Nikon D-40x

I HAVE MY NEW CAMERA :-))))))))))))))

So much for tidying my flat tonight...click-click, here I come!

Crazy travelling week part 2: Tunis

Tunis: Wednesday 10th to Friday 12th

with most photos shamelessly stolen from Hermann, who had a nice camera when I didn't.

Actually wrote this post while I was out there.

Here I am in Tunis, sitting on my hotel balcony looking out onto the pool through an arch of pink, orange and white bougainvillees which at this time of day is teeming with birds chattering away (reminiscent of the Golden Tulip in Nizwa in fact)…maybe it comes with the Golden Tulip package ;-) Anyway, waking up slowly this morning to the sound of several hundred birds was pretty amazing and a great start to the day.

Bougainvillees in Sidi Bou Said:

We arrived yesterday (Wednesday) around 3:30 and got to the hotel around 4:30 after a bit of a long wait for our luggage (Hermann went from muttering about priority luggage to crossed fingers and a few shades paler until his luggage finally came through on the last batch). The weather was lovely, 24 degrees and sunny (PLUS 24 this time!!!) and the hotel is in a pretty nice location-perched up on the hill on the way to Carthage, overlooking the bay and the mountains…a perfect holiday or conference hotel, not so perfect for doing business in town as it is a bit of a drive (but nothing compared to a British commute!)

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Our driver, Lotfi, has been very helpful and agreed to take us to Sidi Bou Said after we had checked in, so we spent an hour admiring the houses and enjoying the atmosphere with surprisingly little hassle from the salesmen on the way up, and ended up at the café overlooking the bay where I had a Turkish coffee sitting on rugs.

We got back before seven to allow Lotfi to get home in time for food (it’s still Ramadan) and agreed to meet a bit later for dinner in the hotel restaurant…while I waited I sat out at the terrace, enjoying a burrha (Sp?) with orange, watching the sun go down :-).

Had a good chat with Hermann over dinner (we really need to have a team dinner…hardly know anything about anyone on this team! Or a teambuilding exercise in Tunisia…)

This morning we headed into town to meet ETAP, the Tunisian Petroleum Agency, to get to know the data people there and have a bit of a chat about our area. We ended up with the friendly Dr Amri going to look for a whole bunch more things and not giving up till he personally found them. A very productive and positive time there.

After ETAP we asked Lotfi to take us into town to the main hotel, where we had a nice lunch (most restaurants are closed at the moment for lunch) before heading off to meet our Country Chairman for Tunisia (downstream office). That was also pretty interesting and got even better as he revealed that he had set up an office for us to use when we are in town!! No need to mention that one twice…I think Hermann and I have already decided which desks we’ll take ;-)

After that we noticed that most people were heading home, even though it was quite early; the whole place feels a bit like Christmas Eve which is interesting and unexpected. It is still unclear whether Eid is going to be tomorrow or the day after but everyone seems to be assuming the former anyway.

Our country chair suggested that we head out to Medina and the old city where there is apparently a lot going on in this season…street shows etc, till late into the night and during Ramadan only. So we are thinking of heading out pretty soon in that direction.

Although very short, this trip has actually been really productive. It feels pretty surreal being here in the mild weather and so clearly in a completely different environment, yet only a short flight away from home. The swimming pool was a bit chilly when I went in about an hour ago but still perfectly swimmable, and the evening sun still warm enough to make a difference…

It has been fascinating for me to finally come to Tunisia; although I have only had a snapshot view of it so far, it seems to me that at least in Tunis, people here are A LOT more relaxed than in most of the Middle East and North Africa; women drive around, bare-headed, wearing trousers etc etc and look in fact just like our North African immigrants back home, just on a sunny backdrop. I noticed several different types of ethnicities although I haven’t managed to identify them all of course. And the big thing here is being able to speak French…it opens so many doors (see Dr Amri) and just generally allows you to communicate where English is just non-existent. And our driver just gave me a box of makroud as a present simply because I had asked for a recommendation of a good place to buy it (and pestering him with questions about Tunis). I am tempted to skip dinner…

I could definitely see myself living here…yet another reminder of why I took this job in the first place. NOT to sit in a big corporate office in a grey rainy country. Yeah.

Crazy travelling week part 1: Paris

On Sunday 7th I got approval from Hermann to book and organise our trip to Tunis...from 10th to 12th! Last-minute excitement turned into panic as I realised I had just buried my summer wardrobe somewhere...oh how terrible these luxury problems can be.

To go to Tunis from Ams we need to fly via Paris, so I decided to take Tuesday afternoon off and visit Marc, who happened to be in Paris for a couple of weeks.

A quick phone call and I had a dinner party in Paris, 2 days in sunny Tunisia and a weekend in Belgium (Capitalist Ball on Friday night in Brussels) :-)) the nightmare pack of the year, especially as I had decided to travel light (as of now, etc etc).

So Tuesday afternoon saw me happily following my well-trodden route to Schiphol for my first ever flight on Air France, in Classe d'Affaires no less (lovely snacks with the coffee but no much leg room). A quick hop later and I was in Roissy CDG, picking up my luggage and the train ticket for Paris-Brussels on Friday before hopping onto the RER.

A little while later I emerged into the 15th arrondissement, to be greeted by Marc and taken to his flat via a nice bakery (whine whine I miss that kind of choice at that kind of price). Alena was in full swing preparing for the dinner party they had kindly organised so I split my time between trying to keep out of the way and trying to help with preparations :-)

Marc's flat was in a very typical Parisian internal courtyard

It all came together nicely in time for the first guests and we could all relax and enjoy the champagne as the evening progressed. It was really lovely meeting some of Marc's friends from uni/flatmates, from school and from his previous job. It was the first time I have been to a French dinner party, and luckily was pretty relaxed-my French finally de-rusted itself halfway through so all was well there. It was fascinating getting an insight into a very different type of French person then those I have met before (well, Parisians, you know...;-)

I am really glad I stopped off in Paris (even though it meant kicking Marc&Alena out of their own home) as it was lovely to catch up with them, meet new and interesting people, see a new part of Paris (briefly), eat some nice food and get my French ready for business in Tunisia.

End-of-the-night munchies...of course, we didn't think of actually taking any pics DURING the evening...

So after a short night (4 hours :-( I gathered up my belongings, took out the next set of tickets and headed back to Roissy, where I arrived in good time-luckily considering the lack of signs at the train station resulting in my ending up in completely the wrong terminal :-(

Finally settled down in the AirFrance lounge with a drink and a madeleine and enjoyed reading the Figaro whilst waiting for Hermann.

Eventually we got on the flight to Tunis and settled in for the next 2 1/2 hours with a nice glass of champagne. Lunch was mostly nice, although the bread and starter left me wondering if they contracted out their catering to Sodexho...

Arriving in Tunisia we had a wonderful view out of the windows as the plane flew SouthWest along the coast for a good 10 minutes...the Tunisian Atlas looked pretty dramatic and all the details of the Tunis area were visible. What a fantastic start to that leg of the trip.

Weekend

Well at 4.30pm on Friday it started raining so I did have to take the tram home (typical-for once I actully rode the bike in!). In the end I got to 4942 steps on Friday...feeling rather sedentary!

Had a nice evening catching up with Joanne . She came with me to look after Yu-Lan's two siamese cats-I am feeding for the the week as Yu is away, and spend a bit of time with them every evening to keep them company. I really am not a cat person, but these two are not too bad.

Saturday we met up with Sasha and Max and went to Utrecht. I had been considering Antwerpen but decided against it as it is rather a long trek just for 1 day.
The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed walking around Utrecht; this time we went and booked tickets for the tower straight away so got some for the 5 o'clock tour. After which we hired a pedal boat and the boys kindly pedaled away for an hour while Joanne and I relaxed in the back :-)
I took a few photos but I need to get Max and Sasha's, after which I will post some here. Max especially takes nice portraits.

Saturday evening we went out in Scheveningen, now joined by Rene-Charles, who was due to leave for Karachi on Sunday. In fact, he is now in Dubai, awaiting orders as things aren't ready or safe in Pakistan. No, not jealous at all. Hrmph.

Sunday we got up quite late :-) then whizzed round Amsterdam before picking Sergey up from the airport and going for dinner in Rijswijk.
The weather was still amazing so it really feels like we made the most of it. All-in-all a fun weekend!

More later, must work.

Pedometer

I had a sandwich at my desk yesterday so I could use my lunch break to blog but it took a lot longer than expected and I haven't quite finished posting about the last 3 weeks, so come back soon.
In the meantime, I did a bit of tidying at home yesterday evening as Joanne is coming to stay with me this evening for a few days, and I found the free pedometer I had received on the Monotower visit.

I decided to put it on this morning as an experiment and I have so far (it's 3 pm) done 2747 steps, which seems ridiculously little in view of the fact that you are supposed to do 10 000 just to STAY fit, and 15 000 to start loosing weight...I did cycle in today but walking to and from the tram is not going to bring the score up by much...oh dear.

3 good weeks

I have been pretty busy the last few weeks-not much chance to use my computer outside of work, plus the usual struggle to upload pictures.

Clearly we need a camera each-M has just gone to Romania for the weekend without one, as I have it here in Holland. I need to do a bit of research as I rather fancy a digital SLR...we'll see. Anyway, I don't like the one we have now.

So I last posted about the tax accountant visit and just to clarify, tax brackets are rather different over here! I pay 52% + social security contributions but would be paying about half that in the UK for the same salary...arghgrmblgrahbg.

After my last post, I did a bit of work and then set off on the Thalys for Paris and on to the "farm". I managed to do some work on the train as I was travelling first class (cheaper than second :-) but kept getting distracted by the fact that my computer was trying to talk to another computer in the carriage-clearly not the only employee on board!

Almost managed to catch a train immediately in Paris-Austerlitz but the card system decided not to read Dutch Mastercard so I didn't make it and had to wait a little while. Overall the journey was fine but a little long-and the Belgian railways seem to make me queasy every time I travel on them :-(

Matthew was already there so it was nice to find him waiting in Tours.

I stayed there until Sunday and although the weather was awful and rainy on the Thursday it was fantastic by Saturday and it was lovely to finally get the feel of summer and visit a few neighbours. We also had a good mooch around the Loches market on Saturday morning-funny to see a provincial town in action, with the mayor walking around greeting people, set on a backdrop of medieval buildings to the tune of...an Indian drum, dancers and fire-eater!!

Back at home we managed to pull down about 10 dead trees and chopped them all up ready for next winter...things go so much faster with 3 people at work :-)

It was good to get some physical exercise and make the most of the clean air.

As for the animals, everyone is well, Mrs Duck sitting on her 26 eggs!! (they are pretty well arranged and covered so quite hard to make out in the photo of the nest below) and Mr Duck fending us off (they don't really like cameras). The lambs are growing and love pears (unripe-who cares) and the chicken have been producing an egg a day each for a while now...I took a few back and had a lovely fresh free-range poached egg every morning for a week! Lettuces were growing really well and must have been loving the wet summer...I took some of those back too and they were really tender and tasty :-)

On Monday (27th August) afternoon I started a 4-day course in 123DI, which is an interpretation and visualisation software for seismic and other data. It was a very useflu course and the class was pretty small (8 people) and hands-on (exercises) so I learnt a lot. Ulli was on the course too so we could and still can compare notes.

While I was in the learning centre I ran into Alex Patalkha and his colleague Misha (also Well Services). I had only seen Misha briefly out there but knew Alex a little from my last shift in BC so it was fun to see them again. Had a couple of Russian lunches with them, but not before a French lunch with Rene-Charles, who is on his way out to Pakistan to do his final wellsite shift on our new well there (he did his first two in Egypt, not Salym). However, in view of the security situation and logistical issues, his trip had been delayed for a week so he was stuck in a hotel in Den Haag (rented out his flat for 6 months during his cross-posting). To cut a long story short he came and stayed in my spare room for a week or so, until he found out his new departure date. It was fun having a flatmate again for a while!

On Tuesday nigth, after he dropped his stuff off, we went out in Delft, first enjoying the (cold but clear) early evening at Roy's house then moving on to a nice restaurant and a pub). It was really nice to catch up with Roy, Dina and Mark N (though it is still strange to see him in this context-I keep getting flashbacks to 2nd year RSM fieldtrips!!). Wednesday night I had a few quiet drinks with Alex and Misha and Thursday I headed back to London for a long weekend (I had taken Friday off).

And why exactly does Roy have so many hats in his house???










Unfortunately I started getting a sore throat on Thursday night and had to stay in bed half of Friday, which was a miserable thing to have to do on a day off. On Friday afternoon we had a small TPA workshop followed by dinner at the Roof Gardens...perfect way of enjoying a lovely evening looking out towards Imperial :-)

Saturday we set off for Brighton and arrived there in time for a lunch of Fish and Chips on the beach while we waited for our hotel room to be prepared. We soon discovered why finding a room had been such a nightmare:

which led us to stay at the Grand...not such a chore really :-)

Here's one of Matthew looking very Victorian on the beach there (well, without a deckchair)

Had a really nice bath at the hotel before setting off for Sarah and Simon's wedding up the hill at the Old Market in Hove...here are a couple of pics I have shamelessly stolen from Martin!

Yes, we cleverly left the camera at the hotel so have no photographic record of the event but it was a great party!! with a few deja vu moments such as the "geologists" photo: same group, same photographer, different bride ;-)

Next day we tucked in to a huge tasty breakfast before checking out and moving down to the swimming pool and sauna. An hour later, we met up with Becca and Olly for an inevitable milkshake and spent a good hour enjoying the lovely weather on the complimentary dekchairs at the end of Brighton Pier :-))

Got home in time for a leisurely dinner and an early night before the next morning's red-eye...

Last week it was back to work and most people were back including The Boss so things were quite busy, running through what we had done so far and building on them. I'll write a separate post on work though.

Unfortunately the sore throat had now morphed into a nasty cough so that wasn't much fun but it didn't prevent me from jumping on a train to Amsterdam and meeting Richard (who was over for the day) for a nice Chinese meal.

Tuesday night was an early one, due previous day's red-eye and the cough but unfortunately this didn't make it go away and people were started giving me funny looks in the office on Wednesday...

Wednesday night I had a very enjoyable dinner with Sasha A and Max who are over on a four-week course :-) although Max did manage to leave his jacket (and mobile) at the restaurant.

I was planning on working from home on Friday but Hermann-the-German invited some people in to talk to us about some work they could do for us. So I rescheduled to Friday at 2pm and managed to join them for lunch at the Wok place over the road. On Wednesday we had eaten at the same place but in the Thai section...it has been nice to get away from the canteen for a while!

I flew from Rotterdam as I was going to be attending the GeolSoc Bicentennary Conference in London for work from Sunday-Wednesday so I had the luxury of going there by taxi, which was fantastic-it only takes 15 minutes from the office to the airport! I really enjoyed flying VLM and arrived at the TPA office at 3pm after cruising through City airport. Which meant I got a chance to do a bit of work still, go to the doctor's AND get some (grocery) shopping in.

Unfortunately I have bronchitis, which is a viral infection and therefore cannot be cured with antibiotics :-( the cough goes on...

Saturday we went shopping on Victoria Street and I FINALLY got a new phone (free upgrade well overdue-I got the Nokia 6300) so I am still playing with my new toy. It has a really good battery life, is very light and has a voice memo recording capability. It also has a camera, although it wasn't something I was particularly looking for, and an FM radio.

John came round later on and took us out for dinner to celebrate his first paycheck, which was lovely. We sat on the terrace at Sole Mio and enjoyed the clear evening (with a little help from the patio heater).

Sunday we decided to do a bit more DIY so I fixed all the new door handles on and Matthew painted the back of the bedroom door and skirting. Which now only leaves the bedroom cupboard doors :-)

A bit later we met up with Donnie who was in town for work- hadn't seen him for a while so it was really good to catch up, and Chris popped by too. After which I headed off the QE II conference centre for the GeolSoc icebreaker, where I plunged straight in to manning the stall with Paul (who invited me along) and Keri (conference organiser).

The next 3 days were basically spent at the GeolSoc conference, manning the stall on Monday and Tuesday and doing career talks on Wednesday. It was rather nice living at home for a change, whilst working! And the views from the conference centre are rather nice:

In fact, the weather was beautiful the whole time, which made it very pleasant to go out and catch up with Scott in Bloomsbury and later Kwasi, too, on the Monday night. On Tuesday I made the mistake of going to the conference dinner...rather unimpressive food and the feeling of intruding into a cliquey group of academics with American wives with food issues...one learns...

Overall though, the conference was great for me on another level too-I went in to some random talks during times of no stall activity, just to hear about some different kinds of geology (and see if I could still follow...I could...sometimes...just...I mean I hadn't even thought about the word "mafic" for about 5 years, come ooon...).

The careers' day was another new experience...having packs of teenagers let loose on us was challenging to the extreme! It reminded me of a swarm of crickets...one second there was order, the next our stall had been picked clean of freebies and Paul and I were left gasping for air and half-deafened. I shamelessly redirected a large number of kids over to Paul who was doing a demo, while I hooked on to the teachers who had so gleefully handed over the responsibily of their classes to us...

I was also doing a talk, along with Iain Stewart from the University of Plymouth (of BBC fame-watch: Earth: The Power of a Planet on BB2 on 19th November!), a lady from Rio Tinto and a girl from BP. Turns out BP and Rio didn't get a copy of the brief and aimed their presentations at university student level, rather than GCSE/A Level...I felt rather sorry for them. As for mine, apart from mild panic at the thought that youngsters nowadays might not get a reference to Friends, all went well and they actually laughed a few times in the right places. Iain did a great talk about the carbon cycle which I wish the whole world had attended, to help them understand a bit more of the fundamentals of science before they get caught up in political and ideological debates based on corrupt facts.

It was quite a successful conference, and I found it refreshing to meet such a different range of people, from Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (whom I talked to for a good 10 minutes without having a clue who it was...doh!) to bright-eyed school kids looking for a calling, through my fellow student Elizabeth B's boss in Canada and a Japanese specialist on gravity and magnetics!

Wednesday afternoon, Paul and I headed back to City airport for a really easy flight home-the number of flights out of that airport around 5pm, and the efficiency with which passengers are processed was absolutely amazing. TAKE NOTE BAA! Yet another proof that state-run monopolies just don't work.

Bye Bye home, till next time...

Tax

Well every time I come to this blog I seem to end up ranting about flights and airlines. Which I was going to do again but decided to leave it, because there are far more interesting things to talk about (even though planes are a big part of my life again).

So this morning I took a rather big step: I went to see a tax accountant. There is something very grown-up and definitive about this, I find. Like a cleaner, once you have one you can never live without one.

Bar the obvious fact that my company ought to be doing this for me, it was quite nice sitting down and working out how much the government here owes me and even nicer when he found an extra lump sum that I was owed. A long-overdue but successful meeting, triggered by my transfer to the 52% income tax bracket. Ouch.

The tax accountants are based in Leiden, which almost put me off going there. However, I did make it and luckily, when I was lost in a forest of buildings asking the way, a lady decided to give me a tour of the Biotech park which was on the way to their office (she had been working there for 10 years and knew all the companies). Random but sweet.

Gatwick

Well I am flying home tomorrow and trying out a new route with VLM: Rotterdam to City Airport, which ought to be a lot more pleasant. Will see how that goes. In the meantime, found this fun little piece in the Guardian the other day which sums it all up:

Gatwick terror panic
The government has banned airline passengers from wearing green hats after a man in a green hat was arrested at Gatwick airport carrying a bottle of potentially lethal hydrogen peroxide. Holidaymakers who flout the new rule face severe penalties, although hats of other colours will still be permitted, as will rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
The terror alert led to half-mile queues at airport security checkpoints, but tourists caught in the chaos proved phlegmatic. "It's not really any bother for me, because I come from a Scandinavian country and therefore have an essentially imperturbable temperament," said Finnish gap-year student Ari-Pekka Sjöström, who spent the night trying to sleep on a bench outside Burger King in Gatwick's south terminal. "Also, I'm on a gap year, so hanging around airport terminals talking to journalists is about as constructive as anything else I could be doing."
A defiant group of Britons interviewed by ITV News also refused to be cowed by the threat of terrorism. They said it was crucial for the survival of liberal democracy that they press ahead with plans to spend the weekend getting life-threateningly drunk in the lap-dancing clubs of Tallinn.

Of Red-Eye flights and silly airport security

I am pretty shot of Gatwick airport and BAA's incompetence at dealing with large numbers of passengers delayed because of silly security measures that make no sense and slow everyone down. And I am also (already) tired of all those well-meaning holiday-makers taking the plane for the first (or is it second?) time , who do not seem to understand clear instructions and panic as soon as something new comes up. There should be a separate security zone for frequent travellers who have everything down to a T, thank you very much. Ah well, isn't it easy to be an airport snob?!
Seriously though, I am going to look into other flights because the whole experience is so tiring I was ready to go back to bed when arrived in the office. BA/North Terminal is sadly not affordable so it's going to have to be something quite different...anyone have a spare private jet???

Anniversary weekend

Well, unbelievably, this Monday (23rd) was our 2nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe how fast time has flown.

This also means that we have had the flat in London for 2 years and yet it has only just started to feel like home!
Friday night in Den Haag, a friendly guest came to stay for the weekend, while Allison and Malcolm were back in Blighty...Gracie-Wuff, take a bow :-)

















So I had fun playing with the dog on Friday evening, although I was also trying to quickly read lots of old Harry Potters to refresh it all before getting the new one. To no avail...I managed to read the 1st one then about half of the second one, at which stage the new one had been sitting on my table for 3 hours and I just couldn't resist anymore...accio book!!

On Saturday Matthew came over (and picked up HP at the airport before they ran out); I had signed up to a visit of something called a Monotower, which is basically an offshore platform which is being finished off before being taken out to the North Sea. This open day was an opportunity to visit it while it was still being finished off on land in Rotterdam-this particular platform is a pretty advanced new design which is completely unmanned-once the well is producing, people only need to go out every 2 years for maintenance (or in case of an emergency). Here are a few pictures I took around the yard, where there were also some abseilers showing how rope-work can help with maintaining structures and buildings. Although quite developed in the UK, this is a pretty new concept in NL so the chap who set up the company is doing very well out of it.

When I got back we went for a nice long walk in the Haagse Bos with the dog...we were very lucky with the weather as it was actually sunny that day, so walking in the woods was really enjoyable :-)

Sunday we had a relaxing lunch with Simon and Nova in town before dropping Gracie off back home and heading out to Maastricht, to celebrate in style with a lovely dinner and stay at the Chateau St Gerlach The Michelin-star restaurant served fantastic food and wine, which we really took our time to enjoy. The Chateau is set in lovely grounds and we were lucky to have the sun when we arrived...but not the next morning, when the weather became decidedly miserable.
We made the most of the pool and sauna facilities before heading off to explore Maastricht.





































Maastricht is quite a pleasant town but nothing to write home about...quite small and the usual set of shops. We were rather tired which didn't help, and neither did the rain, so after visiting the St Servaas Basilica and a quick boat trip up and down the Maas, we retreated and journeyed all the way back to Den Haag (not the smoothest trip, problems with trains etc :-( Got home in time to enjoy the evening though so that was nice.

















































Well I just had to :-)