Pictures: the Matterhorn after the Snow; Hennu Stall; Zermatt in White; Looking down into Cervina.

So, I’ve just spent 2 weeks boarding in Zermatt. What an amazing experience. Especially the last day of boarding in Powder the entire day.

The runs in Zermatt are great, with a wide variety available to all levels. I myself am a beginner, or at least was when I arrived, even having to be escorted off the mountain by the Snow Patrol on my first day on the slopes.

We arrived in Zermatt late on Saturday evening, the 13th March. After watching the Grand Prix on the Sunday we decided to hit the slopes. I had gotten all my rental kit that morning: board, boots and helmet, as I had the rest of the gear already apart from a pair if salopets, which I bought there.

Having only ever boarded once before, 6 years prior in Andorra for a week, and stacking it (wiping out) big time on the second last day – a bruised kidney and blood in my urine for 3 weeks being the result of that epic fall – we decided to chose an Easy BLUE run. The closest we could find was the half-run at Schwarzee Paradise. Great. A short trip up in the lifts and we were good to go.

There are usually at least 3 levels of runs in Europe: Blue (Easy – wide, flat slopes for beginners); Red ( Medium – faster, longer runs for medium to advanced folk); Black (Advanced/Difficult/Insane – Very Steep and usually very narrow. Typically not very long. Usually the fastest and shortest way off the mountain).

Now, for the uninformed, a snowboard is large and flat, almost like 2 skis strapped together. It is curved on both ends (front and back) and the sides are called rails. Think skateboard – only bigger – without the wheels. You ride it longways – like a skateboard – but with your feet typically strapped onto the board. Standing on the board and facing forward is your toe-edge, with your back side of the board being your heel-edge. You ride it with your “strongest” foot at the back. Right-handed people will “typically” look over their left shoulder to go forward, with left-handed people facing right.

There are a couple of basics to successful snowboarding. Things like Falling-Leaf (going side-to-side on your heel edge to slow yourself down, or stop); Turning (heel-to-toe or vice-versa); Carving (riding from rail to rail, turning left to right going down a run); Going Straight; Ollies (jumping the board); Switch/Goofy (riding backwards, the opposite to how you ride by default); 180′s; 360′s; etc, etc, etc. The list goes on.

Now that you all know how to board, back to the Blue run. Pity I couldn’t remember any of that stuff at the time. After strapping myself in and struggling to get up, I was finally moving.

Shit, this did NOT feel good! What the hell was I thinking???

Steve was up and away in a flash. I made it about 60m down the run doing falling-leaf the whole way before stopping. It was rather flat there, so no surprise. Luckily a skier came past and offerred me a pull on his poles. I got a free lift about 20m, and then let go very quickly. I was now going way to fast (think a fast walk) and coming to a decline. Once again I leafed it down this decline and was just beginning to slow down when I saw a guy closing off the Blue run ahead of us on the right. The run we were in was a dual-run. The start was Blue which split to the right and continued a little further on a flattish bit to a ski lift. The left split took you down the mountain on a Red.

I shouted at the Guy if I could go down – I wasn’t planning on stopping as I was still leafing it. He replied that there was one more lift, and then I was gone, past him onto the Blue without even stopping. I must have looked Desperate and probably Terrified all at the same time.

I was still going sideways, Falling-Leaf, and really needed to try going straight so I could turn onto my toe-edge. In other words I needed to do what a snowboard was designed to do. So, I gave it a go. It ended badly, with me on my ass! Ouch! I struggled up and thought: “F*ck it, I’m getting lessons!” A little while later I stopped on the flat. The next thing I know the guy who was closing the run arrives next to me and offers me a pull. Great, I get pulled again until I am embarrassed enough to try this on my own. Once again I don’t get very far before coming to a stop. Next thing I know I feel these hands on my hips and this guy says: “It’s okay, I have you.” He lands up skiing all the way down to the lift, with me “between his legs” on my board! Super embarrassing! And NOT cool. Luckily the run was closed so no one was there to see it. I then find out he is part of the Snow Patrol. First day on the slopes and I’ve already been escorted off by the Snow Patrol. Hopefully that’ll be the last time too.

Next day I got a 2 hour lesson and OMG, what a difference it made! A few days later I was back on form, even getting a bit of Switch going too.

The rest of the 2 weeks flew by. We got across to Italy for a day, which was awesome. Long, long runs from the top of the mountain down to Cervina, and really good skilifts too. I boarded 11 out of the 14 days whilst in Zermatt, and even managed a BLACK run without stacking it, until right at end on the flat when a skier crossed paths with me. Silly Bitch! On the last day of boarding it dumped it down with snow, and we spent most of the time in Fresh Powder. Totally Awesome!

We boarded awesomely during the day, spent way too much time navigating the slopes down from Apres Ski Bar Hennu Stall drunk in the dark, partied hard through the nights, drank too much, made good friends and spent more money than I had banked on for my entire 4 week holiday abroad. Zermatt is EXPENSIVE! Very, very expensive. Make no mistake. It is probably as expensive as Luanda in Angola. If not more so. But, the scenery IS truly amazing, the village of Zermatt is straight out of a James Bond film, the slopes good and at the end of the day, I’ve had an AMAZING time. It’s a playground and I don’t regret it one bit.

Thanks to Jeff and “Party Animal” Brett from On The Piste (OTP) for making it such an awesome experience for us. They extended hospitality and offered assistance and way too many rounds to be believed!

And so it is I find myself off to Barcelona for a week.

One Adventure Ends;
Another Adventure Begins!

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

Post composed on my Mobile Phone from 1st Class on the train, whilst enroute to Geneva Airport.

The Matterhorn from Zermatt Village

Arrived Zermatt last night around 20h. It was bloody cold, considering I had just come from 30+ degrees in CPT 24 hours before.

Literally spent a day travelling. Cape Town to London to Geneva by plane, then on to Visp and finally Zermatt by train.

Got into the British Airways First Class Lounge on the way through Heathrow. Absolutely awesome.

Got all my kit together this morning. Hiring a sweet Burton board and boots and a helmet. Got new boarding trousers too.
Then spent an hour or so on the slopes this afternoon after watching the F1 in German at Brown Cow Bar. Tested my skills after 6 years of no boarding, so took it really slow. At least I know I can still get up, and stop. Turning . . . not great. Reckon I’ll get lessons tomorrow to help out. More snow expected over the coming weekend so need to get my skill up by then.

Stay posted for more.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

Luanda Stadium, in all its glory! It IS a stunning stadium!

We got tickets to see the last match of Group A, Angola vs Algeria in the Luanda Stadium. It was a big match for both as they both required a win to go through to the Quarter Finals. However, Angola had the upper-hand going into the match in that they only required a draw to secure their place.

The tickets cost us 2000Kz a piece, yip 2000Kz (R200), even though the price on the ticket only reads 250Kz. Talk about taking the piss, but that is what happens when you get tickets like 1 day before the game.

A few pics: Tickets, and the Stadium

We only arrived in time for the Second Half as it took us 2h30 to get there through the traffic, and afterwards another 2 hours to get back home. A knock on effect of the traffic chaos caused by declaring a National Public Holiday for Luanda at like 08h that morning. The entire city – literally the entire city – was gridlocked from 11h30. One of my colleagues took 5 hours to go less than 12 kms in the car! Insane.

I had to include this one of the Toilet. All in Marble!

This is the Support Structure of the Stadium outside. Quite an amazing view!

It was a very lack-lustre second half I will admit. Angola maintained possession for about 80% of the half, yet only spent about 40% in the Algerian’s half. Plus, every time Algeria got they ball, they almost scored. Angola were definitely told to keep the ball and play it safe, which was disappointing after such an eye-opening first match. They will definitely have to up their game if they wish to get through the Quarter Finals.

However, one thing I can say is that it is amazing to see how the Angolans are arising to the occasion and backing their home team. Truly great stuff. Talk about National Pride!

Go Angola Go!

My Video of the Stadium

Apologies for the poor quality of pics and video, but that is what you get when you use a Nokia E71 as your camera!

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life!

One day to go to till the kick off!

It’s really sad news for Angola today as Togo pull out of Cocan due to a massive attack on their team bus in Cabinda.

However, the tournament appears to be going ahead as normal – I have yet to be informed otherwise – and the government is still going great guns on completing outstanding infrastructure issues whilst they can for Cocan. The Ilha road works are still being worked on, even as late as 20h00 on  a Saturday night, which is pretty much unheard of, in anticipation for the big event on Sunday.

I can only wish them the very best. I’ll try to follow it on TV, if I even get the reception on the DSTV Africa bouquet we have. I am hoping we do.

It’s going to be an interesting remaining 3 weeks.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life!

Election Flags; Election FLAG! (The size of a car)

The roads outside the house were really quiet, and it was around lunchtime that we decided we were going to head out to Ilha and go check things out. We were also gonna look for Carvao (Charcoal) for the braai we were gonna have later on. Tango Delta wasn’t driving that day, unless specifically required to do so, like airport trips, etc. So all staff jaunts were out. I called up The Architect and we picked him up on the way thru. Everything was closed and we just drove down to the end of the Ilha to the lighthouse. At the end of the spit we found a market on the right that was half open, they weren’t really selling anything except food and drinks, so we pulled in to find out if we could get any carvao nearby.

We landed up asking the one stall seller, who was serving a policeman. He spoke really good English, had apparently worked in Namibia for a while, so was interesting conversation whilst we waited to hear where we could get carvao. Well, no one knew, so we chilled at the lighthouse on the corner, and just watched the people for a while. 2 things were soon very apparent about the lighthouse corner:

1) It was a great place to park off and watch literally everyone who drove past wheel spin, handbrake, wheelie or rear-wheel slide trying to get attention. It could only be a matter of time before some taxi, 4×4, or bike would wipe out here. Saturday nights must be legend here with a camcorder. But, it was not to be our time. As much as the taxi and bikes were pushing he envelopes on that corner, there were no such entertaining moments.

2) It appeared to be a good place to get picked up, if you were looking to . . . as we were being eye-balled by everyone on the way round. One person chatting us up after they stopped, by emergency breaking, to put the child’s safety belt on in the back. Classic.

THE Lighthouse; Torres Atlantico 

Well, from there we were headed back towards the house, without carvao, when we decided to call The Techie and pick him up on the way. We took a short detour via town first to get The AV/VC Techie. I had been to the staff house that Techie was staying in before, but I couldn’t fully remember the way, so Architect said we would give directions. We were about 100m away from house, which is situated in a one-way, which was about 50m ahead of us on the right, when The Architect called out “Right, turn Right now!”. The Namibian who was driving at the time, our driver didn’t arrive, suddenly turned right. Almost into a Traffic Officer on his Motorbike. Almost hitting the Traffic Officer on his Motorbike, who was the front rider to a motorcade or 2 Black Volvos! With Flags on them! FUCK!

We backed up immediately. Well, the copper definitely wasn’t very chuffed at all. Firstly, he almost shat when the Namibian hit him, and secondly he was fuming when he got off his bike. He stormed over to us and started shouting at us in Porra. Well, we don’t speak Porra and said so. He wanted The Namibians License, which he duly handed over. Then he wanted the vehicle papers and we handed over what we could. It is a bit of a mess in the glove box and all the papers are all tattered and old in an old envelope. He looked at them and grabbed what he could get hold of and told us to follow him. Which we did. We followed him into the city and stopped outside the a building where the other vehicles of the motorcade were. The building was the CNE. Comissão Nacional Eleitoral. The National Electoral Commission. And we had almost hit their motorcade. We were sooo fucked now! The cop called The Namibian out, I followed but was directed to stay in the car. I returned and The Namibian was escorted inside the gates. The property has slatted wooden fencing on the street front, through which you can see the movement of people inside. Not very safe for a big wig I must say. Out vehicle was stopped on the right-hand side of the road 5 metres up from the building, so we could see the goings on. The next thing we were all called inside.

There were about 15 guys here all in suits and all looking at us very gravely. We stated we don’t speak Portuguese and asked if anyone speaks English, where to our amazement, we found out that no-one spoke English. No-one here with all these guys in suits and could speak English? That is very, very surprising. Even our guards at the house understand a bit of English, and most people will help out if they can’t speak it. So 15 guys, who work for am official of sorts DON’T SPEAK ENGLISH?? Right. The one guy who appeared to have assumed control was very disapproving and kept shaking his head, with a very stern look his face.

The Namibian had already called The Girlfriend, a local, who spoke the language. She had been speaking to the copper, and now he passed the phone back to her. His take on this was that we had just made an attempt on the President of the CNE! Haha, legend! Well, at the time it wasn’t that funny. This was ridiculous. He informed his girlfriend of this and she spoke to the copper again. He stuck by his story. Us . . . 4 guys, 2 in baggies, 2 in jeans, 2 with caps on, none speaking Porra, driving a hire car 4×4, not fully aware of our way around the city, one with a local girlfriend, all profusively apologetic! What a joke. And what a bunch of morons for thinking that! Around about now they kicked the 3 of us out, and told us to go back to the car . . .  with the keys! What the hell? Yeah, you let assassins go back to the car with the keys? Right. Shortly afterward we got into the car, a guy ran out, whom I think was the driver of the one car, looked at us and mimed handcuffs on our wrists. That was when I laughed. I still can’t tell if it was a nervous laugh or a truly, this is funny, laugh. I got a call from The Girlfriend said that she had called her brother, The Shipper, who just happened to be in country and that he was on his way around to help out.

I gave The Namibian a call and he answered. We had a chat about what was going on and he told me that they did speak English as the one guy had told him he could take a seat, in English. When he questioned the guy about his English, he suddenly switched back to Porra. The 3 of us sat in the car and got chatting about our predicament. We didn’t think we were really in that much trouble as we wouldn’t be in the car with the keys if we were. If they suspected anything, we would be inside with guys going the car, and us in cuffs already. We also wouldn’t be allowed to make calls on our mobile, and The Namibian definitely wouldn’t be allowed to make or receive calls. I did comment that we were lucky it wasn’t The President’s motorcade we had almost run into as if it was, one of the many, many armed guards would have shot us already, onsite! They don’t stuff around here. Also, it was noted that today was not the best of days to be almost bumping into the President of the CNE. We considered contacting The Architect and AV/VC Techie’s company’s security department and ask them for help, but that would only get us, and likely them in serious shit as there was a ruling that they weren’t really supposed to be out and about today. The fallout from that call would be serious, and they would most likely be shipped home for ignoring and breaking company security policy. So I decided against going that route, unless really really necessary. Like handcuffs necessary.

The Shipper arrived and got chatting to The Namibian and the copper. Well, after much back and forth he came and informed us that it comes down to the following:

1) The driver of the car needs a note from the car hire company in Angola to drive the car.

2) The company who the driver works for needs to issue a letter allowing the driver to drive the car.

3) Today was the wrong day to be doing any of this. Election Day. The FIRST true elections in 16 years or so. Bad day to be running into the President of the CNE.

As all 3 points were against us, the driver was looking at jail time. He would need to be taken downtown, booked and arrested. The car would be impounded and then that was a mission of paperwork to get it out. The car hire company would need to come to get the vehicle out and we would have to pay a fine – a large, hefty fine – to get the driver and the car out.

Alternatively, we could just sort things out here . . . ah-ha Welcome to Africa!

Show me the MONEY!!

There was a catch . . . there were 7, yes, SEVEN guys in the mix! The 2 cops, the 2 drivers, a few security guys, etc, etc, etc. Fuck me! So now we got counting. The Architect pulled his cash out and tried to pass it to me, sitting in driver’s seat. “Whoa dude, keep your cash down” I said, pushing his hand down. You don’t blatantly show your cash in these situations. Well, we had about $500 in mixed currency on us, and The Namibian reckon he had about $130 or so in US. So about $630. Hmmm, not enough. They wanted $700. $100 a piece. Man what a RIP! So, we called The Big Zimbo  back at the house and asked to stand with a little extra cash that we could pick up. The Shipper returned and advised us that now it was $1000! WTF!!! Well, now the others weren’t happy, and wanted more in case someone mentioned something and reported them. What we would never do that . . . willingly!

So we made a plan. There was more cash at the house as that is where The Zimbo’s were, and they had cash on them. Okay, The Shipper had organised for us to go get more cash. The copper held our papers and we drove off to organise. We stopped off to get The Techie, the original plan, and continued on to the house,  where we got the cash together and The Shipper and his mate returned to the copper and shortly returned back with all our papers and The Namibian’s licence. Fantastic. They informed us that the Angolan cops here were just plain unfair and had previously put The Shipper’s mate in jail for the night as he had left his licence at home when he was stopped. Crazy huh?

So we got about getting the fire going. Ahhhh . . . . No Carvao! After all that. Still no carvao. We decided to go look for some in the hood, and were about to get in the car AGAIN, when I asked our guard if he could organise. A few minutes later there was some random at the gate, and he said he could organise. So we sent him off to go get 5 bags of carvao, a case of Cristal cervesa and garaf of Vodka. Well he returned empty handed stating he needed the cash first, so The Namibian and I ventured off with him, thinking it was just down the road. Well 15 minutes later we were still walking, through the hood. An hour later we returned to the house, on foot, carrying 10 bags of carvao, a case of Cristal and a garaf of Johnny Red. At least we learnt where to get all the things we need afterhours, should we run out again!

So, the braai proceeded and we al got a bit wrecked, me waking up in the early hours of the morning, still fully clothed! What a night!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Not Being In Jail!

organise carvao, booze, walked a good few kms

The Elections are Coming! Both MPLA and Unita flags proudly displayed in the capital. The pic is a bit out of focus.

We were sent an email about it, well I wasn’t, but the BP guys were, and they forwarded it on to me. I then called Maria who would be in the know. It was 22h15, and not too late I thought. Well, I woke her up. I apologised and asked her about the public holiday.

“Yes, it is a National public holiday!” she exclaimed. This as opposed to a normal public holiday?

Well, I landed up going to work as I was in town in the morning to get my work permit sorted out at SRC – that is turning into an even bigger nightmare, but more on that later – and then I had a telecon in the afternoon for another issue, so just decided to do the work thing and catchup with documentation and emails.

Crap, but I got through a lot, so it was good.

The evening was spent at Cais de Quatro, a restaurant on the Ilha on the bay side, which was nice. I ordered the 2400Kz Garoupa fillet with chips. It was pretty good. The entire bill came to 15 300Kz for 3 of us. Bradley (the architect), Steven (the techie) and myself. Yip R 1 500 for 2 guys and that is pretty much the norm. Madness huh!

Well Elections tomorrow, on Friday the 5th. Gonna be interesting.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life

So I have decided that I am gonna put some serious effort now into getting fit and slim for my return to Cape Town in Mid November, so that I can hopefully show off my new build. And not have to squeeze into my jeans and go out and buy more clothes because I am getting fat! Also there is a serious competition developing between the Pharmacist, who is weighing in at over 100Kgs, and myself to be fitter than the other by my return, Friday, November 14th. We’ll see. I’ve got an easier task I know, but he might show more improvement in which case I guess he will get the prize, whatever that is. Maybe a Steers Combo 1!

So I have purchased a little trinket to help me on my way. A Garmin Forerunner 405, and thus far it is pretty sweet. Really cool. It does GPS Positioning, has a Heart rate monitor strap, and can be tuned for running or cycling, using distance, or purely time. The display can also be customised to display whatever you want whilst training. Distance, HR, Pace, etc etc etc. At a bank breaking R4000 it ain’t cheap, but then when you start looking at the capabilities and you start comparing, you realise it is pretty much a good deal. It has the option of a footpod and bicycle add-on for road running and cycling, and obviously those are extras, but the rest of the features add up greatly in it’s defence. So far I like it, and I will be blogging more of my experiences with it as time goes by.

I’ll also be creating a new category: Fitness, and will add in all my logs and graphs, the application produces graphs for display, so you can see how I am coming on, and offer encouragement . . .  or laugh at how unfit I am!!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life!

What did he do to fix it??

(11:08:06 AM) Andre: try it

(11:09:00 AM) Nunnsby: busy trying . . . angolan telecoms f*cked, so net access tempermental

(11:09:13 AM) Nunnsby: ahhh, u biscuit!!

(11:09:15 AM) Nunnsby: so what was wrong?

(11:09:21 AM) Andre: erm

(11:09:25 AM) Andre: very good question

(11:09:28 AM) Andre: i have no idea

(11:09:28 AM) Nunnsby: yeah?

(11:09:33 AM) Nunnsby: so, what you do?

(11:09:49 AM) Andre: i tweaked and touched a few things but i’m not sure what actually made it work

Gotta love mates in the know! Well, all I know is that it is now working fine and that is cool.

So, I am now in country for 82 days. Why 82 days?? well that was always part of the deal. In fact 90 days at a time was part of the deal. Discovery Health cover us out of the country for up to 90 days, so we return to South Africa every 90 days to make sure our Discovery cover doesn’t fall by the way. Also gives the guys a bit of time back with their families and loved ones. which you definitely need after having worked anywhere in Africa for any period of time.

But you said 82 days, not 90. Well, I have a wedding on the 15th November. Alan’s. And as he is Technical Services Director – I think – I don’t quite see anyone giving me grief about heading home a week early for that. So I will be heading home on Fri the 14th November. A big night at Oblivion that night that is for sure.

So, I’m up for 82 days, and that gives me plenty of time to get my blogging fingers back in action and write down all the usual stuff that is keeping me occupied. And plenty on things on the go this time around: Elections, Offshore to the Sedco Express, Torres Atlantico Project, House renovations, etc, etc, etc.

Pictures to follow soon.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Living Life!

Shipwrecks – Ilha – On the Beach, and in the Bay!

The Angolan coastline, and ironically enough the inner bay, is absolutely littered with wrecks of all kinds. The trip from the Club Nautico – the “yacht club” is an interesting one. You motor past wrecks of all shapes and sizes, in various different locations. Some in the middle of the bay, others tucked up against the beach, some just left to sink where they are moored.

The swell as we rounded the point out of the bay was a tiny bit compressed and we got a few good jumps travelling at the speed we were, considering we had 2 x 200HP motors on the back, it wasn’t surprising. We headed out past the various cargo vessels, 20 in all, all at anchor just outside the bay, and went directly west for a few miles. The swell was very flat and long out here and if there was a meter difference it was a freak swell. Talk about the fish pond effect.

The weather was overcast and pretty nippy and we were all wearing jumpers. That extra bit colder here out on the water. Luanda is definitely not as warm as it is supposed to be this winter. But hey, still warmer than Cape Town! After having trawled for around 2 hours or so, with not even a strike, we came across a baleia (whale) just off a car carrier vessel in fairly deep water. We slowed down and tried to get closer. It dipped back down after we saw it, but then surfaced again off our starboard bow. A minute or 2 passed when suddenly 2 surfaced just behind us, literally 15 meters off our stern. They majestically rose, blew out and slowly arched over back into the water. On the next surface, there were the 2 on our port side when suddenly a 3rd surfaced on our starboard. They were together on the surface and we in pursuit from there.

A Pod of Angolan Whales!

We followed them for about an hour or so, keeping a fairly manageable distance, and I must say they seems pretty un-phased by us. They went under the boat twice, and even surfaced really close, like less than 10 metres, running parallel to us on the one time. It was quite amazing how majestic and graceful they moved, and on a few occasions we got the “tail” as they disappeared below the water.

Angolan Whale Tail!

Around 12h30 we made the decision to head back in. This after we had passed about 5 local fishing “boats” who all reported no catches, apart from one little fish the size of my forearm.

The rest of the day spent watching the Tennis!

Yes NADAL!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

Looking down on Luanda!

This is not so much a blog, as just a series of pics of what Luanda truly looks like. Well the CBD that is.

The SanLuanda hotel construction site.

A new Luxury Hotel with about 240 rooms, 50 suites, indoor pool, 3 restaurants (I think) – one panoramic one right at the top, bars, and a gym. It’s going to be pretty sweet when done. You probably can’t see, but there are 11 cranes in this picture. Now that is development!

Beauty in the Beast!

An old original building that is being renovated, and made into a restaurant – I think once again.

The Lovely Banco Nacional de Luanda.

Even better view from the front, but I don’t have those pics here. Those are dredging pipes in the background, not oil -pill pipes.

Torres Atlantico, with Fortaleza in the background.

The fancy new Torres Atlantico building stands out in stark comparrison to what is around it, apart from the Sonangol building, which I couldn’t see from this roof. Hmmmm . . . maybe I can get onto the TA roof.

A new apartment block being built by our friends the Chinese.

It will house retail, office, and residential, and will be massive as you can see.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

The “This Is Africa” German Coke Truck!

After seeing IronMan a few weeks back , and now this, it is just normal to see a CGI movie, and actually think that what you are seeing in there, you could walk out of the cinema and see in real life. Some green dude running down the road. Really freaky the way it starts to blur the lines of reality.

Well, at R60 for the Movie and R60 for the Popcorn and a Can on Sprite, it was an expensive experience. Little Portuguese kids shouting and talking the whole time through-out. Really little Portuguese children crying – like months old babies – who’s parents obviously decided they weren’t going to miss out on this on the big screen, and just had to come. And no one said anything about it. That is the most amazing thing. It is just the done thing. Man, and I like my quiet movie theaters! Haha, experience of note.

So on the way back the driver, not one of the usual 2 we have, they have the weekend off now, decided that he was not going to go the normal route, as the road was rammed, so he would go another route, a shorter route. Cool, PG was happy as we would be back in time for the Footie: Spain vs Germany!

Well, we drove and drove and then the light was gone and the road went from being 2 lane tarred, to one lane tarred, to one lane dirt, to just a complete tailback. We were stuck in traffic. Lots of traffic. Then we got nudged from behind by another vehicle in the middle of this chaos. Our driver, though not very good with the Safety Procedures just climbs out, leaves the door open with the engine running and walks back to check the damage. I leant over, closed the door, and locked it. Now it’s not like anyone would try hijack us, as we were going nowhere in that traffic, but the safety factor is till very much an unknown! And not a f#ck was I getting out to check the issue. These guys still carry guns around here. Plus the location wasn’t the most inspiring I will say.

So, the damage was minimal, just a nudge actually, nothing doing, and we carried on at a walk. In fact at one stage people walking past were going faster than we were. We continued on this road a while longer, and then the road stopped. There was some detour and loads of construction, and the driver was a bit foxed, but we carried on down another “short-cut”. It was around about now that I saw a plane coming into land on our left, about a km away. This was mildly concerning as the airport is a way out of town, and should have either been in front of us, or to our right on this trip back. We went through a fairly busy crossroad/taxi-rank intersection, and had to slow down considerably as we did so. All the onlookers on the side of the road were inquisitively peering into the vehicle to see what was inside. Plenty of chaps staring directly at me or leaning closer into the vehicle to get a good look. It was around about now that I started to feel, for the first time since being in Luanda, uneasy about being a non-Portuguese speaking expat. Hey easy for PG and our driver, the 2 BLACK dudes in the car, however for the white guy upfront, it could be a problem. The thing that I was actually nipping about the most was not really me being white, but the fact that we had a driver in full uniform, easily identifiable by the lapels and clothes he was wearing, so I was more nervous about us being identified as being of a “wealthy industry” and therefore “hijackable”. Blame the stories I hear from certain people about Nigeria I guess.

We continued on along this dirt road, the traffic now becoming less and less, and far more free-flowing, until it took another detour . . . to the right. i.e. further away from Luanda. At around about this stage the driver pulled over again, flagged down a passing car, and walked over, once again leaving the door open. Here however was a perfect place for Hijackings, so once again I leant over, closed and locked the door. This time he got “better” directions . . .  back the way we came! I asked him if we now knew where we were going, and he replied everything was good. “Don’t worry, you are Safe.” he chimed. We turned around and started along the road for a while longer, this time slowly heading back in the general direction of the airport.  A bit further down the road we came across a police man, on foot, walking in the direction we were travelling. Appears the directions we had gotten were still not sufficient, so our driver pulled over and we got a bit of direction advice from the policeman. After both repeating the same few words time and again, something to do with forwards, the driver suddenly tells us the Cop is getting a lift with us to help with directions. “Don’t worry, it is good for us.” Appears our driver wasn’t feeling as “safe” as we were supposed to be! So our cop got a lift, and we got fairly good directions.

About 30 minutes later of driving through the slums, we emerged onto the main road back into Luanda. We were now quite a few miles past the airport, and it was very interesting to figure out roundabout route we had taken. On our way out of the “slums” we passed loads of sidewalk “shebeens”, with guys standing around drinking and chilling. The taxis out here controlled the road, and had absolutely no regard for the rules of the road or anyone else. A few constantly suddenly stopping directly in front of us, without any sign of a warning, and not caring a damn when the driver leant out and shouted or hooted at him. Once again, the Angolan Attitude showed it’s colours – Me First!

Yet, the surprises were not going to end here. At the one junction that we were definitely supposed to turn left, the driver decides to turn right. Into a one-way. Man, that delayed us another 30 minutes. At thsi stage I was fuming, but there was no point in getting cross now, as there was nothing further to be done. We were now less than 3 kms from home, so it was just sit back and wait.

So, over 2 hours after leaving Bellas, A trip that should take just less than an hour, we arrived home, to just get the last the 30 mins or so of the footie.

PG was well pleased.

So, looking back now in hindsight: It was a bit nerve-wracking at the time, but very informative and interesting to see “how the other 80%” actually live. To see the environment and habitat. The challenges for the Government are HUGE! Can something like this ever be undone? Unlikely. Can this poverty ever really be eradicated or the people truly uplifted and provided for? It is going to take a while. A long while. I don’t think it will ever happen in my life-time. Nor my next generation’s. Something like this doesn’t change over night I can promise you that much. Not even with the amount of money that Angola currently has, or is making. It starts with education and empowerment. And, the way things are going with the amount of Chinese coming in and most of the infrastructure work being outsourced to them, it is a long way off. A lot of Angolans are already very upset with the way things are going, the slow rate of progress, the lack of visible infrastructure, the lack of creation of jobs or better conditions for the local people, the excessive wealth that Sonangol (the state owned oil company) is displaying. However with only one ruling party, there isn’t much they can do about it. Unfortunately.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving being Alive!

Well here I am back on dry land. The flight back from the Rig was fine, and direct, which made a change to having to route via Soyo. This we were told when the pilots arrived on board with the inbound flight. They said the Wind was good and they still had enough fuel, so it was good to go. Great. Just a quick 1h30 flight, and we were back in Luanda.

My R 135.00 Lunch!

Got take-aways today, we do this every now and again. I just couldn’t resist this though. This was lunch from a few days ago. There is some steak, chips, and egg, rice and a bit of coleslaw, along with a Sprite, and 2 x Pastis de Nata. Nice. All this for a mere 135 Bucks, and I am talking South African Rands! Yeah 1350 Kwanzas. Okay, fair play that is one of the more expensive meals, but that is the general quantity and quality of food you get over here. Pretty mental huh?

Weather has been cooler now, but I have also been told that apparently this is their dry season.  Winter the dry season, so more in line with JHB weather. Which kinda makes sense I guess.

Hopefully getting out another rig next week for another site visit. The Sedco Express, which is more of a platform than a rig vessel, though it does move around. Do a  search on Google Images for pictures of it.

Hopefully that means I get to do a bit of the living large bit, travelling by chopper and all, otherwise, I guess I will have to hang around here with the rest of the landlubbers and minions.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

A CGI of the GSF Explorer – for size compare the height of the Derrick to the size of the Heli deck. It is massive.

So I arrived back at the Sonair Charter Terminal,and was required to check in again for my next flight. Destination: Soyo, a little town right on the northern border of Angola, just below Congo. This time round however the passport emigration official decided that my visa wasn’t good enough to allow me to fly to Soyo. This after I had just seen him write down that an American was a South African in his passport register. And they wonder why we call it Africa? So, after a brief discussion with the man, to the amusement of the 6 or so yanks that were all going to be my travelling companions, he decided to hold my passport and continue with the rest, as he wasn’t happy. I spoke to the check in official, who came and had words, and the next thing I knew I was being very unhappily waved through the door, with passport in hand. It still hadn’t been registered in the Register, but hey, that wasn’t my problem.

I managed to get a cake out of the food counter, before we headed off to the plane. Twice! The first time we stopped, got out and started offloading our things from the bus, when the guy hastily rushed back and told us to get back on. 2 planes down, we got out again. It was a tiny craft, you could probably squeeze 3 economy seats in it in a row side to side and that would be it. There were 2 rows of seats on either side, with a very restrictive aisle in the middle. I landed up next to an emergency exit, but default, but was happy with arrangement, as the aisle wasn’t going to be serving anyone in an accident!

We landed at Soyo, after circling for a few minutes, another plane was landing,so we had to wait. We were met on the tarmac by a slick looking gent in half a fancy suit who took our passports whilst another dude herded us through passport control and out to the bus. On the bus he told us he would take care of our passports, and that he would bring them to us at the base, as we needed to watch the safety video. My 4th in 4 days. Nice! There is a bit of a funny procedure when entering Kwanza base. The bus stops at the entrance, you get out and walk past barriers, whilst the bus drives through, and then you get back in on the other side, with no intervention at all. The base is huge and the choppers are housed in just a massive warehouse, and it doesn’t appear that BP actually has a presence there. It is mainly only a chopper terminal/hanger where we went. I befriended a stocky looking chap on the way to the chopper. He was from Louisiana, and had pretty much worked everywhere, except here in Africa. All the guys in fact besides myself were Yanks, and they were all returning, apart from Kirk, the Louisiana dude, who was here for his first time. The flight out was good, in a different chopper this time, but still pleasant, and I actually got a few mins dos time on this one. Our pilots were Saffas and they were really good. Touch down was pretty good I must say.

So once again, I arrived on yet another really imposing vessel. The Derrick  (lifting tower) sticks out meters above the deck and on this vessel is particularly huge. I’ll be honest in saying that I don’t know much about the oil industry at all, especially the drilling side. The only thing I know is Oil Strike on Discovery Channel,and even then I’ve only seen a bit. I know they drill into the ground using the Derrick to guide pipes and push the drill bit down, but I don’t know much else. Well, we had another safety briefing, this time far more focused on Fire and Escape plans, and especially alarm signals. We got another tour of the vessel, and it was immediately apparent that this was definitely an older, working vessel. There was no lift, the stairwell is the backbone of the vessel, the cabins are older in appearance, with communal bathroom areas – we were advised to wear towels as there was a woman on board, I’m guessing the medic – and the vessel itself was much more worn and used.

Once you are on the deck you suddenly begin to realise just how huge the Derrick is. We were shown where all the life rafts and emergency muster points were and once again had the alarm signals and the drills reinforced.

After the tour I returned to my room, then went for supper, and then off to do some work and find out if I could actually fix the problem, as at this stage I wasn’t sure if I was the man for the job, or of I could actually do what was required of me! Supper was pretty good, but very much boarding house/canteen food. But the vessel was predominantly American, funny that considering it belonged to Transocean, which is a giant Rigging company out of the States, so it makes sense that the food is American style. They have syrup on the tables, with all sorts of other American things, including a Hurricane Watch board for the Caribbean.

So, the number one phrase on the vessel: “What’s going on?” This however has to be pronounced “Watts goin ahhhhnnnn?” in a thick Southern American accent. Then you fit right in.

I got down to work and managed to fix the problem in about 2 hours, which was pretty good for me, considering I had to reconfigure a switch from scratch, and I haven’t been on a switch in a long time! The guys were happy that I sorted them out and I was pretty chuffed myself too. The old bugger still has it in him. I do enjoy the techy stuff! I retired to the bedroom,which I then discovered was mine as the other occupant was off rotation at them moment, so I watched half a DVD on my laptop before going to sleep with one hell of a headache, that I can only think must have been caused by either dehydration, or possibly the motion of the vessel. Just weird that. At one stage before I fell asleep it was so bad I actually considered going to the Medic for paracetamol, but it was alright and I eventually fell asleep.

Day 2 saw me getting out with the one BP guy Iain, who gave me a full tour of the vessel with all the explanations, and answered all my questions, very patiently I might add, and I am now a pro on this drilling thing. For laymen only that is! I even got to go across the drilling deck, which is just amazing to be there, having seen it so many times on TV and documentaries. I got to the control room too, and watched the operations as they continue, and it is quite an experience, coming from a completely external outside environment. All I can say is the Oil Industry, specifically the exploration side, like this, is just mind-blowing.

This vessel the GSF (Global Sante Fe) Explorer was originally built as a submarine retriever for the CIA, for project Jennifer,  by Howard Hughes, from Avaitor Fame in 1973, and was later retrofitted to be used for drilling purposes. I have included a few links at the bottom of this page, for those interested, and it is pretty interesting actually. This is a deep water rig,mening that they typically only start drilling a deep depths. Anywhere between 500 and 2500 metres down. Which is pretty amazing if you think of it, and is really incredible for me who has come from a diving background too. So once again I can’t say much about what goes on, only that this is a seriously advanced vessel, and to me makes the FPSO look pale in comparison, but I suppose I didn’t really get a technical low-down on how that vessel operated. Plus this to me is far more technical oriented, as you actually get to “see” what you are doing, or at least “see” the things happening!

Anyway, I am due to be off here tomorrow, was supposed to be off today, but there was no flight, so no doubt I will have a few more stories then. Bed time now, and hopefully a lot more sleep.

Info on the GSF:

GSF Transocean Page

The Cold War of Terror

US Hands over Info on Sunken Soviet Sub

Wikipedia – USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193)

Wikipedia – Project Jennifer

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life.

A CGI picture of the FPSO – Looks small? It is 310m long, and 12 stories high!

Okay, I can’t really say much about the vessel itself, the layout, or operation, or any of that – NDA stuff, but what I can say is it is pretty amazing! (I have included several links at the bottom of the blog for those interested in knowing more). It is 310 Metres long, and 12 stories high. It has a lift inside that services 7 floors. It can accommodate approx 140 people. The accommodation section is the big white building at the rear, and this is split from the “plant” area by a fire break/safety “air area” – the gap just in front of the accommodation block. We arrived by chopper, and what an experience.

So the flight was from the Sonair charter “terminal” at the airport and was scheduled for around 14h. We checked in at 12h30 and everything went fine. I only had my laptop bag, with my laptop, and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) – you are required to take as much of your own PPE with you as they can’t provide everything for everyone -  overalls, gloves and goggles in my bag, along with 3 shirts, 3 boxers and 3 socks inside it. My boots and helmet were separate in a plastic packet. Well, that got turfed. You are not allowed to take any plastic on board, so they gave me a mail bag, with Explorer written on it (BP use a drill rig called GSF Explorer in another area further out to sea), that I put my helmet and boots in. We then waited for the flight to be ready.

After the bus ride through the airport tarmacs, we arrived at a Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopter that was to be our ride.

A picture of a Sikorsky S-76C+ chopper. Similar to the SonAir ones.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-76)

This was pretty much my first time in a chopper, though I do think I have been in one  before, in fact, yes, I have been in a chopper before, but this was great. It actually taxis down onto the runway,and you pretty much expect it to travel down the runway on the wheels before taking off, but whilst you are in place, it just lifts up straight up, leans forward and flies off. Pretty strange feeling. The noise as the engines power up for the lift is pretty nerve wracking, and the whole heli shakes quite a bit. Next thing you are airborne and flying out past the Ilha and soon the coast is behind you.

The one thing they teach you in the HUET course, or advise you against, is sleeping in the chopper, yet within 5 minutes virtually everyone on board is asleep. This is due to the very monotonous and soothing vibrations that he flight produces. As it was my first offshore flight I remained awake the entire time. Though I don’t know if I’ll be doing that again on the rest of the flights. Soon we were above a cloud base that had appeared offshore, and about 30 mins later we descended through this to see the ocean once again. As we cleared the cloud base, everything around us was pure white, and you couldn’t see anything. I was watching the guy opposite me, and it was obviously his first flight as I could see the entire white of his eyes. He was nervous as hell. However, once we cleared the clouds, he was cool.

We soon arrived at our destination, and the pilot informs you of this before you arrive. This according to statistics is the highest risk time for accidents – Landings. I once again checked my exit strategy, luckily being right next to the door you kinda have THE exit strategy. The vessel looks small at first, but the closer you get to it the larger it gets, until you soon realise that this thing is friggin massive! The flame was burning a bright orange colour from the top of gas flare, the long tower at the front of the vessel, and that was an incredible site to see it so close.  There was virtually no smoke coming from the vessel at all, and it was just gigantic when you finally arrived. The landing was great and we waited for the signal from the HLO’s (Helicopter Landing Officers), before removing our earphones, unbuckling and exiting, just ducking as you reach the rim of the rotor reach. Once inside we removed our foam inner ear plugs, and started to take in our surroundings. I noticed my mailbag being carted off to the admin section, and quickly retrieved it.

We were met by Steve our Telecoms man on board, and first thing had to attend a Safety briefing. After that we were shown to our cabins, and given a tour of the vessel in full PPE, as you are required to wear it every time you are outside. The vessel’s structure is quite amazing, and what is even more amazing to me is that there are people out there who thought this up! How to build something like this and how to put it together! That blows my mind more than anything else. This module to that module to there and there, and then eventually to the tanker waiting for the oil. So, as you can all read, this puppy can produce up to 200 000 barrels of oil A DAY, with storage capacity for 1.7 million barrels, and exports of 1 million barrels per cargo, every 5 days. Now you have to admit that that is seriously impressive. You do  the math,using an approximate oil price of $130 per barrel. Ouch!!

On our tour around, I got to put my hands on the oil pipeline that comes in from the sea, and the most interesting thing is . . . it is warm. Apparently the oil comes in at around 50-60 degrees centigrade. Now, it is not something that I had ever thought about, the temperature of oil, but I was surprised to find that it is warm. We were also shown the sun deck, the most important part of the vessel, and the only part you can go without PPE gear. I also happened to see a pod of dolphins frolicking in the sea quite close by. The vis out here is awesome . . . and that’s not due to it being cold!

I fixed the issue we were sent out for, and also had a really good site visit of what is onboard, and what is fully expected of us in a support role.

The vessel is stationary – fixed in place, yet at times I could definitely feel it move. Not a lot, but ever so slightly. Steve reckons I am mad, but I tell, I could feel it moving. Whether it was rolling or just rising in the swell, not a lot of that either, I couldn’t tell. But, it definitely moves.

I got a wee bit of time in on the sundeck the one day. Half an hour in the sun before lunch, and I now know why a lot of the guys have such dark tans, for blokes that spend their entire time indoors or in PPE kit. They don’t! There were quite a few chaps outside on the sun deck, and it is like a magnet I am told – sun. Especially since it is overcast quite a bit apparently.

The accommodation was okay, apart from the fact that I think a tank had slept in my bed before, as the mattress was squashed flat on the one side! Other than that is was okay, and each cabin has it’s own bathroom with a shower with great pressure in it, which makes a change from the Luanda Res! Our pressure is crap! The food was decent too, as ship food goes I guess, though I still must say the FSV Bourbon Oceanteam 101 had the best food I have yet had offshore.

There is a gym onboard, I never got to use it as I wasn’t feeling great, and a little cinema too. The one lounge also has table tennis. 3 or 4 TV rooms litter the vessel, with each cabin also having it’s own TV. And overnight/same day laundry.

Outside the heliport entrace door is a big sign bolted onto the side of the wall: HYUNDAI. They apparently built this vessel. Ummm, okay, that is a change from the crappy cars we get back home!!

The one thing I must say, is that it appears to be very well organised and everything is in it’s place. Very “Prim and Proper”, in typical Brit style.

Thursday I was contacted by the offshore network manager and told that we needed to send someone to the GSF Explorer – an offshore rig, as they required someone for an installation/support issue there too. I offered myself as it was Francisco’s 30th Birthday on Sunday, and his wife had plans for him already. Friday morning I suddenly find out all hell has broken loose as there was now a chopper coming out to get me specifically for the trip to GSF and it has caused absolute chaos as it hasn’t been properly approved, or the correct channels haven’t been used. Classic! Eventually that was straightened out and I was scheduled to head out Saturday morning via chopper to Kwanza base in Soyo, up North on the Congo border to refuel and then fly from there to the GSF. Cool,  I haven’t been there yet.

I arrived in the departure “lounge” at 08h Saturday morning, watched the safety video – another one again – and pull out my laptop to do a bit of last minute work. A while later, I realise it is past 09h. Hold on, my flight is supposed to be at 09h. I check with the guy to be told that everything has changed. I am now going to be flying back to Luanda with the Sedco Express guys (a rig close by) and then heading by fixed wing to Soyo on a plane, and then to the GSF by chopper from there. Cool, even more travelling, and experiences. Throw it at me. I reckon this travelling is costing them a small fortune, like my entire yearly salary (haha), but that is the nature of the beast I guess.

The flight eventually arrived around 11h or so, and I was gone. Grabbing my bag on exit, I once gain noticed EXPLORER on the side of the mail bag . . . Coincidence? I think not! Once again a quick look at the incredible structure before it slips out of view, and we ascend to the heavens again.

Interested in the BP FPSO – Greater Plutonio? Read more:

Production Begins at Greater Plutonio

Plutonio – Transportation and trade

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life.

Well, this is just a quick few lines to report on the a bit of nothing actually. Well, not really nothing. It is more of a general update on what life has been like here for the last few weeks that I have been here this “tour of duty”. And also to show off a few more pics!

1. The Marginal (Promenade) with the National Bank in the foreground on the left, and the brand new Torres Atlantico Building on the right! Our new premises at some stage.

2. The usual Petrol chaos at the garages. It is like this every day and night. And Fuel is R4 a litre. Read and Weep!!

3. The Angolan equivalent of Maccy D’s

4. Mobile Clinics and Chinese quality control for construction!

Today I saw my first stab victim first hand! It was pretty horrific I must say. Some dude staggering down the road being supported/led by two guys, one on either side of him. He had his hands on his stomach, and both hands were just covered in thick red blood. Pretty crazy actually.

5. Locksmith – Angolan Style

6. WTF??

We had our pantry door lock replaced the other day and had to get access to the room – Angolan Style (5).

I also arrived home 2 days ago to find that my light bulb in my room was LEAKING WATER (6)! I mean come on . . . WTF is that all about??? The water was actually running down the INSIDE of the electrical cabling to the light bulb! It’s a miracle it didn’t short the whole house when I flipped the switch!

I started gymming again this last week. At $100 a month I can tell you I will be going at least 6 days a week. It is nothing special, and is really small. Like really small, but has really good equipment, all the latest Technogym equipment, with a few pieces I haven’t even seen in SA too.

2 Xbox games have been already finished twice over by Warren,and I have a had a round or 2, but not much really. Been way to busy with work actually. Just got loads on at the mo, so it has been good.

Oh, and we finally got our power sorted issues sorted. Well, kind of.The guy came along one night and split the power loads that was on the breakers to balance it out a bit more. It has been stable since then,so we can only hope it is not sorted. They did it at night, and had to shut the power off, so he decided to wire a bulb directly to the city power coming in. As you can see in the picture below (7), it was another Angolan “job”. How he tested it was working? He licked his finger and briefly touched the contact to see if it “was alive”. I would have thought that he would have known by the massive spark that came off the contact when the connected it up.

7. Connecting a light bulb directly to the City Power.

8. The “fancy” underpass with the usual traffic queues trying to get into the city.

Monday is another  public holiday, we had one last week too. This Monday I think is definitely gonna be spent on the beach, or at least in the sun! Definitely gonna bring my beach bats up when I come back next time!

More to follow soon. Plus I’ll be updating y’all on my 2 weeks back in ZA recently.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

The Simulated Helicopter Chassis, which they drop in the water and spin around!

The ESSA training facility is based at Cacuaco, just North of Luanda. 14 kms from the centre of town. That’s 1 hour to get there early in the morning, if you leave before 06h that is, and 2-and-a-half hours to get back at 16h30.

The facility itself is built on a hill overlooking the town of Cacuaco, right on the edge of the bay, with an am amazing view of the beach. The center is used for all forms of offshore training and can also cater for a full STCW95 course, along with fire fighting, and many other off-shore petroleum related courses. The ESSA facility is also home the largest number of cats I have seen since arriving in Angola. There were about 10 of them just around the breakfast deck alone.

1. Cacuaco  from Essa. 2. An underwater wellhead/”Christmas Tree” unit.

The training session starts with a breakfast, which if had known, I wouldn’t have had breakfast at home, so only grabbed a drink. From there we attended a theory session which lasted the morning, and then lunch, followed by the issuing of overalls and water shoes, and then off to the pool. We had our heart rate tested and given the signature of approval, issued with helmets, and the training begins.

The HUET training uses a simulated Helicopter module, which is attached to a pulley system that drops you into the water. It also has a rotation motor on it so it can spin you once in the water.

Before starting the training you are split into groups for 4 people per group. The module contains 6 seats, 2 for the pilots right in the front, and then 4 for the passengers at the back. The passenger seats are 2 in front, right next to the open doors, and the 2 at the back, next to portholes, which are the equivalent of windows. Each seat has the standard airplane buckle seatbelt. The front doors are primarily for those students who can’t swim. Oh, what, I forgot to mention that there are people on the course who can’t swim?? Yeah, that’s right, people are put through this who can’t swim. Now that is pretty mental I must say, as I was even nervous beginning this, but for them . . . it must be really scary.

The testing procedure is thus: You swim to the module, which has been positioned just on the water line in the pool, climb in and secure yourself with you seatbelt. If you can’t swim,you are escorted out there by the divers. The module is raised, then slowly lowered into the pool, whilst the trainer calls May Day, May Day, May Day, then Brace. You brace yourself, protecting you head with your had that is closet to the exit, and the other hand grabs the seat to steady yourself.  He then bangs his hand on the side to signify the crash. Once you hear that, you grab the exit, in this case a rail, or the window frame, but in real life the window lever, or door lever. and look towards it. The water rises, and just as it is below your head, you take a deep breath, and begin counting to 15, after fifteen, you release your belt, and exit via the door, or window, pulling yourself through, out and up. Very straight forward. The 15 second wait is to allow the blades, in a real-life situation, to stop spinning.

You are not even 1 metre below the water at any time, but it is the feeling of being in a “confined” space that is disturbing. There are 2 divers just outside the module under the water at all times. So, there really is nothing that can go wrong. Except for PANIC itself! And PANIC was a big one that day.

We were all given a dry run for practice in the module on the ground still. That was very basic. Then the guys climbed into the pool and had to submerge their heads for 15 seconds to experience the sensation, whilst holding onto the side. This was also so the guys who can’t swim could see what it feels like. After that, group 1 was off. I was in group 2. The guys ran through their paces and the module submerged. It hadn’t been underwater 5 seconds when 2 very frightened guys breached the surface, and doggy paddled like hell to get the edge of the pool. It was quite amusing to watch I must admit. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I am not making fools of them at all. I think they must be seriously brave to get through that without freaking completely. However, it was early days yet. The trainer, Joao, or John in English, was very cool, and very, very good. Great guy,and he handled the students fine!

Then it was my turn. I hadn’t mentioned to anyone yet that I used to be a Scuba Diving Instructor in a previous life, about 4 years ago, and decided not to either, as it wouldn’t look very good if the Scuba Diver Dude with over 500 dives landed up losing it!! There is only thing that pretty much stresses me out,and that is water up my nose. I don’t know why. It is just one of things. Otherwise, I am rock solid under the water. No worries with anything . . . except water in my nose. Once I spend a bit of time in the water, then I’m sorted. So this was gonna be interesting. The last time I had been in the water was in Cape Town on our lovely 8 degree dive, about 2 weeks previous to this. So, at least I should be okay. The first “landing” was fine. Nothing to worry about at all. You just hold your breath, wait a bit, release your belt, pull yourself out of the hole. I was at the back left. Being a pool, you have the benefit of being able to open your eyes, which if you think about is kinda cheating, as you probably won’t in the ocean. But hey, why the hell not. So I waxed the first attempt. I must have been down for about 20 – 25 secs before coming out,which means I am theoretically alive still! Yay!! Piece of cake.

We watched the next 2 groups go after us, and there was a White, French dude – a chef apparently – who was one of the non-swimmers. He just managed with the first “drop”. Everyone else was pretty cool with it. Some guys popped out early, within a few secs, the rest were fine.

So, onto round 2. This was going to get a bit more interesting. In this round we were to be spun around. virtually 180 degrees. So the module is lowered into the pool, and then spun thru 180 degrees whilst it is still sinking, to simulate the helicopter flipping. This is apparently what happens in about 90% of all helicopter water landings, so it must be done. Especially when the rigs here, are all at sea! So, we get back in and the the sequence starts again. we start rotating whilst sinking this time, and as it flipped to the left first, I had to hold my breath longer than the required 15 sec, as it only really stabilised and stopped moving after 25 secs. It was a bit weird being upside down I must admit, and I didn’t really have any issues with water up my nose either. I had just exited the module and was surfacing, when I suddenly felt a guy behind me. What the hell? He had touched my shoe and had come through the same window I had. That was just weird. The trainer told me I had gone out the wrong window, which I thought was wrong, as that would have meant that I had swum across the module, not far, but still just strange, as I remember myself exiting the window right by me. I watched the next dump and noticed that I had come out the right window. The muppet who had been sitting next to me on the other side of the module had actually swum out my window after me! I told him and the trainer, and then he realised that that was correct. Sweet, so I had been right. I had been wondering about it. The cook made this one too, but he was mega stressed after it, and it looked like he was close to cracking.

Round 3 was exactly the same, just we went the other way round,so I only had to grab my breath at the end, just before I dipped under the water, and I was only under for a secs before it stopped and I could “escape”. By this time we were all pretty much old hands at it, and I was tempted to muck about on the last go, as Blythe had done when he did his HUET. The last round they had swum to the Cockpit and stayed there for like a few secs longer, taunting the divers by hanging around under water longer than required. At this stage I decided to just complete the training and chill. Also the chlorine was seriously killing my eyes. So I just did the usual escape and got out. I was also at this stage intrigued to see how the Frenchman coped. Well, he didn’t. I think this third time was just too much for him, and PANIC set in in a big way. Shame. Poor dude. I really felt for him.It is one hell of a thing to be thrown in a pool, and then told you have to do it whilst tied up under the water. Man, no way. I would’ve gone to find a different career.

After the HUET stuff we did a bit of basic sea survival on a raft, and practiced dragging and huddling. Basic stuff.Then they elected me as leader for the raft evacuation, which was cool. It meant I was the first one out. Sweet. Cheers Suckers, I am getting the helicopter outta here!!! haha

So, that was pretty much the HUET in a day, and I had to admit to the trainer at the end that I used to be a Dive Instructor, whereby he said he wasn’t surprised as I looked very calm underwater. This was surprising, as even I thought I was a bit panicked at times. God, would have been great to see the faces of the others then! The day ended on a good note for all, including the Chef, as he wasn’t going to be doing that again in a hurry, and to date there has never been a ditching of a Helicopter off Angolan Waters. Let’s keep it that way.

I was called at lunchtime by my mom to inform me that the guy who had taken my car for a test drive the day before I left, had decided he was dead keen and was taking it. Great news . . . but at the same time, I was a bit bummed. I absolutely my loved my little gas guzzling Jetta 2.3l V5.

My Baby!

It was a really sweet machine, and had gotten me out of a lot of sh!t in the past. Okay, it had also gotten me into loads too. haha It is gonna be sorely missed, and I wish it the best of care in the hands of it’s new owner. Lucky guy!! But,time to move on I guess. Now to start saving for that RS4!! 

Well, it was a great day, and fun was had by all.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Written on the 31st May ’08

Yes that is a Wimpy. The “Best” of South Africa! Taken whilst travelling, so a bit blurred.

So the flights were interesting. I got the Emergency Exit seat, not that I would have been any good in the case of an emergency, as I was really exhausted from the night before. Got to bed around 03 I think, and had to get up around 05h for my flight. And I wasn’t even out partying.That would have been explainable at least! But it was a good evening, regardless. So I literally passed out in my seat. I woke up about 20 mins before we landed and saw the guy next to me had a whole of papers out on his tray. I happened to notice the logo at the top, as one does . . . and said:

“Quinton or Sigi?”

He looked at me and said “Quentin”. My my, what a small world. I had just been on the phone to Quinton from Unison in Cape Town about 2 days earlier regarding a BP installation in Luanda, but we had never met. He was on his way to Windhoek for a business trip. Not going to Luanda. Lucky for him! So weird man, what a small world huh!!

The flight from Windhoek to Luanda was different. We were on a much bigger plane this time, something in the upper 737 range, a really big one, with 4 seats in the middle.Luckily I got stuck next to my favourite type of passenger, a young Portuguese Angolan Family, consisting of a mother, who didn’t give a toss about anything else, and 2 young kids who were an absolute nightmare, and kept kicking and knocking me, and hitting my leg with her hand, the little bitch, whilst I tried to sleep. And the plane was RAMMED, so there was no escape for me!

I arrived and cleared customs, which was a primary concern, considering I had our new House Asset in my laptop bag, along with 3 x controllers, and about 8 games . . . the asset is the new XBox 360!! Something to keep the kids happy. And I was worried as I don’t speak Portuguese and decided not to use the services of our protocol man, as he is just a waste of money in my opinion. So,I was nipping a bit. But cleared without having my normal bag scanned. Sweet!

So, got home and slept for 2 hours. The guys were chuffed when they found out about he XBox. That’s cool. After the last “tour of duty” I really needed something to keep the guys happy and busy at night.

Sly and PG told me their rather “hectic” & funny story about the night before. They had gone to a club called the Da Pub, know to be rather dodgy apparently, and as they were leaving, they had organised for Jeje  the Driver to meet them outside as they didn’t have their phones with them, they walked out meet him. They spotted him across the road, and they were just about to cross, when a Police Van pulled up, and bundled them onto the back. The Police vans here are all pretty much open-top Landcruiser bakkies. Pickups for you foreigners. With a bench on the back that the cops sit on, facing outwards towards the sides. So Sly and PG get hauled onto it, and Jeje decides to follow. The cops drive them around a bit, and then decide that they’ve spent enough fuel, and now need to make their costs back, so they have a feel,of their trousers, remove their wallets, and lighten their load by about $120 between the 2 of them. Oi. They got dropped off on the wrong side of town. Luckily Jeje had seen them and had been following otherwise they’d be stuffed. They started arguing with the one guy, who realises that they may have made a mistake when they find out they don’t speak any Porra, and he has a chat to them. Their money however is not returned. They returned to the house, considerably poorer!

The following week they logged it with BP’s Alpha Zero, security department, and told another guy who works there. His old man managed to track down the vehicle and occupants from that night, as they had gotten the vehicle number. To date nothing has come of it I don’t think.

Well, its been a fun return to Luanda!!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Written on the 30th May 2008.

Cape Town from the Tampon Towers

Luckily I managed to get back to Cape Town just in time for the 2 day week. 3 public holidays almost in a row led to some serious debauchery and over-indulgence on my side. This was well timed, as I was in serious need of a break after my last week in Luanda. Well, I took serious advantage of it!

We: The Pharmacist, Bokkie and myself, hit Oblivion on the Friday night which was pretty good. I landed up at Tiger on Sat after rugby with Borat, and that was once again a late night. Can’t remember much about the night to be honest, but it was a good one, and I got pretty drunk, and landed up getting some chicks blood all over my jeans, which apparently I had caused when she fell off her chair, but I very much doubt it. Well, Johnny Walker doubts it!

It landed up being a week of complete excess – the public holidays very well timed for me!

I got a dive in on the Wednesday afternoon with The Advertiser and a college friend of his, and we did A-Frame which was chilled. Not too cold and good to be back in the water, especially with my new mask, a Mares X-Vision, which was just great. I had borrowed one briefly in Sharm when I was there back in 2004, and as my Cressi had now given up the ghost, it was a good purchase. Very happy with it indeed. Vis wasn’t bad for A-Frame, but the wind was absolutely howling, so it was cool to get under the water. The Advertiser found us an Octo, which was always cool to see and there were the usual “strepies” (fish) hanging around the A-Frame itself, with loads of starfish, with the big legs.

Borat and I hit Tiger again on the Wednesday night as Thurs was a public holiday and it landed up being an absolute ripper. I actually started off at Jade bar in Green Point  with the Sales Man, and a few of his mates. From there we went to Karma in Camps Bay, which was okayish. Borat pulled through and then very aptly called it a “Coloured Jol”, which it seriously was. haha

From there we HIT Tiger . . . and  . . . I can’t actually remember what happened next. I do remember running around Harfield Village at about 04h30 trying to wake people up to help me with my car, as I had run out of fuel – not immediately obvious to me at the time – something to do with dicing Borat back from Camps Bay and burning the rest of the half a reserve tank, and then forgetting to fill-up when I left Tiger . . . oi vey the Sales Man comments! The funny thing is the cops drove past me twice. Anyway, I called Borat and he said he would pull through. 30 mins later, he hadn’t arrived, and I had finally sobered up enough to realise that I was actually covered by the AA, a company thing, a good thing, and I called them and made it their problem. The guys arrived about an hour later, now around 06h and had to knock on my window, I had fallen asleep again, whilst listening to Harry Potter on my iPod, and was now completely lost in the story too. The AA dude found a 500ml bottle in the road, which he took off to get fuel in, luckily for that, as they don’t carry with them, and I waited another while for him to return. He did manage to get me going, and I headed off home to sleep big time! And still with no word from Borat. I called him a  few times, to no avail. Think it went straight to voicemail, and texted a few times too, but they never got delivered

I got a text from him at around 11h30 that morning saying: Got busted by the pigs on my way to you, just got home now. And that was it. I didn’t hear from Borat for the next 4 days, and I reckoned it was cause he was miffed with me.

Thursday afternoon I got out a bit and went up Lion’s Head, as it was great weather. The lack of gym showed very quickly though with me being completely stuffed, without my pump halfway up the path, just past the paraglider’s launch point. It was also probably due to the fact that I had hammered it getting up there, and that wasn’t very clever either.

My phone decided to give up the ghost around about that time, and the sim card just died! Little did I know what fun I was about to have trying to get it replaced.

Saturday I decided to go diving in the morning after the relaxing dive I had had the Wednesday. So pulled through to Hout Bay to head for a dive from there. Met up with the dive crew from ProDivers. We heard reports from the guys coming in that the vis was amazing, like up to 20m at parts. Hmmm, that was ringing bells in the back of my head, but I couldn’t remember why . . . I got my kit ready and we launched from there. We were supposed to do some site or other but the swell was pushing a bit so we landed up doing Vulcan rock instead. The boat stopped, we all kitted up and dropped in, and BANG it hit me what great vis in Cape Town meant. BLOODY FREEZING WATER!!!

Like 8 degrees freezing!!! Man it was cold. My head got serious “ice freeze” on the way down,and I just remember my body going f#ck this is cold! The dive lasted about 25 mins max I think – I didn’t have my computer on, the strap was broken – and we all agreed unanimously when the DM said time to surface! It was a great dive though, and the vis was truly amazing. Probably about 15m there even with the effects of the surge around the rock. Saw loads of urchins and some really large starfish. We were also joined by a few seals at the end of the dive, and they were rather playful, which is always cool to have with.

Fish and Soft Corals

Starfish and Urchins

Seal and Diver

When we got back to the boat the one diver was already there. She told us she got about 5m deep and decided no way it was too cold, so cancelled her dive. Clever girl. Once back no land I decided I was only doing one dive, that was cold enough for me that was. My hands were burning the entire way home due to the senses finally returning to them from the sheer cold of the dive. Our Instructor Exam had been done in 11 degrees, but this took the cake! Won’t be doing that again in a hurry! And will definitely remember what great vis means next time round!

Headethrough to Tiger that evening, once again, and who did I see at the one counter on the far side?? Borat. Hmm, he hadn’t beein in touch sine Wednesday, and to be honest, my phone hadn’t been in operation since Thursday afternoon, so I wasn’t actually sure if he was pissed with me, or just hadn’t been in touch. I went over and said Hi. Well,to cut a long story short,he had been pissed with me at first, then got over it, and then said that  if it happened again, he would call me a taxi! Now that’s a mate. He had also been trying to get in touch, but my phone was off,so once again we were on the lash! It was a good sat night and fun was had by all.

Monday morning early I nipped through to Malmesbury to get my new Jumbo Passport I had ordered, as mine was due to expire in March of 2009,and judging by the amount of time I was due to be spending out of the country, I decided to organise a new one 2 months back. I had already been informed that it was waiting for me. The reason I couldn’t have it posted was due to the fact that I still required my current one for travel, so had to go get the new one in person. Why Malmesbury? It is a little trick for Capetonians. It is only about 40 mins out by car,and is a fairly pleasant drive. You get there at 08h45, and there is literally no queue. You land up being first, second or third in the queue, and are pretty much done within half and hour. Not like having to wait 4 hours in a queue at Home Affairs in Cape Town somewhere,only to be told you have to wait again for the form, etc. Absolute disaster that place. I believe you can also get your drivers done in Malmesbury. That’s on the cards soon too, so I think I’ll be taking another trip soon enough. Plus there is also the Engen where you can stop off at for a decent Wimpy breakfast on the way back.

From Malmesbury I headed straight through to the Angolan Embassy to get my Visa sorted. I arrived around 10h30, and it was an absolute disaster. The queue was at about 47, but I managed to get in fairly quickly,for once,only to be told my LoI (Letter of Invitation) had not yet been received. In order to travel to Angola, you require a Letter of Invitation from an individual there. Our representation company usually sorts this out for us, and I had organised mine way in advance. To be told it wasn’t here, meant that I would have to request a new one and come back tomorrow. This would also mean my 5 day ordinary visa would now have to be treated as an Emergency Visa, and cost an additional R250! Which it did. I landed up returning every day for the next 2 days, as when it did arrive it was then missing some sort of contract number, which we had NEVER included in the past, and had never had a problem, but now we required it to do on there for them to process. Why was I not surprised. So I eventually got my application in on Thursday, which left 1 day to get a visa, as I required to have it by Friday afternoon, to fly out on Sunday morning. This is pretty much unheard of, getting a visa in 1 day, but I managed to wrangle it,and I collected it Friday afternoon. Why do we have issues every time we go to the embassy? It is crazy man.

I also put my car up for sale, as if I realistically only going to be spending approx 4 more weeks in the country,it didn’t make sense to keep it, especially since it was still be paid off. So I advertised it on AutoTrader and literally got a call the very next day by a guy who really wanted it. He took it for a test drive a few days later, and job done, he took it. We had to get a few minor issues sorted,which dragged on, once again Cape Town service , and then eventually he got the vehicle. I was sad to have let it go,as I absolutely lvoed my little Jetta V5, but at the end of the day, at least he will get pleasure from it, and it removes one more burden from my life, especially since I know that my sister had been driving it whilst I was away!!

I got one hell of a Tummy Bug on the Saturday, the day before I was due to fly out, and was literally man down the entire day. Cramps and the the good old toilet tap scenario! Not cool,especially when you literally have to t spend a whole day flying the next day! It didn’t help either that I only got 2 hours sleep on sunday morning before getting up to go to the airport. My eyes were burning whilst I was showering I was sooo tired, and I almost fell asleep in the shower from exhaustion.

Next thing I knew . . . I was back in Luanda, for another tour of duty!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

We had 3 project guys arrive on the Sunday before I left, along with our new engineer, PG. Another Zimbo. He seemed really cool, and pretty chilled too.

A water truck, delivery water to “The Hole!!” Basically the reservoir. This is across the road from us.

Things started going wrong from the minute they arrived. I hadn’t prepared their rooms as well as I should have I will admit, not that there was much to prepare. Their Aircons weren’t working, purely because things in Angola take sooo long to organise, they had been on order for about 3 weeks, and I hadn’t put the Moz Nets up. That was purely because BP didn’t have, so I hadn’t gotten around to getting them. So, I landed up giving the one guy mine, cause I wasn’t using mine anymore. I just sleep with the fan on now, and don’t worry about the mozzies, as they don’t seem to bother me much. I also went out purchased 3 fans for the rooms they were in. Do you know how hard it was to get fans? We landed up going to one of the local markets with the driver and Warren and his Girlfriend, Raquel, who is Angolan,so she knows the lingo and the deal. Thank goodness.

The one project engineer had an absolute sense of humour failure as it was, and was not at all pleased with the situation. I don’t blame him now that I think about it. He just hadn’t been prepped enough about the set-up.That and the fact that the aircon and nets weren’t up. The others climbed onto the bandwagon from there.

Well, things went from bad to worse that week. I had bought a gas stove/electric oven unit for the guys, as we were cooking off 2 useless hotplates and they were crap. So it was a long time coming. That set us back a fair sum, but was worth it. It was delivered on the Monday, but I then found out it didn’t come with a plug, and we didn’t have sufficient cables to connect it up. The aircon guys arrived on Monday night and hooked up the aircons. Thank God!

Monday afternoon we found out the water had run out. The driver called the water guy and he tried to organise delivery. At 17h30 I found out that ther was no water still, and the guy couldn’t deliver. He didn’t have, so I called another guy and he said he would deliver later that night. Well, at 22h he still hadn’t delivered, and we realised that we weren’t getting any water that evening.

Tuesday: The next morning I headed off to Sonnills base early, with only having had a bottled water quick shower. Mental. Tuesday morning the water was at least delivered, in the late afternoon. Tuesday night the power in the house blew. The generator was on, but the main circuit kept tripping. We obviously didn’t have candles – who needs candles when you have the biggest generator in the world? Well, we did apparently. The wiring was getting hot, and then the whole main circuit breaker would trip, wiping out the entire house, both upstairs and downstairs. This must be due to excess load on the circuits! Crazy.

Wednesday, was more house power issues, then the guys laid into me about the house and how bad everything was, and I suppose they needed an outlet, so it was me, as I represented the company. What pissed me off though was teh lack of support I was getting from the Project Manager. He was supposed to be handling his guys, and he was on their side. Just a bit unfair. I took it personally,as I hate to disappoint in everything I do, and I then landed up just hating it, and wanting to get the f#ck out! REALLY BADLY!

Thursday: The water went down again, but this time there tank was full, so what was the issue? I landed up stripping the water pump. YES, ME, STRIPPING A WATER PUMP! It had been making a weird noise on Tuesday when the water ran out. The guys had left the pump running, there was obviously no auto cut-out for it, so it just ran and ran the whole time. I think it had stuffed something inside. So, I stripped it and found the issue. The impeller had broken off inside, so the pump was spinning and running, but the impeller wasn’t sucking water up! Thank goodness I did, as the guys could only make it that afternoon. At least now they could come with a spare, as opposed to only checking the problem then. They only actually arrived that evening with the new one! More bottled water showers. Happyness all round!! NOT! Then, still that morning, Jeje, the idiot driver, went and locked the keys in the car, whilst it was on in the driveway. Don’t ask, I just don’t know!! So we had to wait 3 hours for a spare key to arrive. I was so tempted to just break the window and tell him to pay for it!

Talk about the House from Hell!!! Everything that could go wrong pretty much was!!

I left the next day, on my way back to Cape Town, very much contemplating telling DD it wasn’t going to work. I actually didn’t have time to run the house to that level whilst still trying to keep a customer that was being very finicky and full of sh!t about small things happy! They would have to understand, it was the customer, or the house. I was the moer in. I was tired, exhausted, and pissed off. I had been crapped on, had worked my arse off to keep the guys in the house happy, had done my best, even stripped a pump to keep things going, and all I got was a “We’re definitely going to be taking this up with management in Cape Town” line! Well, they could go to hell for all I was concerned. It had been along tour, and I needed a break more than anyone else!

I arrived at the airport, having not organised protocol, as old Camilo was useless, and didn’t do much for us. But, guess who I bumped into at the airport??? Camilo. He was a little surprised that I wasn’t using them, maybe feeling a bit guilty about forgetting about me when I arrived a month earlier, and suddenly helped me through for free. Wow, well that was great.

The flight home was a little long, but it was a pleasure to land at Cape Town international, and not worry. I hit oblivion immediately, and met Dave there.

Great to be home! For 2 weeks!!!!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

FSV – Boubon Oceanteam 101

The FSV contains the ROV (Remotely-Operated-Vehicle) equipment that will monitor all the pipes and well heads, and providing assistance to the operation. We had our 15 minute Safety briefing, or however long it was once boarding the vessel, and then got the tour. We had been issued PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) from the base. We were given Steel Toe Boots, Helmets, and Clear Safety Glasses.

1) PPE – Sweet! 2) Nice Shoe Covers Buddy!

The cabins were amazing,and I reckon I could easily do 28 days at sea in those conditions. Not these small pokey little things, but actual decent room sized cabins. Nice beds, each room en-suite with shower, a separate desk, TV and Hi-Fi system. Pretty sweet.

We got to see the Bridge with a view that commanded respect. We were higher than all other vessels in the area, except for the container vessels. We saw the Helipad, a massive area on the front, and the rear deck, where the ROVs and all the rest of the kit belonged.

The crew seemed to be a mix of Norwegian, British, French and a Saffa (South African) that we met in the Galley.

The Galley was sweet, and the food really good. Man I could easily eat like that 28 days a month! I had a burger with fries and salads, and then even had jelly and custard for dessert. Sweet!

It was a really cool trip and well worth it, and definitely what was needed after the weeks shite I had had to put up with.

This was organised through Sonills Port, the Harbour area, and we got a lift back to the BP Warehouse building with Tango Delta. Warren and I were crammed into tiny little seats in the back of a Hyundai for the trip back, and it was seriously cramped. I said we would not sit int he back on the trip back to DeBeers, as that could take hours, even though it is only like 3.5 kms, if that.

We got a new vehicle, luckily, and headed off back to DeBeers. This was about 13h15. We arrived . . . 16h25!!

Rammed! Even the Cop on the bike is struggling to get through!

3 Hours, 20 Mins to travel less than 4kms!! Why??? Because the harbour on a Friday and Thursday is an absolute f*ck-up!!! All the trucks pull in on those days, adn there is only one entrance and exit, the same as the entrance, to the harbour container depot. All this is via one road that also services the entrance to the actual port and relevant support bases. Obviously being African Portuguese the drivers of the respective vehicles don’t give a toss about anyone else, so they all just go at the same time. Each vying to get their own little bit of space in front of the other. Traffic control??? What traffic control. It doesn’t;t exist. SO at one stage we we literally parked in the same spot for 2 hours. We didn’t move an inch for 2 hours. Me, I slept!

I was woken when I heard my phone ringing. I was so tired from the weeks happenings that at first I didn’t realise it was mine, and almost missed answering it. Quality.

Well, I won’t be going back there in a hurry that is for sure!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

On that note, a couple of things to take note of

1) Always double check the IOS version of the replacement blade. This is to prevent about 2 hours of wasting time trying to figure out why routing is not working.

2) Always think logically! It helps!

3) Get to the source, and remove the obvious issues immediately!

So we had a router Supervisor failure around 08h00 in the morning. We replaced it, and got the box back after a bit of hacking! Shortly afterwards we were made aware of a desktop issue, with regards to the desktops not getting a DHCP address. To cut a very, very loooonng story short, and we all know how I love those, this issue resulted in us logging a P2 call with IBM/EDS which landed up in us being on a conference call at 23h00 that night.

Issue unresolved, but a temporary fix in place, we left work at around half-past-midnight. Pretty insane actually. It was one hell of a day, and I’ll get into the nitty-gritty later.

The next day we were back at work at 08h, and I was approached by one of the managers to find out if I had completed a change that was scheduled for 23h00 the previous night. This was the same night that the we were running with a P2 issue on the FPSO, that luckily to us we were able to prevent it from going to a P1, which basically means that it is a financially business impacting issue, which means that practically all business unit owners are made aware of the issue, and you start calling out the big boys. So basically we were pretty much doing everything in our control to prevent it from getting there.

And this manager proceeded to kak me out because we hadn’t implemented a change – to rectify the time displayed on the phones, it was fast by one hour and five minutes and pretty much all the users were already aware of the issue – because I was running with a P2 issue on a vessel that is solely responsible for recovering their close on $11 Billion investment in the country!!! When I explained that we were busy with the major issue at the time, he didn’t care. All he cared about was his bloody time change! Well, that just goes to show where their priorities lie, and what little they understand of their actual business. Unbelievable. I am actually still in disbelief over what happened that morning. And they wonder why they are no longer number 3!!

Helloooooo??? Here is your answer right here! Do I really give a sh!t?? Well, yes I do. Why??? Because I try my hardest, damndest and best to do what I do well. And, at the end of the day, to be treated like this . . . just shows complete ignorance, and is just plain discouraging and demoralising.

To top it off, a few days later I got a call from some w*nker at BP/EDS who thought that he was the absolute sh!t. Called me up and proceeded to crap on me about the fix we had put in place and who gave authorisation to do it, and how we must take it off immediately, regardless of the consequences – try the site being down for about 3 hours whilst changes are made to manually reconfigure all the devices – because they had control, and this was wrong. Well, I fought him on that one, even after being quizzed and spoken to like I was a little boy, and a level one desktop jockey! And I didn’t remove the fix, and wasn’t prepared to either, because we were being proactive and providing a working solution, and all you were doing was providing an administrative f*cking nightmare with all your processes, and procedures that were just plain crap! Bureaucracy 101! Mate if you ever want to see what a network looks like, and what providing service actually means, come on down to Luanda and I’ll happily give you the TOUR!! Then you’ll understand what you are supposed to be supporting. Mr Microsoft Active Directory Muppet! Once again . . . another reason why you are NOT number 3!

Well, this issue lasted about 6 days, and was finally fixed. It was a networking issue, but related to patching, not config, nor hardware.

It’s been a long few days, and probably the hardest on me yet. It has been demoralising, and just plain depressing. Doing what one does best, and getting no support, nor encouragement for what you do. Instead you get hassles, issues and some prick on the phone, who thinks he knows better, even though he is nowhere near your site, and hasn’t even had the courtesy to read the lengthy emails you have been sending regarding what troubleshooting steps you have taken to try resolve the issue.

Amazingly enough the only support I seem to get is from the expat (UK-based) staff who come out for a few weeks at a time to manage certain arenas. So, why is it that they seem to understand and the locals, with a few exceptions – as there are few good guys – don’t?? I call it Attitude. The only thing that makes you in life.

At this stage, for the first time ever, I am counting down the days till I go home! Right now, I just can’t bloody wait! I need a holiday and a refresh and it’s only been 3 weeks!

Enough.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life – kinda

A typical roadside scene of rubbish everywhere.

Warren, a new engineer arrived on Saturday, and I went straight from work to pick him up. Sly and I were still dealing with this DHCP issue. After two 16 hour days, we found ourselves back at work at 09h on Sat! Not fun!

Warren is from Namibia, though previously from Cape Town. He has worked in Zambia, Mauritania and a few other countries in Africa, so should handle Angola just fine. He seems like a nice dude, having met him briefly at DD in CPT when I was there. He has just been on IPT training, so hopefully he can add some more support to our environment, though he is actually here for another project. An IPT project. Surprise, Surprise!

We celebrated with another braai, of which Blythe pulled in with another dude Bradley, who is managing the cabling of the new BP building. Also a fellow Capetonian. Cool!

More good meat, and more G&T’s!

Another late night followed by an early morning. We were planning on getting out to Mussulo, but it didn’t happen due to the rain. It had been raining the entire night before, on and off of course, and Blythe cancelled the trip due the chaos that would ultimately ensue on the roads.

We (Sly, Warren and myself) headed out to Bellas to go shopping, and do a bit of looking and grab a late-ish lunch. We headed through to Shoprite to change a bit of cash. However Shoprite Cambio was closed. Man, this was bad, as we had a sum total of about  4000 Kz between us for lunch, as the chick there did say that if the Cambio was closed, they would take Dollars at the checkout counter. R400?? Man, that’s plenty! Wrong! That’ll get like 3 of us a roll and a coke each! We checked out the prices at Portugalia, and figured we could get 3 burgers, and 3 drinks and have about 400kz left over. Yeah, 1000kz per burger and about 200kz per soft drink. Uh, yes, that is R100 per burger!!!

So I ordered, which once again was a bit of a farce as the dude didn’t speak English, and had to get the chick doing the drinks to help him out. After waiting at our table for about 30 mins for our food, we were now really, really impatient. I had already checked about 4 times for our food. As I was bored I checked through the receipt again, and noticed that we had only been charged 500kz per burger. “Hang on a sec, that doesn’t make sense!”

I went back to the counter and checked out the menu again. We had “Burger no Pao” printed on our receipt. What the f#ck?? Burger NO roll!! How the hell do you have a burger with no roll?? Haha. Quality. Only in Luanda I guess. Or maybe it is a Porra thing. Anyway, it took about 10 minutes to explain the issue, and eventually I got it sorted. Our food however had still not arrived. Ten minutes later it, the burgers arrived. Sonder “Pao”!! Man, this was a joke. It took me another 10 minutes to of waiting at the counter to get our rolls. Man, what a joke. I won’t be back here on a Sunday!! Carnage!

We got back to Shoprite, to find the Cambio open again. Obviously the chick had gone for lunch. I was seriously miffed, as had we had more cash, we could have gone elsewhere for lunch. Bummed! Well,the burger did the trick anyway, and we did a big shop and bought a tub of ice cream, at R79 a small tub. It’s just wrong!

Chilled that eve and got to bed fairly early. In preparation for another long week, still trying to fix the DHCP issue.

Bummed.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

Chillout!!

Chillout is a really nice venue on the Ilha, and the two youngsters who run it, whipper-snappers, I call them, running around with their iPhones (in Angola!) and jabbering on about this and that,  would fit in 100% in Cape Town, all flash and groomed, wearing the threads and acting full of the great All-Importance Cape Tonoians are so well versed at, have no clue about customer service or management. Talk about an experience. Bruno had been running ragged, along with Maria for about 3 days. Maria works with me at BP, but as she knows lank about Angola, she is Angolan, she helped out with a lot of the organising and Bruno also talks Porra, so he can get by quite easily. The venue was booked for about 50 people, of which they expected about 30 to show up. Well, Andile at the last minute decided to invite like all the conference delegates, and literally about 75 rocked up. Which was a problem considering we only seating for 50, and then we were missing chairs.

We managed to organise with the venue next door to borrow a few chairs, and when the staff went to to get them, they returned and dumped the chairs they got at another long table they had laid out for a local party.Nice huh!! We organise the chairs, and they go and use them for some other function. Were they concerned in the least?? No way. They couldn’t give a damn. Why?? Well,we’re not locals. Just another company function that they’ll probably never have to deal with again. Damn Straight they won’t!!! Well, we had a pretty big function, and it must have been an even bigger bill, and I can tell you one thing . . . they’ll never get another cent out of us again. I might go back there, but I’ll definitely make sure I am full of sh*t when I do!!

It was an interesting evening, and I did get to meet Andile himself, and also the Local Consulate General of the South African Embassy here. He was a really cool dude actually. Told him I’d pop in when I get back from my next trip home. Come shoot the breeze, what have you. He was quite keen for that. So we’ll see.

I had 2 Caipirinhas during the evening,along with a few Sprites, and I was pretty tickets I’ll admit. Come 22h30, I literally hit powerdown mode. It was okay though as most people had already ducked, so I organised for Oscar to take me home. I practically passed out on hitting the bed. Bruno got home around 02h. Legend!

It was a night to remember for one of my first out in Luanda and quite interesting too.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

I don’t think they offer 1 Hour here!

They have a process called STOP cards. Basically it is a HSSE (Health Safety Security Environment) thing. It requires anyone who sees something that looks out of place from a Health, Safety, Security Environment perspective to log it on the system, and then that will be highlighted and reviewed by management and the HSSE Team personnel. So, basically if you see a plug with a faulty wire, you must log it. If you see a power adapter on the floor that is not secure, or in the way of something else, you must log it, etc, etc, etc.

A great concept, and an excellent way of highlighting concerns, or issues. So that is really good.

HOWEVER, requiring personnel to log 5 cards a month is rather childish I feel. Trying to enforce safety on people is a bit stupid. I think that highlighting the concerns every month, and having a mail that goes to everyone to inform them of what the major issues are/were is a good idea. Having HSSE awareness days is a Great idea, but ENFORCING it on people is pretty stupid. Don;t get me wrong, I am all for HSSE, but having to now spend time finding things that are wrong, is not very conducive to a natural flow I don’t think. I have already noted a few things myself that I would log if I could, but I can’t as I still don;t have a Login onto the network Come to think of it I haven’t actually had a Safety induction session yet, and I have been working in the building for 6 weeks. That’ll be a stop card tomorrow I think!

What I do take exception to is being told that my team looks bad, as it appears that we don’t take HSSE very seriously. Why?? Cause members of my team haven’t logged 5 cards a month! Mate, childish!! Seriously childish. With all these processes and procedures, it is a miracle that anything actually gets done.

But . . . . then again, we know who does all the work here don’t we??

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life

Need a laugh ? ? ? What the f#ck are these Haydn??? And what were you doing with them at Gawie’s Wedding??

The former DNIC building.

I found this article, on a very disturbing website: www.safetynews.co.uk

“NCID building collapse kills 24
It is thought that the Angolan Interior Ministry may invite Portuguese Engineering Laboratories to participate in investigation of the weekend collapse of the 7-storey National Criminal Investigation Department in Luanda, ongoing recovery work on Monday saw the death tally rise to 24, with more than 150 people injured. At the time of the collapse 180 people were inside, including 145 detainees. The building was constructed 34 years ago during the Portuguese colonial era, it is alleged that the top floor was added later and a substantial generator was also later located on the top floor. Quite a number of structural collapses in African towns and cities feature additional development without building control. 1st April 2008.”

That pretty much sums it up I guess. Life in Africa.

Didn’t get up to much this last week. It rained and rained and rained. Literally everyday in the afternoon. Sometimes twice a day. The weirdest thing is coming out of the building during a downpour, and I mean downpour – think standing in your shower, on full blast for like 15 minutes – and getting hit by this heat wave. I am so used to it being cold and cool when being in rain, that in Luanda the temperature is still the same, just the humidity rises, and it is just plain weird. You are literally sweating under cover outside during a shower! The rain actually gets so dense and the downpours are so severe at times that we actually lose microwave communications between sites. Now that is pretty hectic. The outskirts of town just turn into a complete mud bath. vehicles get stuck, huge potholes develop – the size of cars – and roads get washed away. Traffic gets jammed or stuck. People spend hours in traffic on trips that usually takes minutes.

I met a few of the BP big wigs that were down for the week. Interesting chaps. They gave a few very interesting presentations on BP and some internal issues that were pretty much aimed at the DCT (IT) department. A few pointers that affected us, DD, but nothing to worry about. Ate out  a few times too. Went to a new restaurant, new for me, old in lifetime, where the food wasn’t great, well I didn’t think so, but the rest seemed to think it was okay. They must have drunk far more than me! I have actually cut down loads on my  drinking – mom – she seems to think I am becoming an alcoholic! I wish!! Anyway, I had the Bacalhau, a salt dried cod, with potatoes. It was alright, but I definitely won’t be having it again in a hurry.

Friday was a public holiday in Angola. The celebration of the signing of the Peace Accord. 4th April 2002. Just 6 years ago. Incredible. Ash and Sly worked, but I chilled at the house. We all worked Saturday, and then Sunday was a day of rest for Sly and myself. We headed off to Shoprite Palanca in the mornign to get a bit of shopping done.

Bruno arrived in the afternoon, coming in from Johannesburg via Windhoek. He was also bringing in the corporate gifts and had a box full of them. His flight landed at 13h10, five minutes early, and the first people came through around 13h35, pretty quick for Luanda. By 15h when the following Windhoek flight had arrived, Bruno still hadn’t appeared. I had already called Sly to double check the time in my mail to make sure that I got the time right. Yup, I was right, so where was he? At this stage I managed to get a peak of a very flustered Bruno. Stuck at Customs!! haha, they had nailed him for the corporate gifts. He managed to clear about 15 mins later, and explained that he was having trouble trying to explain to them what they were and how much the cost. He eventually got a cost for the USB Pen/Pointer units from JHB to be around $2.59 per item. The useless staff weren’t exactly helping to aid the progress of clearing the items. And he SPEAKS Porra! Man, can you imagine if it had been someone like me! I would be without gifts that would be for sure!

We had a meal at Caribe restaurant, cum club, on the weekends, on the Ilha, and it was pretty good. Sly had the prawns, and they were absolutely amazing. The size of two fingers in width (I have small hands -  yeah, yeah, I’ve heard al the jokes) and they looked fantastic. I had the Espetada de Mariscos (Seafood Kebab). Good. Bruno had the Prego steak, with Egg and chips. Classic Portuguese meal. It was a good night, and by the time I hit the sack I was knackered.

Should be an interesting week ahead with old Andile Ncaba coming up for the Telecomms Conference in Luanda, and us having a delegates dinner at Chillout. Time to rub shoulders and mingle.

Network!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life!  – My old byline from my UK days

Another Weekend – Another Braai!

I have checked out our storeroom in the basement, and it is an absolute disaster. Boxes and old kit everywhere. That’s gonna be a project and a half cleaning up, but that’s on the cards for next weekend.

We grabbed a pizza on Fri eve, at rialto’s. My first pizza here in Luanda, and it was really good actually! Not too bad at all. I forgot my Reuteri/”Good Bacteria” tabs at home, well, I forgot to buy actually. And I guess I now know how well they work, as this morning . . . I had a case of the “Angolan Activity!” My tummy was not holding up well at all.

Saturday night was a decent braai at the house, after my 3-and-a-half hour shopping venture to Bellas Shopping Centre, as Palanca was out of bounds when we found out that the Police Headquarters had collapsed on Fri Evening. Reports varied, but stated that around 80 people were thought to be injured. Crazy. Bellas seems to have some pretty up-to-date movies on, and I guess that might have to be on the cards in a week or 2.

Sunday, chilled at home. The aircons got repaired, and that is cool , as all but one are now working. Great. The repairs go on.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Back to another Luandan Sunset!

It started badly with me only once again getting like 4 hours sleep. My bad for leaving it till the last minute as always. Then at check in they told me that TAAG was not yet online, or open for booking, so I would have to get the TAAG ticket at Windhoek. Not a problem I thought, even though my luggage had been checked all the way through. How they do that with only only end of the ticket, I have no clue, but they were confident it would arrive. Ok. I didn’t really have any say in this matter, especially since the bag had already gone through the hatch. I cleared passport control fine and headed to Duty Free, to do the usual. Collect a bottle or 2/3/4 for my stay in Luanda. I would go for Gin this time though, even though my preference is Whiskey. I collected a two-pack of Beefeater, never had that before, and thought I would give it a bash. The only pack that comes in 2 actually. The Gordon’s was singles, and I forgot about the Bombay Sapphire, which I saw a guy at the checkout buying. Well, I’ll do that next time I guess! The joy of a long term stint and Duty Free. The guy asked my final destination, to which I replied Luanda, and I handed over my Windhoek stub.

“Ahhh, no sorry, it’s a SADC state, therefore, unless we get an International Ticket, we can’t sell you anything.”

WTF?? Well, that just sucks! He wouldn’t take my itinerary as proof either, so I was gutted. I left the bottles at the counter, and moped off.

I literally slept 3/4 of the way to Windhoek, as I was that knackered! The stop over in Windhoek was a rather lengthy one, like almost 3 hours, and I grabbed a saamie and chilled at the bar on the rather nice cushions. Almost fell asleep too.

Upon leaving Windhoek, I was once again not disappointed in my observances of the Angolan Portuguese. Firstly, they give you a boarding card with a seat number, but to make things really interesting, they tell once you are on the plane that it is free seating. Unreserved. Great, as though I didn’t have enough confidence in TAAG already, they go and completely f#ck up the entire boarding procedure too. It was legend. I got on fairly early, so got a seat next to the window. Not my seat, but to hell with it. I wasn’t likely to get my seat anyway. The one chick with her family is halfway down, then she hears it is free seating,so she literally turns around, swears at everyone, and forces her way back through all the people boarding to go right to the front of economy to sit there. She delays the entire process by about 5 mins while she pushes through. Then a South African dude gets on, and he is told it is free seating. He tells the air steward that maybe this is where he wants to sit. Hey rightly so. If he had booked a window seat, why should he be inconvenienced by this muppet show? The air steward tells him it is free seating. He says he wants his seat. His numbered seat on his boarding card. Now occupied by a rather large, unconcerned Black Angolan Woman! At this stage I was sorely tempted to press the button and ask for a box to popcorn so I could sit back and watch the show. Eventually the guy moved on, as the woman wasn’t going anywhere. She just kept saying: “Sit! Sit! Sit!” Unbelievable.

I didn’t sleep on this flight, as they put on Transformers (with Portuguese Subtitles). Man, I LOVE that flick. I can watch it 1000 times and never get bored. They have got a fairly new fleet of 737′s, 767′s I think. They have Air France branding on the insides, so it must be their old stock. We were about half way through when put down at Lubango. A very small military airbase. You pass a whole lot of hangers with fighter jets in them when you come into land. Really cool! When airborne agin, they played some funny shorts, which was just crap, as I was hoping to see the second half of Transformers! Bummed!

We put down in Luanda after a rather uneventful trip, thankfully, and it took us the foreigners ages to clear. We had one chick doing our passport control who was definitely wanting to be elsewhere. She took 20 mins just to do a family of 4′s passports! Man, I was dying of boredom. We eventually reshuffled to the other clear lanes and I got through no worries then. I walked into baggage reclaim, to find NO Kamilo, our protocol guy! I called him 2 days earlier to tell him I was arriving. He would meet me there he told me. So here I am, waiting for my bag, and I’m kinda in 2 moods about calling Kamilo. Since I have already done this before I know that all he is gonna do is rock up and walk me through customs, of which I literally have nothing to declare. So, I think about it. As I am thinking the conveyor starts up. My bag comes out pretty quickly, I grab it, and decide, “Let’s Do This!”. So I head on through to Passport control. The one guy in front of me, an expat with only a togbag, walks straight through after having spoken to his protocol guy, so I decide to follow him. I am through. Suddenly, the one lady reachs out, grabs my arm and points at my bag and says something. Sh!t! Now here is when you need Protocol! I shrig my shoulders and say: “I don’t speak Portuguese.” She points at the xray machine. Ahhh, okay, my bag needs to be scanned as it is a hardshell case. Even though it is a small one, it still needs to be scanned. Cool. No worries. I have nothing to hide. I see a whole host of people having their bags opened on the opposite side of the room. Man, that would suck. Not cause there is anything of value in my bag, but just cause I packed it so tight. 18 kg in a tiny bag. If they open it now, it’ll pop! And I’ll struggle to get it closed. Well, it takes a while and then a lady comes along and scans it. She looks at the scanner, then the bag, then the scanner again, with a funny look, look the my bag, then me, then by bag, then . . . nods her head in the direction of the door. I grab my bag and head straight out. Great! My protocol cash is mine. Lucky I never got those 2 bottles of Beefeater at CPT! I was half expecting to see Kamilo waiting outside for me. No. No such luck for him.

Jeje was there, though I had to call him too, but at least he was in the parking lot. The trip home was easy enough, and t was actually good to be back.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy ; -)

Cape Town CBD from the Tampon Towers! (Disa Park)

Oblivion! Man what a Venue! Especially when you haven’t seen a White Female in about 4 weeks! Okay, bar Rachel who was with us for that weekend at Mussulo. It was a Mind F#ck!! Whoa, I was like a dog on heat!

Nic kept saying: “You’ve got that Rotation Look!” Meaning I looked like the rotation guys usually do when they have been on rotation for 28 days on the rigs. Well, it wasn’t just the girls. It was everything I guess. White People in general – not that I am racist, I’m very liberal, but being able to speak proper English to people and not resorting to “Pidgin” English, cause no understands you, and just being able to fit in, and have a good time. All Good! Oblivion landed up being a bit of a late one. I met Dave and Nic there, and bumped into Mel, Michele, one of the twins I think, and then also Belinda, Melissa and then Karin’s mate, who is kinda cute, but I keep forgetting her name every time we meet.

Saturday Night landed up being Tiger Tiger, and . . . well, it ended in grief. I apparently threw up in the drive-way, just outside my car this time. Luckily not inside like a previous time the year before . . . long story, also involved Tiger funnily enough though, and then woke up wondering where the hell I was. Ooops. Not cool. Well, I got home in one piece and that was that. I was fine till I started dancing . . . that always seems to do it. Well, that was when my throat decided to go to the J&B Met and find a horse to race, as I was hoarse as anything. And it lasted then entire 13 days I was in Cape Town. Got back to Luanda and it cleared up immediately! Weird! So, obviously I didn’t remember much of the Tiger eve, and I was seriously man down for the entire day Sunday, only rising in the late afternoon I think. Ahh, we did watch 10 000 BC before heading to Tiger I think, and that was okay. Pretty funny with the accents though, as they are actually speaking Shangaan or Tswana, or some other African Language, which just made everyone in the cinema laugh! Dave wasn’t too chuffed with me as we were supposed to be organising the speech for Gav’s Wedding.

The next few days were a bit of a blur. Gav’s Bachelors on Tuesday Night, which was pretty cool, especially the marks left on his ass the next day! haha

Gavin looking good!

Thursday was his Wedding, in which Dave and I were the Best Men, and really had Gav worried the entire time. He was sooo worried that we were gonna take him down, and embarrass him to no end, and at the end of the day it was actually very tame. He’s is lucky I guess, but I suppose he suffered at the Bachelors! hehe The wedding was at Meerendal, and he got a friend of mine, Emma (http://www.shine-photographs.com), to do his photography. She seems to have done a good job, even though I haven’t seen the pics yet, but I believe they’ll be good.

We got ‘ol Haydn, Garry and Dave on the dance floor at one stage, along with the bloody DJ, who I think got more pissed than anybody else! He apparently got the moer in with everyone requesting songs that at one stage he played Kurt Darren – Ek Wil Huis Toe Gaan, to which Dave knows the words perfectly, which is actually quite scary. Don’t worry Dave, you’re next buddy! hahahaha

Gavin’s Wedding – Haydn Garry, Dave, Ilse, Gavin and others! – 4:32

The night ended with Garry and myself adding a bit of chaos to the mix by dispersing polystyrene balls, the really small ones, to the entire bedroom. And bed. And car. Well, it was funny at the time. hehe Yeah, Yeah, I know . . . I’ll be getting married at some time in the future. But Gavin, if you’re reading this . . . who says you’re gonna be invited?? haha Only kidding mate. But, on my wedding night, I will definitely be staying in a different room/hotel/location to one you all think I will be in and I will certainly not be driving home in the car I arrived in! So Go Wild my man!! haha

Anyway, Wedding aside, which was really good – Oh, just be lucky the sheep was too heavy mate, as if it was a light one, it would have been in the back or the car too – and the issue of the morning after bedroom aside, his Missus was not happy, it was a huge success. They are still married after all!

The rest of the time kinda went by in a whizz. I got to the beach once with Nic, and got in a bit of beach bat too, which was cool. Lamed also happened, which you just can NOT do. I never got to gym , and it is really starting to show I can tell you that. Sitting around not doing any sport is not good for me at all. Guess I’ll have to start push-ups and sit-ups and possibly pull-ups too now that I’m back in Launda, as there is no gym here. Well, there might be, but none that I have yet seen!

The break was cool, but I was getting a bit impatient as my job actually requires me to be in Luanda, and it is far easier to keep a hand on things here in country than remotely.

I got my new Visa, which has me back in Cape Town on the 25th April, just in time for the next long weekend! Yay I didn’t see hardly as many people as I had hoped this time, and will definitely touch base when back! I will also get out to our Guest House in Swellendam, Klippe Rivier, for a nice break too. It’s been way too long!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Well well, I had one hell of an interesting trip home that’s for sure. I landed up next to 2 completely entertaining individuals on each flight. The first from Luanda to Windhoek, and the second from Windhoek to Cape Town.  A very Nervous Angolan Poppie on the first leg, and a Raging Alcoholic Irishman, who could drink even more than Ash, on the second!!

The Tarmac at Luanda International – Departing

So firstly I arrived at the airport early. You never quite know with traffic in Luanda. Philip had told me a story just the day before where it had taken him 2 hours to travel about 800m to the entrance of the airport from the circle, to collect his wife a few weeks earlier. I was planning to leave home at about 10h15, but by the time we left it was closer to about 10h45. I was busy sorting out bills and money at home, and got delayed. We did however make it in record time, and I was there around 11h15. Incredible really. I called Kamilo, our protocol guy, and he told me that it only opens at 12h, so he’ll only be there then. I sent Oscar home and I waited outside in the sun. A queue had started to form at about 11h30 inside, and I was watching it to see how it worked. The process is a bit different to home. You actually wait in a queue outside the check-in area, then they allow you through when it’s open. My flight was at 14h, and by 13h Kamilo had still not arrived. I was starting to get worried as I had never been through the whole process before, and didn’t know what was required. Well, he eventually arrived at about 13h15, and I was doing my head in. He was “just arriving” when I called him at 12h, and he travels by motorbike, so I don’t think he had even left his offices then, and then he had the nerve to tell me that traffic was bad. Well, I told him it was unacceptable. He knows better than anybody what the traffic is like.

Anyway, I was the second last person in the queue and there were a few people waiting for standby, so Kamilo, you are a very lucky man I got on, as the prospect of spending the weekend in Luanda was not too enticing. I guess you could say I was now in home mode, and I suppose I just wanted to get home. I guess airports the world over have a habit of doing that to people. So I checked in, without Kamilo, as he is not allowed to be at the desk as he isn’t flying, and everything was cool, and then Kamilo walked me to passport control, where they ladies first check your passport then allow you through to the actual border control. In this case Kamilo did nothing as everything was in order. So basically I waited over an hour for the muppet, only to have him “hold my hand” and walk me from check-in to passport check and then that was it. Well, I’ll have to think twice in future about using protocol services to be honest with you. For departure that is. I think that arrivals is still a very different matter.

Anyway, the departure hall is crap, and the aircons leak all over the place, so you really have to watch yourself. There is a bar or 2 upstairs, and a nice set of couches outside the business class lounge. There is also free wireless if you know how! Our flight was then delayed by over 30 minutes, which was not surprising apparently. There is no calling/PA system, or boards telling you when the flight is, and there are only 2 gates, with no signage, so you pretty much have to just hang around and then take pot luck with what other people are doing. The best is when you ask the officials what is happening with the flight as it is now 5 minutes past departure time and you are still hanging around, and they say:

“Yes, just sit”. Great, well that helps loads!

So, I got on the flight and managed to get a window seat which was great as I was pretty tired. The chick who sat next to me was literally what I can imagine an Amazonian Woman to look like. She was very tall – my height – well dressed, quite chick, not bad figure, but a big large on the thighs and buttocks, but otherwise very good for an Angolan specimen! She was however incredibly nervous as I found out when we took off. The next thing I suddenly had my right hand grabbed and squeezed the crap out of. She was seriously frightened, when the plane banked, it was just too much. Her hand moved from mine to my leg.

“Hey, Hey, this is pretty sweet. A good way to come onto people”, I thought.

But, when she dug her nails into my right leg, well, that was the end of the foreplay session for me. Man that was it. Every little bump/jolt she would cry out and grab my hand, or my leg. At one stage she almost straddled the seat to get on top of me. It was particularly entertaining. The lady on her right was quite amused too. A glance at her arrival form belied her age to be 22. Hmm, well, she is pretty big for 22, and obviously doesn’t get around much. Once we landed she was escorted off by some Namibian Official who had the dirtiest look in his eyes I had ever seen, so I guess she might be some Ministers Daughter, or maybe Mistress. Anyway, that was leg one!

a) Thunderclouds over Windhoek b) Sunset Windhoek to Cape Town

At Windhoek, upon reboarding the same plane, I was seated between an Insurance Broker Manager, and a Journalist. Well, Colman the Journalist was Irish, and was completely crazy. About half-way through the flight my iPod died a miserable death due to lack of charging, and considering it is an old iPod Photo 60 Gig, Generation 4, I think that the 6 or so hours it had already given weren’t bad. I then was reduced to talking to my fellow passengers,and man what a laugh. Colman is an editor of Rock Magazines, or so he claims, and between the 2 of us, we had the entire 4 rows around us in stitches. I thought I could talk shit when required, but this boytjie, man, he put me to shame! We had a rip roaring chat with loads of banter, and by the time we got off all the passengers around us were smirking and laughing out loud. The Insurance Manager wanted to know when he was flying again, as she hadn’t been that entertained on a flight ever. We made really good time getting to Cape Town, and when I found out that my lift, mommy, had not yet arrived Colman suggested we grab another drink at the News Cafe. I thought why the hell not. I literally got my luggage within the first 10 bags, which was great, and once clearing customs with no issues, we grabbed another round of doubles! My lift arrived shortly and I left him to yet another round.

Once getting home I headed straight out to Oblivion, to meet up with Dave, and Nic who pulled through too.

That was the beginning of my 13 days back . . . but that is another story to follow!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

“What’s the Significance of 1?”

I just had to say it I guess, even though it doesn’t actually mean much to me right now. The honeymoon phase you see.

Another Typical Block of Flats

So, it was just a typical normal night at home. TV and dinner with Onasis. Guess I might be a more excited tomorrow when I finally get on the road again and get to travel a bit further than 15kms in one day!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

One Wheel Business! Yes that is a car wheel! These guys rent their “delivery services” out to other people to deliver goods everywhere. Quite incredible.

I asked Ash how the hell he knew it was Andre’s Birthday, considering that not a hell of a lot of people had seen him in the last 8 years.

“We share a Birthday!” was his reply.

Ahh, okay that makes sense.

I decided that the house owed him a BDay, the benefits of being in charge of the house fund! So we went to Veneza, his choice. I had the “Biffes na Pedra”, aka Steak on Rock, which was great. It is basically about 400 grams of raw meat and a piping hot slab of rock. You cook it yourself. This time I almost finished. I only left a tiny piece, but at R370 a pop, it had better be good!

The way they pour drinks here in a restaurant will blow your mind. I ordered a “Gin e Tonic”. The glass arrived with ice and the waiter proceeded to fill 1/2 the glass with Gin, before I realised. By the time I stopped him I had 3/4 Gin, and 1/4 Tonic. Pretty mental. Hmm, that could be half the reason why I got sooo pissed last Friday actually! So this time I sipped on my drink, and it lasted the evening. Clever man!

It was a really good dinner and we had 4 BP people join us, one of which was Ian, again, and Michael O’Brian, one of the others. The entire bill came to $350 with tip,and that was quite something, but I suppose pretty reasonable for about 7 people with drinks. It’s pretty sad when you can say a R 2 800 meal for 7 people is pretty good.

Oscar, our driver gave the rest a lift home after us.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

” What is the significance of 1?”

The answer my friends is: “One more sleep!!”

Pot Hole Protector! This was the hole in our road. The only picture we managed to get of the hole. You can’t actually see much, but it used to have half a top loader sticking out of the top of it. Yes, it was actually about a metre deep and a meter wide. This small tree was put in it after someone nicked the top loader! Quality!

So, anyway, Sly left and was really happy to be gone. Man, I can only imagine. He was pretty chuffed. OG (Onasis) pulled through to work and was given a warm welcome. he is pretty well know it appears. That’s what happens when you have been here before.

Work is definitely ramping up, and things are picking up. The one thing that is become more and more prevalent is the fact that in Luanda, you have to chase everyone, all the time. My inbox is completely RED! Why?? Well everything I get, I have to flag for follow-up, as nothing ever gets done. so I have an inbox that is completely overdue, and all I ever do is spend my entire time chasing things! Not fun at all, and it is really beginning to piss me off!

Well, off to bed.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Teixeira Duarte’s Offices – They’re a big Portuguese construction company. Not surprising is it??

I had an incredible experience at work . . . a typical UK type experience, except it was in Luanda. But I suppose BP is a UK company, so it fits.

I cruise through to ask some guy a question. He’s in the division next to me. He’s a largish chap, and has his back to me, facing the window. I call his name as I approach. I don’t get a reply, and he appears to be on the phone. I don’t really take note, so I hang back a bit thinking he’s still busy. About a minute later I realise he isn’t. So I call his name again, and step up next to him. He remains quiet, I begin talking. A few seconds after I stop, I look down at him, and slowly he turns his head to face me. He looks at his watch, and then turns his head forward again, and closes his eyes. Not a word is said is to me. Not even a nod, or any form of recognition. I am left there wondering what the hell is going on when I realise . . . he is on lunch break! Nice huh. So he has a nap at his desk, in front of his computer, and ignores me completely, cause he is on lunch. No comment to me, or refrain asking me to come back later. Nothing! I had half a mind to ask him if he was okay, if everything was alright, to say loudly:

“Mate, are you sick or something?”

But I decided against it. Man, he would last like all of one day back in Cape Town! haha

Quality!

Well, we met up with Onasis at the house later that evening, and Ash pulled through for a quick braai. No drinking this time that was for sure. Ok, lie, one drink, whiskey and water. Otherwise that was it!

Sly’s last sleep, and man was he happy!!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

They have Spin!!

Sly got some bad news about his kid in the morning. Apparently he had a really bad condition/fever too, just like Sly had. Weird man, really weird.

Well, the day petered out, and during the afternoon he got another call his kid appeared to be getting better.

Well, he had 2 days left so he was looking forward to getting home. Hopefully his kid would be okay.

We’ll find out tomorrow I guess.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Fixed – Luanda Style!

My head was killing me this morning! Man, I haven’t had a headache that bad since being here. In fact not for a good few months to be honest. It appears I passed out on my bed, without the mozzie netting, and forgetting to take my mozzie pill. Courting with Danger I know.

I awoke at around 07h and couldn’t get back to sleep, no matter how hard I tried. It rained for about an hour at 08h, and I was expecting the leaks to start up again, but they didn’t, so it obviously wasn’t that hard. We then literally vegged the entire day. Sly was feeling much better, and wasn’t at all affected by night before’s entertainment. In fact it turned out to be another of those really hot and humid days, especially since the sun came out.

We got a call from Ash in the afternoon, asking if we were coming through to work, as we had made plans to get through there the night before. we declined the “offer” , which he was pretty relieved at, as he could get a quiet one too then.

We just stayed in for the night, and I caught up on my blogging, and back dated all the posts I had missed during the week. So if you’re reading this one, you might want to check some of my previous posts too! Since about Sat last week!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

When your campaigns might not have a big impact.

I did leave work at 15h though! Yay!

Ashton arrived that afternoon, and I just knew it was gonna end up in trouble. Or should I say a headache?? Well, he pulled through around 18h, and it went downhill from there.

We landed up heading through to Veneza, and invited Ian, one of the BP UK guys one rotation here, to join us. He’s a cool chap and we all got well liquored over dinner. Dinner for 4 with drinks was a mild $333, so approx R2600. NICE!!! That’s what 2 half glass sizes of Johnny Red, plus the numerous Ballantines we had at the casa before dinner, will do to you.

Well, needless to say I don’t really remember getting home, though we did get driven, and I then proceeded to pass out on my bed, without the mozzie net and forgot to take my mozzie pill!

Man, all I can say is that I won’t be doing that again in a hurry! The Hoof Pain is a killer!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

A typical block of flats in Luanda.

I decided that I had better accompany Sly in again, considering what we went through last time. The first thing the doctor says is that he is fine. He points out his blood test and says he is okay. There is nothing wrong with him. He doesn’t actually ask why we are back, or what is wrong, but instead launches into this whole “He is fine” bit. When I started trying to explain to him that he was not okay and there was something definitely wrong with him, he kept saying that physically he is fine. Jesus man, this guy was really getting on my tits now. He then launched into the whole “why is he acting so nervous routine” again, and this was very strange as I was speaking for him, and why wasn’t he talking himself. I answered that it was because English was not his first language, and that he wasn’t South African.

“English isn’t my first language and I get by ok”, he replied. “And it says here he is from South Africa.”

Man. I had to explain that he was from Zimbabwe and that he was not actually South African. I explained that there most definitely was something wrong him. He denied this. Okay, now I was seriously getting pissed off, and Sly could see it. this continued back and forth for about another minute or so, and then i had had enough. I basically read him the riot act, or the equivalent of the “malpractice act” I suppose. I told him that Sylvester was sick and that I didn’t think his opinion was very good. He told me I was welcome to go to another doctor if I wanted as he had been in medicine for 11 years and who was I to say differently. Man this was just petty. he then started going on about how he knew South Africa. he had lived there before, and he knew what was happening there now.

“What?” Sly questioned him?

“Down”, he stated, “It’s going down.”

I eventually said that something is wrong with Sly, and that he needs to give us his opinion. What does he think, that sort of stuff. he continued going on about some sh*t or other and trying to take the piss out of me. I decided to hold my tongue, or I would be outta here. Due to Punching the Shmuck! He said he thought it may have been a virus or bacterial infection or womething, and he gave him strong anti-inflammatories. We Left!

I was fuming. Jesus that guy is absolutely useless. I know now why he is here: It’s the only place he can probably get work nowadays, cause he’s so incompetent. Probably got kicked out of his last job down south.

Well, I sent Sly home and went back to work.

Sly was feeling MUCH better when I got back to the house after work. Seems the stronger tabs had worked their magic! So much better in fact that he cooked up a bit of a meal. Nice one.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Traffic Lights – Luanda Style!

There was no queue so we were in in a jiffy. The doctor there was another story. He started quizzing Sly and asking all sorts of questions, but not with very much understanding. He kept saying what’s wrong, and why are you acting so nervous. Man this was doing my friggin head in. Sylvester’s first language is not English, but rather Shona, as he is from Zim. The way he acts is cool, and very chilled, but at times he can probably become a bit tongue tied and maybe a bit intimdated and doesn’t get the point across as it should be. But, he’s still cool, and all good. The doctor kept saying why are acting like this, what’s wrong with him? I was getting the moer in now, but he’s the doctor, so I kept quiet. He got Sly up on the bed and did the Malaria test, which was negative. I never knew you could test it immediately, and now upon further investigation I see there are actually home testing kits available. That’s good to know. I might just get myself one. Well, the doc couldn’t understand it, and neither could we, so he also sent him for a blood test, and a blood count as a further precaution. He also prescribed a whole host of medication including Ibuprofen and Anti-Inflammatories. We left to go to the Lab, for the test and then to the dispensary. I was still pretty pissed off when we left, as the doctor was a serious muppet. I will definitely be staying away from him!

Well, we both headed back to the house, I had left my laptop there, and by the time we got home, it was about 10h45. Traffic was really heavy, and I made the call to work from home. I was expecting James to give me a call during the day to show them around, so it would be childish going to work, only to leave about 2 hours later. Sly went straight to bed, and I fired up the old laptop. Around 13h I got a call from James. He was finding out about the braai that eve. Hmmm, I had completely forgotten about that, but I hadn’t thought that we had actually agreed on a date yet. Thought we were going to plan it once they were here. Well, no worries that was fine by me. Sly was a bit better that afternoon, so we both shot off to Casa do Fresco to go shopping. We got a few steaks a couple of sausages, some chicken and then a few veggies.

James and the crew pulled through around 19h and I donned my apron again! They bought a case of Heinekens and a few other things, including Ice Cream and chocolate and all things good. We hit it with a really hot fire and waited for it to cool down a bit. I was chatting to Bruno outside and he was telling me it was gonna be a 3 year contract for him. Man, that’s a hell of a lot longer than my 1 year. Jeez, gotta make sure you make the right decision then wrt a move to Luanda. Pretty intense, but I reckon they’ll be making it well worth his while. Leopard wise! We got to chatting about Luanda, well my experiences thus far, and I don’t think ol’ Bruno’s wife, her name slips my mind, was too keen on the place. Just the feeling I was getting. It’s a serious sacrifice that I can really imagine is very intense if you are married. They were telling we they had been through to the Bellas Shopping Centre and really liked that and the Talatona area. Hmmm, I can see where this is going . . .

The braaiing didn’t go that well, as we hauled the meat off early as the flames were really hot, so I had to recook a whole lot of the meat again, well the chicken and the sausages. The steaks were perfect. Man they were good. Fresco’s definitely has the best meat. The food redone we got back into the meal and I as always finished last due to talking too much. As always. The Ice Cream was good too! At R80 a tub, it had better be.

We finished up and got Oscar to give them a lift home. They had found accommodation at the Palm Hotel, well, the Palm Hotel’s owner’s son’s place that is. Right next door to the hotel. The hotel is located on Ilha, so it was a bit of a drive.

We headed to sleep too.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

How to f*ck up traffic! (They usually direct from above the portable podium)

So at around 12h we suddenly lost Internet connectivity. Well, it just stopped responding. I noticed because mail wasn’t working. As I am a “contractor” at BP I only have access to the Internet connection. Not the local network. Sly and the other guys have BP logins so they sit on the local network. So I connect directly to the DD mail server via the web, and use RPC over HTTPS, which works really well actually. I have connectivity issues every now and again, but it usually resolves itself after a while. Typically when we have mail issues everything else works fine, but this time everything was down. My mail and all Internet access too. We thought it might have been an Angola Telecom issue internally, but then when we realised that BP’s main link from Luanda to the UK had dropped too we called up Angola Telecom to find out what was wrong. Well, they were as much in the dark as we were. About an hour later we got a response that it was the SAT3 Connection that was down. The SAT3 is a fibre cable that runs under the sea on the sea bed from Cape Town in South Africa right up the West Coast of Africa and terminates in both Chipiona, Spain and Sesimbra in Portugal. A few countries on the West Coast make use of this cable. One of them being Angola. So our connection to the SAT3 was down. It was unlikely that the actual SAT3 itself was damaged, more likely our connection to the peering point in Angola was damaged. Everything was down. Most calls in and out of the country, all data comms in and out of Angola, and the weird thing was that even the internal calling within the mobile networks seemed to be affected too, which was just plain weird! But really suprising I guess.

At about 14h we finally got an update that the cable from Angola Telecoms to the Peering Point had been damaged. Someone had put a hole through it, which is apparently a very common occurrence over here I was told. With all the construction going on everywhere it was bound to happen at some stage or another.  I was informed by Maria that we should connectivity at our house, as SRC used satelllite for most of the their comms, and there wasn’t actually a hell of a lot I could do here now, with mail down, so I decided to go continue working from home. We did have comms at the house, which was great.

James McCormack arrived in Luanda that day, along with Bruno, Bruno’s wife, and Neda. They were a few of the crew from DD JHB who were up here to check out the terrain. I got a call around 15h or so from James in a bit of a panic. The place they had been recommended to was crap. So, they wanted to come have a gander at our place. Well, our place ain’t a hell of lot either. In fact at this stage, all 3 downstairs room’s aircon’s were on the blink. The one had been working and a company came in to service them, and when they left, none of them left. I had been on Hugo’s case about it for about a week already, yet nothing had happened. I had explained this on the phone, but they still wanted to come have a look.

Now, our place ain’t exactly the Ritz. It is a split level house, and we occupy the 1st floor, which is separate from the ground floor in the fact that it doesn’t actually have stairs inside the house. The access is via a flights of steps on the outside of the building, so the ground floor is pretty much a separate entity. We don’t actually use the downstairs at all. The ladies use it because the washing machine is there and they do the ironing in one of the rooms too, and the Driver and Security Guard pretty much chill out there too, as there is a TV in the one room, but that aside, it’s pretty sparse. There is a lounge suite and a dining room table, but that’s about it. The rooms and bathrooms are pretty dilapidated, as they aren’t used much It is very reminiscent of what a 60′s East Coast Holiday Home might look like now if it hadn’t been used much since being built.

So anyway, James and the clan pulled through, and they weren’t at all impressed I can tell you that. The fact that the aircons don’t work either wasn’t even a factor. But they did a load of biltona nd droewors from JHB International, and that was definitely appreciated and well received. Well, after a few calls we managed to get hold of Jose from SRC, who hooked them up the first time, and now managed to hook them up again with another place to stay and they left to go check that out. Sly arrived home just after 18h, and told me the link had now come back up. Man, it was down for like 6-7 hours. Pretty rough. The amazing thing is that they don’t even have a redundant connection to the peering point, or if they do, it wasn’t working.

Sly wasn’t feeling too well, so he  went straight to bed when he got home. Now that boy can sleep, that’s for sure, but this was different. I checked on him later and he was telling me he wasn’t feeling at all well. He had a headache, was just really tired, and his joints were sore. Well, that to me says one thing . . . MALARIA! Especially here in the tropics where it is absolutely rife. I called up the BP Doctor, Sly has a BP card, and was referred to the local SOS doctor. I gave him a call and he sounded like a bit of a twat. Was quite brisk with me, and suggested I bring him in in the morning. So off to the doc tomorrow I guess.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Barrie the Braai Meister relinquishes “The Apron” (My Handover Present from the previous weekend)

Saturday I was up early. 06h30! There was a power outage cut-over at one of the branches at 07h00, so we had to make sure we had a guy on site to power down the devices. Osvaldo, one of our 2 local guys, offered to go do it. I gave him to a ring to make sure everything was cool. All good from his end. Great. Back to Sleep! Sylvester went to work in the afternoon to do the monthly checks and help test a satellite comms issue. I was gonna walk down to Sistek a few blocks away to get a few electrical bits and bobs, a S-Video to RCA and a Mini-jack to RCA cable for connecting the laptop to the TV. I stepped out of the house around 11h, and stepped straight back in. At 38 degrees there was no friggin way I was walking! So, I landed up spending the rest of the day pretty much in the house, pooping out every now and again to get a bit of sun. Thank God for Aircon!

I got a bit adventurous that evening and suggested to Sylvester we head to what looked like a restaurant about 2 blocks away.  I had finally been getting to grips with my bearings and our routes around the city. Not that hard you may think, considering we only actually drive about 5Kms max roundtrip everyday to work and back. But there were a few weird goings on. Like we never turned left into our road. Upon further investigation I discovered it was because it was illegal! Not allowed! Against the Rules! Now this was a real irony. You can’t turn left (from a main road only it appears), but you can gladly go down a one-way, go straight through a traffic intersection in front of a traffic officer whilst he is directing traffic for the perpendicular directions – and he does nothing, and calmly create your own third lane of traffic, on a 2 lane road, directly into oncoming traffic, expecting them to move out of YOUR way, yet . . . YOU CAN’T TURN LEFT!! That’s just insane! ! !

Anyway, back to the story, so I had been getting my bearings, and had seen on numerous occasions a little place about 2 blocks down, around the corner, that looked like a nice little restaurant called Casa do Dao. So we decided to head through ON FOOT! Now, it’s around 20h at night on a Saturday night. It’s pretty dark, and I’m heading out with Sylvester to walk about half a km through a city to find a place we don’t even know that’ll be open. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I’m the ONLY WHITE PERSON AROUND!! well, this for me was nerve wracking to say the least. Why??? Well, let’s see . . . In Cape Town I would think twice about walking from my mother’s house to Cavendish Square (a distance of about 500 metres) at 19h30 on a Friday night, and that is in Claremont, a pretty good area. And here I was, about to walk through an entire city, well not really, but definitely through a really busy area of town, in a foreign country, where they speak a language I still don’t understand, as the only white guy around!! I must have been pretty crazy at the time! In South Africa we are so fearful of anyone with a darker skin tone to our own. It is actually quite frightening to realise what sub-conscious fear we live in in South Africa. Constantly checking who is around us. Do people look dodgy? What are they doing? Are they watching us? Where are our keys? Where’s my wallet? My cellphone? Man it is crazy. Constantly on our guard back home.

Well, I am really liberal, always giving people the benefit of the doubt. But this . . . this was different. It was weird. Walking down the road with at least one guy who was well liquored in front of us, and yet it was cool. Seriously Nerve-Wracking at the time, but in hindsight . . . EXHILIRATING! I didn’t get very many stares, hardly any in fact. No issues. No beggars running up asking the White Man for money. No children following and harassing us. It was as though we were walking down the street just chilling. And . . .  that is exactly what we were doing. It was cool. I actually discovered a lot. We found a hospital, police station, bike hire place, and a restaurant that was actually a little cafe all done up to look fancy like! So, yeah. Bummed! Casa do Dao was really a little caf. Haha, What a muppet! I suggested to Sly we head to another place I had seen in the block opposite the house, and so we were on the way again. Angolans seem pretty relaxed. Weekends seems to be all about chilling and partying. Relaxing and making the most of people around you and just getting on with you own life. Nothing like back home in ZA. There it is all about opportunity. You find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, you’ll get ripped off for sure. Just too much opportunity for people back home to take advantage of you crime wise I guess. Here there probably is too, but they make it less obvious, or I haven’t seen it yet I guess. Oh hey, don’t get me wrong. If I go out to get something from a vendor they’ll rip me off senseless for sure. If it costs 150 Kwanzas, they’ll take me for 500 without a doubt, that’s why Oscar or Jeje, our drivers do the basic shopping for us. The necessities that we can’t get at Shoprite or Fresco, or if we forget to get something whilst shopping. Oh, yeah, our drivers??? More on them later. Anyway, so far I have had pretty good experiences of Angolans in general. Hopefully that doesn’t change too soon.

So, we arrived at this restaurant, and Sylvester had actually been to it before. I was actually thinking of the place downstairs, but he knew of the place upstairs so we went there. Well, it was a big Soccer & Basketball night it appeared and they had a BIG screen up. Now, this was on the roof, and the  roof is literally that. A roof top with a tables, and umbrellas, and a few make shift shade net gazebos. So pretty open and cool. Ordering drinks was trying, as it was our first real introduction to a Porra only speaking waiter. We finalyl get a Carling and Gin and Tonic (GinTonic) out of him, adn asked for the menu, which resulted in us having to point to the table next door to signify what we meant. The menu was only in Porra, which didn’t help matters. But, I did recognise one thing – Fillette e Dorado, or something to that extent. Dorado Fillet. Great. 2 of those please. Well, the shaking of the head obviously meant that they were out of them. Oh oh, back to the menu.

Note to self – Get a small dictionary to carry around!

We landed up choosing “Chopa” at his recommendation, after lots of finger pointing and gesticulating. Chopa??? Have no clue! But we were going to find out soon enough.

Then . . . it began. A few drops at first. Nothing much, just a slight drizzle in a way. At this point in time it is probably worth noting that the wind had picked up during the day, which was a definite note of impending rain as I had been told, and the sky had grown sufficiently darker and greyer throughout the day. Prior to the few drops of rain, I had seen a few flashes of lightning in the distance. Something I had not yet experienced here. Within minutes the few drops had changed to rain. Not too hard, but not light either. We moved under the shade netting, but shortly it really started to bucket down, and now everything was getting wet. Particularly me, who had been sitting under a gap in the netting. We decided to hot foot it outta there and mission home to eat leftovers from the braai the night before. The 12 metre dash across the open roof top to the covered bar, resulted in my top being totally drenched, so being all practical, I took it off. Well, that got loads of stares, but cleared the way I can tell you! ;-0 By the time we made it home, literally 200 metres or so, we were drenched, and had to change our clothes.

The house however was a disaster. Man there were leaks everywhere. Over the Kitchen, Bradley’s room, lucky he wasn’t here, Sly’s room too, and even the toilets. Man they were supposed to have fixed this issue a few weeks back. Well, Hugo will be hearing from me about this tomorrow. That’s for sure!! Luckily for us the rain only lasted about 45 mins or so, but it was pretty intense whilst it lasted.

Sunday was chilled once again, doing a bit of damage control wrt the leaks and water all over the place. but nothing was seriously damaged so everything was okay. We missioned off to Fina building to perform the power up of the equipment and found they had also experienced water leaks. However theirs was considerably worse in that it had left a horrendous smell behind! Man, that was not going to be well received on Morning there!

Sunday night was spent at home.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Satellite City! Luanda’s Roof Top View!

Well, the braai was pretty good. Brad cooked, and Blythe supervised, as any good Project Manager would! And Sly and I just chatted about everything. Blythe however was a bit quick off the mark, especially with regards to the heat, and insisted we take the meat off early, which resulted in us putting it back on a few minutes more after we were half way through dinner! Nice dude.

So, the satellite dishes are quite an interesting and amazing sight to me. Having grown up in South Africa, first Johannesburg then Cape Town, you never really saw satellite dishes there, unless they were on buildings, and even then not too many. Back in the day before DSTV it was a very uncommon site. If you had a dish back then it would typically be one the bigger ones, and that was a sure sign that you were absolutely loaded. Now days you see loads of smaller white dishes around as a lot of people have satellite reception and it is far more affordable. You still don’t see many big dishes around in South Africa, if any.

However in Luanda, you see loads of the small white dishes, but you also see hundreds of these bigger ones littering the skyline and roof tops of many a building. We have 2 fairly large ones behind us. It is just weird to think that what in South Africa is perceived as a luxury and a sign of wealth and elitism, is seen so commonly here. Whether the average person here is using the dish, or it is a communal one I am not too sure, but it is really interesting to see. And the funny thing, they all point in different directions. Obviously different services. We do get Multichoice/DSTV up here and also another provider called CaboTV, which runs a multitude of channels, quite a few from DSTV in fact, but others too, a lot in fact in Portuguese. Surprise Surprise!

Anyway, it was a good evening, and signified a good beginning of the end of the week.

Tomorrow is Friday . . . Yay!!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

I was teasing Bradley about why he never bought food off the side of the road, as when we arrived at work in the morning one of the BP guys was chomping down on a really good looking sandwich, and as we left the building for lunch there was a lady with a plastic bucket selling food on the side of the road. It looked exactly like the sandwich he was eating. Brad reckons that he had had the runs here before, when he was sick for like 3 days and there was no way he was going to tempt fate again!! He also stated that Freddy’s system was well used to the bugs already. I laughed and said I was quite keen to give it a bash. He warned me, and suggested I give my tummy more time to adapt first!

Well, they had foot-long baguettes, and sliced cheese and sliced ham, and a few other bits and bobs, and we got 2 rolls and a whole lot of cheese and ham and took it back to the office with 2 cokes and a Youki – aka Pinenut. Well, this was considerably cheaper. The entire meal cost us 600 Kwanzas. So 200 each, so about 20 bucks each. Not too bad at all. My Youki was 50 Kwanzas, so R5, and that was very reasonable, and then the foot itself worked out to R15 each. Man, pretty sweet considering we usually pay over R100 per person per lunch!

Well, there was one downfall, we didn’t have a knife. So it was a hand job to get the sandwiches made. It was pretty good actually, so that might become a regular event. Don’t get wrong, the “cafeteria” lunches are good, but I am quite into my “local is lekker” thing. I might even get around to getting a sammie off the side of the road soon!

Work was good, and I left early to go another meeting. Man, traffic was stupid, surprise surprise, and I got home around 17h15. Just in time too, as man, that foot long was causing about a foot long’s worth of damage to my stomach!! Haha, Brad and Sly will piss themselves when I tell them! It appears my system didn’t handle the food too well then I guess. Well, at least I can say that my system is now getting used to what is on offer here!

Dinner was take away from Aldar, a Lebanese Restaurant, and it was pretty good. 7900 Kwanzas for a 3 person meal. So R260 per head. That’s not too bad! I guess.

Oh oh! Toilet time, second call!

Gotta go.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Shame, Cape Town’s Hot? Try 34 degrees at 20h36! 21h36 ZA time! Now you know what I mean by heat! Gotta luv the GWM display though!

The one thing that was very apparent was the language barrier. Man, the guys here do speak English – just – but we tend to land up conversing in “Ingleish” – aka Pidgin English. And today it was an issue. Now, I can’t see them improving their English very quickly, why do they need to, as it is their country, so I really need to start improving my Porra! I’ve got a CD pack, with tutorial book – that I received as a farewell present from Mea at my last company – and I’ve got a phrase book and a few other resources that I got off the net, so it’s gonna be fun!

Plus if we’re gonna go to the Rio Carnival next year, early plans with the lads here in the house already, we’re definitely gonna have to get our tongue around the language . . . to get our tongue around! hehe

Outside of that, Sly got back from the FPSO with a few pics, so I’ll see if there is anything I can put up. Disclaimer and all that shit as you can imagine. He really enjoyed it though, and was blown away by it. But, hey, who wouldn’t be blown away by being on a 12 story high structure, the size of a block, floating in the middle of the ocean?? Amazing!! As always he has received praise all round! Good lad!

Well, that’s me. Out.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Today I went with Barrie through to the airport to see him off. It was really quick. We live only a few kms from the airport, but usually it takes you about 30 mins to get there at least. Typically we leave the house at 10h45 to get there by 11h30, but today it took us less than 10. Barrie was relieved, but in a way sad to be going I think. This has been his baby. He has developed and grown the environment here for the guys for close on the last 6 months I think and that is one hell of an achievement, so Hats Off To Him really! So in retrospect I think he was glad to be leaving. Back to the normality of Cape Town, along with his family, but at the same point in time, sad to be leaving a piece of yourself here too. Though I don;t think he is going to be missing the costs!!

Well, the traffic respite was short lived! My trip from the airport took me approx 45 minutes. Yet again, a journey of a few kms. Just insane. Back to “Canteen” for lunch with Bradley and Maria, and then a very interesting Safety presentation at work. BP are definitely their safety seriously that is for sure!

It was quite an experience, my first group session, and things definitely work differently here! The entire presentation was done in English, and I was quite surprised by this, but then again, I suppose this was put together in the UK, so it would make sense. I was definitely enlightened by the level of fluency of English in our division. A lot of people tend to indicate they don’t speak it, but they were all quite vocal at the meeting. Some very vocal, and pretty soon it had turned into a free for all, which was entertaining to sit back and watch. I mentioned one point to Blythe that I wanted to make, and he told me under no circumstances was I to even think of talking. Not that he was worried about my question, or representation, he didn’t want me to fuel the already raging fire! haha So a 15 page slide or so turned into a 1 hour presentation. Nice!!

Right now, I am shattered, and that would probably be due to the 02h30 time I went to sleep last night! And that was due to me mucking about with my wordpress blog site the entire evening!

Anyway, I’m off to get some zzzz’s.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

A general market scene somewhere in Luanda!

There is a Shoprite in Bellas, hence the reason for the journey. Also so I could have a butchers (look). Bellas is located literally in the same general area as the departure point for Mussulo, so the route taken to get there was very similar. This time however was much quicker. Must b a Sunday thing I reckon. Bellas is truly mind blowing. Not that it is anything spectacular design wise, but dynamics wise it is fascinating. There are loads of people there, yet the general area doesn’t appear to be the same. The shops are really fancy and if you step back and think that 10 minutes ago you were passing through the outskirts of town, being complete slums and shacks and shanty towns, here you enter an “upper class” haven of shops, MacDonalds rip-offs, movie theatres, and then a Shoprite on the one side. Think Game at Canal Walk! Truly mind boggling stuff. Shoprite is exaclt the same as back home in Cape Town, with pretty much the same items for sale, just at seriously inflated prices. I reckon these guys are laughing up here! The queues were mental and once again we were stuck for half-an-hour waiting to pay. That however would be due to the Trainee cashier we had! Bummer!

We saw a little bit of excitement during the day when some chick rear ended a white guy in a 4×4 Double Cab right in front of our casa. She then proceeded to scream and shout at him. He however wasn’t going to have any of it, and as soon as the road was clear in front of him he pulled away. She tried blocking his way and almost got run over as he kept moving forward and she was standing in front of his vehicle. When she started hitting his bonnet he had had enough of being polite, so put foot. She was literally on the back foot and we expected to see her go under at any second, but she wisely moved at the last moment and he sped away down the road. Some dude in a car travelling the other way, jumped out, pulled out a gun, and let a round go into the air as the bakkie drive down the road. Man, quite entertaining. Definitely the Wild West here! Well the police arrived later, but not before the traffic warden had promptly fucked up all the traffic in the area, so it was just chaos. Anyway, we didn’t see the rest as it was down the road from us. But still . . . a bit of light Sunday action.

Anyway, so one week. Hmmm, quite a lot to take in for a beginner, and now time to put my thoughts in order. So thus far, Luanda is a fascinating place. A real diversity from the wealth of the expats to the slums of locals on the outskirts. The incredible development going on everywhere with buildings going up in leaps and bounds. The complete and utter lack of infrastructure and support for the locals. The super inflated housing prices, and unbelievably expensive restaurants and general shops. The number of seriously fancy 4x4s on the road, Range Rover Sports’, Toyota Land Cruiser’s, BMW 4.8is X5′s, Mercedes ML65 AMG’s, Land Rover Discovery’s, Double Cabs, etc, etc, etc. It is truly unreal to see these guys driving around in these vehicles, yet the drivers don’t typically live in fancy houses, but rather slums or very middle class flats. The friendliness of the locals in general (my limited experience of them that is), the weirdness of seeing all these black people speaking Porra, and then the general lack of concern for the surroundings and environment, to the overall relaxed party attitude.

Definitely a lot to take in, but as I begin to get more used to life here, and fit in and make more friends and travel and take loads of photos (when I come back with my proper camera), I will be able to explain and elaborate on my thoughts of my surroundings and experiences of my interactions with the locals and various other people.

Well, that’s it for now. Tomorrow is another day – as they say!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

“Paradise” – Ihla de Mussulo

The journey of about 15kms took us around 50 mins that morning due to the Great Traffic that we so love in Angola. It was crazy. You literally never go over 20 kph. It is insane. There are 2 ways of getting to the Island. One way is to drive, we chose the easier route – by boat! You leave from a jetty and get a quick speed boat ride across the lagoon, and voila, you step onto a little bit of paradise. We immediately hit the drinks at the bar, suprise, suprise, and parked off for a bit.

A little later we missioned across the island on foot, to the West Coast (Atlantic) where we went swimming. Wow, the water was amazing! Mid 20s and fantastic vis (visibility). There is virtually no swell and even 6 metres into the water it is fantastically clear. I have to get my ass into a dive suit to do some diving. Pronto! That is a definite! The beach is stunning and definitely competes with the likes of Mozambique for sure. There are little huts that are actually beach bars, but were closed, which was a bummer as it is really cool to sit there and chill. The sun made an appearance, actually quite a long one, and for the first time since arriving in Luanda I truly felt the effect of the rays. Man, it gets hot, and I reckon you will get pretty harshly burnt up here. I suppose I am just south of the equator, literally 1000 kms, so it would be stronger here than anywhere else. Well, it was great. Luckily the one BP dude had bought sun cream, otherwise we all would have been fucked, but it was wicked. I really couldn’t get my head around this. Being just south of Luanda and all it’s chaos, and yet chilling here in the calm, quiet, warm  waters of the Atlantic. Unreal!

No one ever said Life in Africa was going to easy!!

We got a call from Sly who said the FPSO was the most amazing thing he had ever seen in his entire life, and he sounded pretty chuffed to be on it. But he also conceded that it appeared he was only going to be back on Tuesday! Told you so. Hopefully they do let him go though, as they have a habit of keeping the good guys onboard, and I’m sure they’re gonna love the service they get from Sly, as he is just really good at what he does!

Back at the lagoon side lunch was awesome. It was a buffet that had everything. Freshly grilled fish, carpaccio, braai’ed chops, stews, chicken, prawns, salads, pasta, chips, schnitzel, and loads more. Absolutely fantastic. I had 2 helpings and then was stuffed! Rachel was given a cooling off care of 3 buckets of ice and water from the ice buckets for the wine.

Cooling off and Mucking about on the Swan!

Afterwards Bradley and Neal gave the Swan horns. “Watch out for the rough waters lads!” Bradley proceeded to dump his phone in the water, not a good idea, but luckily for him it was already off, so no worry of electrical damage, just water at this stage.

The boat journey back almost became quite entertaining when some German, who was pissed and giving everyone horns and being obnoxious, got on out boat, but we set Paul the Mad Scotsman on him, and we got rid of him. The car journey back to Chicala took another hour or so. This is definitely going to take getting used to. At first you think you have gone miles, as typically when you spend a long time in a car moving, you do travel a fair distance, but here, no way man, literally 3 kms can take you 30 mins or so. It’s seriously unbelievable.

Once back home we decided not to venture out as we were all really tired and knackered after the day. I think it was the sun and all the day’s activity. Dinner was leftovers and that was fine by everyone.

Right now, I am knackered and am heading to bed!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Sly has headed off to the FPSO to do a bit of work. Man, lucky bugger. The FPSO is an Offshore Floating Refinery. Think of an oil rig, just on a ship, and then a whole lot more. If any of you remember seeing that massive ship in Cape Town Harbour a few months ago that looked like a city at night due to being lit up like a christmas tree with loads of pirpes everywhere?? Well, that was an FPSO, and BP currently has the biggest in teh world, afaik, and it is a few hundred kms from where I sit right now. And Sly has just gone there! Man, green with envy!! I have given him my camera, so hopefully he’ll get a few decent shots for me. Hence the lack of pictures since yesterday. It does however mean I’ll be without camera this weekend. He reckons he’ll be back tomorrow, but after having heard Maria’s story about her visit, Bradley and myself have a bet going that he’ll only be back on Tuesday.

So Barrie and I went shopping at Casa dos Freshca (I think) and landed a massive bill for literally one trolley load of food. Man it was insane. A kilo of Fillet will set you back around R450!! We got a load of various meat, soft drinks and the usual party stuff. I can’t quite remember the final amount, but all I remember thinking is that I’ll never worry about over-spending on a braai back in Cape Town ever again.

Luckily for me I got my RPC over HTTP for Outlook working before I left Cape Town, and it has been a massive benefit ever since. It basically enables me to connect directly to the exchange sever in the office over the open Internet without having to use a VPN, or Outlook Web Access. And let me tell you, that’s a massive benefit.

Movement around the table – Dinner is served!

So, back to the braai . . . well, we were expecting quite a few people, a few of the big wigs from the BP DCT team, and then a couple of the ladies too, well so the lads said, as they have invited them. But actually, at the end of the day, Only Maria, with her husband, who doesn’t speak much Porra, and Nina pitched, along with Blythe on his own, as Ash left this morning.  It was an entertaining evening, with me getting a lesson from Nina in some local dance technique, but to me it was virtually the same as windsurfing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokkie in a way). So she was quite impressed that I was already fairly good. Well, I was just as suprised as I typically don’t windsurf. The fillet was awesome and the food turned out really well, thanks to Chef Barrie! There was plenty food left and the evening turned out just right. Probably a good thing the rest never turned up, as it was small and contained and really entertaining.

I let the team down and headed to bed early. Just been really tired the entire week, and think it must also have something to do with my chest (still having shit with my Asthma) and the aircons/heat difference. I have been really tired since arriving – which is probably due to the 2 hours sleep I got before leaving Cape Town, but man, it’s gonna take a while to get into the norm again. Weird as back in Cape Town I was managing fine on like 6 hours a night, if that.

Well, we have plans to get down to the Island tomorrow and then a bit of a party tomorrow night afterwards, so it should be a good weekend.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

I ducked out for Lunch with Bradley, back to the “Cafeteria” and there was absolutely no queue this time, though we were like 30 mins earlier. Maybe that was why. They have these TV’s all over the “Caf” that plays the Portuguese TCM channel. Classic stuff to watch whilst you eat, and the locals are transfixed by it.

We had to pick Sly up from the base after work, and that was very interesting as the driver took a “short cut” via the “slums”. Wow, now you see what Luanda is all about and where people actually stay. Really sad and pretty intense. Think the locations where we are – Gugs, Khyalitsha, Crossroads, IMizamo Yethu, etc – but picture mainly cinder block structures as opposed to houses. Pretty crazy man, but I suppose the “location” areas are all the same the world over.

Dinner was at Maria’s, my local colleague, her father’s restaurant – not too sure what it is called, but it was pretty cool. It is located on Ihla de Luanda, the peninsula and is almost directly opposite Miami. We were joined by a few BP UK Ex-Pats and it was quite funny. OK, one topic that is definitely taboo is taking the piss out of people by asking them what they are doing for the environment or how their job relates to it. Hmmm, I won’t be joking about that with Petroleum Employees anymore. A VERY TABOO SUBJECT indeed. And I love my piss taking!! Anyway, the food was good, and I wasn’t as knackered as usual. Why . . . I hadn’t taken my Malaria pill yet, so that is obviously the trick – that and not drinking beers it appears!

The city of Luanda is absolutely stunning at night, and I am definitely going to get some really awesome pics with my Canon EOS 400D when I return. Dad is borrowing it right now. Good thing though as I wouldn’t have had the space for it, plus I want to use the first trip just to get my feet on the ground and not be distracted!

Tomorrow is the House Braai with a few of the BP Big Boys in our arena, so that should definitely be entertaining!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

The Shower at Miami – A great vantage point!

Work was cool, still getting into it, so still bright eyed and bushy tailed. We’ll see yet. I ventured out to lunch, the same place as yesterday, on my own as everyone was busy, and I can tell you, it was strange being the only white person walking down the road to get food, surrounded by mainly very poor locals. Yet, I didn’t get one bad look, or the feeling of animosity towards me. I felt 100% secure at all times, and it is quite an exhilarating feeling to get to your destination and not have been mugged, or felt unsure about yourself. Makes me really wonder how much me sub-consciously fear about being in South Africa, and how insecure we really are back home!

The lunch queue was just as bad as the traffic, and it took about 30 mins for 15 people to get served at a buffet. The lunch “restaurant” – basically a canteen – is 2 floors, with mainly an open buffet type arrangement. On the one side they have a sit down area, where you basically get charged about $10 just to be served, exactly the same food! There are about 6 or 7 dishes available and it is quite a helping, but definitely not worth R 90. But I can see this is going to take time getting used to. THE COST OF EVERYTHING that is!

Introduced to my first 3 power failures in one day, actually in about 2 hours! And we complained about Eskom. Everything is on UPS in the De Beers building, except the lights, so work continues, but the lights go off, and everyone continues as normal. It is pretty much the norm it appears! Amazing.

Dinner was back at Miami, and I had the steak, which was really good. The helpings are usually pretty good, as far as I can tell, but the cost!! Whoa! There was a big screen with the EUFA Cup soccer on, suprise, suprise!

Once again I was knackered at dinner, and think it definitely has to do with the Malaria Pills and the beers. Okay, tomorrow I change tack! I’ll take the pills when I am supposed to, after meals and just before I go to sleep. Also, no more beers!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Loving Life!

Loads to do here so I am going to be kept very busy for a long time to come, which is great. Means I won’ have to get bored, or restless . . . I hope! So far the first impression is that we are on top of things, which is good.

Our neighbours, literally right on top of us.

We went for lunch down the road, and the around the corner, and it was my first true experience of being on the ground in Luanda, as we walked. Man, I have already talked about the heat, but unless you have ever been to an equatorial or mid tropical country, you really can’t understand it. I believe Bangkok is apparently very similar, if not in fact worse. But the heat and humidity here is intense. I think the problem is compounded by the fact that everywhere you you are in air conditioned rooms, offices, vehicles, restaurants, etc. So when you do venture out you go from a fairly cooled environment, typically in the region of about 20 degrees, or sometimes less, straight into about 32-34 degrees. Man, it is seriously intense. And the humidity just sits. So it is not like being in Cape Town in 32 Degrees, but rather think of sitting in a steam room at 32 degrees. Okay it is not that bad that you break out in a sweat every time you go outside, but it can be uncomfortable if you are in heavy clothing or wearing trousers. It’s also not as bad as when I did my Sailing trip, which I will actually blog after my first trip home, as I left my “diary” at home on this trip. Part of the 32Kilo constraints!

Personally I enjoy the temperature, and the climate. I enjoy being outdoors and it’s great to be able to get out and enjoy the sun and warmth. The only problem though is that you don’t actually see the sun, or feel the rays of it . . . EVER! Everyday is overcast, or cloudy, but not like dark cloudy, but just hazy cloudy. There is glare from the sun everywhere, but no actual rays.

Costs are MENTAL!! I was warned that it was expensive, but man, this is ridiculous! A main meal, just the course itself, well the lunch venue we go to, will cost you about R90! Plus R15 for the soft drink! So you are looking at around R105 for the entire meal. And that’s just a plate of rice and beef stew, or a large pizza slice with salad, pretty much any “Pratos do dia”, the Dish of the day. I will definitely be blogging more on the costs as they occur, and trying to get my head around it as things go on.

Dinner that day was at Portugalia down near Ilha de Luanda, or commonly known as Ilha. Basically Island, which is actually the Peninsula. It is right next to the BP Staff housing, and it is pretty sparsely arranged with a few outside tables and then big screen/blank wall for watching the football, which I was going to find out is quite a big thing in Luanda. I was really tired by the time we finished, and I think that might be due to a combination of the Malaria Pill and the Beers I keep on drinking. And that was all before dinner! Dinner was ok, not fantastic, and once again, really expensive for what you get. Like R 150 for the main course alone, and the portions would be the equivalent of a R60/70 meal in Cape Town, if that.

Anyway, I was virtually passed out by the time we got home, and am going to sleep like a log now!

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

View from the house of a very entertaining Crossroads!

Today was tough . . . not really. I had a nice relaxed intro everything.

It started with the future handyman coming around to the house to see what needed to be done. From there it was off to BP premises at the De Beers Building which was interesting. I met all the players in one go, and was finally introduced to what I’ll really be doing. I must admit . . . quite intimidating actually. To see the relationships and understanding people already have with each other. To be coming in as the outsider, and having to take over. Well, the challenge is huge. The landscape is massive and the potential for growth is awesome, but so is the room for mistakes. But, I’ll take it as it comes, do my best, and then some. A very exciting time for both DD and myself.

After De Beers we cruised to a hardware store, got a few necessary items for the house, like a shower head and more, and then off to the “peninsula”, not too sure what it is called in Porra, but it was cool. We had lunch at a place Miami, just next to Cafe Del Mar, and judging by the pic, it was close enough!

A view from Miami:

After lunch we went shopping at Casa de Fresca, I think , and that was surreal. Think Woolworths in Luanda. Really! It is virtually the same. Just these prices are way off the scale. Some things are childishly expensive. A small box of Jungle Oats . . . . R70. Yes! R70 for a small box of Jungle Oats. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, about R80. And that’s the normal size! Not the big one you get back home. Just stupid really. Yet a bottle of Johnny Black will put you back R250, which is virtually the same as in CPT, just about R30 more. So some things, quite close, others way off the mark!!

Then is it was home, and chilled for the rest of the day.

Then off to Restaurant Venezia. Man, the Steak on Rock, which is like a hotrock steak was awesome. About 600-800g of quality, seriously quality steak!! Man I was stuffed, and took home plenty still.

Well, another day done.

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Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

My first Angolan sunset from the House:

But, let’s go back to where is starts . . .

Saturday afternoon: I spent pretty much the entire morning moving out of my flat. As always in my personal life, I leave things to the last minute. What should have started about 2 weeks ago, was left to the last day, Literally!

The afternoon I went shopping very quickly for a pair of chino’s, 2 shirts and a few other things, like boxers, which I haven’t worn in about 4 years now, but judging by what everyone tells me about the humidity, it might be worthwhile to get, and a few socks.

The evening/night was spent tidying up mom’s house, my shit in mom’s house that is. I had dropped quite a lot of my stuff off there over the period of the week or so, I’m not THAT disorganised!! Anyway, that along with packing etc, meant I only got ot bed after 02h, and I had to get up at 05h to get ready for my flight. Man, that was rough. I literally got about 2h30 sleep by the time I left, and was I feeling rough! I had also had the beginnings of a cold the entire week, with tight chest and runny nose. Great, just what I needed for my new foray into the Wild West!

So, I arrived at the airport with a really, really heavy suitcase, 33.8 kgs heavy to be precise, and was swiftly told to offload some stuff. “I can’t allow that bag on. They won’t check it in, as it is too heavy.” Hmmm, about 5 of that is care of DD and the spare part, a Switch “blade” I had to take up. Cheers chaps! So I had to unpack right there in the hall. I’ve always seen this happen to other people at the airport, and always thought “Why would you need to do that?” Well now you know. I had forgotten I had packed my Unisa books too, so pulled that one out, which was about 2.5 kgs and my Mr Diver fleece top, put it back on the scale and was amazed to see that it only made a kilo difference. 32.8. Hey that can’t be right I thought. I moved it around and it dropped to about 30.5. That’s better. The lady luckily let me go with the overweight after a very “nice” pleading chat.

I picked up a 2 x 1 ltr bundle of Johnny Red at Duty Free for R255, which isn’t too bad! Hmmm, at least I drink my worries away whilst there! The flight, Air Namibia, was about 3/4 full and I was in the isle, and the seat next to me was empty, so that pretty cool, except for the fact that the recline button on my seat, 19d was broken so that the seat wouldn’t go back. Now that was kak. So instead of moving to the seat next to me, I stayed where I was, and tried to get a few zzz’s, but it didn’t really work. Breakfast was an omelette which was okay. We had a medical emergency on the flight too. Appears a baby had choked or something and we landed with an ambulance there, but there wasn’t any screaming or crying, so I imagine everything was okay.

At Windhoek we chilled out in the Smokers area in the Transit Lounge, as Barrie is a big smoker, which wasn’t great for my chest, but I managed it.  We got back on the same plane, and I was in the same seat, 19d. Shite, as I was really tired now, and could really do with some shut eye! The seating arrangement turned out to be a complete cluster f#ck!! Everyone was sitting all over the place, mainly Angolan Portuguese locals,  and I later found out that if you fly TAAG -  Angolan Airlines, it is open seating. Well, this was a mess. Everyone had just sat where ever they wanted. The one chick and her kid would not sit separated, and kept the plane an extra 10 minutes because they wouldn’t sit. 2 air stewards, and 3 air hostesses later, eventually another lady moved, very unwillingly, to accommodate the chick and her daughter, but I think she could see that if she didn’t we would not get off the ground. Unbelievable! If that was UK or anywhere else, security would have been called, and she would have been forcefully removed! Man, really childish chick, I couldn’t believe it. Not a care in the world huh. Couldn’t really give a shit if the entire flight was delayed, as long as she could sit next to her daughter? She had booked willy nilly and the entire flight was full. There were about 10 of them travelling together and it was absolute chaos. The girl next to me kept on getting up and down and I decided I wasn’t going to have any of this as I was in the aisle and so I moved her bag on one of her forays out, and went to sleep in her chair which was great as this one reclined!! Quality! I got a few zzz’s and had lunch in between. Pasta, as the chicken which was offered was finished. The lunch wasn’t bad actually.

After descending through some serious turbulence we circled Luanda and landed to applause of the passengers, which was interesting. I tended to agree on their sentiments, especially after the brief turbulence, so I too clapped. I later out that was a customary thing to do. I had checked out quite a bit of Luanda on Google Earth previously so had a fairly good idea of certain landmarks, namely the huge bay and it was a really interesting sight. So many boats in the bay it was crazy. Just loads and loads of small grimy squatter type houses. Very few, if any, tar roads. A typical African type scene from a movie. The airport was really busy, with plenty of planes around. We passed an SAA Boeing about to depart, along with a TAAG Airbus waiting and also an Air26 charter twin prop also awaiting departure. The pilot announced that is was 29 degrees outside, and when I stepped out, I was hit by the heat! Man, worse than a hot, clammy cloth! I can see this getting seriously uncomfortable in the future, but man, I’ll just love the sun!

We cleared Passport Control in about 15 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of. It can apparently take around 3 hours, with about 200 people stuck in a room half the size of a tennis court. Just insane. A local I met on the plane reckons he has waited for 3 hours just to clear this section. The next section, luggage collection is usually just as bad, but this we cleared in about another 10 minutes, after meeting our protocol officer, whose job is to get you through Customs if you have any issues, and then we were done. So literally through the entire airport in 30 mins, which even the local commented I would never, ever experience again!! Hmmm, I guess I’ll have my patience cut out for me next time. Must be the Sunday flight.

Our driver met us outside, and went to get the car. The trip from the airport took another 25 mins or so, which even Barrie commented was not fair. He said I was really getting all the treatment on my first trip, as he has taken 2h30 to do that exact journey in the past.

So, I had finally arrived at my new home for the next however long I decide to stay. A one year contract as it stands, but hey, who knows . . . I’m looking long-term on this one.  Luanda was quite interesting experience, and reminded me quite a lot of Israel and Egypt put together, just relocated to Africa! They pretty much drive the same in Luanda as they do in Egypt, and the buildings and vehicles are pretty similar to Israel. The roads are complete chaos, with virtually no infrastructure like sidewalks, robots, etc. Vehicles just go. They don’t wait for each other, and it is really literally a matter of make your own way. Just crazy. But it appears that Sundays are typically quieter than other days.

Bradley was home when we arrived, and Sylvester was at work. Blythe and Ashton pulled through later, and we eventually got down to braaiing. At that stage I had already had a beer, and you know I don’t do beer. Like Really, Really don’t do beer. Next I was onto the Johnny Red, the bottles I had bought, and we all got really liquored up. The steaks were seriously good and they food was well prepared. Barrie finished a whole bottle of his brandy (1 of the 4), and it has been a pretty wild evening.

Well, that was day and night one in Luanda.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

Well, it is now fixed, apart from one last thing that needs to be done tomorrow, and that’ll cost me an additional R 220. Man, vehicles. They are seriously expensive when it comes to it. I only just today found out that my car is actually costing me in the region of approx R 3 500 a month in repayments. There I was thinking it was a lot less, like R 2 500. Just goes to show what happens when you have a company car I guess. You kinda lose touch with the real world costs.

I didn’t have to get a taxi back, but instead got a lift with our driver Rowan. Cool, at least I was spared the taxi ride like last time, though I do kinda enjoy being at one with the rest of Cape Town’s festive people.

Well, back to SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer and Access Databases, along with the usual office stuff that needs to be done.

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

So, there I was, no vehicle, and having to public it this morning from Wynberg. Well, like a right toss I let a Golden Arrow Bus, heading to Cape Town go past me, thinking . . .

“I’ll take a taxi”, but the taxi’s only go to Cape Town from Wynberg Station, just outside Maynard Mall actually, and I was literally at Plumstead. This I should have known however, as the same thing happened to me last time I had to take my car in. Idiot!

Anyway, it was an entertaining ride, for R4.50 from Wynberg to Newlands Spur, the price went up on the 1st of Nov 2007, I think it used to be either R3.50, or R4.00. As per usual I was the only whitey on board, but a white chick did also get on at Kenilworth. We lost like 90% of the passengers at Claremont, as they all bailed out at the “A C Kermans” drop off.

I was then listening to the driver try explain to 2 ladies in the front where Camp Ground Road was, and how they could get to their destination, but he wasn’t really doing a very good job of it, as he didn’t really seem to have a clue about it. Then, it was my stop. Well, that was painless, and suprisingly safe. No banging bass, or smelly people this time, which was just great.

Looks like I’ll be using it to get home too I guess!

Click.

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy

But, I have loads of technology work to catch-up on and it’ll definitely be a catch up game as I haven’t done much work in that pre-sales arena for ages I must admit!! I am pretty much gonna have to learn the entire Internetworking Technology Handbook from Cisco in like 2 days, and then some. My BGP/OSPF/MPLS/VPN/SONET/SDH/ATM/Web Hosting skills all need to be really sharp as there are gonna be alot of questions regarding that I can tell you.

Well, off to study, and I have Aikido this evening, which I am actually NOT looking forward to as I have grading week, and I am really unfit and my neck is still in pain from the practice Last Thursday and elbow from Saturday morning. Plus my knee is still raw from last week Thursday, with a massive carpet burn scar on it too!! So, my Aikido is NOT going great, and that is purely my fault and lack of training and experience too. Sometimes I think I should I should just realise that I am not really that good at sport and should just relegate myself to the sideline to watch and photograph it as opposed to doing it!

Anyway, I’ll let you know how the Skype Interview goes!!

Click .

Nunnsby

Easy Going Guy