Sorry for being MIA agian

But I was kindda travelling a bit this week..

Saturday - Paris
Sunday - Dubai
Monday - Cairo
Tuesady - Algeria
Wednesday - Dubai

La capitale de l'amour

Yup .. thats what they call Paris and today I witnessed it all: front row seats.

Couples sitting down all along the banks of the Seine River. Guys and girls, guys next to girls, guys on girls, girls on guys, girls on girls, guys on guys... OK I should stop here

First time impressions: Algeria

I've been travelling a lot lately... ALOT!

I've been to countries that I've never been to before. the most interesting one I visited lately was Algeria. It was my first time.

I have to say, before the trip, I had serious concerns when my boss told me: "I know its not the best place to visit, but the team in Algeria really needs your help."

"Oh, one more thing," he added. "For you to take that trip, you are required to complete our special field security training course." So, I did the whole security training, briefing, orientation ...etc and booked my flight.

Since EK has no direct routes to Algeria, I had to fly to Tunis via Libya and then to Algeria. The trip took 22hrs! But that’s another story.

Algeria Airport was nice (I think it was called Bomidyan or something). It was nice, but very empty. Anyhow, we landed at the new terminal. My airport pick up was there on time, that was a relief. Especially after 22hrs of flying around, delays, a full day of airplane food and stale duty free sandwiches at Tunis airport.

"Welcome to Algiers" said the meet & greet person. "First time?"
"Yes"
"I just wanted to tell you that we instructed the driver to take a short cut via the mountains. There might be some roadblocks because of el jama3at el musallaha (armed, extremist groups), but you don't need to worry about that......"
"What?!"
"Hahah, I am only joking with you – welcome to Algeria"

Note to self: Got to learn how to pick up Algerian sense of humor.

I learned a few more things about Algerians. And this is coming from both Algerians themselves and personal experience.

Algerians are very very proud people. I am not sure why, but I am guessing it has something to do with their history in resisting the French colonial forces and sacrificing 2million Algerians along the way.

I also got to learn that Algerians are also very conservative. Extremely conservative. So conservative, that woman never leave their homes after 7pm.

I was driving around with a friend at night. I noticed that there were only MEN walking in the streets.

Me: "Dude, where did all the women go?"
Friend: "They are at home"
Me: "ha ha, very funny. Yeah, i know you Algerians have a sense of humor"
Friend: "No, I am not joking. Most women here in Algeria do not leave homes after 7 o'clock."
Me : "Really? Why is that?"
Friend: "Because if a woman leaves her home after sunset, she is labeled as a whore"
Me : "Ok, and what if she really had to leave the house. Like to see a doctor? Her child is sick? Or attending a class or something?"
Friend: "Then she has to look for alternatives. People here think she should do EVERYTHING to avoid leaving home when its dark."
Me:
Friend: "Of course, that’s more common by Algeria's lower and middle class communities. Upper class people don’t care about that anymore, unless they are religious of course. And most of them are."

One thing I know for sure, Algeria is a beautiful country! Of course it gets dryer the more you head south, but Algiers (The capital) is just stunning. I will upload some photos once I download them from my camera.

Ciao

More updates

Hi ..

How you doin?

Long time no see.

I know .. sorry about that..


Things have been a bit crazy lately. I've been travelling a lot. I am in Doha at the moment, waiting for my EK back to Dubai.

Have lots of stories to tell. I still have one more week of work-related wackiness to go; so by mid March, I should be able to pick up whats left of my sanity.

So, whats going on?

At home, we are still without AC. The project engineer actually explained why is it we can't have DEWA hocked up till now. It turned out that it was all because of a "situation" DEWA people faced while trying to lay down the Main Power cable all the way from the main Generator to our building. While workers were digging away, they came across a construction site of which the contractor was being a major ASS about removing his junk to clear out the way for the DEWA guys to stretch the cable. He was being such a mutha about it to the point our building contractor called the cops. Anyhow, after several visits by DEWA people, police and a couple of warning letters, it was all cleared and we should, according to the project manager, be able to get DEWA, Etisalat and all that good stuff sometime toward the end of this week..... Lets see.

Lulu is officially walking. I can't describe to you the feeling just to see her wiggle her cute tush and her arms flying around everywhere. I miss her soo much.

As I said earlier, work has been really crazy. Everybody who is somebody in the company decided to drop in Dubai this week. And Yours Truly was assigned to look after their agendas, needs and egos. Not only that, they are moving around all over the place and I have to tag along. Bottom line; I ended up visiting 3 different countries 5 times over a period of 10 days. I still have a couple of more cities to cover. It should be over soon.

Also, there has been some internal movements at work as well. Its seems that some big Kahuna in Corp noticed that Yours Truly gotz some skillz, so he wants me to have a bigger role, wider goe-coverage responsibility and - dig this- wants Yours Truly to report directly to him.

Now, here is where it gets a bit tricky. It is the same Kahuna who my direct manager reports to. I don't know how that will make him feel, but I can feel that the love is NOT in the air.

Remember "C"? Well, she actually resigned and is on her way to a more "recognising" job. So, my boss already lost one good member of his team and another one is being snatched away.

I don't know. Lets hope i don't get caught in the middle of inter-office politics mambo jumbo.

I've been to Jordan last week. Spent a few days there. Though I really wanted to, but I couldn't go to Amman. I really wanted to meet up with some friends there. I feel bad. I hope I can make it up on my next trip. Anyhow, more photos/posts will be dedicated to Jordan.

Doha is an interesting place. I have mixed feelings about this place. I will try to be as objective as I can be. Again, more dedicated Qatar-posts should be coming your way.

I hope I can get Internet at home soon, so that i can resume normal blogging.

Miss you all ..