Terrible photo, but oh, the memories

Watching Billy Joel live in Shea Stadium, New York. It was recorded in 2008. What a fabulous performer he is, not flashy like Michael Jackson but his music is just amazing. My favourite has always been Goodnight Saigon - https://youtu.be/Qjzjhl-QztE. I met lots of U.S.A. troops on R&R when I was in Singapore 1969-1971 so it's quite poignant. 
It may be a tenuous connection but I'm blipping Billy Joel because it was his music that we invariably listened to at the weekends when travelling from Jeddah to Rabigh for a day, and a couple of times overnight, at the deserted beach there. Snorkelling at night is quite amazing
We used to go with an American friend, Tom Fix who worked for Continental Corp. There was only myself, Marlane and Daniel then, Johanna was born in Jeddah in October and Julia in Riyadh 10 months later.
The beach at Rabigh was in sight of an industrial complex but it didn't affect the splendour of the coral, shells, the sea life, and the condition of the beach. You could walk out, into the Red Sea, for about 100 yards, at chest height, before it dropped, like a cliff edge, into the deep. We would take snorkels, masks, flippers, and swim down the cliff face, it was fascinating watching the Moray Eels ducking back into their holes and all the smaller fish dashing around, and bigger 'Things' in the shadows!!
Before we set off we would stop at Dunkin Donuts and get a box of various donuts, I liked the 'Bear Claws' :-)
Rabigh was a place that T.E.Lawrence visited a number of times during his exploits, read about it in 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.
On the map, in the Extra's, is another place I used to go, with my Filipino engineers, to set up the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs communications equipment for the Summer. The Ministry would pretty much move to Taif from Jeddah because of the heat and humidity in the Summer. I've also done a screenshot of the twisting mountain road. A pretty scary drive with a number of lorries and cars going over the edge each year! The other extra is where I worked, in Jeddah, before moving to the new MoFA HQ in Riyadh in 1986.
Being non-Moslem we had to take the by-pass around Mecca as only Moslems are allowed in the area of the Holy City