Have ventured out and about somewhat in the last 10 days. Have found a couple of pubs worth visiting which have satelite tv so managed to see the England vs Brazil match, but unfortunatly the Estonia game was blocked from being shown in Nigeria for some strange reason. Had a night in Pat's bar and met some ex-pats who had also gathered for the game. Ended up in an impromptu quiz session, not the greatest entertainment but passed an evening.
Last weekend we went to find a bar that had the football. I had found a few places via the internet and we set off to find them. One of the problems here is the lack of street signs, most of the streets do not have name plates so it is a lot of guess work. This is made worse by there being no light as the streetlights are out more often than not due to power cuts. Anyway we eventually found the location only to discover that the whole complex or bars and restaurants had been demolished.
On to plan B, forget the football and get a pint! Another hour later we found the Thistle bar down an overcrowded back road which our local driver had never heard of. Arrived just in time to see Terry score the goal from Beckhams free kick. Thought I was back in south London, lots of black guys in a pub watching England and cheering on 'Becks' with cries of 'Yeah, Becks is back', 'Come on England'. Surreal.... Mind you they cheered just a loudly when Brazil equalised.
That night we also discovered the indoor mosquitos, the local girls flock round the westerners like a swarm and all take a crack at you, you have to almost swat them away to get a peaceful pint. They are regular girls trying to make a little on the side by getting taken home for the night for a fee, amateur whores I suppose.
Weather has turned bad as it has rained for most of the week, but still it is not cold so I can live with a bit of water.
One of the guys I am working with has come down with malaria despite taking his anti-malaria tablets bought in Kuwait. Glad I bought mine back in Blighty.
Had the bosses in from Kuwait last week and they are already cutting deadlines. Monday they arrived and told us they wanted an interim report by the end of the month. By the time they left on Thursday this had come in to 20th. Only problem is that the do not know what they want in an interim report, good I suppose as they should be happy with anything.
One of the drawbacks with working with muslims came to light Tuesday morning. We had had a meal together on Monday night in the hotel, lots of Lebanese food and everyone but me rabbiting on in scribble, oops sorry Arabic, felt a bit like a mosquito in a nunnery. I of course ordered a glass of wine with my meal whils everybody else was on the soft drinks. Tuesday it was pointed out to me that in future it would be advisable that when the customer is dining with us maybe I should refrain from taking alcohol. Told them not to bother inviting me in future as a) i am not a muslim and therefore do not see why I should not have a drink with a meal, and b) I was bored rigid as no-one saw it necessary to speak English at any point.
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