Barking at the Moon

2011-03-17T13:23:00.001-06:00

I should try to find a way to transfer all this to the new blog or preserve it in some way.

That's what you call cleaning up!

2010-06-24T09:09:00.002-06:00

You may notice a few posts have been removed.
I guess I am in a cleaning up mood.

And now moving on to a new blog .....

Thanks Giving

2009-10-12T20:35:00.002-06:00

By the way, this week end is Canadian Thanks giving long week end.
Happy Thanks Giving!

Canadian Thanks Giving is about thanking the harvest all in and having a last big feed before things getting really tough during the long winter, and just on cue winter started in Calgary a few days back. The last few days we had highs of -10 degrees C but apparently it is meant to go back to +10 degrees C this week.

back to ZA

2009-10-12T12:44:00.002-06:00

This is it I am going back to Johannesburg tomorrow. I'm pleased that I get to spend the first winter in a warm place. Since the weather turned to cold I am really stiff and sore. I know it is the cold because once I am in the sauna for a while it mostly goes away and if I manage to wear enough warm clothes it does not feel as bad.
It is forcing me to reconsider the original plan to retire in Saskatchewan. But that's my job this year: finding to where I want to retire. I am quite optimistic that I can sort it out in one year while I work.

Snow !!!

2009-10-04T14:38:00.002-06:00

First snow in Calgary today.
At one point it snowed heavily enough that you could look at it falling down and feel like you were shooting up like a rocket, up and up and up.

Favourite parts of having snow:
- Feeling like you are going up to the sky when you watch it falling.
- Going out at night and having two shadows in the snow, the blue from the moon and the yellow from city lights. You really only get this in snow, but this time there just isn't enough now to get this. You need both a snow cover on the ground (and the snow is not sticking this time, or at least not yet) and you need a clear sky so the moon shines through.
- The hollow singing sounds it makes when you walk on it when it is very cold
- snow devils you get also when it is very cold and you get very fine flakes caught in the wind at ground level.
- Everthing looks clean
- The chance to wear winter coats (I am a coat person. I have 3 inuit coats that I have somehow gathered over the years, and 2 "old man coats" that I really like too)

Somebody else's photos

2009-10-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

Look at these!

Day trip to the Rockies

2009-09-29T20:42:00.005-06:00

Driving towards the mountains

First stop Lake Minnewanka

Then Castle Mountain.

Mount Rundle in the morning. Probably one of my favourite mountains, with Mount Yamnuska (no photos of Yamnuska).

Returning at the end of the day on the back roads

But not without passing Mount Rundle one more time in the evening.

All in all it was a nice day.It was nice to get out of town even if it was for just a day. The air smelled nice of pine, wet undergrowth and in some spot the disturbed dried undergrowth (very different from the wet one).
The air has texture in the mountains, you can feel warm currents mixing with the cold crisp air; the smells change and are varied. I was lucky enough that there was a controlled planned fired somewhere behind Mount Rundle and I followed the change in light and smells that goes with it. Lovely day! If only there was no winter I could probably convince myself that I could live in Calgary so I could be close to the mountains.
As usual the best thing about Calgary is that when you leave it you can go nice places!!!

The Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment

2009-09-29T15:23:00.008-06:00

We all know about the experiment which demonstrated that we are more likely to do something awful if we are told to do so by a figure of authority.
I never knew the name of the experiment and I didn't even know if it was known as the XXX theory / experiment / syndrome or what. Whenever I wanted to refer to it I always had to explain it.
But now I know: It is called the Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiment, or the Milgram Experiment. It seems that the experiment was done at Yale U between 1961 and 1974.
I would like to read the book by Thomas Blass: "The Man who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram"

One more new thing

2009-09-22T16:11:00.004-06:00

I am going to try to sale my house before I go home.

....... [added later ->] WOW!! Did you notice I wrote "go home" talking about Johannesburg!!! this is seriously bizarre. I guess I am ready to sale this house.

Karl's Farm, The Land

2009-09-19T19:27:00.006-06:00

Karl's farm is in the Karroo, a beautiful part of South Africa if you like stark rigorous places ... which I do.

I left this place well tanned and with a totally believable explanation of where I had been for all the time I was gone since most people take a few weeks to get the sort of tan I had after four days in the Karroo.
I left being all over again in love with the Karroo. People said to me "you should marry a farmer" to which most added "It probably would be better if you just bought yourself a farm".

The Nguni cows

2009-09-19T19:11:00.004-06:00

Nguni cows were originally never kept by Afrikaner farmers. They give less milk that European cows but they are resistant to local conditions. It used to be that only the local would have Nguni cows. Now they are quite popular which is no wonder considering how beautiful they are.
You have to admit that they are beautiful.

Look at the colours on these two below!

I know that it is starting to look like I am a "cow person" which I am not even though I do have a few cow head carving from Mali in my Jo'burg house.

Karl's farm is a beautiful place. I was lucky to have be free to roam on it as I pleased.

Karl's farm the outside

2009-09-19T18:27:00.005-06:00

Karl's farm (Karl is my friend's brother) was a typical old South African farm with the maybe not so traditional Nguni cattle (more about those later). The building is an old Dutch style farm but with gum trees. I know gum trees, or eucalyptus trees, are Australian but as I have already blogged about they are everywhere in Ethiopia but I may not have ever mentioned that are quite common on the old farms of South Africa.

Here is a shot of their backyard with the eucalyptus and the excellent fence building prickly pears.

And here is the front porch. What is a farm without a front porch?!

You can see under the porch a Nguni cow head mounted on the wall.

Persimmons

2009-09-19T17:59:00.004-06:00

I bought myself some persimmons today. I really like them. I like the way they taste, though you have to wait until they are VERY ripe before eating them from my point of view; and I like the way they look.
Their name should have been the name of somebody's daughter in a Greek legend and should now be the name of a constellation.
Obviously the girl would have had red hair, so she would have to have been a viking baby found in a basket on the beach or something like this.
Persimmon, what a great name!

Weaver bird

2009-09-19T16:55:00.003-06:00

In the garden of my house in South Africa I have a weaver bird. I was really happy about this. I love watching them. The nests are quite sophisticated really and it is fun to watch them hang upside down while weaving the nest into some structure strong enough to hold the babies while they grow

I think I only one male who is building two nests and trying to attract two females but I am not sure. I wonder how many nests there will be when I get back.

The probelm with weaver birds, so I discovered, is that they take off all the leaves and flowers and anything that grows off the surrounded branches. It can't be good for the tree, but it does make it easier to watch them.

You can see the "bold spot" in these two photos.

Random photos I like

2009-09-14T20:31:00.013-06:00

Most of these are pretty old. You probably have seen them all already.

This one is very very old. I call it "Lone steppe walker"

Just a close up of rocks at the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

A photo I took of a bat flying around in Mozambique.

Closed door

Rocks in Kruger

Clouds to the west of Calgary one summer evening.

Garbage fire when burning confidential documents before leaving Algeria.

A great way to describe life

2009-09-14T20:05:00.004-06:00

I am reading "the Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe. It is by far the best book I have ever read to explain life.
If ever there was an alien philosopher trying to understand human life I would put it on its list of "must read".

The story is totally irrelevant but if you are curious here it is: A teacher goes on an insect collecting holiday to a small village by the ocean. When he gets there he discovers that the beach dunes are advancing through the village and trying to engulf it. As a way to keep their village the locals put a lot of work into digging the sand around their houses and this results in some houses finding themselves at the bottom of deep steep-sided holes in the sand. When the teacher asks for a place to stay in the village he is sent to the house of a woman who lives alone and find himself trapped there.

It doesn't sound very good from the way I describe it, but it is a short book, if you get the chance and are at all curious about how some people perceive the absurdity/triviality of life and human nature I recommend it. It is a fascinating little book.

By the way

2009-09-13T20:11:00.000-06:00

... I am in Calgary.

Two excellent books

2009-09-13T20:02:00.005-06:00

I have been reading a lot lately of everything two books stand out:

"The map of love" by Ahdaf Soueif.
A difficult book to describe as it is the story of two women (one American and one Egyptian) who meet now in Egypt when one (the American one) delivers to the other (the Egyptian one) a case which contains the journals, letters and other paper traces of another woman (who turns out to be both their grand mother ... or is it great grand mother?...Either way it is not particularly significant so I am giving nothing away). The Egyptian woman writes a book as she goes through the papers about the life of their common ancestor. In the book we are reading (which is not the book she is writing) we see the life of the two women and the life of their grand mother. A lot of very interesting historical facts are passed along about the colonial history of Egypt through all this.
A great book.

"Ahab's wife, or the star gazer" by ???
I left the book in Johannesburg. I wanted to make sure I had it with me in South Africa in case I wanted to read it again.
It is the life story of the girl who eventually becomes Captain Ahab's wife. Let me tell you that her claim to fame has nothing to do with Ahab (At least at the point where I am) as she is a girl / woman with a lot of personality.

It is cold

2009-05-12T22:52:00.003-06:00

Last night in Johannesburg it went down to 7 degrees Celsius!!!

Everybody thinks "Africa!!!" but Johannesburg is pretty high and it gets pretty cold at night in winter.

The weird politics of South Africa

2009-05-12T22:37:00.003-06:00

Political comments in all parts of the world tend to be weird, unfair and often unfounded, but here in south Africa things get really weird at times.

Zuma, now the president of South Africa, was involved in a scandal about him having unprotected sex with a HIV positive woman. His comment at the time was "but I washed afterwards"...as if it was going to make a difference!!

But now one leader of the opposition, a white woman, made some comment about Zuma being sexist (which he is) and having endangered his wife by having his unprotected sex with an HIv positive woman. The answer came back that Helen Zille (the woman who said this) is a "racist girl" (racist I have not doubt that she is, "girl" I would have to argue that she is well past that point) and she is accused of having her own harem of males in her cabinet because she appointed males only. Zuma then accused her of being sexist and racist for appointing only white males in her cabinet. Now that I can live with this comment a lot better than the "harem" comment. I cannot beleive that she would be dumb enough to indeed only have white males in her cabinet!!!!
The ANC youth League threatened to take militant actions against Helen Zille but then again there has been quite a few threats of violence from the ANC Youth League just about anything at all they don't like, so that is just the thing one would expect.

So here it goes. He is sexist, she is racist and likely sexist too (she couldn't even find one woman)and the ANC Youth League continues to talk about violence against who ever they do not like.... just another day in the political world of South Africa.

If you want to read more here is the BBC's report on it.

unreadable blog

2009-05-12T22:20:00.002-06:00

I know english is not my first language, but I just re-read my last post and the number of errors in it actually made it impossible to read it.
Wow, I am a lot more stressed than I thought.

Timbuktu / Timbouctou

2009-05-07T09:51:00.004-06:00

I don't know if I have ever mentioned it but I have been thinking for a while that I would like to go to Timbuktu (that the English spelling; Timbouctou is the french spelling).
Today in the book store I saw a book "the meanings of Timbuktu" it was a collection of paper from a conference on the History of Timbuktu with obviously particular emphasis on the manuscripts which are there and the old universities.

I'd love to go to Timbuktu but mostly I want to go to Mopti.

Now I remember typing the name "Mopti" so I must have blogged about it earlier.

The results are in

2009-04-26T22:34:00.002-06:00

Well, ANC won, and that was fully expected, but they did not get the two third of the vote they needed to be able to control the parliament. They came just short of it with 65.9% of the votes.

the ANC has been quite clear that it want to make changes to the constitution. The anti-ANC people were sure that if the ANC had two third of the votes and as a result control the parliament, they would right away change it so that ruling presidents could not be sued for corruption hence protecting Zuma from further possible trouble with the law. Now we will never know what they would have done.

Things are amazingly quiet. I know there was posters and the newspaper's headlines are about hte election but compare to the US elections, or even elcetions I remember in France from when Iw as a kid, this is nothing. Honestly you could be a tourist in South Africa and not have known that it was the presidential elections.

Still no results

2009-04-23T22:19:00.002-06:00

Zuma started to celebrate last night, he is obviously going to win. The official statements are that over half the votes have been counted and so far in the counted votes Zuma has 66.5 % of the votes.
I tell you this 2 third majority could make quite a difference as it would means that Zuma would be able to change the constitution, which he has said he would do.

No results yet

2009-04-22T22:31:00.000-06:00

Well, things went well.
This morning people who voted are walking around with a purple thumb. I think it is very clever the way people who vote have their thumb stained with purple ink which is very hard to remove (especially in the little skin around the nail). They do the same but with the index finger in Mozambique.

Apparently there was very few incidents. From what I heard on hte radio it seems that there was one person working at the polling station shot in the leg, but this was because somebody was trying a robbery at the polling station. One woman working at another polling station was arrested when they found that she was carrying a all bunch of already filled in ballots (they never said which party she was "voting" for). And in a suburb of Johannesburg there was a bit of an issue about the ANC giving food and T-shirts and promising a BBQ dinner to those who voted for the ANC, but apparently since they werre more than 100 metres from hte entrance of the polling station it did not break any rules.

People I asked seemed to have waited in line from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Now we wait for the results.

Election day

2009-04-21T22:20:00.003-06:00

As I turned the computer on this morning I found out that for the rest of the world it is Earth Day today. Here it is national election day. To make sure that people can go and vote today has also been declared a public holiday. The polls opened this morning at 5:00am.
I talked with quite a few people here and listen into many conversation about the elections.There was some real surprises for me, but mostly it confirmed what I would have guessed, that is that apart from very rare exceptions people vote by colour.

I forget how many parties have candidates, I think something like 30. You have two christian parties, one party called "Women Foward" and other odd little parties, but mostly the issue today will be: will the ANC get a two third majority. If they do they can basically do what ever they want, but if they don't they will have to convince other parties (or should I say other party: namely the COPE) to agree with them on issue for resolutions to be passed.

Obviously the presidential candidate for the ANC is Jacob Zuma, a Zulu. The presidential candidate for COPE (the party which separated from ANC) is a Bishop who, people told me, used to say that religion and politics should not mix. The COPE is viewed as possibly less corrupted and more skilled (I am quoting here) than the ANC party, but some view them as arrivist who are just trying to "ride the wave"...meaning the wave of success that the ANC seems to have with black youth. I hate to say but post apartheid at what time was the ANC not popular?!?

One colleague here who lives in the townships told me that at the last election the queues to vote lasted from 4:00am to 10:00pm so I don't expect to get the results today.

The beach

2009-04-14T22:22:00.006-06:00

Some random picture of the beach.

I really like this picture but obviously it could be taken anywhere at all.
the rocks in this areas weather in a very beautiful but very sharp pattern and I wouldn't want to be climbing on them.

I couldn't resist that shot.

I kept on seeing these snells but they really only became fascinating when I saw how they behaved with this poor Portuguese-man-of-war. they were just devouring him. It was gross and scary and revolting. they were crawling all over him and more were coming all the time. they move quite fast.

the River

2009-04-14T22:13:00.003-06:00

One interesting and somewhat unusual feature of Kenton-on-the-Sea is that it is in between to rivers which reach the sea just a couple of kilometres away from each other. One morning we took a boat trip up one of the river.

On the river valley a particular type of "forest" grows. It main characteristic is its abundant of Euphorbias ( the tall silver green cacti).

with rare cycads (the large bright green palm like plants in hte photo below)

and of course we saw the unavoidable impalas.

Easter long weekend at the beach

2009-04-14T22:03:00.004-06:00

I took the Easter long week end off and went to Kenton-on-the-Sea, a small town on the East coast of South Africa where some friends have ahouse. I had a great week end but it sure makes it hard to come back to the office.
There is a great view from the house and you could hear the surf. It had been ages since I had been to the ocean. By the way this is the Indian Ocean, but here, compare to Mozambique it is quite cool. Some people were swimming but personally I don't like cold water.

One day we went for a long walk to a point where Bartholomy Dias had erected a cross after his ship sank. On we way I saw old dunes and features that were exactly like some of hte stuff I had seen in the Sahara when I was looking for arrow heads. the rock under that plant is an old dune.

Here are some view of the old and new dunes. It was not only really interesting but also a really nice spot.

Home sweet (???) home

2009-04-07T21:59:00.007-06:00

So here the house. I think that it is slowly starting to llok more like "my" place.
Last Saturday one of the art gallery where I like to go had just received a all bunch of stuff from Ethiopia, some amazing stuff.
They have stuff from all around Africa in that place (I want the job of being the person who goes out to buy for them!!!) but if I really like something more often than not it is either from Mali or from Ethiopia.

The "trays" on the table below are from Ethiopia. (I should go back to Ethiopia I was there so briefly)

This chair is also from Ethiopia too. It is amazingly comfortable.

But the Bull heads (which I normally refer to as "cows") are from Mali.

I love these cows they are part of The Deegal festival. In December the Fulani (a particular tribe of Mali) take their cattle across the river (the Niger) in Diafarabe (Mopti region of Mali) and obviously this is a likely time to loose some of the cattle, so before they cross the river they have a festival and this is where the masks come from. I would imagine also that they would be useful in leading the cattle across. Every single one of them is different. The one below has such a "friendly" face.

OK, I'm bored!

I work mostly from 6:00am to 6:00pm. Yesterday I worked until 7:30pm.

I am so looking forward to the long week end by the Indian Ocean.

Also I know you don't want photo of my furniture!!! As I was saying above: I'm bored!

bragging rights

2009-04-05T22:45:00.004-06:00

Globalgal is blogging that she is in pistachio heaven in China (lucky girl).

Maybe I should brag too.
this Saturday I went to my local fruit and vegetable store where I bought:

- fresh figs (yummy!)
- asparagus
- tangerine
- pomelos
- grapes (red and white)
- green beans
- mangoes (very cheap right now)
- baby zuchinis (there is not way to get the non-baby ones)
- avocadoes
something else I forgot what right now. All together it was a great big box full of fruits and veggies.....for a grand total of the equivalent of US$14.

But on the other hand we (on this side of the equator) are heading for winter and you can feel it in the air in the morning, it is a little nippy.

photos

2009-04-05T22:40:00.001-06:00

By the way I do know that you guys want photos!
I don't have internet at home so it gets a little more complicated to load photos, but give me some time and I'll show you some.

planning ?!?!

2009-04-05T22:32:00.003-06:00

Here things are alright I guess.
I have to say that I am feeling a little restless and in fact to help with this I am looking into a trip to Timbuktu...even just the looking into it is helping some. I have the flight itinary (with cost) of Air Mali between Bamako (the capital of Mali) and Timbuktu on my wall in the office right under a photo of Djenne (another town in Mali very well worth seeing...look it up). ...I am even reading a book (pretty good one actually) about this guy traveling from the coast of Gambia to Timbuktu...but he did it in boats, taxi and things like this. I am unfortunately planning to just fly there.
I tell you if I wasn't a woman I would be doing a lot more stuff like that!!!
Maybe I shouldn't use this as an excuse and actually get cracking on some of the stuff I would like to do, like actually canoeing to Timbuktu! Hey, they have Malaria pills now.....and anyway it certainly looks like I have already had malaria (thought we will never know for sure until I have a blood test).
I always wonder how people plan stuff like that. You always read in the intro that the author dreamt about for years, planned for at least a year etc etc etc...what were they planning? I don't get it, it is not as if you can predict what will happen, and presumably they are not taking months to book a plane ticket and accomodation for the first few nights!! It always make me feel like I am missing something. I should be planning trips instead of just going. Does it make the trip better?
Thought to go to Mali I will have to plan some since i need to get a visa before going. I am so spoiled and so use to just getting one at the border!
Maybe I should use the next 5 months (only 5 months left on the contract) to plan some crazy trip on this continent!!

In a totally different scale for the long week end of Easter (here it is friday to Monday included ....maybe it is everywhere like this but how would I know I never had a job where this kind of stuff matters) so anyway for the long week end I am going to a small town on the east coast of South Africa between Port elizabeth and Durban. I have some friends who have a house right by the ocean there and it is supposed to be a fabulously beautiful place. I am so looking forward to it. I tell you I am starting to know more places in ZA than most South Africans....

building up to elections in South Africa

2009-04-02T22:46:00.000-06:00

Here in South Africa there will be presidential election on the 22nd of this month and things are starting to build up. The 22nd has been declared a public holiday so people can goand vote. I thinks that this is good even though it might have been easier to choose a day which was already a public holiday this month since in April we already have three days of public holiday. After all some people are paid by the day and only make money if they work. Here I am talking about the so called "casual labourers" (I can't stand this expression), the gardeners, the maids of which there are LOTS in South Africa.

But back to the elections. The two biggest issues about it are of course: the all mess around Jacob Zuma, and the split of the ANC.
Right now the leading party is the ANC (African National Congress). But a few months ago The ANC split into two and part of people from the ANC form the Cope (congress of the People). There is a good article explaining the split on BBC World. Prior to the split ANC was pretty guarantied to win the elections, but now there is a slight possibility that this might not happen.
Jacob Zuma is the head of the ANC is facing charges of corruptions for the second time regarding a very controversial $4.8billon arms deal which took place in 1999. Of course his supporters are saying that all this is brought up as a political move to prevent him from being elected and you do have to say that the timing is a suspicious here.
Desmond Tutu yesterday spoke up about all this and said that if Zuma wants to clear his name he should go through the court, and I have to agree with him on this, apart from the fact that regardless of what the results are it will not change people opinions. People will just assumed that the court system just did not work regardless of what the results are...and really there are no reasons to beleive the court system.
Tutu these days is speaking quite strongly against the ANC. In fact today in the front page news are all about the ANC condemning "Tutu's sacrilege".
Tutu is an old hero of the anti-apartheid days and is of the same "vintage" than Nelson Mandela. I remember going to see him speak in Calgary years ago when Iw as a students. I thought he was a very charismatic character, something that you don't catch on TV shows.

On a different note:
Presumably the fact that South Africa has denied the Dalai Lama a visa for him to come and meet with other Nobel Peace prize winners so as not to offend China has made it to the news where ever you are.

Taxis on strike

2009-03-24T22:24:00.000-06:00

Here in Johannesburg what we call taxis are really mini buses who pick up people on their path (most workers who live in the township, like Soweto, do not have cars and have to go a long way to go to work).The taxi drivers are typically real bullies. They drive terribly just like you would expect from a road bully. They go through red lights, change lane without notice etc just because they feel they can.
They even bully their customers. One of my colleague here was in a taxi and since he wasn't full he refused to go any further until more people came and when she wanted to leave to take another taxi he bullied her into staying.
They are known for carrying guns and there is often incidents in the newspaper of taxi drivers shooting at each other.
Yesterday they were on strike for one day and in heir anger against people who were finding other ways to go to work they ended up shooting bus drivers and getting violent towards cars. One other colleague of mine was taking the ramp to get onto the highway (a concrete overpass that you cannot drive off) when she saw ahead of her a group of taxi drivers throwing bricks and shooting at cars. She quickly reversed (on a highway ramp!) and got away from there.
The police typically does not get involve with taxi drivers because they have guns, there are many of them in town and just like anybody else they don't want to get shot at. This is the main reason why the taxi drivers can drive anyway they want: the police doesn't want to get shot trying to give them a ticket.

through all this everybody is calm and ultimately finding it frustrating but entirely normal and entirely unavoidable.

Things are alright here

2009-03-23T22:33:00.000-06:00

So what am I up to?
Mostly I work! I am sure this will be not surprise to those who know me, but on the other hand I am tryingto make an effort to try to do other things. This is not a rotation job anymore. I have taken the week ends off so far. Of course in the office they are happy about this. Ultimately this is what they wanted. They wanted (and still want) me to have a job as close as possible to a "regular" office job. I have to seriously consider how I live well while doing this job. Especially since they have asked me if I would extend the contract (and just in case you wonder I said that yes I would...I have to work for a living and right now it is not a good time to be an unemployed contractor in the oil industry!) so life style has become a bit of a priority in my personal life.

I've settled into the house fairly well. I've already cooked myself a couple of meals, though nothing extravagant (home made chicken soup one day and mushrrom risotto the other) but most of all in a real effort to make this place feel like home this week end I made myself some great coffee and burnt a little frankincense while making coffee. The combined smell always makes me feel great. I never fails to bring visions of good life in warm places, desert, nice food and somehow also reminds me of Ethiopia. I instantly thought of making myself a lamb couscous and in fact bought al the ingredients..with lots of chick peas.
Another thing which never fails to make me feel good is having books and I have already a couple of boxes of books in the house, though no bookshelves. One entire box is from a friend who has asked me to take them to the secondhand bookstore, but that I am keeping first to see what I want to read in the lot and to make my house feel bookish and comfortable. Along the same line I have shuffled around a good part of the furniture to create a few good reading spots. The owners who lived in the house before me (it is the first time they rent their house) are clearly not into reading, you can just tell by the lay out of the house and by the obvious lack of bookshelves...not one in the entire house.

All this to say, things are alright here, I grant you maybe in a bit of a boring way, but alright just the same.

Second day at work

2009-03-09T22:27:00.001-06:00

I am so happy I did not take the staff position!!
Today is my second day at work since I took the week end off and already as I was stumbling into the shower this morning I was thinking "OK, only six more months of this" and I was feeling quite depressed about it, in fact I had a moment of : "I can't do it" near panic. I'm hoping it is because I basically just landed and I am quite tired...actually I am more at the stage of "feeling weird" where I cannot tell if I am tired, thirsty or just plain old.
Last week end, my first week end here (I landed on Friday ) was not entirely a success. I did go out for sushi with a friend on Saturday night, then for a movie and stayed with friends on Sunday night but still. It plain felt weird. Thats' what I don't like about short periods of time off (like week end) is that you are basically counting the hours off. It feels like a mixture of trying to rest, trying to do all you want to do and passing the time before you have to go back to work...and I don't like it. The last time I had a job with week ends off I was ?????? ........ Let's see...... I was .... what ever... It was nearly 20 years ago!! It was a life time ago.
Ok, breath deep and repeat after me; "it is only for six months. It is only for six months..."

By contract I have to work 110 days in those six months (which is quite reasonable...well, I negociated the contract myself so I can't really complain)... since traveling days are work days I've already worked 4 days (today is the fifth day) so 106 days to go.....yaaaks!

my hands on my way to Oman

2009-02-28T12:43:00.003-07:00

There are better pictures of the henna on my hands but I like this picture which just shows my hands in a normal activity.

"Adrift on the Nile" by Naguib Mahfouz

2009-02-28T11:25:00.007-07:00

Here is another book for Melissa's book challenge. The advantage of this one is that it is also one of the book on my "99 books that capture the Spirit of Africa" list.

Naguib Mahfouz is a fabulous writer, or is this too obvious since he is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature"?
He writes stories which could nearly be taken to be simple. As you read his work though you cannot help but know that everything is a metaphor, everything is a parable but you cannot tell for sure what the message is, if there is one really and if what you read in it tells you more about yourself or about Naguib Mahfouz. His writing is loaded with morals, messages, typically unspoken truisms about human nature and philosophical thoughts. "Adrift on the Nile" is no different that way. It is the story of few friends who have respectable and even successful lives in day time but meet in the evening on a houseboat on the Nile to smoke kif (obviously a drug from the story, a mildly hallucigenic possibly, but honestly I do not know). Anis Zaki lives on the house boat. He is the "master of ceremonies" and all the other characters just drop by. From the start you get the sense that these friends have been meeting regularly for a long time and even though small things in their meetings may change their friendship has been the same for a long time and is both shallow and solid at the same time. One day one of them brings a young woman, self proclaimed "serious woman". She is a journalist who dreams to write plays and does not share the water pipe with them. From that point on things change slightly, enough for them to decide one evening to take a road trip instead of staying at the boathouse. During this trip an accident happens and their friendship and lives are changed. I really don't want to say too much and spoil the book for you.

Maybe on another day I would describe the book as a story showing the struggle of people between futility and seriousness, or is it between absurdity and meaning, right and wrong, hope and despair, sadness and principles (I know a weird juxtaposition here)?
What can I say it is a book by Naguib Mahfouz and you have to read it so you can decide what it is for you. Truth is there is no story, or none that you need to remember, there are only situations and feelings, relations and reactions, basically people getting together every night and being friends.

Here is a passage... I guess I should say that one of the character who is a known womanizer possibly fell in love with the "Serious young woman" and is asked if he would contemplate marriage...here it is:
" He paused a moment before saying: "No." His hesitation made a deep impression on everyone. Why don't I put the brazier out on the balcony and have my own fire festival? Its blaze is immortal, unlike that of false stars. But women are like the dust, known not only by their rich scent but by the way they seep and settle into you. Cleopatra, for all her amours, never divulged the secret of her heart. The love of a woman is like political theater: there is no doubt about the loftiness of its goals, but you wonder about the integrity of it. No one benefits from this houseboat like the rats and the cockroaches and the geckos. And nothing bursts in unannounced through your door like grief. And yesterday the dawn said to me when it broke that really it had no name."

Oops seven posts on Ethiopia

2009-02-27T11:22:00.001-07:00

Oops, seven blog posts about Ethiopia all in a couple of hours...too many maybe.
But they have photos!

Ethiopia: Markets outside Addis

2009-02-27T10:55:00.004-07:00

I was in Ethiopia for such a short time (5 days only) and since I didn't want to rush around and drive all the time, instead most everyday I rented a car (with a driver in this case which is totally unusual for me) and we did day trips with lots of stopping and not so much driving.
Here is one of the markets we saw...and yes this is where I got fleas from the donkeys, but I hold no grudges.

It was just shear luck that we drove through on market day. Absolutely no planning went into it. It was a busy place. I loved it.

You could barely see a village around this. It seemed to me that it was mostly a market.

While walking through it people definitely looked at me, we were far away from the anyway practically none existent tourist path and on top of it at one stand while the owner was not looking a goat started eating her goods so I shouted at the goat and shooed him away. The women around me laughed, called the owner to let her know I had defended her goods and a brief completely funny little moment ensued where everybody had something to say...but I will never know what they said though the owner seemed pleased that the goat had not eaten too much.

What a great scene.

Here is a closer look at it.

This one is form another side by the side of the road. The side of the road was full of women saling goods. I just asked if I could take her pictures, so here she is.

Ethiopia: Markets in Addis

2009-02-27T10:52:00.002-07:00

I keep on saying how much I liked Addis, but let's be fair the countryside of Ethiopia is even nicer.
Just to make a point: here are the stands and markets in Addis. Next I'll do the markets in the countryside.
I

Some houses in Addis along the "Chinese Road"

2009-02-27T10:36:00.005-07:00

This is "the Chinese Road" (as it was described to me)apparently the Chinese are building a very big highway which goes from Addis to ??? . Sorry I never asked. I don't even know if it is the Chinese governement or a private Chinese company. OK I am a useless traveler!

I generally don't like taking pictures of people or places to show the rest of the world how poor some people are so I have no pictures of the huge areas with the shacks I was referring too but here is a sense of what it may be like. Remember this is the good looking areas, if you turn that corner into the gravel road you see in the second picture it goes for a long way with houses getting quite small and quite poor.

Ethiopia Lion of Judah

2009-02-27T10:26:00.004-07:00

And then of course you have the Ethiopia's Lion of Judah.

Somehow in "real Life" the sculpture is quite charismatic.

More street scenes of Addis Ababa

2009-02-27T10:19:00.002-07:00

Again there is no particular message here, these are just random photos.

Addis Ababa random street photos

2009-02-27T10:14:00.003-07:00

There is no particular message in this. I just want to show scenes of Addis Ababa. But maybe you can understand from them why I liked Addis.

Ethiopia land of eucalyptus

2009-02-27T09:46:00.007-07:00

Yes, I know eucalyptus are not native of Ethiopia but apparently since the 1920s they have been planted in mass in Ethiopia because they grow relatively fast. In fact flying over Ethiopia before landing I noticed how about half the forest had a silver colour while the rest was clearly evergreens and I wondered what the "silver tree" was.
In the hills around Addis Ababa there are forests of eucalyptus and many women make a living going into the hills, cutting wood and walking back down in the afternoon to sale the wood in town.
People mostly still live in small shacks even in Addis. I don't want to misrepresent Addis and make it sound like a huge slum but in addition to very western looking buildings the majority of people live in small shacks and they cook on fires. As a result you can usually smell wood smoke and in the early morning you can see it in the air. I remember waking up in Addis wondering where I was, listening to the roosters and smelling the wood smoke and I remember thinking "I must be in Africa" before waking up fully and feeling happy that I was in Ethiopia. That very same morning I took a picture to show the air full of smoke hoping it would remind me of the feel and the smell in the air...and it does.

Here is another shot from my hotel room at a completely different time just to show what Addis is made of.
You see the edge of the Hilton tennis court and the houses with goats right behind. This is in the centre of Addis Ababa and the houses are quite nice. You can see that they have electricity and eucalyptus trees even here.

The hills around Addis are of course now in part naked because Addis is a BIG city and regardless of how fast eucalyptus grow the daily house fires of Addis are burning them faster than they can grow. This is a view of Addis in the distance taken from one of the hills the women go to to collect wood. there must be some rules on where the wood is cut because some parts of the hills were totally naked while others seemed practically untouched, as you can see in this picture.

The women walking down are loaded with huge bundles of wood.
Their only chance to rest is when they get at little walls by the side of the road so they can rest they load without having to pick it up off the ground again.

Women and donkeys go uphill "empty" and downhill loaded beyond belief. I never saw a man loaded with wood.

Addis Ababa's museum

2009-02-27T09:37:00.002-07:00

I guess I never really showed pictures of Ethiopia.
Here are some from the museum in Addis Ababa. Pretty interesting museum and you could even take some pictures.

Of course I had to go and see Lucy. I think that the sign pinned on the plywood over the entrance way gives you a good sense of the general style of the museum.

And here Lucy, but honestly I think it was a cast. I think the actual skeleton is traveling somewhere but I am not sure.

And here is the sign with it. I think one of the visitor when I was there was an paleoanthropolgy student or scholar of some sort, he was ecstatic. It was fun to watch him.
Lots of painting too in this museum here is one I liked which shows well the typical style of painting you see in Ethiopia. (note the coffee pot)

Even in bad weather there is always frankincense

2009-02-27T07:34:00.007-07:00

Its is funny how the body can get use to nearly anything.
When I was working in northern Canada regardless of the temperature I would walk to camp for lunch. This would typically mean anything from half a kilometre up to three kilometres and temperature would quite often be around -30C. But I would bundle up and walk to lunch.
Now I haven't lived in a proper Canadian winter in a few years and I am just back from a South African summer, mind you not a particularly warm one as this year is rainy and Johannesburg where I am is 1900 metres above sea level, and I am having a hard time with present day temperature in Calgary.
The last three days the temperatures stayed between -24C and -15C. I would have found this cold but still reasonable not that long ago. But now I don't anymore and I am spending most of my time indoor, though I made an effort and walked to the library (a 20 minute walk) two days ago, and to the post office (only 10 minutes) and to the grocery store (another 5 minutes) yesterday.

This morning I read the weather forecast and things are supposed to improve slowly, by Tuesday the temperature should be above zero..... I'm leaving Wednesday!!!

Anyway as a treat today as I am making my typical morning cup of coffee from the stove-top coffee maker I put two small lumps of frankincense under the stove burner and the house smells wonderful! I love the smell of frankincense and the smell of frankincense mixed with the smell of coffee reminds me of Ethiopia.

“Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party” by Graham Greene

2009-02-22T14:04:00.003-07:00

I thought I would use this book as my first book in Melissa's Book Challenge because it has “Geneva” in the title. In truth I do not think that it really capture the intended spirit of the challenge, but just in case, here it is.
This rather thin book describes one small part of the life of a toothpaste millionaire who lives in Geneva and who is a pretty cold and weird character. His wife died after he ruined the life of the man she was seeing secretly so she could listen to music, and during the book his daughter dies but he does not go to her funeral because she reminds him too much of his wife. Most of all this man “entertains” himself by having parties to which he invites a small group of faithful acquaintances - he refuses to call them friends. And these parties are designed as experiments to see how far the greed of rich people will take them.
I like Graham Greene. Here is a small extract of “Doctor Fischer of Geneva….”

“..But how does one describe happiness? Unhappiness we can so easily describe – I was unhappy, we say, because…. We remember this and that, giving good reasons, but happiness is like one of those islands far out in the Pacific which has been reported by sailors when it emerges from the haze where no cartographer has ever marked it. The island disappears again for a generation, but no navigator can be quite certain that it only existed in the imagination of some long-dead lookout.”

Isn’t he right? It is so hard to describe happiness, and so easy to describe unhappiness.

Posted a bit late, but here is Xmas

2009-02-22T09:29:00.004-07:00

I can't remember but I must have said something about spending Xmas at the rig.
I just found what I wrote at the time intending to post it here. SO here is it a bit late but ....

Even though I had plans for Christmas and everybody knew about them, on December 22nd at 4:30pm as I was leaving the office I was told that the next morning, very early, I would have to go to the rig because my back-to-back thought that the next part of the operation would be too much work for him. I was quite angry about it, but I went. When I arrived at the rig I remembered why I like working rigs. Everybody said “Welcome back” and the working atmosphere was great. Ultimately it was great to go back to the offshore rig that I would have never seen again if it hadn’t been for my incredibly lazy and selfish back-to back.

All this was last minute and I had nearly finished with “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen so I took with me “the Light that Failed” by Rudyard Kipling, thinking that it was going to be a simple, light, probably written for kids, book. I should say that even the cover gives that impression. Now I know “Do not judge a book by its cover”, but cannot you trust a book by its author? I say this because it turned out to be quite a dark little book. I wanted to finish it and I did, but it had none of the qualities I was hoping for when I bought it. I am a great fan of “the just so stories” and particularly the story about the elephant child. In fact the story of the elephant child is the reason why my first trip in South Africa was to see the Limpopo. This book was totally different. I don’t want to say too much in case you want to read it but in general terms it is the story of a man who was an orphan and now is an artist who became famous after his illustrations of the war in get published in a London newspaper. Already the character himself is pretty dark, as his preferred subject matter suggests, but from once in London a succession of terrible circumstances make him even darker….and that is all I am going to say! About “Pride and Prejudice” so much as been written that I really do not think I need to add anything, so all I will say is:While reading “Pride and Prejudice” I wanted to write and speak in perfect English. She writes beautifully!

In a totally different style here are two photos of things which look beautiful to me. I took these during my December time at the rig.

Lying about his age

2009-02-22T08:58:00.003-07:00

Mugabe is NOT turning 85, he is turning 87 this year. For some unclear reasons he turned 82 three years in a row. Who cares how old he is? I don't understand the lie.

Bob, we know you are 87!!!

So ignore BBC's article on his birthday.

Lentil soup, new pot and metal animals

2009-02-22T08:28:00.005-07:00

I am never home and my fridge looks like a "bachelor's fridge" with lots of condiments. But there is one difference between my fridge and the typical bachelor's fridge, it is that in my fridge what was original designed as a vegetable drawer is full of East Indian spices, lentils and beans. Today I woke up to -10C and since I am just back from a southern African summer I am finding it a bit rough so I decided to make myself some sort of lentil soup to warm up.
I have put ual dall, black ural dall, white ural dall, massor dall and moong dall with some regular split peas to soak and now I have a few hours to decide if I should go the "fenugreg", "cumin and tumeric or "tomatoes and shitake" way. Though I may try something totally different and let the Lentil and lime soup receipe from Nami-Nami inspire me into a different flavour.

I love fenugreg it reminds me of Yemen. "Tumeric and cumin" is maybe too obvious and "Tomato and shitake" is too wintery I think so I ill probably try some version of a spicy lime soup today.

The black pot I included in the photo is a new small pot I bought in South Africa.
I found a woman who makes pots. The photo does not show well but there is an interesting but simple design around the rim. I think I will go and see her buy more pots and ask her to make some more for me. This one is one of the medium size one she had. She also make small round pots which fit exactly into cups hands. The trouble of course is always to bring them back without breaking them. I travel with a big duffel bag which I seldom fill and whenever I carry pottery or anything fragile, as I did coming back from Ethiopia, I just buy one or two plastic buckets, put everything in with clothes as packing material and I close them with shrink wrap. So far nearly everything has survived the trips. A few coffee cups did break coming back from Ethiopia. In this case the bucket was actually more expensive than the pot. I also threw in a few metal animals made of recycled cans.
Here is a better picture of the pot with some of the metal animals. I particularly like the lion. The guys who make those have such a fabulous sense of 3D!

Bananas

2009-02-22T08:13:00.002-07:00

I just thought I would pass on to you a really interesting article about bananas.

I have to admit that "interesting" and "bananas" may not be two words you expect to see in the same sentence, but just give it a try.

I am moving to Johannesburg for the next six months.

2009-02-21T09:36:00.007-07:00

I keep on saying that "work is crazy busy" and I really thought that it was a phase...mind you a long phase...but I have come to realize that this is not a phase: It will remain busy this way always.

I am at home right now and will be going back to Johannesburg in about 10 days. The big difference is that I am going on a six months contract to live in Johannesburg and work in the office. I have rented myself a house and I am planning to work seriously on having a decent life style when I am in Johannesburg. I have long ago figured the way to be happy by always traveling and now I am going to try a little bit of "how to be happy with a nine-to-five" life...of course "nine-to-five" in this case is more a "six-to-six" but I am trying to improve this and cut the hours down to eleven hours per day. It might be wishful thinking on my part but after all I am one of the few, if not the only one, working such long hours. It comes from my rig background. When I work I find it normal to work until I have to stop to eat / sleep or do anything basic life things.

I had found an absolutely wonderful house to rent but the day after I visited it it was sold. I was very disappointed. It was such a wonderful house. I found another house to rent (though the first 10 days I will be in a bed and breakfast) for the same rent it is not half as nice but it is OK. Had I not seen the other house I may have found this house quite nice. Either way, the deal is made, the lease is signed, the deposit has been deposited and it is happening. I'll post photos once I move in.
It has 2 bedrooms each with its en-suite bathroom so if people want to visit here is your chance...I am not holding my breath I know that money is not flowing the way it used to and South Africa is a long way away and a fairly expensive ticket...anyway, the invitation is out.

Here are the photos from the real estate agent:

This is the master bedroom with a gas fireplace which I imagine that I will have to use in winter. the entire wall on the garden side is just glass...and yep, there is a tiny swimming pool! If you had ever asked me if I would ever have a house with a swimming pool I would have answered no without a second of hesitation.
This is the kitchen as seen from the entrance. This window looks onto the street side but you cannot see the street and nobody can see inside from the street. Houses in Johannesburg are often build like little bunkers. Inside it is all airy and open but there is a wall all around the house. There is also an alarm with all kind of motion detectors etc... This is Johannesburg after all.
This is the living room, also with a gas fireplace, as seen from the glass door to the garden. You can see the kitchen far at the end....and the light feature over the dining room will have to go!! What is it with me getting houses with hideous light features?
Living room from the kitchen...you can use the light feature from the 70s as point of reference...

The bathroom. There are three bathrooms I can't remember which one it is. The photo doesn't show its best feature. The tree is in a pot in a tiny little "atrium" a walled in small space opened to the outside and most of all day light. So you get day light and you never need curtains. It is a very South African thing to do. I visited another house, which was just too big for me, with several of those. One of the "atrium" was between the kitchen and the living room. They are great you can open the window and get fresh air...and relatively cool air since the sun does not hit the walls, and get extra windows with day light. In areas where it snows this is probably not a great idea, but what a great feature otherwise.
So, is anybody going to come and visit?

This house in a area of Jo'burg called Parkhurst. Very trendy area with art galleries, lots of restaurants and a secondhand bookstore. Which brings to mind: in the area where my Canadian house is (Kensington) there used to be 4 secondhand bookstores and they are now all gone!!! Crap!!!! Now I have to go quite a ways to get to a secondhand bookstore!

a little bit of news

2009-02-02T08:59:00.002-07:00

I have been pretty bad with this blog. Truth is work is completely crazy. I am cutting down and trying to work between eleven and a half and twelve hours a day...in the office!!!

I just want to post a piece of news:
I am going to work in the office for the next six months in Johannesburg (starting in March) and will be renting my own house etc.
I am really looking forward to the house part. I have already chosen which neighborhood I want to live in...and this is a very important decision in Johannesburg. Tomorrow I am going to visit a few places to for rent. Wish me luck.

Xmas at the rig and the rest in the outdoor living room of my friends' house

2009-01-04T07:04:00.003-07:00

I guess I should wish everybody a Happy New Year, but you know what regardless of the time of year I just hope the next day will be good..for me and for everybody else...one day at a time.

I've have not made any resolutions. I never make New Year resolutions.... I am already trying as hard as I am willing to try, anything more would not last. I don't mean to suggest that i think that I am perfect, maybe I am just admitting that I am lazy...
I swear, I am already trying as hard as I am willing to try!

This year once again, and I think it is either the 8th or 9th year in a row I worked on Xmas day. I had Xmas plans, everything was organized, my back-to-back was at the rig so all was covered (you never have 2 geologists so it WAS covered) but on the evening of the 22nd I was told that I had to go to the rig the next morning because my back-to-back thought that the work coming up would be too tiring for him!!!!
I honestly was outraged when I heard why I had to go.
the one thing that made my "visit" to the rig sweeter was that it was nice to see everybody again, and everybody was pleasant greeting me with "Welcome back" and smiling.
The guys on this rig are great!!! They made my Xmas!

Over the holidays when I was in town (Johannesburg being the town) I stayed with friends. They have an absolutely lovely thatch roofed house with a beautiful peaceful garden, two dogs, a swimming pool and most of all an outdoor living room... a very south African thing...Obviously you can only have an outdoor living room in areas where the climat is exceptionally good, and in Johannesburg the climat is perfect for it. It was great to stay with my friends. I really made a difference.
I'll post some photos of the outdoor living-room soon and you'll see what I mean.

Packing and Planning

2008-12-06T16:50:00.004-07:00

I am packing...again... Let's face it I am an expert at it but it seems that every single time there is a reason for me to take more than the basic necessities. This time it is Xmas, last time what was it? I can't remember.
I am flying tomorrow morning. I don't like this morning flight, first it means that when I wake up I have to get ready, second it means that I will have to spend 11 hours in Frankfurt...in winter it is just not that much fun. Also I have spent 11 hours in Frankfurt quite a few times, and immigration is not very good at squeezing their stamp on a partially used page...seems trivial but I use in average a page of my passport per month and even with the extra-thick passport I only have 48 pages, 5 of which are taken by the essentials at the front (things like m y name etc).

Anyway I checked the weather forecast in for Johannesburg so that I resist the temptation to pack for winter. Here it is: (thanks to Wunderground)

I am going back to Summer !!! Hurray!!
I an going back to work !!! Yikes!!!!

"The Neuromancer" and other "classics"

2008-12-05T10:55:00.007-07:00

One of my favourite books is "the Neuromancer" by William Gibson. It is meant to have been the first science fiction book dealing with cyberspace and the first cyberpunk novel. It won the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Hugo Award and made it to one version (and I don't know which one. I don't even know if there are several versions) of the Times 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.
I like the book overall but one of my favourite part about it is its first line: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." which in winter, and particularly today, I can really relate to.

Today I went second-hand-book shopping and I saw a copy of it. I must have bought at least four copies of it over the years. I did not buy another copy today. I cannot find it on my shelves and I am nearly sorry that I didn't buy another copy. But I bought a few other "classics":
I decided to forgive Joseph Conrad for having written the book that haunts me but that I cannot read and bought "Almayer's folly".
I bought two Graham Greene (always a mild source of surprise and embarrassment to me that I should be a fan of Graham Greene) "The Human Factor" and "Monsignor Quixote".
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen...and I am no Jane Austen fan, but I thought I should give it a try.
Rudyard Kipling, "The Light that Failed" just because one cannot read "The Just so Stories" again and again, and I had never heard of this book before.
"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman just because the cover says "Heaven to read, and you'll laugh like hell" and I wouldn't mind having a good laugh.

Now I just have to decide which of these I will take with me to work this Sunday.

Company for dinner

2008-12-04T17:37:00.005-07:00

Last night P. ( the girl in the picture above) and I went out for pizza... She brought her parents so there was 4 of us.
She had changed a lot since I had last seen her, which was really only a couple of months ago. She sits up really well and is still a really good, easy going baby with huge big eyes and round little cheeks.
...and she does this funny thing: I was holding her when she started sucking on my hand ... she did it for quite a while and she was dead serious about it.

The Governor General of Canada has prorogued the parliament

2008-12-04T17:14:00.005-07:00

Through everything which is going on in the world I would imagine that our situation in Canada is not widely reported but today the governor general (a representative of the Queen of England) has prorogued (suspended) our parliament until January 26th.
It is usually understood that the role of governor general is really one of show and even though it is obviously a position of power, this power is not typically used. This being said I have to say that Michaelle Jean (our governor general) had to get involved.
The opposition has formed a coalition against our minority government and is trying to take power without any elections. If you get into the nitty gritty of the thing it is possible and may even in some way appear alright but from my point of view just the way the opposition is handling the situation suggests to me that they should not be allowed to take power.
I am not going to rant and rave about it, just go an check it out if you are interested.

I wonder if Crazy Bob (also known as Robert Mugabe) is laughing at us.

Warning and recommendations about Ethiopia from the Canadian government

2008-12-02T15:13:00.010-07:00

This is what the government of Canada has to say about Ethiopia and the risk for travelers in Ethiopia... I am just reading it now, I never read it before going somewhere because I don't want to behave like a paranoid victim...there is nothing more dangerous than behaving like a paranoid victims, it attracts crooks. Anyway, here it is, from this site:
"You are advised to exercise a high degree of caution in the country. On September 3, 2008, an explosion occurred in the Merkato section of the capital, Addis Ababa. Bombings also occured in the capital in April and May 2008. Travellers should maintain a very high level of security awareness at all times and avoid public gatherings and street demonstrations.

The risk of terrorist attacks remains high in Addis Ababa and other areas of the country. Although foreigners are not ordinarily the target of such attacks, some local hotels including the Hilton and the Ghion have received bomb threats. Canadians should monitor local developments, avoid demonstrations, and register and remain in regular contact with the Embassy of Canada in Addis."

And of course if you go and check it out it goes on and on about areas to avoid entirely.
I would like to say that the sum of all the troubles I had in Ethiopia goes as followed: I was seriously bitten by fleas (over 60 bites over the area of my body which would just fit under a regular sized T-shirt) after going to a market in a small village off a dirt road and crossing (just like the rest of the crowd, I would like to point out) trough a packed mass of donkeys. OK, the thing is fleas and mosquitoes love me.
Here is an advice for you: if you want to go to a place where nothing at all will happen, ask me where I am going, nothing ever happens where I am. People in Thailand were stranded in the Bangkok airport. People in Mumbai went through hell, and some died. Just stick with me and we can go any place on the planet and nothing, absolutely nothing -being bitten by fleas does not count- will happen. Though I will say that in the Merkato (reputed to be the largest open air market in Africa) you should be wary of pickpockets. I had no problems but it is an area which by the density of the population and all that would lend itself to pick pocketing very easily anywhere in the world.

And let me just add as passing sarcasm one question regarding these recommendations from the Canadian government.....What government would that be???? We are going through a political situation right now which honestly remind me of political coups in crazy unstable countries.

Addis Ababa's Hilton

2008-12-02T09:58:00.010-07:00

I'm embarrassed to say, but I stayed at the Hilton in Addis..... I'm not sure why. It came recommended by somebody ... I guess this is my excuse. But there are lots of other decent hotels in Addis, none luxurious though...and that includes the Hilton by the way!.. I mean the "non-luxurious" part.
Another relatively fancy hotel which I went to see for next time is the Ghion. A very Ethiopian hotel but still quite nice (remember photos can lie it is not quite as nice as the photos show. It has the look and feel of a old beauty well pass its prime). To be truthful Ethiopia is not one of those places where you can expect to find something decent for cheap. This is not South East Asia!!

Here are a few interesting things I saw at the Hilton which is now the place where expats and diplomats hang out:
- Their menu had four Ethiopian dishes in grand total. I ate in small local restaurants and ate Ethiopian food everyday every meals and never had the same dish twice. Ethiopian food is very good. Thank goodness I have already somewhat mastered the art of eating with my hands...actually with my HAND (no "s") you only eat with your right hand.
- People who have adopted Ethiopian kids apparently bring them back for brief and relatively luxurious holidays...and by the way the locals hate it.
- A big wig general or something like this (I am not up on my military ranks) from North Korea was in Ethiopia while I was there, I was told on a weapon selling mission.
- Apparently all over the world investors have noticed Ethiopia (I am not sure what about) but there was investors from places like the UAE (United Arab Emirate) in the hotel (I know I talked to one of them...the mehndi on my hands....that's why he talked to me).
- Security is so tight that each time you come into the Hilton you have to go through a metal detector and your bag has to be X-ray-ed. Each car which enter the grounds has mildly searched. Now imagine getting back into the hotel with clearly re-used plastic bags filled with green grass as packing material (see blog below). They weren't impressed.
- The expats and diplomats have on going parties and fancy affairs. There was a big to-do about something rather every day I was there.
- Addis has hot springs and apart from being able to get to them in the pools and spas of the hotels there is also a public bath/shower down the hill form the Hilton.

One good thing about the Hilton is that, by pure chance, it is across the street from the mapping agency of Ethiopia and I was the second person in the all of Ethiopia (and the world for that matter) to buy the new 2008 map of Addis Ababa. It came out while I was waiting in their office. It is a great map with the satellite photo of Addis on the back and most landmarks are marked on it.
This brings to mind an interesting fact about Addis and Ethiopia in general: streets do not have names. They've started giving them names so now big avenues have names, but typically roads and streets have neither names nor numbers!

Ethiopia, part II : Coffee

2008-12-02T09:30:00.008-07:00

Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee and they make a fabulous cup of coffee. They have a coffee ceremony...or at least that what it is referred to as, but really it does not come across as a ceremony and maybe more as a "complex and peaceful procedure".
If you are going to order coffee at one of the little stands (and you'll recognize them because they have a little charcoal fire going, a woman sitting in front of it and a circle of wooden stools in front of her - sorry no photos) you need to know that getting coffee is going to take a long time. Of course if you go to one of those stands at a tourist hotel or at the airport it will not take that long. But if you do the right thing this is how it goes:
The woman takes green coffee beans and roast them on a metal plate on the charcoals (fabulous smell!) then while she pounds the beans with a wooden pestle she boils water in the coffee pot (a traditional pottery pot) on the same charcoals. At this stage she often puts some frankincense on the charcoals. All this is a slow process. Once the coffee is a fine powder she puts the powder into the water and you wait some more until the coffee is done. Whenever the pot shows steam (and so must be just about to boil) the woman making the coffee just take the pot off the charcoals for a while, then puts it back on. Typically about half an hour later you can drink a small cup of very strong (typically sweetened) coffee. Delicious!
One day I hired a local cab and went for a drive to the outskirts of Addis and found a local potter.

This is the coffee pots, and coffee cups I bought. (a detail of the photo above) and the grass you see in the photo above is what we used to pack around the pottery so it would break during transport.
One trivial but interesting thing about coffee in Ethiopia is that since Ethiopia was briefly colonized by the italians. Italy's relationship to coffee (strong small cups of espresso) is really an Ethiopian thing. The coffee you drink in the process I described above is very strong and drank in small cups not unlike little espresso cups.

Heart of Darkness is following me

2008-12-01T18:27:00.003-07:00

I have mentioned before how I have tried several times to read "heart of darkness", without any success. And I mentioned that I am pursued by that book.
Just to show that I am not exaggerating and that mentions of this books come up all the time:

Yesterday in the plane I started "The Last Elephant" by Jeremy Gavron and at p. 17 I read: "The ivory trade was the subject of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness......"

Today as I am "catching up" with the blogs I follow I found a mention of it in this blog: "Of course, there is a long history of tropes of darkness in connection with Africa – the “dark continent”, “heart of darkness” and so on".

See, I am not imagining it. I am pursued by this book!

Makeda, the Queen of Sheba and mother of Solomon's son

2008-12-01T17:16:00.009-07:00

After Dubai I went to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).
I will say more about this later, post pictures and the all thing.
I really enjoyed Ethiopia, thought I was only there for six days and it is not enough, not even close to being enough in fact, there is so much in Ethiopia. Instead of rushing about and seeing a little bit of everything and not really having the time to enjoy what was in front of me I took the time to explore Addis Ababa and just did three small trips outside Addis. But this is not what this post is about. I want to talk about Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. She was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Ethiopia (other reasons being Lucy, the coffee, the jewelery, the art, the churches etc etc etc)

I bought myself a little book about the culture of Ethiopia ("Ethiopian Civilization" by Belai Giday). It is a good little book and I learnt a lot, but here I want to talk about Solomon and his behaviour towards the Queen of Sheba (note that in the book she is referred to as "the queen of Saba". She ruled over Ethiopia and Yemen, and Saba was her capital city). I found the story, that maybe you all already know, in this little book.

This is a picture of the Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon of Israel (I found it at this website but there are many other sites).
The part of the story I want to repeat here concerns the Queen of Sheba and how she ended up bearing Menelik, the son of Solomon (believed to have originally been "Ibn-al Malik" which means "son of the king").

Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomons wisdom and being a farsighted queen always in pursuit of greater knowledge decided to go and visit him in Jerusalem. While she was visiting Solomon one evening Solomon with a particular design in mind had a great feast for her with a lot of spicy food and wine. At the end of the meal when it was time for the Queen of Sheba to go back to the palace she was using during her visit Solomon asked her to stay. She explained that she would only stay if he was to promise not to force himself upon her. Solomon agreed but on one condition. He told her that he would not force himself upon her BUT in exchange she would not take anything of his without first asking for it. And the Queen of Sheba agreed to it. So she stayed at his palace. They slept in separate beds but in the same room.
During the night, after a heavy meal of spicy and salty food, the queen woke up thirsty and helped herself of some water from a jar Solomon had had put at his bedside. Solomon who was not sleeping caught her arm and then reminded her of their agrement. He pointed out that since she had broken her part of the deal he was now free to break his part of it.

Menelik was born during her return home to Ethiopia, so obviously she did not leave the palace the following morning, this suggest to me that she was alright with the arrangement but I cannot help but think that Solomon who is reputed to be so wise and fair tricked her and behaved in a very bad way. So is this the kind of behaviour you would expect from a wise and fair king?

In his defense I will say that Ethiopian women are absolutely beautiful...but still....

Mehndi

2008-12-01T16:49:00.007-07:00

Today I went to the library. I usually go to the library the very first day I arrive in town but since I landed on a Sunday I could not go and get my truck out of storage.
As usual I borrowed many more books than what I could possibly read just because I enjoy having the choice.
I also bought a few books from the discard: a few mysteries to read on the plane cheap enough to leave behind once I am done with them and a book on mehndi (you have to admit that the timing on that one is amazing). I was reading parts of it when I realized that I never did say anything about the process of having henna drawings on my hands (this is mehndi for those who do not know).

In the book they go over recipes for the paste, this I cannot say anything about. The paste was mixed already. But I did notice that while I was having my hands done some local women came and bought the paste from the place where I was.
In the book they also say that the henna should stay on overnight. I had mine on for an hour.
They say that once the henna is dry you have to apply a mixture of lemon and sugar and leave it on for a long time. We did no such thing.
But they do say that warmth applied while the henna is drying makes the colour more intense. I do not know if this is true but they did have little electric heaters at the beauty salon where I was. Also, as described in the book, the women did scrape the paste off my hands with a dull knife and did tell me not to wash my hand until the next morning.
Another interesting thing that the book mention and which is true is that the colour gets darker in the following 24 hours...after you remove the henna. This is really weird if you think about it. Also the henna, in my case, lasted a lot longer in my palms than on the back of my hands even though it is counter intuitive since the inside of my hands is exposed to much more, but I had also noticed that the henna inside my hands was darker even though I couldn't understand why.

Overall I was really surprised at the amount of comments I got over the designs on my hands. I move my hands a lot when I talk and I know that I touch my face a lot, so my hands are quite visible, but still I was surprised. One woman who commented noticed my hands when I was washing them after using the bathroom at the mall. Lots of people commented.

Anyway this is just my two cents worth on the subject.

An hour in Oman

2008-12-01T10:43:00.005-07:00

Oman is so beautiful.

The only problem was that since I did not know that we were crossing into Oman (in fact I had not realized that there was a small part of Oman in this part of the world) I didn't have my passport. Going in Oman was easy, the young man at the border ( a military of some sort) just asked to confirm that R. and I were relatives (it is illegal for an unmarried woman to be alone with a bachelor...simply put it is illegal for an unmarried woman to be alone with a man whom by law she could marry), he told us that we could not stay long and had to come back the same day which was fine. However when we came back at the same border crossing the guards were different and they were completely amazed when we told them that we had crossed an hour ago with no passport (neither one of us) and really just with R.'s driver's license. Thank goodness the guy who let us go in was in the office and when he saw us he told them to let us go by otherwise since they did not speak english this all thing could have gotten complicated. I normally always use to have my passport with me, but South Africa has taught me to leave it in the safe of the hotel because the chances of getting mugged are so high.
In the end all was fine and it didn't not take very long at all to sort out. I thought that Omanis came across as quite friendly. The little bit that I saw came across as much more genuine than Dubai.

I am always amazed at the prevalence of english just about everywhere. Even in places like Oman you get little store with english signs. Sometimes there are just so cute.

On our way to Oman

2008-12-01T10:28:00.011-07:00

One day R. and I drove across the skinny peninsula and went to the upper part of Oman.

Oman is mostly South and East of Dubai but there is a little part of it isolated at the tip of the Arabia "boot" (Yes I know, "the Boot" is usually Italy, but you have to admit that the Arabian peninsula also looks like a boot). on the satellite photo (from Google maps) the part North of the white line is the small isolated part of Oman.
We went across the border at the seaside in a little town called Dibba. It is a beautiful place. The Omani side is not as developed as the UAE side and as a result much nicer.

This is the road to Oman with some views on our way.

More about Dubai

2008-12-01T10:20:00.004-07:00

Dubai is mostly about the new and the expensive but it also has the "old" part. The centre of it all is the Dubai Creek, which is, as far a I gathered, a human made, or at least human enhanced, salt water canal used as a harbor. You can cross it for one dirham (a third of a dollar right now) on one of those little boats. Once crossing it on this visit I saw a ray (the big flat fish) breaching, it looked as if it was trying to fly. Maybe it was trying to get out of the water which must be disgusting.

My favourite part of Dubai is the creek and my favourite part about it are the dhows which are still working vessels and carry huge loads.

Dubai

2008-11-18T02:31:00.005-07:00

I'm in Dubai right now.
Dubai is Dubai, construction crazy and land of sky scrapers and extreme buildings in general. Nothing particular about this building apart from the fact that this is that I see from "my" window.

...and I had my hands "done"!!

The Karoo near Graaf Reinet

2008-11-18T01:55:00.004-07:00

On that same rotation I stayed in a B&B outside of Graaf Reinet (nice little town in the Karoo). It was a working sheep farm and I was able to go and walk where ever I wanted on the huge farm. I took quite a few photos.
This is the farm where I was staying.

In the evening the long shadows on the hill I thought looked very nice.

and here is a "postcard" picture for you...very South African!!

Of course a little goofing off never hurts.

on the way to the Owl House

2008-11-18T01:50:00.003-07:00

This is the view on the way to the Owl House. An absolutely beautiful place...If I remember right it is called "Valley o f desolation", I am not sure why.

The Owl House, South Africa

2008-11-18T01:11:00.014-07:00

My last rotation off in South Africa I went to New Bethesda in the Karoo. This small village claim the fame is The Owl House. First the photos, and then maybe one day I'll explain.

This has to be the saddest, most desperate place I have ever seen in my life. I makes the slums of Kiberra look happy and hopeful. When I passed the door to enter the garden I was so overwhelmed with the general feeling of the place that I nearly turned around and left without visiting the place.
I am told some people go there and view it as a inspiring artistic place. I saw the sad concrete "scream" of a lost woman.
I know a all bunch of you (if there is a "all bunch of you" reading this) are going to thing that it was m projected feelings onto the place, and more a statement about my life etc etc etc .... psychological babble ..... how can a woman alone be happy...etc etc etc...but it wasn't. If there is one thing I do well in life is being honest to myself.

The sad part wasn't about being alone. The sad part was about not being able to live without expressing it so loudly, about being so devoured by it that it takes your life beyond what other people can handle (this small village was never able to handle this woman) and being so desperate that your scream for what ever it is you want actually isolates you even more. It might appear as a form of communication, but from my point of view, since communication is about getting a message across, alienating people from you by your attempt at communication is not good....Now if all you want is express yourself with no care for the results and no worries about being understood..then it is something else.

I don't know, Helen (the woman of the Owl House), came across to me as being tortured by a need for expression that she could neither control, nor channel into something that would make her happy, but that's just my take on it.

Another book challenge

2008-11-08T22:21:00.002-07:00

I've joined Melissa's book challenge.

Last year she hosted the "Expanding Horizon" book challenge...and I messed it up and missed it by one book.
This year she is doing the "Armchair Traveler's challenge" and since I am planning on doing some armchair-traveling on my time off I thought I would join.

Between here and home I am going to try to go to Dubai and Ethiopia. Dubai to visit a friend, and Ethiopia just for a short visit to see how things are, drink some good coffee and gets a sense of how to handle my next longer trip back. Of course I am not sure I will be able to make it work, but so far this is the plan.

The sun is waking up

2008-11-08T22:17:00.001-07:00

Thanks to A.'s blog I just found out that the sun i back to being "active" and having sun spots again!!

You can see the NASA article about it.

By the way

2008-11-08T22:03:00.002-07:00

Today around noon I am supposed to leave the rig and go to town.
It will likely happen, but it isn't true until it happens..... everybody knows this.

I am looking forward to a bath, especially since this morning we had no water to take a shower, and I am looking to the quiet, but I am not looking forward to the politics in the office. I am REALLY not looking forward to that part.

Am I supposed to be insulted?

2008-11-08T21:56:00.004-07:00

I was talking to one guy who has been working in the office and is now at the rig. I forget now what we were talking about but at one point he said: "Oh! this is why you are so........ principled", with "principled" said in a disgusted way.

I guess it is an insult now.
Either way, I just said ignored it and continued the conversation.

What ever the reason why he thought I was so "principled" I forget, but yes, let's face it I AM "principled"...is it even a proper adjective? I don't actually know.

the blog follower

2008-11-04T09:45:00.007-07:00

I just spent some time reading a all bunch of blogs that I follow..or I should say "I used to follow" I haven't had much access to the internet in the last few months...and I remembered the feeling I get when I read the blogs of people cooking, reading, sawing, being so creative with such wholesome life. I makes me want to stop my job, and it makes me feels that my life is seriously messed up.
...but not enough to take the office job....
I wonder why? (I mean, I wonder why it is not enough to make me take that job)

I follow quite a few blogs and most of the blog writers do not know that I follow their blog.

Once I had a weird situation: I just left a message saying "hello, I've been following your blog for a while and I thought I would just say hello" and gave a link to my blog. After this that particular blog was password protected... I guess it wasn't something this person was ready for, or willing to have happen.
I don't mean to pry or to be a voyeur. In a sort of a way when you follow somebody's blog you nearly feel like you know them..maybe it s weird...But really it is just like reading a novel as it is being written. It just reminds me that there is a real world out there where people notice the first fall colors and where they make hot chocolate to celebrate.
...and they don't spend 36 days on an offshore platform, and they actually know what the season is, and the first thing people ask them isn't: "where are you going next?".....

Thirty six days and counting

2008-11-04T08:44:00.003-07:00

I have been on the offshore rig for thirty six days already. I am nearly finished but not quite yet.
Honestly it is a long time not to be able to go anywhere and most of all not to be able to go anywhere where there isn't noise...lots of noise....people talking, engines roaring, motors growling, hydraulics hissing , pumps churning, breaks squeaking, speaker blasting announcements and all that kind of stuff.
I'm tired of it.

I have just finally made, once and for all my mind up about the job offer for a permanent (as permanent as jobs ever are!) in the office in Johannesburg. After much troubled thoughts about it, after having changed my mind many times I have decided not to take it.
I cannot give up 5 months of holidays per year for 5 weeks just so I can go home in the evening. I cannot know today what I will do at 3:00pm on March 23rd in two years. I cannot picture myself getting up in the morning the first day of that job knowing that it is the first day of many which will be the same. And most of all I cannot put up with the brutal office politics.
I have to find a nice way to turn it down...I have already turned it down twice and each time they have come up with a better offer, but this time this is it.

I am looking forward to a few months of time off.... I know I am lucky! how many people can say that: "I am looking forward to a few months off"!
Maybe I'll regret it later, especially with the situation the way it is, but I'll deal with that when I get there. I'm not ready to make the reasonable decision which I think will not make me happy.

By the way I am still reading "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" and still enjoying it. I am about two third of the way through but I have little time for it, and it is not one of those books you can just pick up and put down in a second.

Unknown classic

2008-10-13T11:15:00.003-06:00

Don't you hate it when not only you have not read a classic, but when on top of it you've never even heard of it before?

I just started "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" by Naomi Mitchison. I am reading in it the "Canongate Classic" edition.... I had never heard of either the book or the edition house.

So far I like the book. It is a story which could be a classic Greek myth. I won't say more until I read more.

Let's just say that right now at work it is the calm before the storm...I don't mean weather-wise I mean in terms of amount of work. Right now all is quiet but when it starts I will be VERY busy.

The Heart of the Matter

2008-10-13T10:34:00.007-06:00

I think I have mentioned it before, but there are two books that I have been meaning to read for a long time and which always seem to come up in other books or articles I read.

One is "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, and I have so far never managed to make any headway with it even though I have tried reading it several times. I have even read the book written by the completely unknown cousin of Joseph Conrad who went with him on the trip who inspired the book...I can neither remember the name of the book nor the name of the author!

The other one is "The Heart of the Matter" by Graham Greene, and I recently just finish this one. I enjoyed it, in a quiet sort of a way. I've only read one other book by Graham Greene ("Travels with my Aunt") and I liked it too.
Even though I could not really relate to the main character, Scobie, who is a very religious police inspector living in a British colonial town on the west coast of Africa, I have to admit that at the end I was eager to find out how he would sort out his life. The book is really about the struggle a genuinely religious man goes through when his life becomes so far from what he believes in.
Apart from the religious aspect of it the struggle of a good man who becomes terribly entangled in corruptions and bribery due to the very fact that he is trying to be good, the story reminded me a lot of "No Longer at Ease" by Chinua Achebe. Both books take place in Africa (in fact both take place on the west coast of Africa) though I think it is a coincidence. I do not think that it is something which is related to Africa. I think it is related to human nature.
Does it not ring true to you that in some circumstances the more you try to be good the less you are likely to end up behaving the right way?
Again I do not think that it is an African problem. I think it is the problem of people who overthink how they should behave to ensure that they do what is right.

The brain cannot be trusted to make the right decision on what is good, is this true?

bits and pieces of the offshore rig

2008-10-03T03:12:00.010-06:00

You all know that it is my first time offshore. I know rigs but so far it was always onshore.
In a way offshore is the same, at least in terms of human interactions and work that has to be done but one difference is of course that you can never leave. You cannot walk away for a little break, which I did a lot. The lay out of the rig with many levels, half levels, corners, complicated spots, is such that you can actually be on the rig and never see somebody who is there too. One guy who came on the same helicopter than me left 3 days later and the entire time I never ever saw him. I only realized when I saw him boarding the chopper to leave.

I mentioned earlier that we were lower now, well here it is: this is the side of the rig (with the escape boat) when it was high.

The base of the columns then looked like this

The cross beam you see in the photo above is the same one that you see in the photo below.

I went for a wander about under the rig today. I have to admit that it is very impressive. There is a real sense of massive industrial structure.
The chopper landed while I was underneath I couldn't see it but I could hear it (always very load) and I could see the effect of the wind it generates on the surface of the water and at that moment it really felt like the I was on Mars trying to move onto a planet that isn't ours where all we have that is ours is metal and noise and oil and grease. Weird feeling.
I am not a water person. As I was standing there in all this the only thing beautiful was something that I cannot live in (namely: water). My only "hope" was to cling to the metal and noise and dirt...very unlike the feeling you get onshore.

But it is not really all metal and grease, some of it is quite nice like the blue water in the moon pool (just the name of the open hole where the well center will be).

And some of the reflection in the water.

News from an old place

2008-10-02T10:48:00.005-06:00

Remember Ghardaia?

They just had a flash flood and 29 people died!

Such a lovely place Ghardaia. I don't think I will ever forget that one particular moment alone in the abandoned garden of the empty hotel in the middle of the night listening to the call from the two mosques closest to the hotel with the smell of jasmin in the night air.
A perfect moment!

Rig food...always important

2008-10-02T10:24:00.003-06:00

The rig I am on was offshore India for their last job and they brought with them their East Indian crew and their East Indian cooks. I'm eating curry every day at every meal. I don't have to because they also have western meals. It is just my choice. Also I think that it is best to eat what they really know how to cook. I tell you their curries are simple but pretty nice.

I wonder if I will get tired of it.

I am still sleeping like a baby for some unknown reason. We have more and more delays so it looks like I could be here for a few weeks but it could be worse.
Everybody is pretty nice apart from the night company man (the night boss. There is a day guy and a night guy) who is a typical jerk...but there is no surprises here!
The day guy doesn't like him either so I am not in a bad situation... and I did the day guy a BIG computer favour this afternoon and I'm hoping that it makes a difference in the long run.

The rig guys have already given me a pair of coveralls eventhough I never asked for one.
I wear it as my "dinner outfit", the clean coveralls to wear in the living quarters, and everybody is all smiles because the company geologist is wearing their company's coveralls!
It tell you it is hard to predict what will make people happy. I would have never guess that this would be one way of pleasing this crew.
Of course the East Indian crews are tickled pink by the fact that I have long black hair in a long braid and apparently they have commented to their boss (the push, for those who know the lingo) that I "even" smile to them!!!!

So generally everything seems OK.

The rig crow

2008-10-01T11:54:00.005-06:00

I saw this crow on the rig this morning (we are 70km offshore). When I asked the doctor he told me that apparently this crow stayed with the rig when it moved away from India.
I thought nobody was feeding him and I was wondering how he was surviving since there is really no garbage for him to eat. But I found out that he is being fed a sandwich every morning and extras if he comes and asks for more. The crew thought that he would get on land when they stopped at the Seychelles but he didn't and here he cannot fly to shore in one go and even if he could he would not be welcome there. Crows here are not like this. They look like they wear a white vest.

We also have 2 sparrows, a male and a female. They are also following the rig.

I do have some photos

2008-10-01T11:36:00.009-06:00

We can take photos as long as we are not drilling. I was very surprised about that.
These first two were taken by somebody else. The day I flew in the weather was awful with lots of fog and very high waves so there was no chance to take any pictures.
In the second photo you can sort of see how much this thing moves about when it is this high above the water, even when there is no waves....imagine on a bad weather day!!!! The day I arrived it was hard to walk.....never mind walk straight. I don't think anybody was even trying to walk straight.
Now the rig is 70 feet lower and a lot more stable, and honestly you cannot really feel the motion.

Today my office was just about set up so I took the time to "crawl" all over the rig. I went to what is called "the moon pool" which is the open part under the rig where the well will be (under water obviously) and in the shade of the rig the water was the most amazing blue I have ever seen!! I'll try to take some more pictures to show better, but you can sort of see it here.

Offshore

2008-09-29T11:15:00.003-06:00

Well, this is it I am on an offshore platform, working. Or at least I should be working, but we are not ready yet and I am mostly waiting.
The rig is not even anchored yet and it is moving a lot.
Just before I decided to type this I was sitting in a typical office chair with wheels and I had my feet on the desk reading a book.... as I was reading the motion of rig was making the chair roll around and I was making a quarter circle with my feet at the center. The weird thing is that I am usually very easily motion-sick, but so far here I am OK. I cannot say that I understand why because it makes no sense to me what so ever.
Last night in my little bunk (exactly what you would imagine on a working ship) I slept the best sleep I have had in a long time. We don't even rock side to side. We seem to be rolling around. I have been told that once the rig is anchored and lowered the motion will be negligeable. I hope it is true because looking down a microscope with this motion is going to be a challenge.

No photos so far because photos are forbidden. I'll try to get a "permit to work" to take photos tomorrow but I am pretty sure that I will not be allowed.

moving?

2008-08-23T18:54:00.003-06:00

So much time has past since I last wrote that there is really no way I can fill in the blank.
The most important thing probably is the fact that I am seriously thinking of leaving Canada...but the decision is not made yet.

The photo is from the Clarens area in South Africa. It represents a Rain Lion.
The mountains around Lesotho are rich in rock paintings like this one. I was lucky enough to see quite a few. I am particularly found of this one.
...by the way this is not a photo from the internet or anything like this. I took it. I was quite happy about the way it came out. The rock paintings can be quite hard to photograh.

Treasures from the library discard

2008-05-30T14:28:00.005-06:00

I'm going back to work in South Africa this Sunday. I went to the library today to return most of what I had borrowed (I'll return the rest on my way to the airport) and to buy something from the discard to take with me on the plane. I was thinking of something easy to read which would bring no regrets if left behind by mistake. I was planning on buying a murder mystery but somebody must have just donated some books to the library because I found a collection of twelve books, all published by Vintage International, which were in good state and looked really like a good read. Some of them I would not have picked on their own but I thought that in a way it was great way to try new authors. It is as if an unknown person chose for me a collection of twelve books to read.
My attention was originally drawn by a book by Camara Laye and one by Doris Lessing.
Here is what I bought for 50 cents each:

Camara Laye "The radiance of The King" (Guinea/Senegal)
Par Lagerkvist "Barabbas" (Sweden)
Caryl Phillips "Cambridge" (England)
Doris Lessing "The fifth Child" (South Africa)
Tatyana Tolstaya "Sleepwalker in a fog" (Russia)
Julian Barnes "Talking it Over" (England)
Mario Vargas Llosa "The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta" (Peru)
Leonardo Sciascia "Open Doors, and three novellas" (Italy)
Robert Stone "Children of Light" (USA)
Kobo Abe "The Woman in the Dunes" (Japan)
Yukio Mishima "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (Japan
Junichiro Tanizaki "Diary of a Mad Old Man" (Japan)

Also for 50 cents I bought the last book of the Harry Potter collection which was so far the only one I did not have.

I feel pretty lucky!

the never ending bank saga

2008-05-30T14:17:00.006-06:00

Sometimes I surprise myself by being totally optimistic. I went to the bank and the document I had to sign had nothing to do with what I was told. It listed as what would be reimbursed to me only some of the transactions which we had been agreed on the phone. The difference between what I was told I would be reimbursed and what actually was listed amounted to just under a thousand dollar...a significant amount of money! So back to the phone and talking and explaining and asking.
Finally the list I had to sign on was complete and I did signed.

This time I will wait until I am actually reimbursed to say that the all story is over.

The end of the bank story...sort of

2008-05-29T10:06:00.005-06:00

Well after several very frustrating phone calls with the bank during which I was treated with a mixture of fake politeness and suspicion the story came to an end last night.
The bank will reimburse me for the money stolen.
To be fair I have to say that in the end, regardless of how the process went, the result was fair.
I guess I will never know if the fact that in the phone call prior to that I ended up saying that I was starting to think that I should get a lawyer had any impact in the way they dealt with it. I can see their point that they have to make sure that I am not the one stealing the money, but I certainly felt that the process was very weird. Of course they record all phone conversation, everything that I say is taken as a legal statement and NONE of what they say can be use as such. I tell you it is not a pleasant process.

My final question to them was: "how can I protect myself from having my ATM card copied at a bank machine?" and the answer was: "There is nothing you can do. This is done by organized crime. It is their job and they are good at it. Bank card theft has been around for a long time but they have just become a lot more aggressive."

So here you are. Good luck to all of us with all this.

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, sign an affidavit (which I will read very very carefully) and they will reimburse me the money they recognize as stolen.

Cleaned out

2008-05-19T11:44:00.003-06:00

I guess after everything my first blog should really be about Ben's wedding (which went very well, I thought, and was gorgeous but for which I have absolutely no photos), my trip to Kruger Park (where I saw lions), why it is that I am not in Dubai where I am supposed to be (what's the point of cursing the travel agent once again); or I should talk about the Zimbabwe elections (going to the run off with the leader of the opposition not daring -so far- to re-enter Zimbabwe), or maybe I should talk about the violence in townships around Johannesburg against foreigners and particularly people from Zimbabwe...or I could even just describe my very short observations on the townships and shanty towns of South Africa because they are something quite particular to that part of the world (I've seen townships in Namibia too); but my head is not in it.
I just had trouble with my bank card and when I tried to figure out what was going on I found that somebody has cleaned my chequing account from "international withdrawal"...I would guess South Africa since I did not use my card anywhere in Asia. Now I have to wait till the end of the long week end and see what and if I can sort out with the bank.
On the plus side I am home so it should make dealing with all this a little easier...not to mention that if I was on the road this would be a much bigger problem....Things can always get worse.

You hear people say that things are "as bad as they get", then they should be happy for any change that bounds to happen soon because "if it can't get worse" it can only get better. But generally from my experience people who say this type of thing say it with gloom and little hope, in fact they usually expect things to get way worse.

May 4th

2008-05-03T15:32:00.002-06:00

Once again I am in the Singapore airport after a work rotation in Johannesburg during which I did not blog.
The elections in Zimbabwe, as you must know, are far from over. They will have to go to a run off...and after all the violence against Mugabe's opposition it is hard to imagine that there are enough people left to vote against Mugabe....Anyway, presumably if it was of interest to you you followed the progress about it all....including the chinese ship full of weapons ..... *shrug*

I am just transfering in Singapore, on my way to Phuket to Ben's wedding.

Zimbabwe still peaceful even without final results

2008-04-03T10:40:00.002-06:00

Thursday night in Zimbabwe and still no report of violence.

There are no new official results out of the ZEC, and seven seats still need to be announced.
Now deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga says: "If results from Saturday's election showed a second round was necessary, Mr Mugabe is ready to stand."
The tiny little "If" at the start is where all the hope of Zimbabwe stands. First teme I read it I read "results from Saturday's election showed a second round was necessary, Mr Mugabe is ready to stand."...HUGE difference.
It feels to me like a half admission that they realize that a stand off may not be needed....Now in fact numbers already show that there will not be a stand off UNLESS Mugabe challenges the numbers....

The BBC News World has a small summary of what some African newspapers are saying.

I'm going to back to work this Saturday and landing in Johannesburg Monday morning.....The first day is usually a complete write off with jet lag etc but I am looking forward to seeing for myself what newspaper in South Africa are saying. The other thing is, internet access when I work in Johannesburg is difficult, but I'll try to blog about some of what I read.

Zimbabwe results: still 7 seats to go but MDC has majority ZEC says

2008-04-02T09:02:00.004-06:00

That's it the ZEC has given enough results now to show that Mugabe has lost the majority.

The weird thing is that there is little information. Below this I have copied the entire article about it. Who has ever seen such a short article?
You'll notice that there is nothing about how the news has been received. Once again we sit and we wait and hope that all goes well.

=====================

News from the BBC
President Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament, the Zimbabwe Election Commission says.

It says Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has taken 94 of the 207 contested seats, while opposition parties have won 105. One seat has gone to an independent.
Although seven seats have yet to be declared, this means Zanu-PF cannot win an overall majority.
The opposition MDC says its leader won the presidential election but official results have not yet been released.

=============================

Later on Yahoo (Note this is again the entire article)
LONDON (Reuters) - The deputy information minister of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party said on Wednesday that claims by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change that it had won Saturday's presidential election were "wishful" statements. "President (Robert) Mugabe is going nowhere," minister Bright Matonga told Britain's Sky television in a telephone interview. "We are not going to be pressurized into anything."

================================

Note that IF the 105 seats are not contested than they not only give the majority to the MDC but also will be enough to ensure that there is no Runoff (second round).

Zimbabwe, Mugabe reported to be working a deal to step down

2008-04-01T11:05:00.007-06:00

Apparently all this time taken to release the results is really about giving time for a deal to be made for Mugabe to step down. Here is what is in the news:
"The outline of a deal has almost been reached for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to step down, opposition sources have told the BBC."

Honestly I didn't believe that this was one of the possibilities .... that Mugabe would just step down.....
But read this carefully: "outline", "almost reached", "opposition sources".....

But at the same time news are coming that South Africa is denying having any role brokering the election deals in Zimbabwe..... Why is this coming up from South Africa less than 10 minutes after the news of deal came up?
================================
An hour or so later the same website(BBC World News) reports that opposition leader (Tsvangirai) is denying the existence of such a deal.

The interesting thing is that there have been no new results released today, and it is now 10:00pm in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe, nearly 6:00pm on Tuesday

2008-04-01T09:41:00.002-06:00

It's nearly 6:00pm in Zimbabwe and so far no violence reported.

Results continue to trickle in and the results show little change...PART from the fact that if they tay this way Mugabe will be elected. If this happen I will feel like I have watch a great psychological success, not in elective campaign but in how to release the results so that there is no distinct point that people can point out and say "this is when I knew. This is when it went wrong".

Just in case you haven't seen the numbers:
Zuni-PF (Mugabe): 64
MDC (Tsvangirai): 62
MDC breakaway: 5
Remaining: 79

Let me add a few more numbers:
210 seats are available
109 seats represent just under 52% to be elected without a second run

Zimbabwe, the Monday after the elections ... no official results

2008-03-31T17:09:00.013-06:00

I was not even going to give you the numbers. The numbers right now mean nothing and can still go either way but in retrospect I think I should.
------------------
Zuni-PF (Mugabe): 31
MDC (Tsvangirai): 30
Breakaway faction of MDC: 5
Left to be declared: 144
--------------------
Let's just say that not much has changed:
Mugabe says he is sure to win and he has not rigged the elections
The MDC (the opposition) has claimed victory,
both sides are celebrating,
the riot police has moved into 2 areas of Harare which are known opposition strongholds

It is the end of the Monday which was supposed to give us the official results and things are a mess.
I can imagine how Mugabe might be willing to let go of his power.
I can't imagine how the MDC is going to step down if the official results say that they have lost the elections.

People from the so called "western world" find it easy to put down Africa in times like this. But some countries, whose political leaders are commenting of the elections in Zimbabwe, can hardly even have soccer/football matches without violence. So far no reported violence in Zimbabwe. More than 48 hours after the end of the polls and still no violence...how long does a soccer match lasts?
Other countries where scandals over counting of votes have tarnished the last couple of elections have their political leaders urging the Zimbabwe officials to count the vote carefully.

Here is the thing from my point of view: Zimbabwe does not need pressure right now. It needs support. And I tell you if they make it past these elections without violence then they actually have obtain the right to go and comment on other countries elections unlike a lot of those talking now. You know the all theory of the butterfly wings etc etc...Right now I can assure you the wind that started in Kenya will have consequences, but there is no knowing what they will be. I am hoping that people will think of the events in Kenya and see in them a warning of what could be in Zimbabwe if they are not careful.

I wish Zimbabwe peace!
I wish them a peaceful day tomorrow. One day at a time. One day at a time.

And I am not forgetting about Tibet, but I feel that I have nothing to add to that issue.

Zimbabwe some election results and African Election Database .. a site I just found

2008-03-31T09:52:00.015-06:00

It's nearly 6:00pm in Zimbabwe, soon it will be dark, and the results are not out. My guess would be that we will not get the results today... but maybe I am wrong, the results do seem to be trickling in.... In a sense I will admit that the results are not my major preoccupation.
The vote was Saturday, it is Monday late afternoon in Zimbabwe. People are becoming restless. The police is in the street of Harare, people have been asked to stay indoors... I am just passing on what I read I am not in South Africa right now.

---------
I just checked again: we area at 19 and 19 (for Zuni-PF and MDC) ....still exactly even between the two sides. Ok, now this does not look good.
Why, why would it be that the results are even like this?? Who can seriously expect anybody to believe such results, always equal?
It is starting to seriously look like an election which is going to end up badly.

A few minutes later:
26 Zuni-PF
25 MDC
158 to go

I guess psychologically it is best to have the results equal for along time, then have Zuni-PF take the lead, loose it to equality a few times and let Zuni-PF win. This is probably the best way to manipulate the election results and try to minimize the resulting violence.
------------------

Obviously my mind is on elections and I was thinking of Mozambique.
Mozambique was due to vote on January 16th (and even this was a postponed date) but these elections did not take place. The last time I was in Mozambique was about 3 weeks ago and the young guy who was helping me at work mentioned how he "should register to vote". I don't want people who read this to start associating the tension of the Zimbabwe elections to the delayed elections in Mozambique. There is no tension in Mozambique about the forthcoming elections, or the postponed elections...however you want to call them.
Anyway, trying to find when those elections were scheduled to take place I found an interesting website. So here it is for you a schedule of elections in Africa for 2008.
You can go to the original site African Election Database, a great site though it should be called "Sub Saharan Africa Elections Database" ......but when you look at it remember I have not checked, and will not check, whether or not the information is true though I would guess that it is a reliable source of information.

January 2008
January - Djibouti: National Assembly Election
16 January - Mozambique: Provincial Assembly Elections (DID NOT TAKE PLACE ...I add)
20 January - Congo-Brazzaville: Local Elections
24 January - The Gambia: Local Elections

February 2008
17 February - Benin: Local (Communal/Municipal) Elections

March 2008
March - Cape Verde: Local Elections
March - Comoros: Autonomous Island Legislative Assembly Elections
March - Zimbabwe: Presidential & National Assembly Elections

April 2008
April - Somaliland: Local Elections

May 2008
Mauritius: Presidential Election (Indirect)

June 2008
June - Sierra Leone: Local Elections

July 2008
July - Congo-Brazzaville: Senatorial Election (Indirect)

August 2008
31 August - Somaliland: Presidential Election

September 2008
September - Rwanda: Chamber of Deputies Election
05-06 September - Angola: National Assembly Election

October 2008
October - Swaziland: House of Assembly Election

November 2008
No Scheduled Elections

December 2008
December - Ghana: Presidential & Parliamentary Elections

Other Elections scheduled to take place in 2008 (no month or date announced)
Côte d'Ivoire: Presidential & National Assembly Elections
Guinea: National Assembly Election
Guinea-Bissau: National Assembly Election
Madagascar: Senatorial Election
Nigeria: Local Government Elections

South Africa is due for elections in 2009 and right now the most likely candidate to win those elections (Jacob Zuma, who was recently voted in as leader of the governing ANC party) is facing corruption charges related to the $4.8bn purchase.