19 – Several unrelated topics (and grouching)

Welcome to the King Abdullah Economic City!  We're glad you're here!  (If you can pass through security.)

first one



3 nice pools: seahorse, dolphin, and seats



Every evening this week, I’ve headed to the pool after I close the laptop around 2300.  The pool, like many things here, has the highest quality materials and concept, but the execution of the concept has been done clumsily.  The pool is actually three separate bodies of water located on the plaza level: a kiddie pool that is no more than knee deep, a regular pool that gets no more than shoulder deep, and a ‘social’ pool with about 20 islands (3 feet square) that are intended to be seats.



The kiddie pool is really warm around midnight, so I can’t imagine how warm it is during the heat of the day.

The first night, I sat on a couple of seats in the social pool.  I haven’t returned.  The pool is only shin-deep, and seems perfect for a bar, but this is the Kingdom and THERE shall be no bar.

 





seahorse in the kiddie pool; porpoise in the adult pool

So the regular pool – the adult pool – is my hangout.  It’s maybe 50 feet long by 15 feet wide, the size of a decent front yard, and absolutely deserted at midnight.  It’s made of thousands of tiny half-inch square, beautifully made, bathroom ceramic tiles.  There’s a nice pattern inlaid at the water line, and a six-foot dolphin mosaic in the floor.  It has five full-width steps at one end for graceful Hollywood entrances and exits.  It’s a really beautiful idea.

But here’s where the Saudi effect comes in: instead of injecting pool chemicals through the filtration system, they toss in chlorine tablets the size of hockey pucks.  Those hockey pucks are still there at midnight.

The tiles are beautiful, but the installation is abysmal.  There is no uniformity in the grout seams, several of which are as wide as the edge of my hand.  The seams are crooked, too, which makes for a dizzying visual effect.  (Perhaps that was intended, you know, to counteract the "no alcohol" thing.)

The pool deck has a glorious 24-inch marble border – which is as slick as snot when your feet are wet. Nobody thought about that?


Oh well.  I float around on my back, relaxing and humming rock and roll, watching my shadow slide across the bottom, dredging up pleasant memories from the 20th century, and wondering what new things will turn up tomorrow.

second one

In one of my floating reveries, I noticed there were no stars in the sky.  For the past three nights I have noticed no stars in the sky.  This research will continue.

It could be that the security spotlights are too bright.  It could be that the atmosphere is full of dust that occludes the weak star-shine.  I could be that … who knows?  This research will continue.

third one

The internet is truly essential to modern-day business.  This I have learned because the internet is not always available here.  No email, no ability to search for things like “gantry crane security system” or “temporary wireless antenna pole, 30 meters”, and no mechanism to post to your blog.

A great example of cellular and internet for business was the recent RTTM project in Boston: as we set the signs in place and turned them on, one of our field guys took a photo of the test message on each sign.  He emailed those photos from his phone, with the geo-tagged references, directly to our client as proof of successful operations.  Quick, easy, definitive, done.



Current office internet system.  Hey, it works.

As I mentioned in an email to a few family members, communications are crazy here.  There is no wired internet anywhere in the Economic City (KAEC).  Everything is wireless, which actually means cellular.  So we have a 4G cellular router in our office that is trying to accommodate 4 guys today – 8 guys when we're full.  Everyone has active email connections, some may have streaming media, some are researching over the internet ... the bandwidth goes quickly.  It goes especially quickly when STC (Saudi Telephone Company) hiccups, which happens at least once an hour.  In all fairness, the one  pictured is temporary until we can get a real internet access installed.  But it works, and it's what we rely on.

Even ‘wired’ connections in the Economic City end up on a microwave link between here and Jeddah.  It gets disrupted regularly due to sandstorms, and is not yet available in our apartment building.  My young engineer roommates have a 4G cellular hotspot that works just fine for us three guys.




Microwave link for our apartment building.  Cell antennas around the top, too.

 

Mobile cell tower -- see video below

mobile cell tower stars in its own movie!

fourth one

The King Abdullah Economic City is powered by diesel generators.  Let me repeat that.  The ENTIRE King Abdullah Economic City is powered by diesel generators.

Yes, boys and girls, this is absolutely true.  There are three for our office building, and twelve for our apartment complex.

Wireless internet and diesel generators.  Does that qualify as “off the grid”?

(One of my women friends suggested that I've overlooked the obvious, "Of course, Taylor!  This is instant infrastructure."  She's right, you know.)




Temporary power station.  Note the curb ramps for the fueling trucks.  Why not a legitimate driveway?



Didn't get closer, as there were two guys giving me the eye from this position and ... 
Rule #1: "Taylor does not go to jail."

LAST GROUCH

Gas costs US 12¢ per liter.    Water costs US $1.25 per liter.


That's crazy.        I mean, that's Crazy.


See you tomorrow ...