Return to the Magic Kingdom

After a busy summer break, it came time to fly back to Saudi, alone, as kids and hubby were staying behind for another week.  So, 3 flights and 2 layovers later, I arrived late last night at the villa and was glad to see our little kitty cat Gumbeaux alive and well, extremely happy to see me, purring and licking proving that!
The house was hot...probably close to 100 F/40 C inside when I entered.  We only had one AC unit running for the cat, which turns out not to be enough to cool the whole place in such high summer temperatures.  The floor felt sandy, the wooden side tables were covered with a thin film of sand (and cat's paw prints for some), the water in the toilet bowls had totally evaporated, the back door in the laundry room had piles of sand and ants all over who all came from the crack under the door and the dryer vent. 
So, at around 10:45 last night, I started vacuuming the floors, dusting the tables and mopping like a mad woman.  Eventually I had to go to bed and tried to fall asleep.  Not an easy task when you are jetlagged with 8 hours difference, and ahhh, before I knew it the alarm woke me up! 
Work from 9 to 3, then return home and on to another task: the car!  Of course, after sitting under the canopy for 2 months, the car battery was dead! OUr neighbor Sammy tried to jump it to no avail....We pushed the car on the street then workers pushed it to get it started, down a little side street.  We were trying to get it to crank up. There, Sammy got his cables again and ran it for 15 minutes...eventually it sta...rted. So, to make sure it wouldn't die, I drove around the compound for about 20 minutes, since I am not allowed to drive on the streets.  I even took the car outside between the walls and the fence! The army guys in their watch towers and the security guys at the front gate were looking at me driving around and laughing when they realised what was happening!  One of the army dudes even came out of his place to check it out! 
Then, after all that pushing, waiting, cranking, I did the most refreshing thing I could think about: carwash, with hot water coming straight from the water tank!  You should have seen how filthy the car was...Red sand all over. I had to clean the street afterwards!
Just now, some compound workers just delivered a NEW (at least to us) TV that lets us get over 35 channels, even Nat Geo and History channels.

Who said the compound was dead??? We had some excitement today!