h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I should have known I guess! You also put your clocks back soon don't you so the evening's will be shorter. Is it next Sunday?

No, the evenings get longer

That's what I meant! Just a slip of the keyboard! It'll be dark here in just over half an hour's time.

Wow, Which Gulf state are you in?

I work in Dhahran which is on the east coast of Saudi and I have a weekend flat in Manama, Bahrain which is linked by a causeway to the Saudi mainland. It's only a 40 minute drive and Bahrain's much more relaxed, liberal and a nice contrast from Saudi.

You must like it out there

Well yes, I've been in various Gulf locations for most of my life since 1998, so you could say that I like it!
Where are you in the UK?

typo! That should be since 1988 not 1998. God doesn't time fly?

I live in Gosport, just over the harbour from Portsmouth

Ah, my friend and his wife who lived in Twickenham took me to Portsmouth one day about 9 years ago on one of my visits to the UK. It was great weather and we saw Nelson's ship, went to the Naval Museum there and also saw the restoration process of the Mary Rose which fascinated me. All in all it was a nice day out.

When I was at college in the early 1980's I knew a student who came from Portsmouth and he was always going on about Pompei (football team?)
He also always maintained that certain parts of Portmouth were really rough. Now, I come from Birmingham which certainly has rough areas, but I don't know Portsmouth so I don't really know.

Is Gosport a separate town or is it considered part of Portsmouth? The only thing that I think of when Gosport is mentioned is its connection to the military. Does it have any other major industry or is it primarily a Navy place?

Is the Mary Rose still being sprayed like it was when I saw it then?

The Mary Rose is still being sprayed and they reckon they've found more of her in the Solent,

Gosport is still primerily a military town we have 2 navy bases and a military hospital, there is also a boatyard ans a couple of marina's

Pompey is indeed the Portsmouth football club, my and my BF went to the promotion party 2 years ago 30,000 people turned up on Southsea common to see the team and the D1 trophy, not bad for a 'local' club

There are rough parts of Portsmouth, Paulsgrove and Cosham and the roughest parts with Fratton coming a close 3rd

I also used to work at Twickenham Rugby Ground on match days, I know Twickenham really well

Isn't it a small world? Fancy you knowing Twickenham! My friend and his wife used to live in Lion Rd. which is very near to the Rugby ground.

Is everything getting christmasy? (shops etc) or maybe halloween is celebrated now, (never was when I was a kid). Also you've got bonfire night coming up soon. From what I hear people can buy and let off fireworks at any time of the year now. Lots of people with pets don't like it as they say they get really frightened.

Here it's starting to get cooler, the summer's finished thank God as it can be like an inferno here at times. The winter months though are magic. Apart from the trouble over the border in Iraq and some trouble here in Saudi in the last year, things aren't too bad.You do feel a bit tense sometimes but I remember things like IRA bombs in Birmingham and other mainland targets in the late 70's. You don't cower and stay in your house all the time, you have to get on with life.

The xmas stuff has been in the shops since before the kids went back to school

It must be worrying living so close to the 'action'

I lived in London for many years during the IRA's mainland campagn and the British resolve was that no way were they going to win no terrorist was going to frighten us into submission, I'm been trying to explain this to some American's for weeks

Well we're approximately 400 miles from the Iraqi border and about 600 miles from Baghdad so there's a fair bit of desert between here and there. Having said that, earlier in the year some extremists dragged out and killed about 20+ folk from a compound less than 5 miles from where I live.You just have to be reasonably careful and alert but you carry on. Your number's up one day somewhere, somehow. I don't want to go just yet though!

Well we're into the second week of Ramadam so the days are very quiet here at the moment. Next week I'll go to my Bahrain flat for the weekend. There you can legally buy alcohol and pork (a no no here in Saudi) so I'll be having some nice piggy and some beer and bubbly. That's the saving grace of working in this part of Saudi, it's easy to get out of it at the weekend!

It's an absolutely beautiful morning here, sun out, not too hot, YES!

The old song "They can't take that away from me." comes to mind!

It's cold wet and windy here, it has been for about a week now, but the summers down here are usually very nice and the beach is a bus ride away

I guess it must be nice in the summer and you're lucky to have a beach not too far away. Do you get a noticeable increase in tourists in the summer? Is it ever a bother or problem?

No we very rarely get tourists, they go for Brighton, Littlehampton etc, the nearest the tourists come is Southsea, we get the odd day tripper