Mike's Saudi (42) The end of the holiday

We took Mansour and Fateeha up on the South Downs, a rolling set of hill ending in cliffs falling to the sea. It is common land covered with short grass and now a national park popular with holiday makers and locals alike. Naturally there was the ice cream van selling that soft ice cream they squeeze out of a machine and stick a chocolate flake bar into it. Fateeha had never come across this sort before and fell in love with it, this entailed us visiting the area on several more occasions. Mansour asked if there were any pubs like the one we visited in the Lakes, there was one we knew of in a little village at the back of the downs. It had a history of smugglers and ship wreckers and was off the beaten track. We were mistaken it might have been off the beaten track but it was heaving with people Mansour and I went in to get the drinks while Syb ad Fateeha sat outside where it was still crowded but less so. In side we had to fight to get to the bar with the crowd unavoidably pushing us from all sides, Mansour looked distressed and I can’t say I was particularly happy, we looked at each other and left. It was not what we had in mind and in marked contrast to that wonderful evening in the Lakes.

Syb’s Mum lived in a semidetached house in a typical suburban street. It had a long narrow garden as had the neighbours with low fences and plants of various sorts dividing them. The sun was shining so we went out on to the lawn at the back, as soon as the neighbours saw Mansour and Fateeha they lifted their noses and went inside. It was an unfriendly action typical of suburban families at that time, it was also something that Syb’s Mum was to berate them for later. She had really fallen for these gentle Arabs on their side neither Mansour nor Fateeha could reconcile the way Syb’s Mum and elderly people in general lived on their own, it was totally against their belief. The elderly members of the family should be looked after and their experiences learned from, they were treasures to be valued. We could only say that she liked her independence and we could not be in Saudi if we had to stay in England to look after her. Fortunately Karen called in to see her nearly every day now she as she lived close by. It did however trouble us for some time and Mansour often referred to it when we were back in Saudi.

As I remember it we seem to spend our time with Karen, visiting cafes, walking on the Downs, generally relaxing and avoiding her boyfriend. But soon the time had come for our friends to move on to France so we took them to Heathrow and wished them a safe holiday, saying we would see them back a Dahran. The rest of our holiday we spent with our daughter.