Well, in the end the company made it difficult enough for me to decide not to travel in Algeria after all...long story and I won't even get into it...Here is the news: I found a new a** h*** in Calgary...See what I mean: hard to get surprised about it! It is really not the discovery of the year.
Anyway, I am home, and it is cold.
The trip home was particularly tedious especially in London where I stayed in a hotel quite a ways away from the airport and nobody at the airport, not even the bus drivers, knew where it was. Eventually I found it and it was just across the street from a great little pub / Thai restaurant. That pretty much was the high light of that trip. The rest was about sitting in a small seat and trying to pass the time. The plane was packed full with at least half a dozen babies and quite a few kids...need I say more? anyway I always travel with a pair of ear plugs in my pocket...or in my ears, so no big deal.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
the new policy and my new job
Things are nearly done here. Then?
I really don't know. The client company is saying that they will end my contract (big threat here since it is the end of the contract) and cancel my visa because even though they gave me their word that I could travel in Algeria with their visa (It was the only condition I negotiated prior to accepting the job) they do not want me to travel in Algeria on my free time anymore.
I am sure I do not need to give you the official line "safety...blah blah blah blah...liability...blah blah bah blah......new policy....blah blah blah blah blah"
Anyway, I haven't decided yet what to do, mostly because getting a new visa is not easy in Algeria. I need an invitation from a hotel and then I HAVE to stay at that hotel for the duration of my stay.
On a totally different note: I have accepted the job in Mozambique..for a South African company, for a year as a rotation, so 35 days on, 35 days off.
I am supposed to go to Mozambique for about a week in Mid February and then for work in Mid to late March. Right now I am too exhausted to be overjoyed by it..but once I have slept I know I will be smiling about it. I am very happy about this job.
I really don't know. The client company is saying that they will end my contract (big threat here since it is the end of the contract) and cancel my visa because even though they gave me their word that I could travel in Algeria with their visa (It was the only condition I negotiated prior to accepting the job) they do not want me to travel in Algeria on my free time anymore.
I am sure I do not need to give you the official line "safety...blah blah blah blah...liability...blah blah bah blah......new policy....blah blah blah blah blah"
Anyway, I haven't decided yet what to do, mostly because getting a new visa is not easy in Algeria. I need an invitation from a hotel and then I HAVE to stay at that hotel for the duration of my stay.
On a totally different note: I have accepted the job in Mozambique..for a South African company, for a year as a rotation, so 35 days on, 35 days off.
I am supposed to go to Mozambique for about a week in Mid February and then for work in Mid to late March. Right now I am too exhausted to be overjoyed by it..but once I have slept I know I will be smiling about it. I am very happy about this job.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The weird "bug"
Here is what I have and I am getting over and the company man (another canadian) is just starting:
-symptoms which appear and disappear so you think you're better and 10 minutes later you feel awful
- on and off violent headaches, right behind the eyes..in both my case and his case mostly behind the left eye. In my case to the point of bothering my vision.
- very cold and cannot warm up..again on and off
- very achy muscles and joints...mostly on..but sort of on and off and mostly behind the neck and along the spine.
- incredibly tired and need lots of sleep..I mean LOTS
- and the weirdest we both have vivid stressful dreams which we remember very well. Neither one of us usually remember our dreams. In my case the first two days whenever I slept I had the same dream...it was the weirdest thing ever. I would just go to sleep and continue the dream...very weird dream too!
We are comparing notes because I am three days ahead of him on it and he wants to know how it goes next. He laughed at me the first day I told him that I was having the weirdest stressful dreams that I remembered vividly...well, he is not laughing right now! Also I could see that he was thinking "she is just a girl, she does cough or nothing, she has nothing" the day of New Year he did say "You look like shit!"...always a charmer! Well, he is not coughing either! And he looks like he is suffering.
This morning when he got up he came to me and said "I have it beat. I feel great".. I warned him "just wait an hour or so old man!"... It sure came to be true!
We are the only two so far who have this thing...it is the weirdest thing.
I think I have it just about beat...now I feel "normal" for about 3 hours after each sleep, which is a great improvement. He is going home the day after tomorrow and he is starting to plan what muscle relaxant and the likes he wants to keep for the plane ride! Man 9 hours in the plane with this is not going to be fun! that'll teach him for laughing!! Ah ah ah !
-symptoms which appear and disappear so you think you're better and 10 minutes later you feel awful
- on and off violent headaches, right behind the eyes..in both my case and his case mostly behind the left eye. In my case to the point of bothering my vision.
- very cold and cannot warm up..again on and off
- very achy muscles and joints...mostly on..but sort of on and off and mostly behind the neck and along the spine.
- incredibly tired and need lots of sleep..I mean LOTS
- and the weirdest we both have vivid stressful dreams which we remember very well. Neither one of us usually remember our dreams. In my case the first two days whenever I slept I had the same dream...it was the weirdest thing ever. I would just go to sleep and continue the dream...very weird dream too!
We are comparing notes because I am three days ahead of him on it and he wants to know how it goes next. He laughed at me the first day I told him that I was having the weirdest stressful dreams that I remembered vividly...well, he is not laughing right now! Also I could see that he was thinking "she is just a girl, she does cough or nothing, she has nothing" the day of New Year he did say "You look like shit!"...always a charmer! Well, he is not coughing either! And he looks like he is suffering.
This morning when he got up he came to me and said "I have it beat. I feel great".. I warned him "just wait an hour or so old man!"... It sure came to be true!
We are the only two so far who have this thing...it is the weirdest thing.
I think I have it just about beat...now I feel "normal" for about 3 hours after each sleep, which is a great improvement. He is going home the day after tomorrow and he is starting to plan what muscle relaxant and the likes he wants to keep for the plane ride! Man 9 hours in the plane with this is not going to be fun! that'll teach him for laughing!! Ah ah ah !
This is the way Algerians see it
The Algerians who managed to get Eid off on their rotation off are mostly back. I talked with some of them and asked them how their holidays were. Unwillingly here I opened quite the subject. Apparently in town the mood was very bad over Eid…and when I asked why, of course it was because of Saddam Hussein. I am told that some newspaper had “Thanks a lot Cowboy for your present. We will never forget it” and this was not meant nicely.
They told me that the hanging of Saddam Hussein on the day of Eid was perceived as a provocation.
Here is some of what I was told:
“People in America will pay for that. He (Bush) will go to his ranch in Texas and not care, but the people of America will pay for this”
“The Arab world now has a reason to unite.” (you will notice that usually Algerians do not consider themselves Arabs...this is how united they now feel)
“They took pictures of him hanging. It is an insult.”
“People who before didn’t care are ready to take arm and go to Iraq”
“People will never forget that. It is a provocation”
“He (Bush) will cry and wonder after why “nobody likes me”…” mimicking a child crying.
I tried to explain that before I came to Algeria I had never heard of Eid and that the people of America do not know about it. I tried to point out that maybe the decision was made by people who did not know about it…but let’s just say that they did not buy the second part. Yes, they know that nobody knows about Eid…the same way that they didn’t know about Easter until I crack a joke about “Happy Easter” when we were all wishing each other all the “Happies” appropriate for this time of year. So yes they know that the people don’t now…but they don’t believe that Bush didn’t know.
I haven’t read the western papers about it: Did he know?
They told me that the hanging of Saddam Hussein on the day of Eid was perceived as a provocation.
Here is some of what I was told:
“People in America will pay for that. He (Bush) will go to his ranch in Texas and not care, but the people of America will pay for this”
“The Arab world now has a reason to unite.” (you will notice that usually Algerians do not consider themselves Arabs...this is how united they now feel)
“They took pictures of him hanging. It is an insult.”
“People who before didn’t care are ready to take arm and go to Iraq”
“People will never forget that. It is a provocation”
“He (Bush) will cry and wonder after why “nobody likes me”…” mimicking a child crying.
I tried to explain that before I came to Algeria I had never heard of Eid and that the people of America do not know about it. I tried to point out that maybe the decision was made by people who did not know about it…but let’s just say that they did not buy the second part. Yes, they know that nobody knows about Eid…the same way that they didn’t know about Easter until I crack a joke about “Happy Easter” when we were all wishing each other all the “Happies” appropriate for this time of year. So yes they know that the people don’t now…but they don’t believe that Bush didn’t know.
I haven’t read the western papers about it: Did he know?
Monday, January 01, 2007
New Year
I slept through New Year!
I have been nursing some sort of cold...mostly a furious headache, a all over shitty feeling and not being able to warm up. So I went to my room turned the heat right up, went to bed with the added sleeping bag on top of the bed and slept on and off. Of course I got up a 1:00am to work but I didn't need to be up for very long so it was good. then back up at 5:00am...normal day apart from an very early bed time.
Today I am a little better but grumpy and still feeling shitty...I wish I could find a job in a really warm country! I am freezing from the inside and wishing for the +60C of summer.
Anyway: Happy New Year to Everybody
I have been nursing some sort of cold...mostly a furious headache, a all over shitty feeling and not being able to warm up. So I went to my room turned the heat right up, went to bed with the added sleeping bag on top of the bed and slept on and off. Of course I got up a 1:00am to work but I didn't need to be up for very long so it was good. then back up at 5:00am...normal day apart from an very early bed time.
Today I am a little better but grumpy and still feeling shitty...I wish I could find a job in a really warm country! I am freezing from the inside and wishing for the +60C of summer.
Anyway: Happy New Year to Everybody
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