Off to Jordan again...

Afternoon all,

I'm off again. I'm off back to the place where I was half a year ago. I'm going back to Rashadiyah in Jordan. The second installation is ready for commissioning. Should be a straight forward trip as they already have one of our systems so no training this time... We hope...

This is the plant. It is about 60 km away from Petra which I might have a chance to go and see this time. It is also near to the Dead Sea so with a bit of luck I might be able to do my floating turd impression on the salty lake... I better take some warm clothes as this plant is high up in the mountains it can get cold there in winter. Let's put it like this, last time when I was there I spotted a snow plow at the entrance of the plant. I thought it was an arab joke but when I asked they told me that they get big snows sometimes in winter. In the Middle East????

This was the place where I stayed last time. It is an old village that is now being done up to used for eco tourism. There is a lot of exotic wildlife about, like hyenas, coyote and Ibex deer.

This was a wild plant that was growing right outside my hotel. Dunno what it was but it looked pretty... I hope I get to eat the local speciality again, Mansaf. This is the goat dish in goats yoghurt and is pretty good. The first night I will stay in Amman again as I arrive late on the saturday. Maybe this time the passport people will let me in with no hassle as this time I have a proper passport, not an emergency one...

OK, gotta go, these cases don't pack themselves you know,

Cheerio,

Alex.

Jordan Cement Factories Co Ltd....

Afternoon,

This is what I actually did in Jordan Cement. We installed and commissioned a infrared kiln camera from Thermoteknix Systems Ltd in Cambridge, England. The first piccie shows the contracting staff getting the installation done.


This is a little detail of the back of the camera. It is a infrared water and air cooled camera that sits inside a furnace that is approx 1500 degrees C. The camera inserts and retracts with the use of pnuematics. The camera sends it image via optical fibre to the control room where the process staff can analyze the images.

This was after a long day, we finished at about 20:00 and as we were leaving the control room my friend Mohammed Fayez Mustafa told me that some of his site staff was having some food around the corner frm the office and maybe I wanted something too. Well, as I had missed dinner by that time I agreed.

Thats Mohammed second from the right with his mouth full. It was some meat with tomatoes which we ate with fresh flatbreads, very good! After that we had (of course!) tea. Nothing happens out there without having tea before, during or after a job hahaha....

This was the main course, like I said meat with tomatoes cooked up by one of the lads...

These two men here are the two that made my job very easy there. The left guy is Omar Al-Jawabreh and the right guy is Mohammed again. Omar was the head of the contractors that did all the hard graft to a very high standard and Mohammed was the Instrumentation Technician of Jordan Cement. Both guys were highly professional engineers that made my life easy, thanks guys!

More later,

Alex.

Jordan, stunning place....

Afternoon all,

I'm back safe and sound from Jordan. I went there last week to do a camera job for Jordanian Cement in Rashadiyah. I got to Amman international airport at 20:00. When you arrive it's one of these places where you have to buy your visa upon arrival. I went straight to the desk and gave them my dutch emergency passport and my 10 jordanian dinar. Well, I don't think they had seen one of these temporary passports before. To cut a long story short, they made my life hell for an hour and a half and then decided to give me my entry visa anyway. The poor taxi driver of the customer by this time had been waiting for over three hours... He then swiftly raced me into Amman to the Crowne Plaza. The piccie below is the view from my room. I finally got to the room at 22:30. So needless to say the first thing I did was sling my bags in the room and the second thing was to head down to the bar for a few swift Corona's. They had some caterwauling karaoke act on that sounded like they were skinning cats but as they all looked rather tasty with very short skirts and ample bosoms I didn't give a toss....

The view from the Crowne Plaza in Amman...

The next morning I was picked up by the company rep who took me to Rashadiya. This place is about 200 kilometer south of Amman. They put me up in the most fantastic guesthouse I have ever stayed in. They put me in the Ecolodge in Dana Wildlife Reserve. The piccie above is the view from my balcony. It was absolutely stunning. The place looked out over a massive canyon where they had Ibex deer, coyotes, striped hyenas and all sorts of other critters.

This was the sun setting over the mountains over the Dana Wildlife Reserve. Again, beautiful. As place was about 4000 foot up in the mountains, even though it was in the Middle East and very sunny, the temperatures were very nice. About 25-30 C during the day and about 20 at night. Very nice when you compare it to Saudi Arabia where it is 50 C at the moment....

This was the old village of Dana. It was originally ruins but they have rebuild it and are motivating the original people to come back here and work in the tourism industry.

One of the great culinary experiences that I had here was trying the national Jordanian dish of Mansaf. This is goats meat braised in goats yoghurt. It took a bit of getting used to but the goat meat was excellent! I didn't have the opportunity to go to Petra which was only 40 kilometers up the road but as I have to go back there in September I will make the effort to go there next time as that is one of the seven wonders of the world.

All in all I really enjoyed my visit to this Middle Eastern country where you really do feel safe.

Cheerio,

Alex.

Back from holls....

Afternoon,

Just a quick one. Me and missus have returned from sunny Ibiza. What a place! We really enjoyed it. As long as you stay away from San Antonio which is full of drunks and druggies the place is stunning. I have never seen such clear water in the Med.

But the good things don't last. Tomorrow I am off to Jordan. I'm flying to Amman via Paris and then by car to Rashadiya where the plant is. The work is only 4 days so back by thursday.

I'll update from there if I get a chance.

OK, can't chat, have to go, gotta be up by 4 am tomorrow to catch my flite from Heathrow.

Cheerio,

Alex.