Stuck in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Afternoon all,

I guess it had to happen sooner or later, I missed a flight. I flew from Heathrow to Jeddah on tuesday with BMI. That was an ace flight. There were only 25 people on board a 300 seater plane. So I had a row of 4 seats to myself and finally got some sleep on a flight...

On wednesday, today, I was supossed to fly from Jeddah to Arar in the north of Saudi near the Iraq border. Unfortunately the traffic to the airport was diabolical due to a car crash so I got to the airport 15 minutes before the flight. As the flight was already closed they could not get me on. So when I got to the Saudia Airlines ticket desk to change my flight to a later one today I was rather suprised to hear that there were no other flights to either Arar or Turaif till friday.... Wonderful... not!

I tried getting a bus to the north but that would have taken me till friday morning to get there so that was not an option either. (Its about 1500 km from here...) So in the end I admitted defeat and went back to Jeddah. I informed the office that I would not be arriving at the agreed time in Arar and they got hold of the customer for me. The chinese customer called me a bit later and sorted out my pick up for the friday.

So now I have another full day doing nothing in a dry country... No booze here... At least I am in a decent hotel with loadsa restaurants so not all is bad... www.moevenpick-jeddah.com .

More later,

Alex.

Stanstead Forest walk....

Afternoon,

As promised, an update of the last walk we had with our temporary guest Amy.

On sunday afternoon we went to Stanstead forest. We took Amy, Jay, Jackie's sister Clare and her two dogs Sheeba and Kahlua. That did make for a full car, 3 adults and 4 dogs. Luckily that the greyhounds stayed in the back and the other two sat on the back seat with Clare. When we got to Stanstead forest we opted for going the long way around as the last three days of rain had changed the paths into a quagmire. As we came around the corner I spotted a huge herd of deer in the distance. Luckily our dog pack did not spot the deer... Otherwise they would have been after it. I know, as one of my previous greyhounds was partial to a bit of torn apart venison...

There must have been at least 50 deer in that herd. So within minutes all the dogs were on the leads as we did not want a bloodbath... Amy was on the lead anyway as we do not let her of in places that are not enclosed. We are not sure if she would come back and I guess Gary and Stacey would not look to kindly upon me loosing their dog hahahahaha....

Ok, she did want to run around with the others but as that was not possible we had her on one of the extendable leads so at least she could join in a bit. When we were out of sight of the deer the other three were off the lead again and a great time was had by all. Just before we got to the car Sheeba and Kahlua decided to pamper themselves with a mudbath... So when we got to loading up the car with dogs we got the dog blanket from the boot and stuck that on the back seat so the wet dogs wouldn't mess up the back seats. So then I put Jay and Amy in the back. Stupid Jay sees his blanket on the back seat and hops over the back rest and gets comfy on the back seat, stupid mutt... After a lot of jigging dogs around we finally ended up with two greys in the back and Clare and her dogs on the back seat... Greyhounds? Thick? Never....

Amy the house guest will be going back on wednesday or thursday after her owners have had enough of sailing down mountains with two planks tied to their feet in Austria. I'm sure we will miss the little tike, she has been excellent! No messes in the house, no fuss about the food and no fights with Jay. All good. She is welcome to stay again!

Tomorrow I am off to Saudi Arabia. I'm overnighting in Jeddah and then making my way on wednesday to somewhere between Arar and Turaif near the Iraqi border for a few days. Should be back on sunday...

Cheerio,
Alex.

Amy and Jay go hunting...

Afternoon all,

This morning, saturday, me and the missus took Jay and Amy to one of Jay's favourite walks. We took him to the Rabbitfield. This is a field where Jay does his best to control the rabbit population by killing them all. Normally in witer there aren't a lot of rabbits about.

This morning though as soon as we got in the field we saw a bunch of hunters on the other side of the river. So after the dogs had a run around and a few dumps they became very interested in what was going on on the other river bank...

The first few shots had them a bit worried but when the first shot bird landed on our side of the river the fun started. Some of the birds weren't quite dead yet, so they had a good time ensuring that they were dead... hahahaha....

Here they are charging back after trying to get at one that fell in the river...

Here is one of the guys taking aim on a pheasant cock... He did get it...
One of the men shooting shouted across the river if we wanted anything we could just pick up what we wanted. Jackie picked out a nice partridge...
I think this was the frst time that Amy had been near a hunt and she seemed to enjoy it big time... Both of them didn't really want to go back home... Tomorrow we are taking her to another of Jay's favourite walks, Bridgestreet Forest. Should be good for a laugh or two as that place is full of deer...

OK, gotta go, off for a curry in a bit,

Cheerio,

Alex.

Amy's holiday...

Afternoon,

We have now turned our house into a greyhound hostel. Friends of ours that also have an ex-racing greyhound have gone on holls and rather than sticking the mutt into a kennel Jackie offered them to have her for a week. Amy, her name, is a pretty bitch and she has made herself quite at home. Here she is having wangled her way onto the settee which she seems to think is her dogbasket.

She is however a proper greyhound and here she is doing what greyhounds do best, sleep. When she sleeps not much wakes her. My own grey, Jay, normally just dozes during the evening but Amy is dead to the world. And she snores hahahahaha!

Jay is getting along famously with her. They walk together, sleep together, play together... Here he is after a hard days eating and walking...
This is a close-up of Amy sparko... She can sleep for England.

We have had no problems with her eating... Some greyhounds can be finicky about what they eat but I think the competition between the two dogs makes 'em eat like horses. Just so that they don't leave food for each other....

Of course this has had the effect onn my missus that she now wants a second dog.... Man, these dogs are gonna eat me out of house and home! No worries though, these guys usually have had a hard life on the track so they have deserved their retirement...

Cheerio,

Alex.

Skopje, Macedonia 11-01-2008...

Afternoon,

So, it's only the beginning of January and I have already got my first trip under my belt. On the 8th of January I made my way to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje. There I did a Thermascope commissioning for Titan, which is the largest cement producer of Macedonia.
I had been to Macedonia before but at that time it was called Yugoslavia and was communist under Marshall Tito...

This time they are independent but they are dirt poor. They are NOT in Europe so they have great difficulty doing trade with the rest of Europe. The people however are great. The rep out there from our company Nenad Vasic helped me out a lot. Mainly by dragging me to every good resatuarant and bar in the twon centre hahahaha!

This is Nenad on the roof of the cement kiln trying to get the chiller cabinets to work. It was minus 8 degrees C and blowing a gale and being up on that roof was very verrrrry cold...
This is the view from the roof to the pre-heater towers of kiln 3 and 4. The camera itself, after we cured the problems with the chillers, worked a treat and the customer was happy with the result.
This is the line 3 camera in action.

I flew to Macedonia with Austrian Airlines which was a pleasant suprise after suffering the customer care from Air France and KLM for the last two years. I have now started a new Star Alliance membership so that I can dump that bunch of froggie and cloggie bastards. They have made my life hell for the last few years with lost luggage, missed flights, crap service, rude cabin staff, rubbish food and all other sorts of irritants that a traveller can suffer.

Here is another example of the very helpfull way KLM/AirPuke treats their high revenue customers. I had gotten 300.000 airmiles together last year. I am a Platinum member so I was expecting to be able to make an easy reservation with my airmiles. I tried to get a business classticket to Thailand for february... After countless phonecalls, emails, texts etc I finally ended up with a business class ticket for the 3rd of september. Can you believe that?!?!? No tickets for any Bangkok flight with AirPuke nor KLM??? Oh, yes, I can get a flight if I am willing to BUY open air miles! Scum. That is what they are. I have had to suffer sitting in their shite economy seats for 300.000 airmiles and when it comes to giving me a ticket for my hard earned miles they are not home. What a bunch of tossers. I hope, and I mean this sincerely, that both of them go belly up as soon as possible. They just do not know what customer service is...
So, if any of you out there are thinking of joining a Frequent Flyer program be smart and do not join Skyteam. They are only there to tie you to an airline and they do not value your support. All they want is for you to spend your cash on their crappy airlines. A waste of time. If you want a decent one, get one that is member of the Star Alliance. OK, rant over.

Cheerio,

Alex.

New Year's Eve 2007/2008 in Holland...

Afternoon all,

Again a late entry...

Where to start? OK, just after Christmas me and the wife went over to Holland to visit my family. New Year's Eve is a much better party in Holland than in England... More booze, more fireworks, just more fun. We flew there using Ryanair which was crap as per usual. I think if the scrimping and saving on Ryanair goes any further then only midgets will be able to travel. I am not that big, just 5ft 11 inches and I can't get my legs in the small seats... They even now charge you to check-in. If you do it online its free, done at the desk in the airport it's two quid each...

The piccie below is my wife explaining the intricacies of digital photography.... Yes, indeed, it is a case of the deaf leading the blind hahahahaha....

My younger brother Jeroen had managed to get his hands on some illigal fireworks from Belgium. These are far louder and unfortunately more dangerous as they are not subject to any checks but that didn't worry me. He had secured me a load of different stuff and my god, were they loud.... The picture below is an example of one of them. It was one of those things that you light once and then it bangs and thunders for 10 minutes, bloody great! Basically when that was going on you couldn't hear anyhthing else going on, Ace!

The next day everyone was quite hungover and the streets were a mess with loadsa red paper and shite left from the fireworks still in the streets. That evening we took my parents out to a chinese restaurant in Ijsselstein for a good chinky. A good time was had by all and I have to thank my parents and my two brothers for being excellent hosts again, thanks guys!

Since then I have been away for work to Macedonia which I will do an entry for as well.

Cheerio,

Alex.