Tuesday November 21, 2006 Chris Saul's Blog
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Tuesday November 21, 2006 A friend of mine is now doing Voluntary Service Overseas in Rwanda.
I'm not sure if she wants to stay anonymous or not, so I won't mention her real name, but Sminter is recording her experiences in her new blog.
Apparently she's running low on overpriced English chocolate - feel free to get in contact and send her some supplies.
( Nov 21 2006, 04:31:32 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [2]What shall I read on the plane?
I prefer detective books, to be honest. Spotted in a departures hall recently.
Hummer Recovery Vehicle rides again
Nice trip to Pink Rock on Saturday with Aaron and various former Sun UK colleagues who were over to visit him. It was great to see all the guys together - they'd joined a couple of years after me on the graduate scheme. None of them works for Sun any more though, which is our loss.
Paul managed to apply some post production modifications to the front bumper of his hired Land Cruiser. Who needs aerodynamic bumpers in the desert anyway?
A combination of four large Brits and various drivers testing it out meant the Hummer had to be pulled out a couple of times.
Although rather heavy and not as powerful as the Land Cruiser the H3 fared well. The stucks and a couple of second attempts to get up certain slopes were more to do with a lack of experience and not having found the best tyre pressure than any major issues with the car itself. Aaron took the ribbing very well.
We nearly ran out of time as night fell. I was getting a wee bit nervous as dune driving in the dark is a recipe for getting stuck. We made it out though and Mrs Saul got some nice pics of the sun set. The full set is here.
Mrs Saul and I visited the new Dubai Autodrome for the first time last Friday. Very noisy - bring earplugs if you can.
Pics here.
The view in this picture is interesting.
When I first arrived, there were three buildings in that skyline, only one of which had reached the 12 storey mark.
The autodrome is pretty impressive, although getting to it and parking properly are still a bit tough going due to construction work. I wasn't feeling very well and wasn't too please to discover one toilet apparently catering for several hundred people, so we didn't stay long.
( Nov 21 2006, 03:59:38 PM GST ) PermalinkUsually it's mid October that I write a blog entry saying 'thank goodness the weather's finally got better, I'd forgotten that being outside here could be anything other than hot and sticky'.
Well, this year the cool air has come a month late - and to top it off, as we sat outside at a friend's yesterday evening, we got rained on.
( Nov 21 2006, 03:43:52 PM GST ) PermalinkHad a productive trip last week to SA.
In Cape Town I stayed in a simple family run guesthouse, which made a nice change from hotels. It was friendly and comfy and a lot cheaper than the usual business hotels we stay in.
As with my last visit to SA I was impressed with how widespread usage of 3G is. DSL is still quite expensive and not very widespread, but everyone who needs it has a 3G card for their laptop or 3G on their phone. I can imagine people skipping the DSL and wifi rollout completely - 3G and its successors will simply becoming the normal way people get on the internet. A guesthouse like the one I was in can avoid investing in technology to attract business customers - if you need internet access, you'll have a 3G phone and bluetooth or a 3G PCMCIA card already.
Another thing that stood out during my stay was the fact that most of voices on radio adverts have English, as opposed to South African, accents. I wonder why this is? Is an English accent considered neutral choice in a country where accent and background can be a hot topic?
( Nov 21 2006, 02:50:16 PM GST ) Permalink