All is available in portable accommodation

Looking for building materials in the store building is not as easy as imagined. Because not all stores have a full inventory in bulk. And to build a very tall buildings, which is an indispensable ingredient. Is not possible if you have to move around the shop. a portable cabins provide the best solution for it. There is a number of buildings providing you want.

Hiring: Level Designer Wanted

Frictional Games, the creators of Amnesia and Penumbra series, seeks a Level Designer for a new game project. Taking what we learned from our previous Games we aim to take horror and interactive story-telling to the next level. We are looking for a talented individual to help us design and implement this vision.

Choose The Right Portable Accommodation

Today, with an increasing number of classes, the separation of the age groups and a growing number of disciplines in the curriculum, many schools have begun to consider to make a portable building as a way to get more space and better resources. Portable classroom has been used for many years in schools across the country and has proved very popular with students who like adventure leaving primary school building for classes! There are a lot of portable buildings on the market and the beauty of this structure does not require planning permission and can be built in a few hours, it is very easy and can be moved immediately. You can adjust the size and configuration of the building and user-defined functions, such as lighting, heating, and even drinking water systems. Are you a new set of portable buildings for a new lesson, or just need more input from students this year, so you can create a series of buildings to be installed on the site. When choosing a mobile classroom tips are available, and you need the right size and features to suit your needs and the space you have to be fair. Portable buildings at many schools are located on the edge of a park or sports field. It's often the only place where the school requires free building, but the good news is that this building can be built on any solid surface, giving you the freedom to plan their lessons and put their classroom if needed. While some portable buildings designed as a temporary structure. The nature and style of the building, they would take many years new classrooms will be built carefully by the installer with years of experience in the installation and configuration of mobile buildings. These buildings offer great flexibility and are ideal if you use a large building in other areas of the school, you can take classes on a regular basis without interruption. Also ideal as an office building and come in a variety of floor plans. You can learn more about building mobile online on the internet, which is available in multiple sites such as the site http://cabins4hire.co.uk there. This site serves a range of accommodation There are other types of portable accommodation available such as portable toilets, changing rooms and toilets, which can be placed in the area of ​​your choice. Everything you need will be provided, and you can choose from a variety of configurations to suit your needs and availability of your shopping budget.

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Sell Your House Fast With Cash Buyer Services!

There can be so many reasons why you would want to sell your current home. Moving out to a bigger place, for extending your family, or facing a bitter divorce war with your spouse or partner are only the few more obvious ones. You would want to do away with your joint property at the earliest so that you the memories of togetherness do not sting you forever. This is why you would want to sell it off as soon as possible. There might even be other reasons such as bankruptcy, renovation, or simply getting bored of your current home! These are the situations when would want your home to be sold at the earliest possible, and that to at a good price. Would it not be great if you could sell your homes on cash and receive maximum cost for it at the same time? Would it not be nice if you did not have to wait for the bank formalities before you can receive money in return for the home sold? These days there are excellent services for selling homes on cash. There are a number of firms and individual dealers that offer to sell Long Island homes fast and that too at cash. You can easily choose a wise partner who would help you sell your property at very good returns without having to go through any legal formalities for it. When you need to sell your house fast, all you need to do is consult such a firm, which will help you find a customer, and then get you the maximum benefit out of the deal as well. Will this not only save you a lot of hassle and confusion, but also make sure that you get the best deal possible. Some of the firms such services are as old as a several decades and have very good experience in this field. This makes it possible for them to single out the best possible offers for you to sell your home, without having to worry about anything. What is more is that if you even know someone who wants to sell a home and get in contact with such a firm, they might even give you a handsome amount as the finder’s fee, adding to your benefits. Researching before deciding upon which firm you can trust in this league is essential so that you do not land up with cheats.

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Welcome To The World Little Prince!

We were blessed with a healthy baby boy a week ago. Everything went well with the labor this time and we had a beautiful all natural birth experience. I could not have done it without the support of my husband! It was the most amazing experience of my life. We are so proud of our little peanut. His birth weight was 4 kg and he was 53 cm long like a Viking!

The little man is keeping us very busy and eating non-stop so I will probably not be able to blog much in the near future from this milk monsters demands :)

The hospital we went to is a large private hospital in the center of Riyadh. The reason we went there was actually to be able to do the labor with a western midwife, not a doctor and thus have a better chance for a more natural birthing experience. Because my first delivery ended up in an emergency cesarean section also here in Riyadh, we were hopeful to have a VBAC this time. I had been told by all the obgynes I had seen (there were over 15 in different hospitals) for the entire nine months that this would be practically impossible. These physicians only discouraged me and pushed me for another c-section that I had lost most hope to actually succeed in avoiding another c-section.

Birthing in Saudi has become such a business it's actually sad to see how far people have gone. Many if not most of women going to private hospitals are now opting for elective c-sections. Having experienced both a natural birth and a c-section, I cannot fathom how anyone would choose to have the surgery. It is simply a nightmare to recover from and is a huge risk as surgery always is both to the mothers and the babies. The c-section rate in Saudi-Arabia is very high, one of the highest in the world.

All this laboring business has somehow become about making the delivery most convenient for the mothers (although I still don't see how major abdominal surgery would be convenient for anyone). Nothing about child birth seems to be natural anymore, it's all about getting the baby out as "easy" as possible with least damage down there to the woman and then after the birth going overboard and showing off. Many Saudi women are so concerned that their husbands would take a second wife if they get damaged from childbirth and this is even openly discussed among women here which came as a surprise to me.

I was shocked how the hospital was offering all sorts of "vanity" services to mothers who have just delivered, as if the baby itself is secondary importance. Most important thing here seems to be looks. The hospital catalog was more like a five star hotel directory. The services on offer tell a lot about the priorities of women giving birth nowadays.

Where are the breast feeding support services and lactation consultants? How about nutrition and exercise support and advice? Which of these services actually support bonding of a healthy mother and a baby? The sad truth is breast feeding is not at all encouraged and all newborns will be offered formula from day one unless the parents specifically refuse it. Infants will spend most of their time in the nursery where nurses change diapers and give formula, then bring the tightly swaddled babies to the rooms for viewing.

We were told by the pediatrician that our baby was in fact starving and NEEDED formula. Unbelievable. How did the human race survive I wonder? And for the record our baby has gained 200 grams in just six days on breastmilk only, despite the fact that infants normally LOOSE weight for the first two weeks.

Only in Saudi? In room maids and private nurses so that mothers don't have to "lift a finger".

The most shocking service to me was the piercing of the newborn babies ears. In my country it's simply not common at all and girls get ears pierced at the around the same time they would start doing other "beautification" such as wearing make-up. So to me piercing a babies ears has always been strange but I understand that it's a cultural thing. To do it on the first days..and while the baby is sleeping? As if they want to say it will not wake up to this? Quite frankly in Finland this would be categorized as child abuse.

I'm all for women being able to look and feel beautiful after delivery and it surely makes us feel better after all those 9 months of feeling bloated and what else..But maybe this is going a bit overboard..This is not Oscar night, it's a special time with your baby..

The price of this service is mind blowing. 5200SAR for room decorations! For the love of God I don't see the point. Even if you swim in money, it's just too much. I would like to see how the beds are decorated with crystals and lights though, it must look like a spaceship.

And after they are done entertaining the guests for a good 4-6 days..How to get all this stuff out of the hospital?? Answer: Hire a TRUCK.

My husband had ordered these balloons for me. Now in Finland people would probably laugh their butts off if they saw someone bring all these balloons to the hospital, but in Saudi these are actually quite modest.

And now I'm off to feed our little prince again!

InterNations Expat Community

In case you haven't heard of them, InterNations is a very useful site aimed for expatriates to share information, network, meet other expatriates and find interesting places and things to do. They require you to request for an invitation to join and you can do it for free here: http://www.internations.org/saudi-arabia-expats

Blue Abaya is one of the InterNations recommended expat blogs and I did a short interview with them some while ago which you can read on the site as well.

-   Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Who you are, where you come from, when you moved to Saudi Arabia, etc. 

I'm a Finnish medical professional who moved to Saudi-Arabia four years ago for a position in a large government hospital. Originally the plan was to come for one year and then go back home, but you never know where life will lead you!

-    When and why did you decide to start blogging about your experiences?

I actually started a blog about Saudi when I moved but I only wrote a few times and then deleted it because I simply did not have the time. I started again after my life had settled a bit from the hectic first two years. After reading so many negative and biased views from other blogs, I wanted to write about Saudi in a more light hearted but also realistic perspective and to help expats find activities around the Kingdom. Having a Saudi husband gives me a special insight into both the local and the expat life of the Kingdom.

-      Do you have any favorite blog entries of yours?

I like some posts about Saudis as patients most and then the cultural comparisons of the Finns and the Saudis J

-     Tell us about the ways your new life in Riyadh differs from that back home. Did you have trouble getting used to the new circumstances? Did you experience culture shock?

Oh it differs a lot of course! There are some things that are better now, some worse like the obvious no driving for women. I find the relaxed pace of life here is more suitable for my nature and I love the weather (except sandstorms!).

Everyone experiences culture shock; people just go through it differently. I think I had an easier time than many because I had previously lived and worked abroad and was used to scenery changes since childhood.  My culture shock presented itself as an unexplained anxiety and restlessness which I treated by keeping myself active and making many friends as well as getting to know and understand the local culture better.

-    Do you think you were fully prepared for what awaited you in Saudi Arabia? If you could, would you change some decisions/preparations you made?

I think I was fairly well prepared, but could have read up more on the local customs and culture and especially religion before coming! I was in the impression that the hospital's three week orientation program would prepare us but I was very wrong! Knowing just the basics of Islam I think should be included in the orientation especially the medical professionals would benefit from it greatly and it would prevent many misunderstandings from occurring.

-      Every expat knows that expat life comes with some hilarious anecdotes and funny experiences. Care to share one with us?

Oh there are so many stories! I think some of the funniest happened with patients and lack of understandings of each other's cultures. Bedouin patients would be among the funniest because their style of life is just so different from ours. I have many such experiences on the blog J

-      Which three tips would you like to give future expats before they embark on their new life in Saudi Arabia?

-Keep your mind open, try to take things with a dash of humor and surround yourself with positive people.

-Try and find out as much as you can about local customs and culture before you come and once you're here, ask the locals and get to know them. Don't get stuck in the closed (minded) expats circles only.

- Keep in mind that although this is a Muslim country not everything you see around you is from Islam. Don't judge the book by its covers or the religion by some of its followers. Always try to find out for yourself and don't listen to or believe in the rumor mills.

  

-     How is the expat community in Riyadh? Did you have a hard time finding like-minded people or fellow expats?

The expat community is very lively and there are many different nationalities. Unfortunately some nationalities prefer to only socialize with their "own kind" and sometimes very tight knit groups form. Saudi has the tendency to make people very patriotic and unfortunately some become extremely negative of the host country.

Some western expats that live in closed compounds hardly ever interact with other nationalities let alone locals which is a shame.

There are of course many like-minded expats out there who have no problems making friends across borders and religions which makes Saudi-Arabia such an amazing place to make new friends. I have made true friends from around the world here and am truly grateful for that. It was one of the reasons I came here!

-      How would you summarize your expat life in Saudi Arabia in a single, catchy sentence?

Life in the Magic Kingdom is full of surprising adventures and undiscovered beauty for those who seek them!

Saudi IKEA's Misogynistic Madness

I might have gotten out of bed with the wrong foot as we say in Finland, but I noticed something so disturbing today that I just HAD to rant a little bit about it. I mean this is complete and utter madness. So Dumb. Disturbs me what kind of sickos and women haters are out there.

This is the source of my headache, an article in the Swedish Metro magazine this morning: http://www.metro.se/nyheter/kvinnor-gar-inte-att-retuschera-bort/EVHlja!2mPseJ6LPTrK2/
So the new IKEA catalogs are out and can be viewed online at their site www.ikea.com.
All the countries have pretty much the same stuff on offer and the catalogs look the same. Except for of course Saudi-Arabia, the so called model country of Islam.

What's different in the Saudi IKEA catalog then? Can anyone take a wild guess?
They censored it. ALL THE IMAGES OF WOMEN have magically disappeared from the Saudi version. A misogynistic airbrusher has vandalized the entire catalog.

You might have seen how they censor stuff in Saudi-Arabia before, like blacking out half clad women from the swimming pool packages or placing white tape on celebrity decolletages, drawing imaginary black leggings and T-shirts on women in the women's magazines or spray painting the bare skin parts black. Heck they even black out the word PORK from food items.

I can understand why some of the censoring is done in Saudi-Arabia if I really really try hard to block most of my brain activity while at the same placing my head in a very narrow tunnel. But people, this is a furniture catalog, OK? Who the hell needs to censor a furniture catalog anyways?

Take a tour of the Saudisized IKEA here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/2012/02/saudi-ikea-experience.html
The censorship at the actual Riyadh IKEA store has always creeped me out. Check this out:

 What on earth was going on in their minds when they decided to do that? It's just the babies mother for God's sake!

How about this? The woman is fully covered! Looks like someone has some serious issues with women.

As a woman I find this highly offensive and insulting. This must also be the height of hypocrisy. I wonder how many of the men responsible for this stupidity have maids (as in unrelated females) living in their houses? I would guess 99%.

What is the point to remove all the women from the Saudi catalog? Women do exist. What are these misogynist men trying to accomplish by this, trying to imagine women don't exist? Do they not watch the news or TV at all? Do they not go to malls or grocery stores? Images of women are everywhere in Saudi-Arabia! Heck there is even REAL uncovered women out there on the streets of the conservative capital Riyadh. Should they be blocked from public view too? Even the women's magazines that are allowed in the Magic Kingdom are not censored like this. So why IKEA?

I wonder how IKEA as a Scandinavian company is even agreeing to this. Sweden is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. What a mockery this is to equality of women. This is oppression of women. What an absolute shame and disgrace that is going on with Saudi IKEA. I feel insulted as a Scandinavian. As if the women are indecent or shameful and thus needed to be removed. These are normal everyday images of women, of mothers with children in their homes, not of women posing in sexy positions in bikinis or miniskirts.

What do these people think, that Saudi men can't handle a few images of mostly fully clad women? Are Saudi men expected to be so sex deprived they would go crazy to see these tempting Swedish women? Do these perverted minds assume all men think like them and would take the magazine into the bathroom for some "private viewing"? How disgusting. Is someone out there really this sick? For the life of me I can't understand what is wrong with this picture of a family brushing their teeth together:

And in the Saudi version the mother has disappeared. I find this very sad that someone thought she needed to be removed. What kind sick minds are these?

This is the scene from the normal catalog kitchen section, the screen shot taken from the UAE catalog. How are the UAE men able to handle the images of women btw?

You would think that women naturally appear in the kitchens right? Not in Saudi! They also removed the man though. But hey, by taking a closer look we can see the woman looks Asian. Wouldn't this be a scene from a typical Saudi home then? An unrelated, uncovered Asian woman working in the kitchen, mixing with the Saudi males of the family. Why is it totally fine in the home but not in the catalog? Can anyone say double standards?
Maybe they removed the guy too so that Saudi women don't get any ideas of hiring male maids! God forbid an unrelated male mixing with Saudi women. What would the world turn into.

Another image from the real world. A family cooking happily together, father, grandfather, mother, children all joyfully together. What is so wrong with this image that Saudi-Arabia can't handle it?

First of all scenes like this just don't exist in Saudi homes. Better to remove the grandpa (although he looks culturally acceptable with his muttawa-look) and the father so that Saudi women won't get any ideas in their heads that men do actually cook in countries like Sweden and thus become too demanding on the Saudi men. The woman is dressed so indecently that she needs to be removed straight away. The kids `re helping to set up the table. What! Helping?? Where is the maid? Totally unacceptable to make children to do housework. This is what it should look like:

Except that the magic deleting wand forgot the wine bottle on the table. What a horrific mistake! Someone might some bad ideas from that!
How about this image. Honestly I can't even tell which one is the woman immediately. She seems to be dressed just like the male counterparts. But because she's a woman..DELETE.

How ridiculous can this get really? The entire catalog is full of examples like this. Why does the IKEA censor hate women so much they need to be completely deleted from the catalog? Above all how could IKEA, which is a company based on family values and comes from a country once chosen as the best country for women to live in, accept this misogynistic madness? Are women not welcome into the Saudi-Arabian IKEA stores?


Edit: IKEA has issued a statement saying it regrets its decision saying "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444592404578030274200387136.html?mod=WSJUK_hps_LEFTTopWhatNews

National Day Celebrations In Riyadh

The Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia celebrated its 82nd birthday on Sunday the 23rd of September. As usual, the streets were full of Saudis celebrating the National Day. In addition to everyone having Sunday off, King Abdullah had given an extra day off for government employees meaning many people got to enjoy a four day weekend which in Saudi-Arabia is normally Thursday and Friday.

 All the main streets and road were lined with Saudi flags. There must be literally tens of thousands of them. Wonder where they store them?

This year people had already began celebrating on Saturday and the streets flooded with cars flying Saudi flags and people hanging out of them. Tahlia street was fully packed with cars and young men ressed in the most creative outfits. Radio stations were playing patriotic songs and songs praising King Abdullah. Everything seemed to have turned green, including the Faisaliyah and Kingdom towers.

We went out on both evenings to see the celebrations. According to this Arab News article there would be celebrations in Kindy plaza at the Diplomatic Quarters where thousands of Saudi flags would be distributed and there would be a special program there. We live nearby and went to check it out, there was nothing there to our disappointment! Strangely the article also said malls such as Panorama and Hayat would have programs for kid, but in reality the malls remained closed on Sunday. I wonder how many people went all the way to these locations only to find out there was nothing there.

There were many other events around town though and we headed to check them out. There was a small festival area set up in the historical Diriyah area. We drove around the Wadi Hanifa and saw many families had set up fires and BBQ's around the wadi. The weather is finally cooling down and evenings in the wadi are very pleasant.

The Diriyah festival had some traditional dancing and music, poetry recitals, small handicraft market and camel rides.

I love how so many Saudi women relax and let go of their cultural restrictions in public on occasions such as National day. 

 A Saudi baba was showing how to make Arabic coffee by the fire.

Everyone was in high spirits and donning at least a Saudi flag or something green!

 At the festival area I was busy taking pictures of all the people who were requesting to be photographed. I could have stood there all night because people were literally lining up.

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My friend likes camels! I'm still too scared to get this close.

I love you! This is what some children came up to say :)

Please please take my picture too!

My daughter was scared of the coffee making baba. The first thing she said when he took her in his lap was "aiti!" which means mommy.

Meanwhile on the streets kids were hanging out of car windows, doors, roof tops and even sitting on top of the cars!

Older men enjoyed the fun in pimped up rides.

These boys better hurry before muttawa catches them!

And what would National Day be without a muttawa patrol? Here they are supervising on Tahlia street. 

My daughter was in on the fun too!

It was a very HABBY Saudi National Day!