Notes from the front: 3 days in

So, here I am, in Tripoli at last! I now have internet access outside the office, too, so I can get round to blogging pretty much whenever I feel like it :-)

After a rather mad August, I got my visa through in time and set off for Heathrow early on Monday (1st Sept) morning. I had got up at 5am to finish packing and make sure everything was left in order, so was ready for the my second breakfast in the BA lounge at 8:30! I was supposed to meet up with EJ in the airport, as he was stopping over on the long way round, but his flight got re-scheduled so we missed each other by an hour.

The flight over was uneventful, apart from the four slightly noisy but generally friendly Ghanaian men who moved into the seats on the other side of the aisle. Little did I know that my neighbour and his friends were in fact Michael Essien from Chelsea and 3 other footballers playing in British clubs! Only when a man came up and asked them to sign his Telegraph sports pages did I realise that something was going on...and after discreetly trying to flick through the sports section, ended up asking the stewardess at the front of the cabin!

Arrived safely in Tripoli, with quite a long queue at the immigration; nothing to worry about though, and I breezed through it all and went to collect my luggage. Hmmm.

After waiting around in the general chaos for 25 min I noticed that the belt with no flights listed actually had a number of bags coming round. After trudging over I found one suitcase and was left with a dilemma: how to find the other? At this stage I need to point out that, though travelling fairly light by my standards, I had a heavy backpack with laptop and other electronics/valuables/fragile items in it, a large handbag, and my violin case which is missing a strap. On top of that, I was supposed to lug around 2 large wheelie suitcases...and any hopes of a trolley vanished when I realised you had to go outside to find one then come back in. Anyway, the second case turned up and I somehow dragged everything to the large scanning machine then through to the exit, having been barged into by some thoughtless Dutchies who of course didn’t apologise for tipping my bags over (will I ever be able to escape?!?!).

The driver was waiting – in fact, there were 2 of them and a well engineer who had just come off the KLM flight. The two of us headed off with one driver...to find that he had a flat tire! A long story and remarkably unstressed Florence later, I was dropped off at the LCM camp where I am staying, and my forgotten (by the driver!) violin and backpack were delivered to me a short while later.
Now, I had my reservations about this camp I was to be staying at. I quite enjoyed the guesthouse we stayed in last time, and was only put here because I requested an internet connection.

Well, here are a couple of photos (taken on my camera phone – battery probs with big camera – no sniggers allowed from the Tunisia team!!) which speak for themselves!!

I unpacked all my things and made myself at home, then headed over to the restaurant/canteen for dinner – yes, it’s catered! And the food is pretty nice :-) In preparation for my first day at work, and because I had got up far too early, I then had an early night in the comfy bed.
Next morning, just after 8, the driver turned up and took me to work. The camp is in the Sirraj area, and is about 15m mins’ drive to/from the office. The next couple of days, I actually travelled to and from the office with a couple of geophysicists who were also staying at the camp. They have gone home now.

3 days in the office went by pretty fast, as I was busy settling in and sorting out all sorts of admin and access codes, as well as trying to remember who is who, where they sit and what their name is! It’s still a bit of a blurry challenge, though I am sure I should soon be able to work it out as there aren’t that many people here. Anyway, everything is in good shape and I should be mostly sorted by next week.

I also went to see our two houses with the Life Support manager Andre, a funny character with definite strong opinions about houses. Another new person had just popped by to say his had been refused by Andre! So I knew I was up against a challenge here.

Well, he didn’t even want to see the garden house, as it was built 4 years ago and wouldn’t have had the right wiring etc so we were left with the pool house. His initial reaction was to say “no”. I questionned this! and his reasons were, effectively, that the house isn’t nice or big enough, and that he was concerned that I would be here alone and not right next to other expats (only 2 mins round the corner!). He was, though, impressed with the value for money. When I made it clear that I would be here for more than two years, and Matthew would be joining me, he relaxed and after a bit more coaxing, eventually agreed. Phew!

After that we went to see another house for Niels (the one whose house had been turned down) and Andre suggested that I go for one of those and paid for the difference myself. All nice and good, but I’d rather spend 400 pounds a month on a mortgage in the UK than on a renting a huge house which would guarantee to have me spoiled for life. Although he did then try and sort out a deal with HR which would have meant me paying only 200 dinar (85 pounds), which was very good of him but was turned down by HR.

So, in the end, we have the so-called Pool House! I am pretty happy about this as it was my preferred choice and I’m sure we will enjoy living there over the next few years, both full-time and part-time as a sunshine haven away from rainy Europe!
As I didn’t get a chance to post about the pre-visit, here are a few pics of the house. It is almost finished and the paperwork is currently going through for the contract.

So that’s me for now, I haven’t actually been out of my little Shell/LCM world yet, nor do I want to for now as it is Ramadan and evening traffic is dangerous and shops and restaurants are closed till much later. In the meantime I am making friends here, there is a small community of new arrivals and regular rotators here which is nice.

It also seems like Tripoli salsa classes take place here, and I attended on on Monday, though I am not sure I will go back. The teacher is a German hippie whose dancing style I dislike (too fussy) and whose teaching is abominable. “There are 16 basic steps in salsa, here they are....” Another instructor is Italian and taught Bachata, much better but he is particularly unfriendly (apart from when he is around other Italians). But I did meet a couple of people from Malta, a Scottish chap, a South African chap, and a Russian girl.

No real contacts yet, but there is loads of time. This morning (it is the weekend here already) I ran into one of the ladies from Heather’s ladies’ lunch (which we attended during our pre-visit) which was nice. Also Sundar’s wife came into the office one day with their adorable baby, and Jimmy’s came in yesterday with their two little boys (leading Ide to start playing hide&seek behind the map cabinet...priceless).

So there you have it, a warm, human office with friendly yet hard-working people. I know 2 of them from Rijswijk: Sundar and Jimmy. There is also another new chap, a geophysicist from Malaysia called Matthew. Then there is Yvan, a Frenchie from Auvergne who fed me petit beurre and laughing cow the day I forgot to order my lunch (argh no spares during Ramadan), Ide who we met at the airport during the last visit, and Paul Kelly, a British geologist who seems like fun and eats as fast as Graham! I have yet to get to know the others. In total, there are about 15 people on the evaluation team (ie geo-related jobs).

The temperature here is pretty high at the moment! This morning I headed to the pool for an hour around 9 o’clock but by the time I left it was getting rather too hot. I think it peaked at lunchtime at 39 degrees...yes it’s +39 this time!! But I have been hiding inside with the aircon since this morning, the common room here has a nice glass wall which allows you enjoy the outside/sunshine without the associated heat. I will head back to the pool later – I found that between 5.45 and 6.30pm, after getting back from work, it is the ideal temperature for swimming then enjoying the gentle evening sun.

So now I might head off to play a bit of violin, though I have unfortunately forgotten to bring sheet music – anyone know of a good site to download some? (ideally for free as I am pretty sure to lose it in the next few weeks/months)

After which I will start writing the pamphlet I need to finish by end of September – yes, I am crazy and overbooked, but as always I wouldn’t have it any other way :-)

Thanks for reading, I’m back on the blog and will make sure I keep you posted regularly!

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