Yet again, I find myself writing with less than an hour of the day left, with the minutes clocking down towards the point where actually I've not succeeded in completing a post for the day. You'd think that someone whose normal finishing time in the office is 16:00 and with a villa not 5 minutes from that office, might manage to come up with an assortment of words before midnight on a reasonably reliable basis. This is never quite how it pans out though...

1. I don't always get out of the office until later than intended - today was around 16:45
2. I spend some time talking to AM about our respective days
3. I catch up with the personal email
4. I'll sit on the sofa with AM and, as happened this evening, we both doze off for a good half hour or so, arms wrapped around each other
5. then tea has to be made, though I'd be lying if I said I do much of it, though I am capable of it, as AM often reminds me
6. whilst tea is being prepared, I'm trying to do a test install of a piece of open source software on my LAMP server
7. we eat, whilst watching Sky Sports News
8. I'll do a drink
9. Inevitably I'll end up watching CSI with AM, though it seems the most ridiculously signposted stuff imaginable
10. It's now 21:00 and I make my escape
11. I'm back at the PC doing the same install on the new webspace for the forum I'm doing some tech admin stuff for - it works
12. Now I'm doing an FTP download from the old webspace...
13. ...and then uploading the file into the new space
14. AM heads off to bed
15. A tap on the study window tells me I have a visitor - he wants to drop something off with me before he flies back to the UK, and we chat about work for half an hour
16. It's now 23:00 and I've not written, I've not been for a walk, I've not explained to the forum owner what I've been up to

Finally I start this post and I've not a clue what my topic should be - did nothing of note happen today? I'm sure it must have, but it all passed me by in a blur of near frantic effort somewhere along the line. I know, I'll do a list, lists are always a safe bet...

...and waiting, watching the time pass. Quite why I don't know, but it's what I do. It'll do me no good, I know. I'll be a grouch in the morning, I'm a grouch most mornings. I start slow and build throughout the week. Some weeks I may be on top form as early as Monday (our week starts on a Saturday). Tomorrow I don't even have the football to look forward to after work, as there are a bunch of absolutely pointless international friendlies going on. The clock ticks past 23:35 and I study its unerring progress with some detachment, like it somehow doesn't apply to me. Life in Saudi is a constant waiting game; waiting till the the next time you can get out of the place. Unless you're a native, it's unlikely to be a place you'd say you'd emigrate to. The only way to pass the time here is to ignore it and occupy yourself, like here permanently plugged into the internet, gateway to into the real world. It feels difficult to really exist here, it sucks you dry eventually, you forget what it's like to do normal things after a while and once you're out, it takes days to work out where you are. The clock ticks by though and I wonder what sort of husk will be spat out at the end when I finally summon the reserves of courage to leave this place.