Description

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A wander through my life, touching on travels in the sixties, marriage and my move to Saudi Arabia. Travels in Arabia Deserta with an unscheduled stop at a Saudi border town Musings on life in the seventies and last, but not least, the birth of my first son, in Jeddah.

Over the years I have written about events in my life, and I started assembling them into a manuscript during lockdown, after finding an old notebook that I had forgotten about, something I had written on my arrival in Saudi Arabia, a new bride, in 1973.

Our trips into the desert and holidays in the sixties, contrast starkly with going 'travelling' today, our children are guided by sat navs and have the world at their fingertips on a mobile phone. We drove into the desert with maps, a compass and sometimes only the stars to guide us. I find it hard to believe that the places we struggled to visit are now accessible by motorways and there are helicopter trips to Madain Saleh

I was and still am the least intrepid of travellers and like to think there is humour in my tale

From running down a street in Beirut, after curfew; an arrest on the Saudi border, to an unscheduled picnic on a beach, as the King of Jordan sailed by.

I have read a lot during my life, something that I have reflected on here, together with films, music, television and attitudes of the time.

I have called it 'Place of Birth, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia' because it starts at the beginning of my pregnancy and ends with the birth of my first son, as some might say, including me, saving the worst until last.