Cripes - thinking about it - it may have been a BBC. Then again - there were 286's out there in '87, heck, there were 386's in Riyadh in '88.....
Thanks for the welcome - but I was real short term, a year in Jordan at KHMC and a few months in Saudi (forgive the spelling) in Al-Qassim, Buraydah, Unaizah, Ar Rass and all stops in between..... Nabhaniya, Al-Bukairiyah, Badaya'a and Muznib. Fled the insanity and went to Egypt "with friends" before retuning to perfidious Albion.

"Elite" was written for the BBC Micro by David Braben et al and remains a classic favourite to this day.

I remember those G-100's (G-200's) ... I would hazard a guess at Group 2. Who was the contractor ... FEAL? But only a few months? What were you doing, commissioning kit?

As you know there were various spellings ... none of them strictly correct as they were just a phonetic attempt at the Arabic.

I was last at the G-350 at Unaizah (Unayzah ... I preferred Onaiza) in 1994. But I better get off ... I'm starting to feel "home sick"! In fact I still find myself wishing I could flee the insanity of Albion!

Those were Happy Days, Mate ... no doubt about it. For me at least, life was far more, shall we say, straight forward.

Elite was a stunning piece of software - personally I don't think it has been surpassed for it's Tardis like qualities (such a large and varied universe held in such terse, economical coding - one bloody floppy!). You are right though - back then it hadn't been ported to the Intel platform - it MUST have been a Beeb.....

As for what I was doing there..... damned if I know. I came out (Jordan and Saudi) with IAL. Cowboys, but nice cowboys. I think the Saudi gig was to keep me out of the way - I was desperate to get my hands on kit for repair and actually do some work, but spent most of my time bimbling around the hospitals meeting and greeting. And sorting out IT problems. And personnel problems.

What bugged me most - especially in Jordan - was the stores mentality. Starter cap goes on a motor on some medical gizmo. Stores have it in stock - they have the required four in stock actually (act like you are rudely doubting them just because you had to ask for a part). So you go through the entire paper trail to get one out, but they can't release it. They have to order one in (may take a week, may take a month.....) so that they can maintain the required four in hand. You give up in frustration, go downtown to Ali's Washing Machine Repair Emporium and haggle one off him for next to nothing, fit it and have a mended gizmo and happy medical staff. Then someone finds out you fitted a washing machine part and all hell breaks loose. You explain that a cap is a cap is a cap so long as it's in spec (and you went UP in spec with the washing machine cap.....) but have to remove it and wait for "the real thing". It takes three months to arrive and the military are breathing down your neck from week one because the gizmo doesn't work.

And head office..... don't talk to me about head office.

Sorry, rant over, calmed down now. Nice to be amongst people who actually know what the rant is about ! But I do miss the deserts.

Yes, Mate ... that all sounds pretty familiar. A few of us on here have "been there, done that", believe me. I wonder if Big Tony remembers our happy evenings spent trawling for "spares" in the souks? (same thing for me in Saudi, by the way, even when - especially when - working for "well known" Saudi O&M contractors). But I must admit that I loved (almost) every minute of it. Nothing I have been involved with since even begins to compare to those free-wheeling days!

Meanwhile, if you want to take a stab at reliving a little of your lost youth, see here. "Elite" is on the one with the hard drive (and it loads in ... er, milliseconds)! Go on, you know you want it!

But ...IAL (or the infamous DIAL ... I knew Emad El-Dukair, you know ... not to mention Alan Martin et al of course) was all about internal politics, with getting the work done falling someplace further down the list. Typical Brits (and therefore best avoided) in my opinion.

And yes, the "stores" at KHMC were the worst I have ever encountered (and I have seen a few). I offered to sort them out, and the Captain in charge seemed in favour of the idea (perhaps he took a shine to me, if you know what I mean - and I was, of course, much younger then) ... but (as usual out there) someone's feathers must have been ruffled, and things remained in their erstwhile pathetic state. I wonder what it's like now. Or even, have the parts I ordered actually arrived yet?

I have posted before (18-Nov-09) about the Saudi MOH stores "system". You know, where you had to store (and account for) "used" parts and well as the (sometimes masses) of unused (and probably never will be) stock. They just wouldn't listen to reason, and frankly, I doubt that things are much better even today. I could go on at length, but I'll have to get off now (I have a bloke coming to pick up some of my nice dot-matrix printers)!

Here are some earlier threads which you may have missed:-

One
Two
Three
Four

And (lastly) ... remember these arches (and phone box)?

One - couldn't take the test - gone 404.....

Two - that's how I stumbled across you in the first place.

Three - immediately after Two I stumbled in there as well. Talk of Grimmet, Nuffield, Bournemouth and so on.

Four was interesting..... and like Huw said, I also originally went for the dosh but discovered a bit more when immersed in the places. A year in Jordan (regardless of KHMC) was an eye opener and I could have gone native quite easily (Nick Brown took it to extremes..... but a nice guy) but the whole political crapfest of IAL/DIAL was just too distracting. Let's say I was "encouraged to leave" for a number of reasons involving me being at loggerheads with the gruppenfuhrer over several "issues", and Saudi seemed like a good option - and WOULD have been but for the IAL/DIAL shenanigans yet again causing grief.

Tony D put his finger on it. Lying on your back on the slightly warm sand with the Milky Way just beyond your fingertips and the silence pressing hard on you was (literally) awe inspiring. Jordan in the spring was just a riot of colour and scent. Roman ruins with no barriers and friendly archaeologists working there. Driving out into nowhere and finding somewhere with cold water and home-spun food. The locals, on their own terms and in their own space were a gas to be around. Sometimes we expats were our own worst enemies - although there was some fun to be had there too. Amstell's red-eye beer. Sleeping it off in the power room. Grown men being shipped out to the middle-east who couldn't boil an egg or make toast. Chai through a strainer. Happy, happy days.

Peace be upon you indeed. Oh - and I like your site.....

Oh - and somebody was asking after Blue Witham a while back. I heard some bad news rumour about him many years back and would like to know it was rubbish and that he's fine. Any ideas.

And Blue - if you ever read this - Gareth and I used your Oregano to season a pizza, and it was good, very, very, good.....

Yes ...there's a lot in what you say. Inner peace and outer freedom (or should that be the other way around?).

Because he expected so little from life, the Bedu had an inner freedom to come and go as he pleased. He regarded the ties of the settled Arab as unworthy of a man, and carried with him none of the concerns of the settler, such as anxieties over property and the accumulation of wealth (... or what was on television that evening)! I was much the same when I was in my camper-van (still sorely missed)!

Assalamu Alaikum ... there's a lot to be said for it, I reckon.

And guess what, the thobe and guttrah don't look out of place around here (Rotherham) at all! Ha, ha.

The "West" thinks it has the way ... but that's not the case (in my opinion, and experience). The West is just a cesspit of moral decay, greed, selfishness and wasted lives (I could go on, but no doubt you catch my drift). In short, and in general, Western people don't appreciate the true meaning of Almighty Allah's bountiful generosity and mercy. Too busy rushing around like headless chickens (usually looking for their next "fix", in whatever form it may take), they miss the joy, the whole point of being alive. The wankers!

More:-

One - forget the test; what about the "wisdoms" contained in the rest of the thread?

Yes, "crapfest" just about sums up (D)IAL. I was never able to get a look-in there myself. Internal politics, as I say. I only worked for Saudi companies, which was fine by me (in that you actually got to know the guy - Sheikh, or Prince - you're working for. Mutual respect, and good stuff like that).

Oh yes, Big Tony sometimes likes to lax lyrically on romantic topics, whilst I myself like to think I'm a bit more, shall we say, pragmatic (no doubt some would say "heartless" - but they would be wrong). I too love the desert. Especially the smell!

Anyone out there looking for a couple of knackered old biomeds to shuffle about at the back of the workshop, I wonder?

OK ... please allow me to recall this old thread.

I've just received a PM from yet another "name from the past", and hope to encourage the guy to come on here and re-introduce himself, and shoot the breeze a little, perhaps.

Meanwhile:-

@Huw ... any chance of a reprieve for "you know who"? I hear that the Big Guy is getting lonely out there in the cold, as it were.

No.