Pool Party

We were officially invited to attend a formal dinner party with the Sheikh (DAU owner) and the Minister for Education and various other VIPs.

This being the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we were picked up at 8.30 pm for the 9:00 pm meal, which actually started around 10:00 pm.

Little did we realise it would be a pool party by the college swimming pool (on the men's side).

Not that anyone actually did any swimming.

As always with a formal event, the first question is: what should I wear? The women asked if we would be required to wear our abayas, and the response was: "Yes, you are allowed to wear abayas." We understood that to mean that yes, we had to! After all, we would be entering the Men's Side of the University. You can't see it, but I put on my nicest skirt, just in case we got an opportunity to uncover. I know one of the other women went in her pyjamas by way of protest ...

But you can't tell which one. And the men all scrubbed up pretty well with their suits and ties.

Young 'Tiger' (the future golfer, according to his doting dad) came along too, firmly strapped into his brand new pusher.

As you can see, he's a delightful little chappy, everyone's darling.

Of course, the other guests were wearing their traditional thobes and ghutra - they dress this way all the time, not just on special occasions.

From Howdi Saudi

The food, of course, was absolutely magnificent, and we all went home to bed with uncomfortably full bellies after attempting to have at least a little taste of everything!

We didn't eat any of it, but we were very impressed with the carved watermelon:

There were a couple of carved pumpkins on display too.