This is a changeover day between days and nights so having come off-watch at 7pm yesterday I will be on-watch at 7pm this evening giving me 24hrs between watches and so a little bit of time to have a look around. Consequently I had a drive around with one of my fellow watchkeepers to get a bit of local orientation and see where things are and where not to go - there are a few, literally 'Black Flagged' Palestinian areas to keep well clear of but the rest of the place is largely benign.
We went for a drive out to two of the big, and I mean really big, malls that are out here and encompass just about every shop name you have ever heard of including Marks and Spencers, Carrefour and Debenhams as well as endless rows of very upmarket clothes and jewellery shops. One which did catch my eye was a massive toy store where you could get stuffed animals that were only about half the size of the real thing – fair enough for your run of the mill cat or bunny but how about a half-size gorilla, or elephant! Or if it really takes your fancy and the room is large enough a half-size camel or giraffe for goodness sake. I'll try and get some photos the next time I'm out there so you can see I am not making this up.
We briefly visited the Souk area but due to difficulties in parking did not get out but the area looks very interesting with lots of little shops including tailors who will happily knock you up a hand made suit in any design you fancy for about £50 which has to be a bargain – I will definitely be looking into that. From the sublime to the ridiculous we came from the slightly tatty area of the Souk back past the Bahrain World Trade Centre which consists of two towers in a very point sail type shape joined by two propellers which are wind turbines to provide power to the building.
So all in all a quick but good introduction to the area and a few ideas for places to explore later.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
En Route!
The adventure has begun!
All fairly uneventful so far with the travel plan working from the off and even arriving in Heathrow much earlier than anticipated – which was a bit of a surprise as the driver, Bruce apparently and supposedly local, needed close direction to get himself out on the main road from my house, not a particularly promising start. This was made no more encouraging by his desire to talk, at some length, about his plans to holiday and to emigrate to Borneo. Interesting up to a point but when one has just woken up the family at 5.30am to say goodbye to them for 6 months, small talk is not really going distract the large number of emotions going through one's head. Dozing, both needed due to only intermittent sleep and as a diversion from conversation was the only answer which also seemed to have the effect of increasing Bruce's average speed as he clearly wished to seek a more promising captive to hear about his vacation history and plans.
I'm not sure that I have ever flown on a Boeing 747 before. Today's aircraft was a British Airways 747-400, a truly MASSIVE aircraft by any standards which was largely full but by good fortune I got an aisle seat with no one in either of the two seats beside me offering plenty of room to spread out. As I type now we are about 2hrs into the flight (6hr 30min total) at about 37000ft above Austria. I'm listening to The Starlight Mints, they did the 'Demons' theme tune if you saw any of that; anyway I'm using noise-canceling ear phones that I bought ages ago and have never used for any length of time – they are quite excellent and completely make you forget you are in an aircraft as the engine noise just gets magicked away.
It felt more than a bit weird this morning saying goodbye to everyone but I definitely feel a lot more composed now; hope it doesn't wear off too quickly.
All fairly uneventful so far with the travel plan working from the off and even arriving in Heathrow much earlier than anticipated – which was a bit of a surprise as the driver, Bruce apparently and supposedly local, needed close direction to get himself out on the main road from my house, not a particularly promising start. This was made no more encouraging by his desire to talk, at some length, about his plans to holiday and to emigrate to Borneo. Interesting up to a point but when one has just woken up the family at 5.30am to say goodbye to them for 6 months, small talk is not really going distract the large number of emotions going through one's head. Dozing, both needed due to only intermittent sleep and as a diversion from conversation was the only answer which also seemed to have the effect of increasing Bruce's average speed as he clearly wished to seek a more promising captive to hear about his vacation history and plans.
I'm not sure that I have ever flown on a Boeing 747 before. Today's aircraft was a British Airways 747-400, a truly MASSIVE aircraft by any standards which was largely full but by good fortune I got an aisle seat with no one in either of the two seats beside me offering plenty of room to spread out. As I type now we are about 2hrs into the flight (6hr 30min total) at about 37000ft above Austria. I'm listening to The Starlight Mints, they did the 'Demons' theme tune if you saw any of that; anyway I'm using noise-canceling ear phones that I bought ages ago and have never used for any length of time – they are quite excellent and completely make you forget you are in an aircraft as the engine noise just gets magicked away.
It felt more than a bit weird this morning saying goodbye to everyone but I definitely feel a lot more composed now; hope it doesn't wear off too quickly.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Podcast 1
In addition to the traditional internet diary approach of the blog I will from time to time, largely depending on how quickly I can put them together and whether I have anything interesting to say, include verbal and video entries. The first of these offerings is accessible below, it was done quite quickly so needs a bit of work on a bit less intro music and better quality of speech recording but its a test so take it as that, it lasts about 5 mins. The best method of activating the link so thatyou do not navigate away from this page is to right click on the link below and 'Open in New Tab'.
If you have an opinion, let me know what you think.
Opportunity Costs
Quite apart from being away from home and missing friends and family one of the key annoyances is that there are many things I will simply not be able to do whilst out in Manama. There is the seperation from vehicles mentioned previously which really means no biking to do or to help with as in Sarah's No Limitz antics, no travel to interesting places (doing so for a few days is a whole different world from 6 months! - France, Germany, Canada, and India would have been on the agenda), no going to sea, no outdoor running ( I suspect though acclimatisation and at night may offer some potential, no home cooking or indeed visits to homes, no lawn mowing or emptying the bins - now we're talking!
I will get used to a change of life, one always does but the more I think about it there are quite a few changes to get my head around.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Abandoned Vehicles
One of the most tedious consequences of my short notice departure has been the need to decide what I am going to do about my increasingly large fleet of motor vehicles.
The recently acquired CR-V will of course get plenty of use and as a relatively new and recently serviced vehicle hopefully will not need much attention. Likewise it should not be difficult to get the S2000 driven now and again, especially as more sun emerges. The slightly unloved, by everyone other than me (!), Peugeot 306 has now reached 130,000 mls and is proving occasionally dificult to start but has provided sterling service over the years.
So he doesn't just get abandoned I have found some friends that need a vehicle in which to train their son to drive so little blue peugeot may get quite an exciting few months in my absence.
Lorry will be looked after by Andy and Chris and so shouldn't need anything special happening to it, fingers crossed!
The real sadness is my two wheeled friends and I can unfortunately find no better plan than to sell Mr Ducati and so he has now been accommodated by Motorapido who will do their best to sell him for me to be replaced with something interesting when I return - more on that later. The trusty Honda CBR600F has always been fairly bullet-proof and I am sure will withstand sitting in the garage for 6 months and there my be a chance Chris will take it out for a trashing from time to time in my absence.
It is a real shame to have all these toys though and not be able to play with them!
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