Almost at the end of it...

May the 2nd, almost 4 months after the last post... and so many things happened since then! April was not a good month for me. Between car repairing, theft of my wallet and laptop, it seems that I had my unlucky period. Dealing with the local police was and is still a hardship, when you don't speak the local language. Worse than that, being non Saudi citizen, they just don't care about you. The day when the glass of my car was stolen, after calling the police, they told me that they would certainly help me B U T not before the weekend. Everything happened on a Wednesday night, 11th of April.

That day, I was seriously thinking about taking my car to the workshop.. At last. and so I did, at night I asked my secretary if he would come with me to Thoqbah, a place known to shelter many Yemeni people quite good at repairing cars. We were still at the center, I remembered well that I was holding my laptop case, hesitating whether I would take it with me or not. And finally, after making up my mind, I decided that it with me, how silly. As usual, when I am driving my car, I leave my laptop on the backseat. If I stop by a restaurant to take some food away, I don't move the laptop from its current place, as I just need some 7-10 minutes to have my order ready.. But that night I had it wrong. Back from Thoqbah, I decide to invite my secretary to the restaurant, as he helped me to find the garage and translated everything.

The place where I will leave my car is a busy one. On this big axis called Pepsi Road (as there is the Pepsico factory that provides the whole Eastern region), to see a traffic jam has nothing specially amazing. It crosses the city from West to East, until the beautiful Cornich. So, I will park my car not far from the Steak house, actually opposite to a shop that sells lighting stuff (so, from there one could see my car quite well...).

After parking my car, we will wait a little bit in front of the restaurant. Indeed, at 8 pm, it is the end of Ishaa prayer which is the last in the day... and as you know, all the shops and restaurant are closed during prayer time, locally called "Sala". We will get into the restaurant at 8.05, when one of the filipino waiters that I know quite well, opens the door for us. Pleased to have my secretary as a guest for the first time (li awwal marra) i will suggest him to try anything he wants. He will try this black rock grill, a piece of tender meat on a square volcano stone, warmed up to 450 degrees... so that you can grill it "your way" hehe.

He will be happy of his meal, and so will I. Both of us will get outside the restaurant at 9.45. I will push the button on my key, to open it in the distance and I will sit down. To be sure my stuff is still there, I will turn round and see an empty backseat. Wow. Strange. I was sure I had taken my laptop. Maybe I had left it at the institute. Well. then I will take a glance at the glass, behind the passenger seat. Missing. there won t be any glass any more.

I quickly understood what happened but didn't really understand why. Come on! This is Pepsi road, a large avenue busy at night like at day, how come? We then asked the shoptenders, on the opposite side, if they had seen anything. But they hadn't, or I would say, they refused to talk. Supposed to be lamp and bulb dealers, they remained enable to provide us any light. My friend Ihab joined me, so did the new owner of the restaurant, who assured us that this practice was common, happening periodically. While...

While the police claim the right to be on weekend. I'm not lying. after dialing 999 (like the number of hell, but upside down : I let you visualize the image) a police car came to us, apologized in the name of the thief - which was a nice idea but not my concern at that time. They made the report, took some fingerprints and pictures. Basicallylike the FBI as far as equipment is concerned, but the difference was about credibility. Then they told me : "look. We are on a Wednesday which means that tomorrow [Thursay] and the day after tomorrow, it is the weekend. So please come to the office on Saturday.

What the f### is this, police who don't work on weekends. What I was satisfied about, at that time, is the fact that nothing had happened to me physically because the hospital staff might have answered the same bullshit. Sorry, no intensive cares on THU and FRI. "Come back on SAT", they will say, with a large smile meaning "at last on a weekend!"

If there was a moral to extract out of this story, I would suggest this one. If you really have the desire of getting into trouble, make sure that you are on a worked day : Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays.... from 8 am to 9 pm.

When Bahrain is looking westwards...

Yesterday in Bahrain, there was a sport celebration, "the big event" of this beginning of year on the little island. The national football club, which was founded in 1957, was celebrating its ... errr... ( 2007 minus 1957... equal...) okay, its 50th year. What would have been better than to invite the leader team of the Italian league? Before starting again the championship, the Italian team were having a kind of "resting period" in Middle-East. The Bahraini coach then decided to invite the "Nerazzuri" for a little show. Even though Bahrainis are still developing their economy towards leisure and tourism, they don't have that many opportunities to catch the attention of the countries all around. Once a year, there is the Formula 1 Race at the International Circuit (see pictures of the circuit here), big hotels are being built, a business district as well... Somehow I have the impression they want to compete with Dubai... hopelessly, I think. Someone told me that 70 % of all the cranes in the world are currently located in Dubai. 70 %... it sounded incredible but it's not impossible. Ehm, I think this post was about football...

So, to get back to our initial topic... This match (pictures here and maybe videos one day :p) was interesting. Of course, there was not the least stake (not steack) for any team... However, I would say that the main objective for the Bahraini team was to score at least one goal, "for honor". And they did so, finally there was a difference of only 5 goals! 6-1, and honestly I would have never imagined that Bahrain would score any goal. The Nerazzuri were not even running, I think they were just pretending... except for the goals : the ones Adriano scored were really nice. I also appreciated Figo's game, who was in my opinion "the man of the match" (if we can call this a match). The atmosphere was friendly, the public was cheerful.

But you will ask me "Quid of Materazzi ?". Ehm. I think that he is the most hated player in this professional generation, since the public did not forget this famous episode which happened during the final match of World Cup 2006. Whenever Materazzi was touching the ball, the public were whistling him down... and so was I ;) Honestly, I think wouldn't have replied anything if Materazzi had insulted my mother because this guy is very tall (I would say 1,95m) and quite strong. I guess Zidane knew that Materazzi would not "reply"... That's why the shock was a bit violent :p

That's all about sports for today, we'll open this topic again soon. I hope I will attend this Formula 1 race, on the second Sunday of April. By this time, I consider changing my camera whose pictures are really poor in quality and disappointing...

See youuuuuuuuu

looping on my Poddy

2007..... what's inside?

Where is it? tic tac tic tac tic tac....... BZZZZ!!! no answer... ? Well, this is a nice city where I went three times already, which is neither in Bahrain, neither in Saudi Arabia and not even in France. This city, it's my 2007 project. From now I know what I want to do and where I want to be, right after this Saudi experience, I think my relatives know about my intentions... and I appreciate very much their encouragements. I'm growing with the idea that France is a nice country, seen from outside. And honestly, even though it requires a distance with friends and family, I want to entertain this distance with my homeland... Also and mainly because there is another distance I would like to get rid of. I don't specially believe in the magic of numbers, but if during the year 2007 I manage to fulfill my projects, I might become a bit superstitious ;) And among those "if", "would", "maybe", "probably" and other "hope", I will do my best to find a real way.

Who agrees with me on the fact that 2006 ran very fast...? Actually, time flew. From the beginning of 2006 I remember a very nice new year's party, my research for an internship, this night partying in Lille at Fred's homecity, a pleasant week of rest in April with Aurelija and then... Departure to SA. On the eve of 2006, I never imagined that I would be here one year later, this was not in my plans at all. At that time, I had other expectations which unfortunately failed but I found a personal benefit through that, it taught me that I should prepare myself better before planning anything serious. Now, I have something like 3 months to get myself ready and gather necessary documents for my different applications. I'll also enjoy some 15 days in France in the first half of March to get a bowl of fresh air. Every 3 or4 months spent spent here, you feel that the air is a bit dusty so... what's better than have a break (shall it be short...) and meet again with your family, love and friends? I'm counting days now... But still, I'm not yet nuts enough to display the daily countdown on my MSN nickname. ( "France : 41 days until D-day")..... I also need to refresh my music folders, which are getting even more dusty than the local atmosphere! So this is my official holiday plan for March : 28th Fev - 4 th March in Orleans, 5th March - 16th in Chalon... not without some trips to Paris. We'll see that when time comes.

2007 has just started and it seems very busy already. Let's hope it will indeed, if not exactly as I expect it to be, at least I'd like it to look like this mental picture I have, something that is getting clearer and clearer day after day. But first of all, there is a little mission to finish here in Middle East, and I still enjoy it very much. I think that contrary to many foreigners coming here (i.e. for oil business) my relation to local people is not "client-oriented". I'm not sure that business can lead that easily to friendships, or maybe not as much as cultural exchange is. Even though I would like to do something else in my life than teaching French language all the time, I enjoy very much this position here and I encourage anyone to take any opportunity to come to Middle East. If we grew with the idea that the Western World is ruling everything, we shouldn't forget that interesting things happen Southwards and Eastwards. The best way is not to be stuck on National Geographic channel or read travel books, it's just to go and see it with your own eyes, feel it with your own guts. Yes, I admit, I'm far away from my relatives but I'm sure I'm not wasting my time. I'm almost 25, and I realize there are so many things left to see, and so little time. That's why I want 2007 to be the year of change, the "great bend" : I still want to discover people, cultures, languages ... but this time, "not alone".

Interesting tools...

Today I have been setting-up some tools for my blog that indicate the country from which my visitors come from... and I am very surprized about the results! I was wondering about my visitors from the US, actually. I couldn't find out from where they were exactly... First, I was thinking that as I'm writing the posts from Saudi Arabia, some people would be "interested" in the content of that blog, for any reason. Then I set-up another tool that gives me a geographical position of my visitors (I like this indicator very much) and I realized that they are not all coming from the state of Washington! So I am happy : my American visitors are not all working for the Pentagon! :)

Thanks also to the visitors from other countries, although I have never visited their homeland they give me some ideas for future holidays ;)

Best wishes for 2007!!

Well done! (please)

"Well done" is an expression I use when I go to this Steakhouse restaurant. I like it very much : American atmosphere, which reminds me of "Buffalo Grill" restaurants in France, friendly waiters, and most importantly, great great food. How to say.. The first time I went there, I was looking through the menu and was wondering what I would order. The choice is very wide and many meats (except pork meat of course, which is absolutely prohibited) are proposed... Beef, chicken, turkey, mutton... and also some fish, that I did not try. One feature of my personality is that I am very difficult and conservative about food, no one reading this post can say the contrary : neither the persons who know me well, and even less the people who don't know me :P You might think it's very silly to order a-l-w-a-y-s the same thing in a restaurant. But as far as I am concerned, I am a bit afraid of being disappointed with a changing. I know the value of what I'm ordering and I don't want to change. That's why I always have the same seat and the same dish. From my seat, next to the kitchens, I can see the waiters and cookers running here and there, filling the plates and so on. It is something we don't have in France. When you go to a restaurant there, the kitchens are hidden from the customers. Here it's not, and actually I prefer that.

In August, I decided that I would go to this restaurant once a week, every Wednesday after duty. Now, the waiters know me and know my order. It's like in France, when you've been living in the same town for a couple of years and are used to buy your baguette at the same baker shop, they know your name and your order. However, I don't consider staying here for years of course ;) And I know I will miss this restaurant and its food, for sure.

What is so special about it? That's simple : the quality of meat. In France, you can easily make the difference between the quality of meat that you buy at the supermarket, meat that you buy at the butcher's and meat you eat in a good restaurant. Until I reached Saudi Arabia, the best meat I had ever had was in those "Buffalo Grill" restaurants - even though the quality of their food has been decreasing those last years. To me, it was the highest level, the best taste. But now it's far behind what I experience here. The quality is incredibly good. I asked one manager about the origin of beefs; they are neither from the Gulf nor from Europe, but from Brazil. I was surprized.

I remember that after the affair of "mad cow" in Europe in the mid 90's, the French government had created a kind of "norm" such as ISO9001 but specific about Beef, after they discovered in the "Hard Rock Cafe" restaurant in Paris that they were keeping out-of-date beef meat in the freezers. This "VF norm" (Viande bovine Française) was supposed to "relieve" customers about the quality of meat they were buying. At that time, there was a huge phobia about meat coming from the UK, as if each piece of British cattle was contaminated with this "madness" !! But since that time, there has been a typically French paradox I still cannot understand. The Government insisted on important measures about freshness of meat, health of cattle, better tools to identify the origin of meat.. and in the meantime, quality has been decreasing. I'm not the only one who claim this. Meat is not as good as before, and I don't believe it's because of industrial methods of killing, because they haven't changed for 20 years; I have no clue that could solve this paradox. To conclude about french meat, I would say that such protectionist measures didn't provide us a better quality.. Brazilian beef does taste much better ;)

You may think that I have much time to waste, by writing about food. But if we look well into the topic, it's not just about food. It's generally about the way we (French people) deal with our own national products. It's not only about meat! Look at wine. For many decades now, the French has thought that the quality of their wine had no possible competitor all around the world. Bordeaux and Bourgogne vineyard's owners refuse to accept competition, but it's been there for a long time already. Five years ago, there was a wine worldwide contest. Each country picked its best wine and sent its best experts. Those experts, just by sipping some wine, could tell you about the country, the year, even the type of grape, the region, and many other details (that's why they are called experts :P). During this contest, of course, all the bottles were blindfolded, only 2 or 3 persons actually knew which label corresponded to which bottle. Each bottle had a number. So, after some rounds, the experts unanimously chose one bottle. They were all sure that it was one of the best Bordeaux ever but they were all wrong. It was a wine from Australia. I guess that a little wind of shame was blowing this community of "experts" that day.

So what? what is the relation between this wine contest and the quality of food? This relation can merely be called "illusion". This illusion is founded upon the old reputation of a French style that is nowadays completely obsolete. If French wine used to be the best, some years or decades ago, now the competition about quality is harsh and I have absolutely nothing against this; the instant when you start thinking that you are above any competition because your products have a good reputation, I think you start losing the point. Because in this competition, there are many guys who have enough energy to convince you that your reputation belongs to past. And I'm sure that this French touch already belongs to past....