busy corner coffee shop and enjoyed an excellent coffee and a fresh pomegranate juice before making my way to the first recommended restaurant Danat Al Bahar - a BBQ seafood restaurant which sounded right up my alley.
I had the most incredible charcoal BBQ'd whole sea bass covered in an amazing, spicy marinade. A dozen fat juicy prawns swimming in garlic and butter, a side of rice and washed down with large glass of fresh lemon and min juice. It was stunning - can not recommend this place highly enough if you are into seafood.
After the meal I walked through the market and stopped off for some fresh ginger tea on the way back to the metro station.
10/10 first night in DohaRead more
Back on the course
February 6, 2025 in Qatar ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
What better way to spend Waitangi Day than to get up bright and early and head to the golf course. The DP World Tour was in Qatar for the weekend and they were playing at Doha Golf Club so I was stoked that I managed to book a couple of 18 hole rounds, and a 9 hole Par 3 course round on my final night at Education City Golf Club.
The course itself had amazing facilities, as you could expect at a big golf course in the Middle East and I headed to the 1st tee after a session on the range and a few puts and chips.
The course has previously been used for the Qatar Masters and it was a long, tough test from the White tees. More bunkers than I have ever experienced on a course and I managed to find most of them on the first day. Walked off the course with a respectable 33 stableford points after thinking my score of 91 was a disaster - just shows how tough the course itself was and how high the slope and course ratings were (139 and 74.4 for any golf nerds out there).
After going back to the hotel for a swim I headed back into the city on the Metro. My first stop was another of Satie's recommendations, the Tropicana 360 bar on the 48th floor of the Dusit Hotel . The views were incredible and I was lucky enough to get a table right next to the glass balustrade, which was not much good for my fear of heights and it took a while before I was able to actually enjoy the views without my legs turning to jelly. The 3 pints I had while hanging out in this awesome roof top bar tasted like nectar from the gods after being in Saudi for a fair few months now and I left the hotel feeling a little bit squiffy truth be told, and headed back to Souq Waqif for dinner at another highly recommended restaurant.
My dinner at Parisa was every bit as good as I was expecting it to be - traditional Persian food in the most intricately decorated restaurant I have ever been in. My starter was a watermelon and feta cheese salad drizzled in honey and crushed pistachios - amazing. Then my main was a braised lamb shank served on dill and saffron rice - again, it was incredible.
After an awesome, long day of golf, beers and food I waddled my way back to the metro and headed back to the hotel. Another awesome day in a great city so far.Read more
Touristy stuff and some night golf
February 7, 2025 in Qatar ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
After a busy first couple of days in Doha it was time for some touristy things to complete the the short break away form site. I booked in with a local tour company and headed out into the desert with a few others for some desert style tourism. First stop was pretty much right next to a massive oil refinery where we were able to hire dune buggies or quad bikes for a bit of a hoon around the dunes, or so I thought. Turns out if you hire a quad bike you cant actually go into the dunes, which they very conveniently didn't tell me until I had paid. Rookie mistake - never mind. So I spent the next 30 minutes hooning around some flat race track type things, which was OK but next time its dune buggy all the way. From here we stopped a bit further down the road and anyone who wanted to could go on a camel ride, but after doing this in India and it being just about the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done I decided to pass on that. I did get to hold a falcon though which was pretty cool. From here it was on to the main event - the dune bashing. We all strapped in and our awesome drive took us out into the dunes for an hour or so of exhilarating, high speed flying up and down huge sane dunes. It was bloody awesome - such an adrenaline rush. We stopped along the way and took photos at some great viewpoints over the inland sea and ended up at a spot where we got to sandboard down a very small hill, again the sandboarding aspect of the trip was oversold, but it was still great fun. After a quick paddle in the Arabian Gulf we loaded back into the Landcruiser and headed back to the where we had started but this time we went along the the sand flats where we were doing well over 140 kph on hard packed sand, which was another rush. Getting back onto the road again seemed so boring after an awesome first experience of dune bashing.
After getting back to the hotel, having a much needed swim and chilling for a bit I headed back to Education City Golf Club for my first experience of night golf, where I played the floodlit Par 3 course. There was literally no one else on the course so could take my team and play a couple of balls and take a few photos and videos to see how my game was shaping up 6 weeks out from the Taupo lads trip. Great fun playing golf at night watching the ball flight in the floodlights etc - definitely something I'm keen to do more of somewhere down the line.
An excellent last day to finish my time in Qatar - man I loved this city, and will definitely be back. Back to Saudi and to work tomorrow.Read more
Back to work
February 8, 2025 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Back to work unfortunately, head down and tail up until I head home in March
Heading home ... via Taupo
Mar 20–23, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
After another 6 weeks of work, it was finally time to get on the big bird again and head for home. This trip home was all about being at home for Joan's birthday, but a very happy coincidence was that it also meant I could make it to the annual G.Smith Golf Tour , with this year's venue being the spiritual home of the tour, Taupo.
This annual trip has been happening now for 20 years, after a group of us started doing long weekends away while we were in London to play Open venues around the UK, and has now evolved into a full blown 8 v 8 Ryder Cup style long weekend away, with an exceptional group of guys that all met during various stages of university life in Dunedin. Good Guys v Bad Guys are the teams, and The Bad Guys were looking for their first 3peat this year. As a long term #badguyforlife the pressure was on and I had made sure I was as sharp as I could have been while in Saudi spending a couple of hours a week in the sim onsite.
After a 36+ hour travel journey from site we arrived in Taupo and went straight to Taupo Golf Club for our first round. Unsure how I was going to hold together after the travel I managed a solid first round, scoring 35 points and Macca and I lost our match on the 18th hole, so managed to get a decent bed pick on Night 1. My snoring is well documented on these tours so I tactically chose a room that had a double bed and a single bed in it, knowing full well no one would choose the single bed. Everything finally caught up with me around 9pm after a few beers and I was done for Day 1.
Day 2 involved a bus trip to Tokoroa Golf Club, and is now a mixed format day culminating in the last 6 holes basically being all about how many beers you can make your opposition drink by playing well yourself. Ducky and I played pretty well and won all 3 mini matches during the day after Boofa and Flash were pretty badly hungover after getting a good dose of first night fever. More points on the board for the Bad Guys and we went into Day 3 with a good lead.
Day 3 is Championship Saturday and we rolled into the immaculate Wairakei Resort feeling good about the chances for a Bad Guys 3peat. Utah and I played well on the front side and took a commanding lead in the teams match and closed it out early into the back 9, then it all went a bit pear shaped as we both leaked oil coming home and we both lost our singles matches on the 18th. The work had been done by the rest of the guys though and the Bad Guys win was confirmed, which meant another free dinner paid for by the Good Guys.
Another incredible edition of the tour, with a fantastic bunch of guys. A special weekend for me every year and one I look forward to every year.
Next stop was Maraetai though and seeing Joan and the girls which I was so excited about, it was unbelievable.Read more
Home sweet home
Mar 23–Apr 2, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The feeling I get after landing back in NZ after being away and seeing Joan and the girls is one of my absolute favorite things and makes it a little bit easier to be away from them so much. This time was a little bit different after flying back into Auckland from Taupo but every bit as special - I was greeted by the girls with their amazing painted Welcome Home artwork and had a lovely big hug and a few tears before heading to the car and heading home.
This trip home was very much about giving Joan some much needed support with the girls and with life in general. Looking after the kids alone while I have been away is a huge undertaking, which is not easy and it is something I never take for granted so wanted to spend as much time as possible with the girls, while also giving Joan some time to herself.
The day after getting home was Joan's birthday and we managed to book into Advieh in the city for an amazing middle eastern style lunch and a couple of celebratory cocktails. Food was incredible and it was just so nice to be spending time with Joan again. Joan rounded out the afternoon with a massage and I went and picked the girls up from kindy and school, which was perfect.
I also managed to squeeze in an all too brief overnight trip down to Hawke's Bay to see the whanau, which was awesome. Everyone and all the kids came round to Mum and Dads place for a pizza dinner and long overdue catch up. It was just a shame Michelle couldn't make it but she was working. I also found out that my sister Claire and her husband Phillip are expecting their 2nd child, a brother or sister for Audrey, which was so cool.
Joan also surprised me with a half day fishing trip out of Whangamata, which was great despite not having much luck with the actual fishing. Such a beautiful part of the country and our skipper was great, so we will definitely go back and do a full day with him chasing bigger fish next time.
One of the absolute highlights of this trip however was the Maraetai Beach School book week parade. All the kids at Scarlett's school went to school dressed as their favourite characters from their favourite books, so Scarlett went as the witch from Room on the Broom, and looked amazing. The cool thing was the the kindy next door was invited to the parade where all the classes in the school assembled in the school ground and then paraded around so everyone could see their costumes. This meant Frankie could go as well and I volunteered to be a parent helper for the kindy kids because I wasn't missing this for the world. In true Frankie style, she went a little off piste and decided she was going as the tooth fairy, which was super cute. The costumes were all super creative and really impressive, just another reason to love Maraetai Beach School.
In what is now becoming a bit of a family tradition , and after how successful the last time was, we booked into the Cordis for a mini overnight staycation again. We spent our 24 hours in the hotewol (as Frankie calls it) swimming in the roof top pool and spa until we all looked like raisins, chilling in our awesome room, eating afternoon tea in the club lounge, eating ice cream for breakfast and generally just having a blast - the girls absolutely loved it again so looks like we wont be stopping doing this anytime soon, and I'm 100% fine with that. Mum and Dad quite enjoy it too - ha ha
After more time spent at the beach and just hanging out with everyone, my time at home was coming to a close so I took the girls on a special shopping trip to Botany. I then proceeded to get fleeced for the next couple of hours in H&M, Starbucks, KMart and McDonalds but the girls came out with some beautiful clothes and we got to spend some quality time together - it was a blast.
This trip home was an all timer, there are a lot of things I miss while I am away and I got to see, hold, hug and do so many of those things on this trip, which I am so grateful for. Leaving NZ is never easy but my cup was well and truly full after this visit, which does ease the pain a bit.
So after our customary coffee and amazing almond croissant at the airport , Joan and I said farewell yet again and I was off back to Saudi. This part never gets any easier.Read more
Back to work again
April 4, 2025 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ 🌬 28 °C
Back to work again, and counting down to my planned trip to Jordan at the end of the month ... cant wait
Petra ... simply incredible
April 25, 2025 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
I am incredibly grateful for the many opportunities that my stint in Saudi Arabia is going to give Joan, Scarlett, Frankie and myself in the future, what I am also grateful for is the opportunities it is giving me to see things I have only ever dreamed about seeing, and Petra certainly falls into that category .
Joan and I had always talked about going to Petra while we were in London but for one reason or another it never actually happened. So when my colleague Satie suggested a long weekend in Jordan with a trip to Petra at the centre of that trip I could not say no.
We set off Thursday after work and after 7 long hours on the road we crossed the border into Jordan and headed to Aqaba, our base for the next 2 nights. After a much needed sleep and breakfast we were off the next morning on the 2 hour drive to the word renowned, UNESCO heritage site Petra.
After parking at the visitor centre we were approached by a tour guide who offered to take us 20 mins up the road to another of the 3 entry points into Petra, a place called Little Petra - from here we would be dropped off at the start of a trail and hike 90 minutes to the Monastery, the site furthest from the visitor centre and then walk our way back to the car over the course of the day. To be honest I wasn't completely convinced this was the right thing to do at the time, but after our day spent with our amazing tour guide Moath, an official government tour guide, it was 100% the right call and the absolute best way to see all the main sites, plus a good few more that weren't on the main trails. I cant recommend getting a guide highly enough - and for 150 JOD between 4 of us it was really good value too.
The hike up to the Monastery was a good walk, lots of stairs and climbing along the way but given it wasnt too hot yet in April was very manageable - getting a donkey to take you up there is also a good option if you visit and aren't that keen on lots of climbing and hiking.
Getting my first proper glimpse of the Monastery was quite something, I couldn't believe I was there looking at an ancient site that I had only ever seen in movies such as Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade before, it actually made me a bit teary - as I said in some part because I was seeing something I never thought I was going to see but mainly because it made me sad that I didn't have Joan by my side, we have always done these type of bucket list things together and I felt a very long way from Maraetai at that point in time.
After some much needed refreshments we were on our way again walking down the thousands of steps back down to the main valley floor passing some of the most beautiful red sandstone formations you would ever hope to see, past local craftswomen all selling their various trinkets and souvenirs and other things on the way. We also started to see more of the caves, tombs and other rooms carved into the sandstone which were just mind blowing to see. When we picked our tour guide we chose to take the high path tour, which did cost a little bit more, but also meant we got to see some sites many people who visit and stay on the main trail don't get to see, including a number of different temples and churches from the various ages and eras that inhabited Petra - from ancient Nabatean temples to slightly more modern Byzantine churches and everything in between, but the highlight of the high path was going up to the Royal Tombs, and incredible structure carved into the sandstone where a number of the Nabatean rulers were entombed - words fail to do this place justice, but the scale of the place coupled with the age of it just scrambled my brain.
From the high path we also got the most incredible views of the colonnaded avenue, some enormous temple sites, a beautifully preserved amphitheatre, and dozens of intricately carved burial tombs and shrines. It really was quite incredible.
After another short walk up through the valley we got to a point where Moath told us to trust him and to look at the ground and follow him - we walked into what seemed like a clearing in the rock formation and around a corner into what felt like a very closed in quite tight crevass in the rock, which was clearly part of the trail though. He asked us to look up and look at him while he gave us a history lesson on how Petra used to be a centre where traders used to gather and trade before continuing on their ways in their caravans, he also explained how Petra was quite unusual at the time as the Nabateans traded with anyone so everyone was welcome in Petra and there was never usually any trouble. After this history lesson he told us how people would make their way down through the sandstone valley until they reached this point, when they knew they had arrived - he then told us to turn around and we were greeted by the most incredible sight - our first glimpse of the Treasury building through the rock formation ... without a doubt one of the most jaw dropping sites I have ever had the privelege of seeing with my own eyes.
The Treasury is the part of Petra that you see in all the tourist promotional material, but no matter how many times you see a picture of it, nothing really prepares you for seeing it in person for the first time. Truly one of the most majestic, beautiful buildings I have ever seen. The fact that it was carved out of the sandstone just makes it even more amazing. We spent a good 45 mins or so as the light of the day was fading exploring this part of the valley and for me, I just spent lots of time standing marveling at it. We had certainly saved the best until last.
Something that I will never forget and can not wait to bring Joan and the girls to one day so they can experience it too.
After making our way back up and out of the valley and clocking an impressive 25,000 steps for the day we were all knackered and then had to drive the 2 hours back to Aqaba. If we had known what we now known we would have stayed in Petra that night.
After a much needed dinner back in Aqaba we rounded the night off at a bar enjoying just about the most hard earned beers of my life.
An all timer of a day.Read more
A whistlestop tour of Wadi Rum
April 26, 2025 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
After an awesome day in Petra the original plan was that we would get on the road and head back to site the next day, but after a bit of research we decided to go out and take a 2 hour tour around a very small part of another stunning part of the area, and another UNESCO site called Wadi Rum .
The area itself is enormous so a 2 hour tour was very much only an introduction to a stunning part of Jordan where evidence of human habitation can be traced back over 12,000 years. The area is full of ancient carvings and inscriptions on the striking red sandstone formations. Wadi Rum was just on a different scale to Petra - Petra is much more mountainous and full of valleys and peaks, whereas Wadi Rum is made of of absolutely huge sandstone outcrops and massive wide valleys full of rusty looking red sand. Wadi Rum feels like what I imagine it would be like being on Mars, so it is little wonder they have filed Stars Wars movies here.
Our tour guide here was a real let down and was basically just a taxi driver driving us between the 4 different sites we went to.
Wadi Rum was also a base for Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab revolt between 1916 and 1918 and the first stop on our tour was the Lawrence of Arabia springs where T.E Lawrence's troops often congregated and fed and watered themselves using the spring water that comes out of one of the mountains. The spring is still active today and it was cool taking a drink from it given all the history of the site.
Next stop was a bit of a fizzer, a cool rocky outcrop you could scramble up and get great views out over the alien looking red sandy valleys, but not much more so didnt stay there long.
The 3rd stop was to an incredible looking, narrow canyon in between what looked like a mountain that has been split in two. Very cool spot and we had a great time exploring that as far up as we could go.
The highlight of the two hour tour was the fourth and final stop - one of the handful of beautiful, natural stone arch bridge formations that are dotted around the area - a very instagrammable photo opportunity - ha ha. another scramble up a rock formation gets you to the area where the bridge is - I had visions of getting some amazing photos stood proudly on top of the stone arch, but my fear of heights, which I swear is getting worse, got the better of me and I only managed a couple of very hurried photos while my legs were trembling and before long I had to get off the arch.
Somewhere again that I am very keen to get back to some time, the wider Wadi Rum area has a number of fancy campsites and to do all the sights justice you should really spend 2-3 days there, but that was something we just weren't able to do this time, so we got in the car and started the very long journey back to site.
I loved my time in Jordan and it is somewhere I am desperate to come back to with Joan and the girls some day.Read more
Back to work
April 27, 2025 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ 🌬 29 °C
Back to site, head down and working for the next few weeks before heading to Spain for a wedding and then NZ for the school holidays
Snorkelling in the Red Sea
May 17, 2025 in Saudi Arabia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
Given how much I love being on, in and under the sea, and how accessible some of the most pristine reefs and waters in the world are here ,its hard to believe it has taken me 9 months to do some proper marine based activities.
A few of the team went out with the Galaxea team from the Red Sea Global project for a bit of snorkelling on what was the hottest day, by some margin that I've had here - it was 42 degrees on my way down to the boat for the trip and I even heard reports of the mercury hitting 46 degrees during the day in the village.
After a quick trip out from the main site here we arrived at a beautiful reef not far from the Shebara resort and got into the water. The water was crystal clear and lovely and warm. The reef itself was vast and certainly colourful in many places, but there was also a lot of what looked like bleached coral to my untrained eye. We snorkelled over massive, shallow brain coral formations, past enormous giant clams and into the deeper water which contained some massive, deep coral bommy structures which were full of life. We saw 2 eagle rays, 6 or 8 quite large reef sharks and an uncountable number of brightly coloured reef fish.
It was an excellent trip and just what the doctor ordered after what had been a fairly stressful few weeks at work, will certainly make a point of doing these trips again as often as I can.Read more
Escape to the Costa del Sol
Jun 18–20, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
After another long 3 months on site the time has come again to get on the big bird and start the journey home to see Joan and the girls again - this time is slightly different though as I headed for Spain for Hursty and Shemiah’s wedding. Because of the flight times I was only able to get into Malaga 2 days before the wedding direct from Doha, so it would have been rude not to take the opportunity to play a bit of golf and relax for a couple of days. Given Saudi was really warming up a few degrees of respite was going to be amazing, but it was actually hotter in Spain than it was in Saudi when I left, couldn’t believe it – ha ha
After arriving at the hotel, a coupe of lovely ice cold San Miguel’s next to the beach and an amazing steak dinner I hit the pillow pretty exhausted. Next day I was up and at it relatively leisurely before heading out to Calanova Golf Club, for the first of two rounds I had booked through Golfmates Travel (who were excellent to deal with). Calanova was perched up on top of the hills over looking the coast and the course itself covered a huge amount of ground with massive elevation changes – was so glad of the cart I was in, no way you could walk this place. Golf was OK on day 1 and I played with an English couple from Bristol who were really nice. Great to be back on course after not playing any golf since Taupo earlier in the year. That night I wandered into Fuengirola a little bit more and came across a beautiful spanish restaurant in an old paved square with a lovely church in the middle of it where I treated myself to some incredible local seafood and a couple of glasses of Rose to finish the day off.
Day two started bright and early as I had a big day ahead. I had an early tee time at the beautiful Torrequebrada Golf Club, the couple I played with at Calanova had told me that Torrequebrada was on a different level to Calanova, and they weren’t wrong. I really enjoyed Calanova but Torrequebrada stacks up with the best courses I’ve played. The day was made even better by playing with a Danish legend called Kasper who was a member who looked after me and the other guy who played with us like we were long lost friends, not just 2 random golfers he only just met. Golf was pretty solid on this day and shot an 86 which I was very happy with given I had a few blow up holes along the way. After a great clubhouse lunch and an ice cold Cruzcampo I jumped in my hire car and started the next leg of the journey – 2 ½ hours inland to Arcos de la Fronterra and the main event of this part of the journey – the wedding.Read more
Ogeous craic
Jun 20–23, 2025 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C
2 ½ hours after setting off from Torrequebrada I arrived in the stunning Arcos de la Frontera area, the location for Hursty and Shemiah’s wedding. I was staying at the venue up in the very swanky villas next to the main house so after arriving I soon caught up with Dutchy, Cadden and Conks who had taken the very smart option of getting a private taxi from Seville while the rest of the crew battled across from Seville in what sounded like the bus journey from hell. It was so great seeing Dutchy and the rest of the Fermanagh crew again as they slowly filtered in from the bus. An amazing group of friends who I don’t keep in touch with anywhere near as regularly as I should. We spent the rest of the scorching hot afternoon around the pool drinking lovely cold beers and generally having the craic, again something I had no idea how much I had missed, Irish craic just hits different and I missed it so much.
Friday evening we all made our way into Arcos itself, which is a stunning old town, and one of the world renowned Pueblos Blancos, or white villages, perched high on top of a massive bluff overlooking the Andalusian plains full of olive groves, vast fields of blooming sun flowers and citrus orchards – it really was stunning. We spent the evening at the pre wedding dinner catching up with everyone, most of whom I hadn’t seen in years, and just enjoying everyone’s company again. We called it a night fairly sensibly around midnight but apparently the stragglers were out until very late, no point getting first night fever with the wedding the next day.
A leisurely start to Saturday for Dutchy and I as we enjoyed a cooked breakfast and a couple of celebratory glasses of Buckfast to mark the occasion. With the ceremony not starting until 5pm we spent another day lazing around the pool slowly getting through a few cold beers before it was time to get our glad rags on and head to the ceremony. The ceremony itself was amazing and made all the better by the fact that Shemiah’s brother was the celebrant. By this stage though it had to be at least 40 degrees so we were sweating the bit out. Shemiah looked incredible and Hursty actually scrubbed up really well too, definitely the first time I have seen him in a suit though – ha ha.
Following the ceremony we all went down to the main house for hands down the best pre dinner canapes I’ve ever had – I gorged myself on octopus, tacos, these amazing tempura anchovies and pretty much anything else I could get my hands on. The diner itself started at 10pm and the speeches followed before we all hit the dancefloor and I finally dragged myself to bed, as one of the early leavers at 3am – the Irish just do it differently and I was sorely out of practice – ha ha.
Sunday was the pool party day so just for a change we all sat round the pool in the scorching heat again and drank more cold beers and Prosecco to ward off the hangovers from the night before . The day after weddings are always my favourite days of wedding weekends, so much more relaxed and you actually get the chance to chat the bride and groom and just chill for a bit.
It was an absolutely amazing weekend celebrating the marriage of Hursty and Shemiah. I was so thrilled to be invited and so glad I could make it. It was a real shame that Joany couldn’t make it but timings just weren’t on our side for this one unfortunately. I have been to some great weddings over the years but I have to say that apart from our own, of course, this one was by some distance my favourite. Every single person I met over the weekend was lovely and they all felt like friends, even though I had never met them. Seeing the whole Fermanagh crew again especially Hursty, Pandy, Welty, Dutchy, Will and Noelle and the list just goes on and on, was a very needed bit of soul medicine after a testing last 12 months in Saudi away from the people I love the most. I left Arcos and headed for Malaga airport and a reunion in New Zealand with everyone, hung over to pieces but buzzing about the few days I spent in Spain, little did I know what an ordeal was lying ahead of me.Read more