Guess the plant!

Afternoon!

Here is another one for the plant freaks amongst you. Does anyone know what the heck this thing is? I found it on the beach. Quite a few meters away from the sea. This part of the beach does not get wet at high tide.


There weren't many of these about, I saw about two or three on the whole beach. It must be some sort of hardy sea plant.

Answers on a post card please! Let's see if anyone can beat my wife with tracking down this plant...

Cheerio,

Alex. 

Sunny Suffolks East Coast, Jaywick and Clacton...

Hi there,

Here are some more piccies from that walk on the beach with Jay. This is a bunch of little sand pipers... (That is what I think they are called anyway...)



This is a nice shot of the sand draining when the tide was going out. Lovely lines in the sand...

This is a bunch of flying rats sitting on a pier. These gulls were bloomin huge. The size of a small turkey... Nice piccie though...

This is a nice sunset over Jaywick. This was taken looking south from the Clacton direction, The sun was nicely bouncing of the sea and the sky was all sorts of colours. nice one...

All in all we all had a good day, Jackie, myself and the dog... The nice weather helped heaps...

Take care,

Alex.

Jay on the beach at Jaywick...

Afternoon all,

I had to post these pictures. They are from a few weeks ago when we took Jay to the beach. We think that it was his first excursion to a beach as he was mightily puzzled by the water and sand...



This is Jay enjoying the car ride. Like all dogs he likes to have his gums flapping in the breeze...

This was when we first arrived at the beach. He straighaway stuck his head over the seawall to see what was behind it. He couldn't wait to get on the sand...

Here he is having a good sniff at the sea. He (of course...) had to have a drink which he quickly spat out... stupid mutt... It was a beautiful day with lovely sunshine, even though it was pretty chilly.
This is Jackie and the mutt having a sitdown after a good few hours combing the beach. He could not get enough of it and he did not try to eat any other dogs... which was nice for a change... We'll get him sorted somehow...

Cheerio,

Alex.

Back from Portugal...

Afternoon all,


Ignore the picture, that should have been much lower down the page... fucking free software...)


I got back OK from Portugal last friday. The job in Alhandra went ok, the customer's camera is working fine again.

I flew to Lisbon on the wednesday. With Easyjet. Bummer. I don't like the cheapskate airlines like Ryanair or Easyjet. It's ok to use them for holidays or short weekend trips but I hate sitting cattleclass when I'm doing it for my job. I got to Lisbon around 12 in the afternoon. I didn't have the addres nor the phone numbers or anything for the customer so had to call our secretary. Unfortunately I had dropped my phone at Luton airport and now in Lisbon it decided to go on the blink. So no phone, no address, no nothing. The one thing I did have was the name of the town where the cement plant was, Alhandra. I picked up my hirecar from Europcar and just started driving.

I knew that the town I was looking for was north of Lisbon so I just headed up the motorway. My reasoning was this, cement plants are big places so if its there I'm likely to spot it from miles away. And indeed that is how it went. I found the town and the cement plant was right there on the banks of the River Tejo. I also did not know if there was an hotel booked for me. I looked in Alhandra but there were no hotels so I drove on to the next town. When I got to Villa Franca de Xira I found a hotel and they had some vacancies. I checked in, called my office to let them know whereI was and told them to tell the customer that I would come to their plant the next day.

Villa Franca de Xira was a nice small river town where I managed to find a decent bar where I had to wash the dust out of my throat with a beer or twentyfive.

The next day met the customer Armando and his collegues and got on with the job.

On the friday the weather had reverted to the normal type for when I am around, it was pissing down. When I got to the airport in the afternoon it was clear that this rain was not normal as the whole departure lounge was covered with blue and red buckets to catch all the water that was leaking through the ceiling. I took a piccie outside the terminal and it sortof shows how hard it is raining. The piccie is at the top, this bastard editing software of Google doesn't work very well...

The worst part of the whole trip was arriving in Luton. About 5 flights arrived at the same time and they had three (yes, 3) desk open to handle about 1500 passport checks. What a bloody joke... I must have waited inline about 40 minutes, welcome to Britain.... Most english people always talk condescending about other countries but the UK has really become the worst country for entering. I don't mind all the checks etcetera but can they please please please employ a few more people at these immigration desks?

Now for the best news...
Today is tuesday and on thursday (which is only two days away!!!) I am off again. Me and the wife are off to Thailand! Finally it is time for the annual holiday!!! Time for beer sunshine and good thai food! Bring it on!

Take care,

Alex.

Off again... to Portugal!

Afternoon,

I was going to stick some pictures on here of last weekend where my new dog Jay got exposed to forests and to the beach. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have to go to Portugal tomorrow. I'm going to a place just north of Lisbon, only for a few days, should be back on friday late.

I'll update the Blog later when I get back...

Take care,

Alex 'Muy Obrigado' World traveller.

Dog Borstal for Jay...

Hi there,

Another thing I have to spread... The dog is going to behaviour school. We were getting fed up with his aggressive behaviour towards anything that is smaller than him. The missus thought that some obedience training might be the answer to his problems...

Last night was the first night of his 8 week training regime. He was the only one there that was muzzled. He has to be as he is as quick as a flash when he tries to grab other dogs...

The missus had to put him through all sorts of moves and tricks to get him to listen. Needless to say it did not really work. "Now get your dog to sit." Wrong, greyhounds can't sit, it is something to do with their hindlegs. "Now get your dog to listen to you." Wrong, Jay was busy eyeballing two very small poodles across the room to see if there was a way for him to get to 'em and to eat them... Everytime they asked him to do something he was 'facing' them with his arse, or eyeballing smaller dogs or just half asleep...

The missus seems convinced that this will work, I have my doubts. A, greyhounds are stupid, B, greyhounds are trained to chase and kill....

I'll keep you updated to the progress of the star pupil...

Take care,

Alex.

Istanbul, Blue Mosque, Turkey...

Afternoon,

One more posting from Turkey. This is one of the old city walls where they have build houses right on top of. Quite stunning, the way the old blends with the fairly new...

This is the famous Blue Mosque or Sultanamet. Again the weather was nice and the sun helped to do some decent shots. I have been to the Blue Mosque before but that was years ago and in those days the Mosque was in a bad state of repair. Nowadays everything is spic and span and looks great.
This is the front of the Mosque with the typical turret thingies on top with the half crescent on top.
This is the view from inside the marble courtyard. There are verses of the Q'uran written above the doors but as my arabic reading is not good I have no idea what it says.

The Mosque is still in use for prayers so the visitors are kept separate from the religious people as not to disturb them. I actually didn't go in, I couldn't be arsed. I needed a kebab so made my way outside and found a kebab place where they did some good burnt rat, lovely!

I'm off to Portugal next week I believe so we might get some info on the famous rabbit grills of Lisbon if we are lucky.

Cheerio!

Alex.

Isparta to Antalya, Turkey...

Afternoon,

Ugur and myself had a week in Isparta doing two new system commissionings for Goltas, Isparta. Isparta is quite nice, it has not got that much of a nightlife though... There are only two places in town to get a beer. One of which was my hotel, thank god....

We took a bus from Isparta to Antalya which took about 2 hours. Busses in Turkey are excellent. They cost very little and you get treated like you are on a plane. There is free coffee and tea, cakes and biscuits. The busses are all on time and clean. I guess England could learn a lot from this place about running piblic transport....

We then flew from Antalya to Istanbul. That is where Ugur lives. I had to spend a day here as I could not get my flight changed. (Air Puke again...) So I had a day of shooting pics in Istanbul.

This is Bakirkoy Marina on the south side of the Bosphorus. This was saturday the 4th of november. The weather was freezing cold but there was bright sunshine. I took the opportunity to walk all over Istanbul to get a few piccies...

This is a view of the entrance of the Bosphorus on the south side. This area gets used by ships to moor up. The whole area is covered by ships varying from small to ocean going cargo ships...

In the distance you can see the snow on top of the mountains on the arabian side of Istanbul...
On the sunday a lot of people went fishing of the seawalls. I don't know if iot was my presence that put the dampeners on it but no one seemed to catch anything but a cold.....
I has a nice time trampling all over Istanbul, in the next entry I'll put some more piccies...

Taraa,

Alex.

Mosque or not to mosque....

Afternoon...

Ugur and myself got to Isparta late in the evening. Not too late though to find a good restaurant where we filled up on Iskender Kebab, Shish Kebab, Adana Kebab, Urfa Kebab, salad and as much Ajran as we could drink. (Ajran is sour milk, bloody good stuff.
The next morning I got woken to the sound of cats being skinned alive at 5 oclock in the morning. After my heart rate had settled back down I realised it was the Imam calling from the mosque to get the people in for prayer. Unfortunately for me the minaret with the (huge) loudspeakers was about 10 meters away from my bedroom window. I must admit, I did do some swearing as i was knackered. Also this Imam was, how do we say this, inspired in his calling... It went on and on and on... I did get used to it after a few days but it really was loud...

Cheerio,

Alex. 

Egirdir Gol (or Egirdir Lake), Turkey...

Afternoon,

This is Egirdir lake, about 30 km north of Isparta. It was getting darker as evening was appaoching. Ugur and I spotted some fishermen doing their job on the south side of the Lake.

They pulled the nets out with the boats, let them sit for a bit and then the guys on the land hoiked them back in again. They didn't seem to catch more than a few small sprats but maybe this was not the season...
Very picturesque though...

This the thing I like about Turkey. It is so varied that wherever you go there are surprises. I have seen quite a bit of Turkey now and not one bit is alike. The people are friendly, the food is stunning, and the scenery is beautiful. Waiter! One more Doner Kebab please!

Cheerio,

Alex.

Trabzon to Isparta, Turkey.

Hi there,

Ugur and I stayed just two days in Trabzon. From there we took a plane to Ankara. We got to Ankara at about 9 oclock in the morning. Ugur suggested that we should take a bus to Isparta. There was no plane from Ankara to Isparta and the planes from Ankara to Antalya were full. This bus would take about hours over 500 km. I did not fancy this. I told Ugur to sort me out a hirecar. He wasn't too happy about that but I wanted to drive. In a car you can stop when you want and you can stop when there is a piccie opportunity. Thank god I did that because we passed some stunning scenery.

This is about 250 km south of Ankara, I think it is called Emirdag. This was where the mountains started. I think we went up about 4500 foot, it was cold in them hills...
This here is one of the lakes we passed. The view was stunning. Mountains in the distance, a pink and gray sky, beautiful.
We had to contend with the odd traffic obstruction. The guy in the piccie had to come running up to chase his herd of the road....
This picture is one of the best I think. It shows the sunrays beaming through the heavy cloud and gently lighting up the hills in the distance... This was about a 100 km north of Isparta.

More later,

Alex.

Trabzon, Turkey...

Cheerio,

This was the second phase of my trip. After sorting out the problems at Askale we departed for Trabzon on the Blacksea coast. We took a bus from Askale to Trabzon. It was about 110 km but it felt like a lot more. We took the main road from Askale to Bayburt, through Gumushane to Trabzon. The bit from Gumushane to Trabzon was hairy to say the least. It was all the way through some serious mountains with hairpin bends so tight that the bus had to try twice to get around some. We got to Trabzon about 11 oclock at night.


The work was a site survey so that was quickly done. After that we had a bit of time to do some sightseeing. Ugur and I went to a tea garden on top of a hill overlooking Trabzon harbour. Cracking views from there.

The tea came in a huge samovar with glowing coals on the bottom. You fill you glass with some strong tea and then fill to the top with boiling water. This is called acek cay, or light tea...

The walk down the hill was quite hard work and I realised that I could do with a haircut as I was getting very warm, sweating like a pig comes to mind... So I nipped in the nearest kuafor shop I could find and told him I wanted a trim. Wow, the barbers in Turkey are excellent. They do you hair, do you ears, scrape your neck with a cut throat razor and all of that for the grand old price of 2 pounds. (3 USD, 3 Eur). This is the guy at work.
Needless to say that I had an audience... there were at least 5 old men sitting outside the shop lauging at the fat foreigner.... Never mind, I had a whale of a time. Trabzon is a good party town, the place is full of kebab shops, bars and Natashas... (Whoever has been there knows what I mean...

More later,

Alex.

Askale, Turkey...

Morning all,

This was the first step of my Turkish trip. I had arrived in Istanbul 4 hours late because of my friends at Air Puke. The next day I met up with my turkish collegue and friend Mr Ugur.
We took a internal flight from Istanbul to Erzurum. When we got to Erzurum we found out that there was nobody there to pick us up and take us to the cement plant in Askale. Luckily we found a taxidriver that was willing to take us all the way there, approx. 50 km.



The taxi had seen better days as there were a lot of broken windows in it....

This was the view of the plains while driving to Askale. It was nice weather and it looked quite a bit different from 6 months earlier when everything was covered in snow...

This was the site staff playing with the kiln camera after I repaired it. It turned out to be straightforward, just changed the actual camera unit itself and it was sorted, hoppa, another happy customer. They guy you see in the background was very nice to me and took me into their company mosque and showed me all around. I am not religious but I am always interested in how other people do their thing. We met the Imam there how explained a bit a Islam. It was all very interesting, a well meant thank you to the site staff of Askale Cimento, Turkey.

More later,

Alex.

Trouble at Charles de Gaulle, Paris, France.

Good Afternoon!

I know it has been a while, I have been travelling. I spend nearly two weeks in Turkey and since then I have had no time to play with the Blog. But here goes...

The travel was the usual, good intentions brought down to earth by Air Puke, sorry, Air France I mean. I travel a lot with Air France as they are one of the big partners of Skyteam, my airmiles company that I collect my airmiles with. Unfortunately they are.... how do we say this without calling them idiots.... somewhat disorganised, unfriendly, stuck up, irritating, un-punctual, expensive and french.

Last time in Paris CDG airport was no exception. I had managed to get past the intense security and trough the miles of walkways to get from terminal 2B to 2F. I finally sit down in the business lounge then suddenly the alarms go off. There is a fire in the terminal. The evacuation worked fine, all doors open and everybody files out, no worries. The french firefighters sort the little fire and now we get to go back in. Unfortunately we got let out via about 25 exits, we now get let back in via 1 entry for all 5000 people to be searched again.

This is the outside of terminal 2F with 5000 freezing travellers.
It took a good hour to get everyone back in the terminal again. So instead of lounging in the business lounge its of to the gate to see if my plane is still there.

Without calling Air France any more names, the bastards were responsible for me being three hours late in Istanbul which meant that my favourite restaurant, Varan's in Bakirkoy, was shut and I went to bed hungry.

More in further entries...

Elmer Kemal Doner Kebab.