I hadn't known you had been at Yanbu, Darren. Were you with the RC team, or with the hospital contractor?
I did not hang around at the hospital (MYAS RCMC) for very long myself; there was too much "politics" and back-biting going on for my liking. At that time the place was dominated by Brits and Irish ... I may as well had stayed in London. Luckily I was able to escape to another hospital greater to my taste ... in fact I was the only Westerner in town!
Apart from wishing I was still out there, my main regret about my time in KSA is that I wasn't out there ten years earlier (I was first in Jeddah in 1982). It was reasonably "pioneering" but would have been even more so a decade before.
With the exception of MODA, during my time I was involved with most of the usual suspects:- Royal Commission (both Yanbu and Jubail), MOH (many and various), SANG (ditto), and the AOC (Arabian Oil Company - not ARAMCO - at Khafji). Plus various private hospitals and clinics here and there.
The only time I ever got reasonable money (and dare I mention, "respect") was when I got involved in New Hospital Projects: generally as a (key) member of the Hospital Team with Consulting Engineers and Architects. I found that I was suited to such work, whether on site or at the office, and it suited me as well (no gang to "manage" and not a patient in sight).
Good for us creative types, too; reviewing drawings and equipment proposals, a bit of design work, writing specs, database work, "clerk of work" type inspections at site, sorting out problems at site (to allow the contractor to crack on) and so forth. I first had a go at stuff like that (as a civilian) back in 1988, and I should really have stuck with that way of earning a crust (falafel?), but for some daft reason was always hankering to "get back on the tools".
I have often considered having a go at a book, but (as mentioned on here once or twice before) have only got as far as the title:- "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"!
