Day 3 at Fiesta.

Sunday the wind was too strong to fly, although quite a few balloons did take off Keith our very experienced pilot, along with most of the other local pilots, decided that it was too wingy to fly.

Went to breakfast instead, spent the rest of the day getting ready for Monday's tailgate party. Went shopping and made lots of jelly shots while drinking beer.

Monday was competition day we were due to fly from the field and had to fly over a target site and drop a bag to score points. Again it was a bit windy but today Keith decided to fly and took a couple of crew as passengers. Wind was starting to pick up a bit but he had a landing site in mind and reached it with little bother although there were many others at the landing site where he nearly crashed into a couple of chase vehicles. Due to the wind and the Monday morning rush hour traffic, he beat us in the chase vehicle to the land site.

While we were packing up the balloon we started getting reports of a fatality. It seems that a balloon got caught on a power pole which ripped out the side of the basket and one of the paying passengers fell out. Cannot really speculate on what happened as there will be a full investigation.

This news put a bit of a dampener on the tailgate party but it went ahead anyway. Was windy to start with but by midday the sun was beating down and all jackets were shed and sunburn was kicking in. We had a 50/50 draw that turned into an impromptu raffle with many gifts donated on the spur of the moment. The profits went to the 'Balloon Historical Society' based in Taos, New Mexico. They are initially trying to protect the Stratobowl site in South Dakota where the early balloon exploration of space was carried out.
George Yost

George Yost, son of Ed Yost the father of modern ballooning, drew out the initial 50/50 tickets. The imptomptu raffle was then conducted by the pilot of Sky Angel, Keith ReevesKeith the raffle king and a lucky winner.

Fiesta time.

Left home last Tuesday morning and nearly missed the bus to the station, not sure if it was early or I was late but had to run the last 100 yards with suitcase. Got to London and went to see Millwall play Northampton in a league match, We won 2-0 and did not look too bad.

Wednesday was London to Peoria, Illinois via Detroit. No problems with getting into the US this time and even arrived in Peoria 15 minutes early.

Left Peoria early Thursday and drove to Alberquerque with an overnight stop in Elk City, Oaklahoma. Arrived Friday evening not sure what day or time it was.

Fiesta started today so we were up at 04:00 to get down to the balloon field. Wind was looking to be a problem but luckily it held off long enough to fly at 07:30. Was part of the mass assencion where up to 700 balloons took off in 3 waves.

Mass Assencion

This afternoon we went down to the Trinity site which has 2 open days per year. Trinity site is where the first atom bomb was set off. It is in a very empty part of New Mexico. All there is now is a n obelisk made of lava rock.

Trinity Site

Offer accepted

I have finally received an acceptable offer on the house. After ten months of not very much interest I finally switched estate agents and had a deluge of viewings. Eventually 3 different people were bidding against each other which helped push the price to an acceptable level.

All I have to do now is get the soon to be ex-missus to sign the forms and we can finally get divorced. I don't know why she has been sitting on the divorce papers for the last year and it is difficult to find out when all she comes out with is 'I'll have to get advice from my lawyer'. Very frustrating.

Off on holiday this week. Going ballooning in Alberquerque, New Mexico amongst other things.

Club de plungee

The first day off in Algeirs I found the local diving club down at the spa in Sidi Fredj, a couple of miles from the hotel. Needless to say I took the plunge and went diving in the med.

Terrible decision to make.

The rental of the equipment, shortie wetsuit, BCD, bottles, weightbelt came to around 8 pounds sterling. The people there while not speaking much English and my french about as bad made me feel very welcome, brotherhood of divers I'm sure.

From the surface the med looks delightful, under the water it looks like the toilet it really is. Visibility was around 2 meters and there was lots of things floation around down there. Diving off the rocks was a new experience for me and the buffeting from the surf and the tidal currents was disconcerting at first but got used to it after a little while.

Whilst initially getting my bearings and balance underwater and getting used to the current I inadvertently put my hand on a small brown spikey creature. Picked up what I thought was a thorn of some kind. Thought nothing of it at the time.

The next day while eating lunch one of my colleagues noticed a red mark in my arm which looked like a pressure mark from leaning on the table. A couple of hours later this mark had not gone and was in fact creeping up my arm and could clearly be seen to eminate from the 'thorn' I picked up diving the previous day.

Heigh-ho off to the quack, very pretty lady incidentlt, where I had an anti-toxin in the arse and a course of antibiotics for the infection. tried to go diving a couple more times but the weather and waves were not right and visibility would be zero so did not get to repeat the experience or get back there and kill one of the little things that poisoned me.

Algeirs cont...

Algeria is a police state.

There are cops and gendarmes everywhere. Tight security at the hotel and work site. Cops at every street corner and at all junctions on the motorways. Looked a real raggety outfit so not sure how effective they would be in a firefight with terrorists, but I suppose they are there for show mainly.

The hotel we stayed in was a Sheraton and probably the worst sheraton in the world. the service was pretty appaling and for the most part I had to have luke warm showers. Only once in the entire 33 day stay did I get a really hot shower, sometimes it was cold. Complained often to no avail.

Most of the people that worked in the restaurants and bars were very helpful and sometimes too attentive, while some were downright rude. Had one barman refuse to serve me unless I spoke french to him, very wierd.

Worked six days a week so did not have too spend too much time at the hotel. Took to drinking wine on the beach or by the pool on our day off.

Beach at the sheraton Algeirs.

The last month or so.

Sorry it has been so long since my last post but access to the website was blocked by the company I have just been working for in Algeria. Coupled with an extortionate internet access rate at the hotel I have had to wait until I arrived back home.

Rather than one big entry I will jot things down roughly as they happened over the last month or so.

Getting the visa for Algeria was fraught with problems, sent the forms off to a visa processing firm by royal mail with a guarenteed next day delivery on what turned out to be a day of strike action. Long story short, after 4 phone calls from me and some from the agency I was finally told that postman Pat would not redeliver the letter and I had to get somebody to pick it up from the sorting office. These delays caused me to be over a week late on the project in Algeria.

Eventually arrived in Algeirs to work on a disaster recovery project that was already 2 weeks old. Again the team was a pretty odd collection of people, there was the part Indian very British ex-government employee PM to the converted muslim Canadian. The guys I spent most time with was a Californian and a Brit from Aldershot.

Drinking buddies from Algeria. Victor and Todd.

Back to Cornwall

Home again. The job in Kuwait ended rather suddenly at the end of July so arrived home during the week and had a few pints to celebrate. Actually a bit more than a few.

Things around here don't change much, the lass that runs the Mounts is still a misery with no people skills. The county is full of emmets Wednesday was a terrible day to get home as it was Culdrose Airday, when the local navy base is open to the public. It is located on the only road from Helston to the Lizard and took me 45 minutes to do the mile past the camp.

Have been busy cutting the grass in the garden as it was left to grow while I was away, looks bloody awful now and will grow again when I go off again next week.

Leaving Kuwait early has enabled me to drop into another project immediatly, I am off to Algeria as soon a a visa is obtained.

Went around the local estate agents Friday to see if any one else can sell the house as the ones I am with at present have done nothing. I now realise why selling a house is such a traumatic experience, you have to deal with arsehole estate agents. I thaugnt lawyers were full of double speak but these clowns are in a league of their own. I had one idiot try to convince me that their sliding scale of prices that depended on the value of the property was not in effect a percentage based fee structure. He was also explaining how it was harder and therefore more expensive to sell a more expensive property. Still did not explain what extra work they had to do to justify the extra fee. Greedy bastards the lot of them. I cannot see why they just dont say it will cost x pounds to sell your house regardless of the value of that house. Rant over.

Highlight of my week..........

...was getting a haircut.

That just about sums up the excitment there is to be found in Kuwait.

Mind you it is only the third haircut that I have had overseas, and what a haircut it was. Not only did the young Indian lad spend over half an hour snipping away and then finishing off with a cut-throat razor. He then proceeded with a 5 minute scalp massage. I wondered what the hell he was doing when he started to beat me around the head. Was all ready to cuff him one but soon realised what was going on and tried to relax. After that he got out a hand massager and spent the next 5 mins doing my back as I leant forward in the chair. Very odd haircut. All for 2KD. I then bought a pair of Levi's for 4KD, not sure if that make it an expensive haircut or a cheap pair of jeans.

Back in the sandpit.

Arrived back in Kuwait last Friday morning. It only took 22 hours overnight from hotel to hotel, at least the bar in Dubai airport was open 24 hours so managed to get some Guinness during my 5 hour stopover.

Lagos - what can I say?

After a dubious start with no room at the inn and the worries raised regarding the security of the city, things turned out pretty good. Don't get me wrong, it is definitly NOT a place to visit ubless you have to, as there are few amenities or relaxation places, bars, restaurants etc. But when you try to make the best of a bad spot you can have some fun.

The people I met there, as is the case anywhere, made the place livable. They were a collection of long term ex-pats who have made Lagos their home and mainly oil workers just passing through for a few months/years with no intention of staying.

Once you scratch the surface Lagos seems to be the last wild frontier town where almost anything goes. The people are aware of the need for tight security, with armed police at the doors of the places where foreigners gather, but are pretty relaxed about the situation. It is a bit disconcerting the first time you go to a bar where you have to run the gauntlet or armed guards but after a while you just nod to them and enter, just as you do the bouncers at the pubs back home on a Saturday night.

I managed to fall on my feel and was luck that Pat's bar was just around the corner from my hotel so I could walk there and back. I met a whole collection of odd-ball characters there, I suppose you must be a little strange just to accept a contract in what most of the rest of the world considers one of the 10 most dangerous places on earth. They ranged from the ex-military from all cornerd of the empire who cannot get off the adventure trail to the young graduates looking to get on it for the first time. There were the guys who just loved the place and have taken a local wife and want to stay and create their own business, the ones that have a family back in their homeland who have taken up with a local girl as their in-country girlfriend to deflect the bipedal mosquitoes and the others who are like a kid in a candy shop and want to try a diferent sweet every time.

Then there are the bipedal mosquitoes, the bar girls. These come in roughly two flavours, the hard core working girls who are out every night looking for a mark to spend the night with at a cost of up to 10,000 Nira (£40/$80) although I have been told that you can haggle although I heard the going rate was about 8,000. A lot of these girls had travelled up from Port Harcourt in the oil fields of the Delta region once the ex-pats pulled out a few months ago once things there became too dangerous. Then there are the weekenders, the young college girls who are looking for fun, dancing and a few beers. If someone can supply these great, if they can find a foreign boyfriend so much the better. These girls ask money, as does everybody in Nigeria, for things like text books, cloths, shopping. I heard that after they get you hooked they also have a whole army of sick relatives that need taking care of. People have to be tough to get by.

On the whole like most places I have travelled to it took a little while to get into the local culture and find out just what the place is like. I feel that I was starting to understand the island when I left. I still could not see the attraction of staying for years but would not be adverse to returning to learn more. I have always thought that 3 months is the minimum needed to get a good feel of a place, as work takes up most of you time, so a month was a bit short. But still better than 2 week holiday time anywhere.

If any af the people from Pat's ever get to read this, then thanks for a great time.

Strike in Nigeria

Things in Lagos took a turn for the worse last week, a national strike was called last Tuesday night. After the newly elected civilian government was elelected a few weeks ago they tried to sell of Nigeria's oil refining capacity, double VAT and increase fuel by around 15%. The unions, or what passes for unions here, decided to add to this a demand for a 15% pay rise. After 5 days the government backed down so everybody is back to work today. Although the bipedal mosquitoes did not strike, they were as much in evidence in the bars over the weekend.

And what a weekend it was. Without the worry of having to get up for work most of the ex-pats here were in party mode. The weather and the fact that most places were closed did not dampen anybodies spirit. I had a few busy nights in Pat's bar until the wee hours and then working from the hotel during the day. Problem with that is the only place to get internet access in the hotel is in the courtyard next to the pool, very distracting. After a couple of early finishes at Pat's just in case the strike was cancelled, Friday ended up a long one, not getting back to the hotel until around 3:30.

Saturday was going to be a couple of beers while watching the rugby SA vs NZ. But as those of you that know me may already have guessed this did not happen. Watched the rugby, which was a good game, A couple of mates and I went on to what we thought was a cuban bar but as with lots of things here it had been changes. Now a regular bar called Michaels. One of the guy's girlfriend felt sorry for us two without female company so called a couple of her friends. This led to a slightly embarassing time initially as bor both the girls and us as we did not feel comfortable having two girls dumped on us. After a while while the beers flowed things relaxed and we had a good time laughing, joking and generally being a little bit silly.

Met a fellow Millwall supporter there and after a few reminisces we treated the bar to a loud rendition of 'No-one like us' to a round of applause from the staff. If we had done that at home we would have probably been asked to leave. You gotta love this country....maybe. After leaving there and returning to Pat's we packed the two girls off home in taxis and I got left with my mates girlfriend as he had to be at work for early shift Sunday. Why me? was the feeling as she nearly started a ruccus in the bar by telling a white girl that she liked her outfit - her story, or by chatting up a white girl - white girl's story. Truth as usual somewhere in between. After assuring Pat I would keep her out of mischief I managed to get her off home shortly after.

Babysitting duties over and enough ju-ju juice under my belt I hit the dance floor. After a while a few of us decided to hit another club to play pool. We ended up at YNOT a well known local haunt. I had heard of this bar and looked it over on the first night in town. It did not look up to much then but I was assured that there was another part to the club. They were right as upstairs there was a large dancefloor which had working A/C. Plus a clapped out pool table in the corner. Spent the next few hours drinking and dancing. Home around 4am. Great weekend.

Sunday, a few beers at Pat's in the afternoon for a de-briefing session and an early night as the strike was over and back to work early this morning.

Still no news of when I will get my passport back from immigration, but at least they will be working on extending my visa again. I am expecting to leave this Thursday if possible.