20140703 Ramadan

It is Ramadan. This is a month of daily cycles of fasting and gorging. Tensions from this daily cycles are something to behold, and a lot of things seem to go wrong.

The bus drivers all suddenly seemed to have lost the plot. Schedules changed and confused everybody. I had to put the gloves on with the bus supervisor to convince him that eight of us were NOT walking home in 120F temperatures, and he had better reroute the bus to its normal routine. It took 20 minutes, and we had to tell the driver how to get there! The mail centre closed the consultants' mailboxes due to an admin SNAFU, and they wanted approval from a VP to get them reinstated.

Everything seems more insane than normal. For example, I went to a restaurant last night for their advertised Wednesday night BBQ chicken. Got there right at 6:30 and they had run out; or there was no toilet paper replaced in my room, but extra bath towels showed up.

We are not allowed to eat or drink at our desks, not even chew gum or sip water. I am getting used to it. In addition, our toilets are all locked up on three floors due to low water pressure, so I have 100+ steps down then up to get to the one and only loo open in the basement. I asked the cleaning supervisor today for a can of air freshener for the ladies loo, since three floors of toilets are out of order, and the lower floor is doing a better than usual business... It took a few minutes of subtle, rising to sledgehammer-level negotiation to get the can of "AsiaFresh".

Every morning it starts off predawn at 100 F which is 38C, and it climbs from there. It's quite bearable when the desert wind blows, but when the wind shifts and comes from the Gulf there is 90% humidity and everyone is dripping wet. Unfortunately for me, I have a highly efficient, hound-like sense of smell...

Taking it in stride and trying to find the humor in what sometimes seems like utter insanity and ineptitude. Think I will have a quiet weekend and curl up with a book. All the best from the desert.

Wee Shufti