校园夜景

Took these night photos at around 10:30pm on my way home from office.

[Above] The administration building or building 16. The cylindrical colomn is where the entrances are.

[Below] Library is the dual coloured building on the left hand side. the green colour building houses 2 lifts. It changes colour to blue, red etc. at night. The lifts will descend from this level 2 platform to level 0 where the Diner cafeteria is. Guess what? There is no level 1.

See, now it changes from green colour to blue colour.

The library building at different perspective angle.

Walking pass the building towards the other end, you will pass through the inner corridor of the office building. There is no lack of the water element - you will see pools and fountains everywhere.

Now, I am leaving the office building and walking towards the campus central area.

The right hand side is where Tamimi grocery market is. The left hand side is the Discovery square. Notice the mosque at the far end.

Presenting.......the Discovery square where you have the open air area for movie screening, restaurants, SAMBA bank, post-office, and the Tamimi grocery market.

Well, you only have 小猫三两只 at this moment。

The largest mosque in campus - well, there are a total of two mosques in the whole campus.

My unit is just another 5-10 minutes walking distance away. Just walk straight ahead after seeing the mosque, cross a short bridge, and then turn right at the first cross junction. See ya and good night!

家与国花

门前右院不久前移植了数颗木槿，过不久就开了数朵红花。普通的热带花竟然也带来了悄悄的喜悦。

Had dinner at 6:30pm.

Fruits vendor appeared at Discovery Center.

I bought plenty of apples for 10 riyals. Sweet and delicious.

i5038 two-room town-house

A guest room.

A standing lamp taken out from the master bedroom; there simply too many lamps in the master room. Open the door behind the standing lamp, and you will see a water heater tank. Besides the tank, there is a ladder leading towards the roof top.

Staircase.

That's the front door.

Walk down the staircase and then turn 180 degree to get to the front door. Enter the kitchen through the door on the right hand side that is besides the oval mirror. Walk straight to enter the dining cum living room; dining area on the right hand side while living room is on the left hand side.

I am standing at the dining area and looking towards the kitchen. The maid's room is at the far end. That will be my reading room eventually.

Living room - I have shifted the furnitures substantially. The three-seater was originally just below the painting while the two-seater was originally positioned at where the three-seater is located now.

Malaysia consulate general, and Crowne Plaza Hotel Jeddah

Visited Jeddah again to take passport sized photo, renew my passport, and to check out from the hotel I stayed.

Experienced rubber time waiting outside the Kodak photo studio located at one of the shopping center - the studio opened one hour late though all other shop lots opened on time. Another Filipino waited outside and we had a good chat

There is a mosque across the street - marvel the architecture!

Next destination - Malaysia consulate general - kibarkanlah panji kebesaran mu!

I then took a taxi to a nearby SAMBA before walking back to Crowne Plaza Hotel. Wanted to get my ATM card at SAMBA bank but the machine that makes the ATM card broke down. So I will have no ATM card, and therefore will not be able to activate my online banking facility. Decided to wait for the opening of the campus branch to get my ATM card.

Took some photos as I walked along a main street towards the hotel.

You can order your flight ticket here or get a postpaid / prepaid SIM card or even buy jewelery in this building.

Bin Dawood is a chain-store, much like Giant or WalMart. The other chains are Panda and Danube. So remember that it is everywhere. Similarly, take note of "international market" - there are many. You got to tell a taxi driver which one, for example Heera International Market. Well, most taxi driver speak very little english - almost having communication breakdown. So keep it precise and short.

Time for a good rest before dinner.

Tamimi minimart

KAUST community members will be able to buy groceries at the Tamimi Markets. It sells a variety of things and you should be able to find most of the things you want if you don't intend to cook. If otherwise, well, perhaps you just have to wait for the soon to be opened megamart.

I was given a two 150 riyals (equivalent to about 300 ringgit) KAUST voucher upon receiving the keys four days ago as part of the family benefit after relocation. Decided to spend them buying groceries at the minimart, and here's the item-list:

1 can of Bumble-bee baby clam for 10.50

6 cans of tuna fish (three types) for 6.50 or 11.75 per can

1 can of Starkist tuna fillet for 16.50

2 cans mixed vegetable soup for 23.90

2 boxes of Dole raisins for 37.90

1 box of 50 Nescafe coffee sachets for 19.50

1 bottle of Hints instant coffee powder for 23.95

2 cans of Bonny evaporated milk for 5.00

2 boxes of Twinning peppermint tea sachets for 11.50

1 G/ Works toilet bowl cleaner for 16.95

1 DAC classic disinfectant (for mobbing the floor) for 9.95

1 lemon-mint dish washer concentrate for 11.75

1 O'cedar corn broom for 49.25

1 O'Ceder toilet bowl brush for 11.50

1 pack of SFWY Clean-all sponge for 4.25

NETT price = 299.90

搬到 i5038 的第一杯 Qahwa

阿拉伯词 Qahwa 即是咖啡也！这是我今天在客厅 bar top 的早餐饮料，外加两片巧克力即了事。

昨天到 Early Childhood Center 1 的 housing office 领取门牌号码 i5038 的钥匙后，当晚就找陈涛帮忙把我所有行李从他家搬到我家里。接下来可忙了；打扫，抹地，清洗冲凉房。之后就洗澡，休息，睡觉。累！

分配到的是双层排屋。房子门面以米黄色为主，室内装饰，如挂图和镜子说是属 Italian style 的。房间很宽敞，感觉很舒服。万分感恩！

今日努力耕耘，方有他日的收获。今天终於settle down了, 当下得与时间竞争，把握机会更上一层楼，一步到位。

将在校园渡过第一个週末

At last I get to spend my Thursday and Friday weekends in the campus. I will still be staying with my friend - well, just for another 1-2 days. But I do felt a sense of relieve, and captured a "Friday eve" mood. But then the sub-conscious mind begin to send disturbing signals to me, and the word Friday keep projecting in my mind to alert me about the perceived inconsistency of having "Friday eve" mood on Wednesday night.

So, in the next couple of weeks before I update my sub-conscious mind's programme, when I say Friday night, I could actually mean Wednesday night. For the same reason, when I say Saturday, I may actually be referring to Thursday. Ha!

风沙舞大地 versus 晨雾罩渡娃

Mini-sandstorm pictures:

[Above] The compound near campus.

[Below] Outside Early Childhood Center 1

风沙舞大地 There is a mini sand "storm" near noon time for about 1-2 hours. I was out there viewing my accomodation and there is fine sand in my mouth. I was told that this is a typical thing in the winter season. Therefore there is a reason why Arab's costume is design in such way that it will covers the head to shield you from intense sunlight and also be able to filter fine sand if your just cover your face with the head-gear.

晨雾罩渡娃 I experience another weather phenomenon yesterday her in Thuwal. I woke up at about 6am yesterday and the whole campus was infiltrated by the fog army. You will be fascinated by the tiny water droplets that floats in the air and the morning breeze then sways them from side to side over the backdrop of the rising sun. Visibility is low and the mosque become a great landmark to guide my journey to my office.

[Below] Foggy scenes at Harbour Garden, near unit G3976:

[Below] Sunrise and foggy scene in the school compound:

通知书 - ”吉达“（Jiddah 或 Jeddah）搬到 “渡娃” （Thuwal）

你们好！我刚收到校方的电邮，通知我可以办手序搬到校内了。因此大概多一周就可以从”吉达“（Jiddah 或 Jeddah）搬到 “渡娃” （Thuwal）。

The Chinese verse and caligraphy

Oct 9, 2009

I really like the chinese verse and the chinese calligraphy shown in the above. Looking at the verse definitely help imprinting in my subconscious mind that I should stay focus on my long term plan and objectives - things will fall in place as I move forward, one steady step at a time.

One day tour in Jeddah

Oct 8, 2009

I am lucky today as a Portugese friend, Andre, get me into speed at Jeddah. We spent almost 10 hours touring the city today after breakfast a 9:30am. I felt that I am ready to blend in as a Jeddah resident after the tour.

Balad (old Jeddah city) tour is a must to get a glimpse of the ancient architecture and artifacts of Arab. The word old is relative but is definitely older than hundreds of years I presume. Apparently there are no active effort to preserve them, probably because there is no intention to make this city a tourists' attraction. Why do that, when the sole purpose for millions of pilgrims arriving in Jeddah is for umrah and haj. Then perhaps they will also paying homage to the two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Medinah.

I did the walking and photo snapping under the scorching sunlight. Its fun to experience the Arabic culture, past and present, but next time I will remember to wear a cap to shield myself from the heat, just like what Andre did!

Present living is something that a new visitor like me should experience. For that, we visited the fish market at the Balad, and then walk some distance to the Balad. We also took a taxi to somewhere for local food, and then took another two separate taxi trips to visit the Red Sea Mall, and a chain bookstore nearby Sari road. Of course, we participated in the taxi fare negotiations.

I took more than 100 photos, an here's some of them.

Fish market - the entrance

Slipper losters.

Fishes

Crabs

Men in action at the fish market.

Ships basking under the sun.

Walking along the river leading towards Balad (the old Jeddah).

You will find this in Balad.

Traditional artifact.

More traditional artifact.

Walking through the zig-zag roads in Balad, I stumbled upon this "ruins".

Old building constrasted by a modern hotel building at the background.

His majesty the guardian of the two holy mosques King Abdullah and other nobles.

Modern laundry in an old house.

Soothing street view in Balad.

A mosque.

An intricate piece of work.

Another street view.

Ancient city gate?

Any gift for the young ones?

Ancient gate standing in middle of the road in the old city of Balad,

A bank.

Cooling breeze combing this part of the street.

Merchandise.

Took a taxi to the Red Sea Mall.

An advertisement in the mall.

Sesame street in Arabic.

Sale alert!

Buy! Buy!

Adidas.

Will try this shop next time.

Or was it me?