Last week, Aramco retirees and brats enjoyed the 5-day Aramco Hafla Cruise Reunion departing from Miami, FL aboard the Celebrity Summit. This beautifully equipped sailing vessel offered lovely accommodations, lively entertainment, memorable excursions and fine dining.
Once back in the Land Rover Discovery, we head off down more mountain roads to Selcuk, a small town close to the ruins of the famous Roman settlement of Ephesus. We have read about the area and the small Hotel Kalahan, which is well known and is reported to be a very interesting and famous guest house.
Home is where the heart is, And also where the foot is, Home is the smell of freshly baked za’atar filling the aroma of the commissary, Home is the creation of beginnings in a new city, Home is the Arabian sunshine and desert, the palm trees and the souks...
The 2022 Aramco Hafla Reunion Cruise departed Miami on October 31st, setting sail for Cozumel, Mexico. Following a relaxing day at sea, annuitants gathered for a celebratory evening that began with hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, then proceeded with fine dining at the Cosmopolitan restaurant followed by decadent dessert, and finished with a night of mingling and dancing.
At the Turkish border we are met by the usual hoard of ‘company men’, but we are feeling much surer of ourselves here now that we are out of the Arab world and demanded, loudly and repeatedly, to meet with the official customs officials. This causes some confusion and I end up with the police who demand our passports.
With inflation running at multi-decade highs, 2022 has been a difficult year for global stock and bond markets. Amidst this backdrop, a silver lining is that Social Security beneficiaries are set to receive an 8.7% cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2023. This figure, which is the largest COLA in more than 40 years...
The Aramco Retiree Golf Group held their seventh overall and second 2022 event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Marriott Myrtle Beach Resort & Spa at Grande Dunes, October 3-7, 2022. It was a fun-filled 5-days of activities including 3 rounds of golf at The Players Club, Barefoot Resort’s Love, and Myrtlewood Palmetto golf courses.
While it’s extremely important to plan for your retirement, what happens when you decide it’s finally time to enter that phase of your life? At Creative Planning, we’ve worked with hundreds of Aramcons, helping them to retire and working with them throughout retirement so that they can achieve the goals they’ve worked so hard for.
On Saturday, we arise to begin our dreaded trip through the Syria border crossing. We had read about the crossing into Syria and none of it was good. We fortify ourselves with a breakfast of hommus, bread and tea at our usual local coffee shop, and buy bread and hommus to eat on the trip. The coffee shop fills one, but only one, of our flasks with hot water.
Explorers are a noble breed, and Arabia has certainly had its share - Bertram Thomas, Lady Anne Blunt, Gertrude Bell, Harry St. John Philby, Wilfred Thesiger, and, of course, T. E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia. You can add another name to that list. Mark Evans.
Because of our short time in Jordan we are forced to cram as much as possible into our visit to the country. We return to the hotel, collect the Discovery Land Rover and drive south, out of the city and onto the ‘Kings Highway’. This is a very old and bad road, with a rough surface, and lots of bumps and bends.
Have you ever played Mah Jongg on the computer? It's a type of match game played with Chinese tiles. I've played it on occasion but it certainly didn't look like the active game that I saw being played in Chinese parks. Besides, I have a terrible memory for any type of matching game, so when given the opportunity a couple of years ago, I resisted the offer to learn Mah Jongg with a local group.
‘I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it!’ – I hope most of you were in Saudi when we were amazed by the ‘5- 6-7-8’ performances to this song. Ah, those amazing, talented performers!! Well, that’s just the way I feel about this Hafla cruise on the Celebrity Summit that we’ll soon experience. I’ve been asked to write about packing/preparing for this adventure.
Arriving at the Al Haditha border crossing at 07.15, we find few houses but lots of trucks and confusion. There is even greater confusion at the customs post, as no one can find the fax that was supposed to have been sent by the police in Dammam to allow us to export the Discovery Land Rover.
My feet and my heart, Scattered across airplanes and airports, Across mountains and oceans that feed the distance between where I come from, And where I go. My heart longing for the goodbyes said, Through warm hugs and teary eyes, Goodbyes to the homes that built me, The walls that hold the memories that changed me.
Reilly Financial Advisors has partnered with employees of Saudi Aramco for almost five decades, bringing comprehensive wealth management and financial planning strategies customized to your unique situation as an employee of Aramco right to your door. We’re thrilled to continue this legacy as a part of Creative Planning.
Attention all Hafla cruisers: the Celebrity Summit has a wonderful app you won’t want to miss. You will be able to check in much faster when you board the ship after entering your personal information and photo, see the deck plans and map of the ship, manage your reservations, see dining and entertainment opportunities, and communicate with each other from mobile devices even when you’re not on your own stateroom WIFI.
For RFA founders Frank and Don Reilly, the importance of creating a business that clients felt like they could trust, and where employees genuinely enjoyed working, was paramount. It was this natural match of business practices and culture that led to Creative Planning’s acquisition of Reilly Financial Advisors in January 2022.
It’s almost time for you to set sail on the 2022 Hafla Reunion Cruise. In 33 DAYS, you will come aboard the beautiful Celebrity Summit sailing from Miami on October 31, 2022. If you have not done so already, please set up an account with Celebrity Cruises.
At the end of August an unlikely bunch of 1980’s Aramco teachers, who taught in Dhahran, descended upon the MGM Park, Las Vegas, for a reunion that resembled old home week. Although some of us had not seen each other for nearly 40 years, we picked up right where we left off. Thank you, Aramco and Facebook.