Made it...

Well I survived the death box of a chopper and landed in the dark, in torrential rain, in Freetown. Hurrah! Shame the experience has to be repeated to leave.

Am staying by the beach which (when it isn't raining) is beautiful!

Accommodation is slightly surreal and involves aliens
and midget deer... according to the waiter there is an antelope somewhere as well... so bizarre!

I am most rubbish at blogging these days and have come to the opinion I should stop or make a more concerted effort... so I will try and do the later. In the mean time I am off to Sierra Leone on a work mini break.

The FCO travel advise provided much amusement... mostly because amusement is really the only response one can have to the trauma that getting to SL may be for someone like me who has a large and possibly irrational fear of flying... a fear that doesn't really go very well with my job... anyway below are some highlights from the British Government's travel advise to SL:

Lungi airport is situated on the far side of a wide estuary from Freetown. There are currently five travel options from Lungi airport: road, helicopter, ferry, hovercraft and private boat service. None is without risk.

• The Foreign and Commonwealth Office permits its own staff to travel between Lungi and Freetown only by road by day and at moderate speeds using competent, well-rested drivers driving in convoys of at least two vehicles suitable for travel on badly-rutted unmade roads. (all very nice for FCO types I am sure).
• Sea-going vessels in Sierra Leone are not required to meet the maintenance standards or pass the safety checks that would be required in the UK. The risks associated with sea travel are therefore greater than they would be on a similar vessel in British waters. There is no scheduled service with full maintenance records available for public inspection. There will be no public emergency service response to any problems at sea. (that makes things clear then.)
• The ferry was warned by the Port Authorities in January 2007 about overloading, and has been known to operate in poor visibility without lights. There is a lack of basic safety equipment on board, including navigational aids, lifeboats and accessible life jackets. Emergency procedures are unclear.
• The commercial hovercraft service between Freetown and Mahera Beach relaunched on 7 May 2008. On 2 July the hovercraft lost power and failed to fully get up the beach at Aberdeen. On 23 May the hovercraft crashed into the terminal at Mahera Beach damaging the wall of the building (!!!!). None of the passengers waiting in the terminal was hurt. In November 2007 it experienced mechanical problems while crossing the lagoon. There was no organised emergency response and the passengers were rescued by small craft. The hovercraft was subsequently towed back to Freetown.

As a result I will be riding the helichopper which takes less than 10 min and tends to crash about once a year (usually with many fatalities)... so the odds aren't too bad...

Malawi

Hello,

Just a short email from Malawi... as part of my new effort to update my blog! Internet is very slow and so I have just put on 2 photos... one is from Zomba mountain in the evening as the sun is setting... it was very beautiful... the other is of the lake (Sun and Sand Resort to be precise)... it was just like a beach - there were even waves.
It's been pretty cool here, especially in the evenings, but yesterday when I sat for a couple of hours on a swing chair on the beach it was so lovely and warm... mmm very nice!

Today I go off north... so that should be fun!

so long

i have not blogged in so long which is very bad. i mean to but then i forget.
i'm off to Malawi today for a couple of weeks work, but will try and be back with a vengence when I return!

big love x

hello again

I have returned... it has indeed been a while. But the reason I went away was because I was distracting myself with various diversions... including...

Avoiding facebook... I am still not on it...

Going on a short course at Loughbourgh uni and discovering all sorts of things were named after me (ok well possibly not me exactly... perhaps Thomas Telford)...

Going sledging in the Mk snow dome... which was fun... and involved avoiding killing 5 year olds, who it has to be said made up the majority of other people using the slope! You will be pleased to know that I seemed to do quite well on this front, and no 5 year olds were killed or maimed.
Moving house... yes I moved into a new abode, owned by Spearsy and Mist... here (for Spearsy in Senegal's benefit) is a photo of the glorious loo, with the glorious new barbed wire loo seat. Also note glorious new Ikea loo brush... this was procured despite some people thinking we didn't need to replace the loo brush that came with the house (it was manky).
For Arth and Spearsy's 70th Birthday party i grew an Afro, and fell in love with a worryingly side burned and tashed stranger... Who i later tried (unsuccessfully) to kill using a plastic gun...
Hils was quite the celebrity... and spearsy just looks scouse like...
I have also acquired glasses for looking at computer screens... very exciting I am sure, especially as they seem to make me look European... and worried...
Spring has also been fabulous - when the sun shines! It has been 3 years since I have been in the UK to experience a proper English spring, and the blossom and spring like smells are yummy! As are the long light evenings - not something that Cambodia and Nepal went in for particularly!
Queenie has some nice spring flowers to enjoy outside of her palace too!

This Easter bank holiday...

This Easter bank holiday Ant and I found ourselves locked in Tetbury Chruch in the Cotswold's. It could have been rather tragic... but fortunately we escaped without too much pain. Even so it amuses me...

Whilst in Tetbury we decided to look inside the lovely Georgian church. It really is pretty. At the back of the church there was a small stand selling postcards and books and such. It was unmanned - there was an honesty box. Whilst looking round the stall a slightly dodgy looking man came into the church and proceeded to ask us if we had managed to "nick anything". Wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one. Obviously steeling from churches is a major past time of mine.
Anyway we sort of wandered off, and the bloke left the building (offended by our lack of thieving perhaps?!). On his way out he bolted the door locked from the outside. The bolt was at the top of the door, so it couldn't be done accidentally.

Hmm so there we are locked in a strange church... fortunately when we went over to the windows we saw some people tending a grave, and so then managed to open the window and shout for help... all was well... even so I did wonder how long we could have been left in there if no one was about... but I suppose we could have summonsed help with a mobile phone or something?!

What I have been doing of late...

Rachel and I had a posh rendez-vous at Malmaison in Birmingham... Actually to be honest Rachel was the most glamorous with her posh bag... I still haven't lost the student rucksack look...
MalMaison is located in the 'Mailbox'... it has a small spa with massage chairs and a Jacuzzi pool and sauna etc. I felt I was re-living some of my expat life in the UK... but at a rather greater financial cost than in Asia ;o)
Hils and I were spotted in a public toilet in Stony Stratford... reason: very exciting public toilet with an electric loo role dispensing machine (just 2 pieces of paper per press of the loo role dispensing button)... there is also a count down timer and a ladies voice that tells you how many minutes in the loo you have remaining (out of a possible 15) before the electric doors open and expose you to the world... all this excitement cost just 20p... incredible.

We paid a visitation to Esther-Joy, who is very cute. Here she is propped up like a princess surveying her minions...Hils then made E-J's hair stand on its fluffy ends as she introduced her to Santa (admittedly rather unseasonable in February).
It snowed... very very exciting... although it didn't stay on the ground for more than 10min I did get to cycle to work in it... which made me wish I had some ski goggles on! Here is Kert all ready to ride, getting snowed on whilst I jump up and down with snow excitement and take photos of the 10 min of flakes...
Snow on the cycle path... the redways become white ways (temporarily)
The Holiday Inn Express takes on the look of a Swiss Ski Chalet (or is that stretching ones imagination slightly too much?)I acquire new landlords (well they will be at the end of the month). Spearsy and Arth (note matching landlord/ property tycoon beards) feature with the classy desk, and most glorious fake flowers the previous owner of their new abode left behind when she moved (how kind).

The Nadj, old gal extraordinaire left for the Philippines for 6 long long months of schmoozing around for the FCO... very sad day it is to see her go.
However this occasion seemed to call for us to try on some of her many sunglasses... Here is Ed, me (and my red coat which seems to be the thing that I am wearing most often in photos on this blog) and Laurence.

Cousins

After reading my last blog it was brought to my attention by my mother and Clari that Clari isn't actually my 2nd cousin once removed, but actually my 2nd cousin - pure no removeds about it... wikipedia the source of all knowledge provided me with a handy diagram that illustrates this clearly. As a result I deduced that I have a small family comprised of:

• 1 first Cousin (the most fabulous JackJack),
  
• 5 first cousins once removed, (+ possibly 2 more random geordie cousins of my dad),
  
• 10 second cousins, (+ however many children the random geordie cousins of my dad have),
  
• 7 second cousins once removed, (+ however many grandchildren the random geordie cousins of my dad have).
  

As for the rest... first cousins twice removed, third cousins... third cousins twice removed I have not the foggiest.

The engagement of (2nd cousin once removed) Clari and Will

Cousin Clari (2nd cousin once removed to be precise), and her man Will got engaged recently. They live in MK as well (it is after all well known to be an English mecca), and so it was thought by all that the most suitable place for the official engagement (and indeed perhaps wedding) photo shoot would be the famous concrete cows. Yes MK is sooooo full of concrete that even the cows are concrete... hardly ever see any live animals.

Here are the photos... personally I think the cars on the road in the background, and pylons add to the classiness of the location... and as Darryl Kerrigan says in the movie "The Castle"... "serendipity"...

The Happy Couple... and a cow

Diamonds are forever...

Dancing with concrete cows... how romantic

Exercise?

Cow riding is a good sport

PaparazziConcrete cows provide shelter... possibly not from nuclear attack tho

Fortunately engagement isn't a prerequisite for concrete cow riding

Yes... we are a little odd

Skiing MK

We decided to take a very short skiing holiday (1hr) in Milton Keynes last night... what fun. It's a real snow snowdome... and is cold cold cold

Nadj is down wit da kids

Nadj and Ed at the top

Me on the lift!

Just the 3 of us

Happy Valentines Day

I saw this sign at the harvester next to my work! It amused me... for those who don't know the 'harvester' pubs, there is a reason why 'there's no need to book'... possibly not the most romantic location

big valentines love to all x x x

Suits, hula hoops, the Great Visitation... and the Great Bed of Ware

I thought I would update the world with some excitements from mine...

Have been amusing myself with various activities...

(1) not-so-maid-marionanon introduced me to the wonders of wii... I am sure if I had lived in the UK recently I would have realised such things existed earlier... however I remained clueless to its amazingness until 2008, so that probably makes me slow. Marion has many games (in Japanese)... we played racing knitted horse racing which I quite liked, snowboarding, skiing, and hula hoops... where we had to wiggle around on the wii board and keep the hula hoops going round and round... and the stranges '70s men happy... on the TV screen. What thrills.

Marion shows us how its done

Hills takes a dive to catch a hoop

Me... and the wii

2) After all that wii excitement it was time to soak in Marions hot-tub... mmm lovely lovely... especially as she has strung little lights all around the garden!
3) Raymond Blanc opened a Brasserie in MK of all places, and so we thought we would go and eat there to see what it was like (very yummy actually). To make it slightly more comedy we went fancy dress... well we decided to wear suits... which might as well be fancy dress as in my line of work we don't really ever wear such things.

Me and Hils try out that estate agent look

Pete looks pink... and Spearsy looks like a used cars salesman?
Note the theme of the restaurant is very Raymond Blanc (his photo on the menu and wall).

4) Then there was the thrilling, and exciting, pilgrimage to the V&A museum to see 'The Great Bed of Ware'. We really didnt see much else after being distracted by the most sumptuous cafe they have there... ooooo many cakes and salads... So the Great Bed of Ware is a large bed which was once housed in inns/pubs in Ware (Ants hometown/ motherland), apparently the bed measures ten by eleven feet and can sleep over 15 people - although I didnt really think it was big enough for this to be a comfortable experience. Ant thinks the fact that this is listed as a museum highlight in the free V&A guide adds further weight to his belief that Ware is the greatest town in the world... I am as yet to be convinced on that matter. Here is the orange boy himself standing proudly by the great bed.

5) The Great Visitation.

At last, after much anticipation and expectation the Great Visitation (II) of Shannon to the UK occured as she transited for a couple of days en route back from the US to Nepal. We enjoyed the wonders of Swindon... I was captivated by the 'magic roundabout' which is one roundabout with about 5 satalite roundabouts. Coming from MK (home of the roundabout) I was in awe of this concrete thing of traffic beauty.

We also visited Avebury (world heritage site dont you know). It was very cold and windy. Fortunately Shannon had killed a fox and drapped it around her head... so she was fine.

Claire however sorght warmth from one of the stones... Nancy was poorly... shannon looks scared... funny photo

Me, Claire, Shannon and Nancy