It's becoming clearer to me that I need to keep my Moleskine closer to hand these days - normally it sits in my camera bag, which doubles as my air travel carry-on (you can get loads in it, but it weighs a ton). Too often, these days I find myself thinking of the perfect little word confection to tempt you with, only to find that by the time I'm anywhere near the keyboard, other distractions have torn the thought away like a breeze through an autumn branch. Something else I've noticed, is how many of these thoughts I've accumulated recently. Not too sure why, but more things occur that might be fitting matter for these parts.

I wonder, would you have me describe what I see in this part of the world? Would it be too dull for your tastes perhaps, it's generally too dull for mine, but then I may have been here too long. You however are unlikely ever to see what I see. Do you need to know about the highway along which regularly traipse an endless stream of 4x4's and fuel wagons? If the sky were blue, I'd tell you, but as always, it's shrouded in a fine mist of dust particles which smother and ingratiate their way into everything - Johnson's will never go out of business here. It's a little on the breezy side today, which means an extra helping of dust is to be served up to us.

For the most part you know, Saudi Arabia is not a very exciting place. It lacks cinemas (see earlier post regarding my views on film watching), it's often too hot to be outside, did I mention the dust? It hosts a plethora of shopping centres (Mall's for the 'Muricans), but these are usually home to endless numbers of womens and childrens clothing shops, plus the obligatory fast food joints. Book shops, hifi stores, bars, music stores and much else of any interest are absent, at least from MallWorld. You can find stuff of course, but the chances are that it will be out of the way, poorly stocked, or closed for prayer when you get there. This is not a place to inspire passion in your soul, but then again if you were to judge by the exploding population of the country, then perhaps that's about all it does.