A Wanted Man

Feeling Lugubrious in KSA
About six weeks before the end of my contract I write a letter to Bongo, advising him that I will not be renewing my contract. He calls me into his office, and asks why I want to leave. I politely explain that I cannot continue living in a country where most of the things I like doing are illegal. He asks me to elucidate. Well, booze, art, concerts, cinema, theatre. He tells me he can’t do anything to change that, and I say I know he can’t and so it’s better if I leave.

A few days later he tells me he wants to set up a separate interior design division with an office outside Riyadh, and he wants me to run it. I ask him what location he has in mind and he says Jeddah. Ah, no, thanks but no thanks. Knowing that Bahrain or Dubai are completely out of the question, I suggest both these locations. I was right, so I don’t have to move on to phase 2 of my reasons for leaving which is that I hated every single minute of working for his company.

The word pretty quickly gets out that I am leaving, and I get several phone calls from other companies who are interested in hiring me. One of them is the company that B’astard works for. I go to several interviews, and am offered several jobs, but none of them has the kind of astronomical salary attached that would make me reconsider leaving.