Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Moving Mountains

Yeeeessss I know it's been a while, but I've been very very busy. My job grew and I'm no longer just a teacher, so I don't get a lot of time for my favourite activity - writing.

Flat Riyadh - ?

Riyadh gives the impression of being a very flat place with no hills.




But it isn't entirely true. If you look closely.



That building in the distance that looks a bit like a bottle opener is the Kingdom tower in the city centre. And just in front of it to the left a little you can see the remnants of a hill.

In some countries we would build on the hill. But here the hills are dug away and the materials used to make the buildings.

Where we live we are surrounded by building sites.
The building next door on one side of our building is almost finished.



And on the other side there is a large vacant block.



And then early one morning we were awoken by a lot of noise out there on the empty block.



At first we thought, "Oh, no! Now they are going to start building on that block and it will be noisy all the time!'
And over then next few days the trucks just kept on coming and dumping dirt.



Soon the pile was higher than the first floor. And then they started adding rocks as well.



So now we have our own hill.

One morning I was startled to look out of our living room window and come face-to-face with a chap on a digger. (He looked pleased with himself, after all I wasn't wearing an abaya!)



Do you think I should run up and down it a few times??

So what is it? (I hear you ask). Well, they are building a new building down the road, and first they have to dig the foundations, basement etc. In the next street there is a very big hole, and they had to dump it all somewhere.

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