In the early 1980s one of my previous incarnations lived on an expatriate company compound (International Aeradio Limited, a subsidiary of British Airways) in Jeddah, half way up the Red Sea on the right. It's the seaport and airport for transfer to Mecca for the Muslim world when performing the Hajj so pretty well owes its ugly life to a nearby shrine to a venerated meteorite, 50 miles inland, although it was probably a fishing village before Islam was invented.
In the land of sand, their weekend is Thursday pm and all day Friday, instead of Saturday pm and all day Sunday. This made little or no difference to me, but it meant that Friday was drive-miles-to-the-beach day.
The thing about the Arabs was planning. They (and all their mates, nodnod, winkwink) would buy up patches of desert miles north of the town, put a wall around them and abandon them for several years, waiting for the town outskirts to catch up. The authorities (with their billions in Petro-dollars) would furnish the desert with miles and miles of roads, pavements and streetlights and curious monuments on roundabouts and surround the little walled-off bits of desert, which you can see in these pictures. So if you wanted to get to the beach, you'd have to go a long way past the airport, but at least the roads were good, until you got to the last bit where they'd just dribbled oil (quite cheap there - petrol was 10p per gallon) onto the sand which held it all together enough for a dirt track.
The Americans recommended 29 Palms as a place where whites could go swimming without being surrounded by gawping locals (who aren't allowed to see women not wearing tents): there were indeed several palms with some stumpy ex-palms and good access to the reef, upon which I spent many happy hours collecting shells (I still have them). Every week we'd re-count to see if there really were 29 palms. It wasn't until I visited California/Nevada etc in 1985 that we realised the Yanks had simply named the beach after one of their Air Force Bases. I've had to steal somebody else's pics for this as Grandad still has all my ones. Of course the place has now been overtaken by suburbia and the giant builder machines have torn up the original reef and replaced it with millionaire's mansions.
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Dearest Followers Martin and Zoe are moving house as well! It seems like everyone's doing it.....
My new game at school is with Katelyn, LittleMax, Finlay, Erin ... the usual suspects. I play the golden eagle chick that Katelyn purchased from the shop for £1000. They protect me against Finlay the attacker, Erin is my Grandma, K is the Princess, Max my father. I hold the powerful diamond in the secret pocket under my wing, and my strong claws can pick up rocks and throw them, even though I'm only 2 months old and have to lie on the floor by the shed. Sounds just like the last game, but with extra family relationships.
Due to my awesomeness-iosity in the Gymnastics festival, I was awarded a free taster session in trampolining at Ruby's school. After delivering some highly interesting I'm sure documents to the solicitor, we got there and were greeted by Ruby (helping out) and Kiera (Poppy's friend). I bounced and jumped and straddled and piked and tucked and did some trampolining as well. I shall return.
My new game at school is with Katelyn, LittleMax, Finlay, Erin ... the usual suspects. I play the golden eagle chick that Katelyn purchased from the shop for £1000. They protect me against Finlay the attacker, Erin is my Grandma, K is the Princess, Max my father. I hold the powerful diamond in the secret pocket under my wing, and my strong claws can pick up rocks and throw them, even though I'm only 2 months old and have to lie on the floor by the shed. Sounds just like the last game, but with extra family relationships.
Nice to find this memory . I lived in Jeddah 1984/85 . Visited the Jeddah North Beaches often and even further up the coast there were some fabulous beaches for shell collecting ( mind the Lion fish and the even deadlier spine backed killer
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoying finding this memory, and great to find out the true origin of the name'29 Palms'. My late dad worked on the construction of the Hajj Terminal and we lived in the Hochtief camp from 80-83. From all accounts Friday was the day to head to 29 Palms!
ReplyDeleteWe also lived in the Hochtief Camp from 79-82. Did you join the HT
Delete-school as well? Which class were you in?
This seems to be the place where we spent our fridays in the 80s. I lived as a teenager in an expad company camp, also known as the KAIA Camp (King Abdulazis International Airport Camp, which only recently has been pulled down). I wonder where to find this beach 29Palms nowadays. Maybe it is a kind of red sea resort? Does anyone have an idea how to locate it on the map?
ReplyDeleteRight. If you look on Google Earth you'll see that the Saudi Billionaire developers have radically reshaped the entire area, let alone the coastline. In my original post I said about the forward-thinking property owners walling-off compounds and areas far outside the city limits (at that time) knowing that the boundaries would shift and the land become more valuable as the land around it was developed. Thus, I can't even find the original 29 palm area or the less-frequented beaches to the south of Jeddah (great clamshells to be found if you can swim well) because it's all now been transformed and terraformed by the massive diggers, trawlers and scourers of progress. Yes, Friday was the day to go to the beach because it's Sunday in the Islamic week, but the places we loved as youths have all gone. Geographically they are still there but in their evolved form: they exist only in our memories and 70s-style photos. Similarly, I can't quite locate the zoo outside Al Ain (UAE) and the beaches at Fujairah, Khor Fakkan, Ajman and Sharjah for the same concreted-over reason.
ReplyDeletePersonally I attended boarding school in the UK (Edge Grove, Aldenham, Watford 1977-83) and Merchant Taylors (Harrow-Watford) 1983-88 because my father's company (IAL, Telecomms) was a subsidiary of British Airways so we got 10% flights and subsidised school fees. However, in earlier contracts I did attend the American School Tripoli (Libya) and nursery in Nairobi. Such is the life of the itinerant expat. Best times of my life, wish I could do it all again.
Hey great memory Professor Mungleton, does anyone remember that old derelict / unfinished palace (that's what my dad called it) with a pier jutting out into the red sea, I believe it was on the way to 29 palms. Was great exploring there as a kid. If so, you can still just make out its location on Google earth, was about 32 miles from Jeddah. Are there any photos of it I wonder?? Lived on Saudia compound from 82-85. Plenty of amazing memories. Good days.
ReplyDelete