WOW, now THAT was a hiatus!
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 17 May 2011 at 5/17/2011 10:33:00 am.
So the one day I decided to do a blog, blogger was down, a couple weeks ago, and that kinda sabotoged me because ever since then I've been running around crazy and just haven't had a spare minute.
Lots of things have been happening. Big things. it's like when the "Big things" happen (pregnancies, marriages, babies, engagements, breakups, international moves, etc) they all come raining down at once. That, in a nutshell has been my last month.
So it's like all the "meaningful" is happening to everyone else (thank God) and then just a couple bad things, to me directly. Respectively those include:
Mrs Doc is preggers
My brother is engaged
Bronnie in Aus (who we always used to laugh about being the "anti-mother") had her baby
Doc & Mrs Doc have gone
We had to sack an employee as it turns out he is a violent spouse abuser (long story)
I've been to hell & back for work (aka "up north")
We had a near-death experience in an almost fatal car crash which is still only partially sorted out.
I think out of all those things the thing I want to write about now has to be the car wreck, as it's still kind of messing with my mind. The point being, and making an INCREDIBLY long story short, I'm mentally wrestling with it because it HASNT changed my life in a "meaningful" way, and I keep waiting for it to.
The jist of the story is that we drove for 6 hours on a terrible highway that is notorious for being dangerous. We drove responsibly, with everyone in their respective seatbelt/baby seat, at careful speeds and avoided driving in the dark. 10km from our destination, the winter nighttime hours snuck up on us and it was pitch dark for what would have been less than 25 minutes before arriving at the lodge. In this incredibly short (proportionally) fraction of our 6+ hour journey, the typical textbook Botswana asshole drivers who drive drunk with their bright lights on full beam and at 140km an hour literally came out of the woodwork, one of which was hurtling straight toward The Mr. with his high beams on full blast, and completely blinding him altogether at which point a bull was standing in the middle of the highway but totally unseen due to the massive bright lights of the dickhead coming straight at us in the dark. Crash bam boom, and we carreen into oncoming traffic, missing a giant truck by about oh, 3cm, and smashing into a ditch.
And it doesn't end there - I had just taken LJJ to the potty and was putting her back in her seat AS we were driving, so I was facing backwards and crawling between seats like a freakin chimpanzee. This was a process that takes THIRTY SECONDS, MAX and during a long-haul drive of SIX HOURS, and so of course.... when was the exact second that the smash happened? What are the bloody odds? Seriously!? That's 2 out of 3 W's dead for sure, under most circumstances of this nature.
The fact that we WEREN't hurt and that we got out unscathed is like folklore. First of all, the majority of the entire highway is basically an elevated road with several metres' depth of ditches on both sides. Literally gaping chasms on either side which any car going over will either roll repetedly down, or jackknife on its face, if headed down straight-on. The portion of the road in which we crashed was the ONLY section for miles and miles in which the road was *almost* flush with the bottom of the ditch, meaning even though we careened out of control into it, we didn't roll.
Secondly, the oncoming traffic that was speeding straight into us was coming at full speed and also did not have time to divert away from our crashing vehicle. They just kept coming straight ahead, one by one, as our truck was spinning through their lane of traffic. I have no idea how it happened (because I had my ass thrown onto the floor of the passenger seat, and airbags were flying everywhere above my head) but somehow our vehicle went straight between two other cars (one being the jackass who blinded us and just kept going) and the next one just barely squeezed by the passenger side mirror leaving only a scratch.
Thirdly - well, what can I say, two of us out of our seatbelts in a head on? Completely unharmed? NOT crushed to death by the fact that the engine was all but shoved through the front of the 4x4 and into the cockpit? LJJ barely even whimpered. Only when I started screaming like a maniac because I needed someone to blame (so of course I lashed out at the driver, The Mr., even though I knew in my heart there was NOTHING he could've done. I apologized from the bottom of my heart later, of course).
And finally the angels on standby that we then immediately encountered after the drama: Like, just the fact that we had JUST come into cellphone reception as we were so close to the village in which we were staying, we were able to call the cops and get them there to sort us out which was such a blessing. We happened to be travelling with a phone book (???) so we could look up the local cops' number (no telephone-based directory info in BW) Followed by the fact that one of the first vehicles to pass the scene of the accident was a tow truck who could tow our obliterated rig to our lodge right then and there. And then the manager at the lodge who kept the kitchen open past it's operating hours so that while The Mr was doing his statement at the cop shop, LJJ and I could have something to eat... not that I could even process all this, I was so shaken up.
I don't really know what's wrong with me, it's like I've become so cold that I don't even appreciate to the full extent how lucky I am/we are, and this is not as meaningful or valued as it should be. I mean The Mr could be alone right now, missing his wife & kid, which crushes my soul to even think about. Or even worse, he could be widowed AND critically injured or paralyzed or anything else. We all barely scraped by, and here I am just going along like nothing happened and nothing's changed.
Not really sure what I can to to AMPLIFY the occurrence that happend so as to be MORE affected by it, but I feel like I should! I guess I have acknowledged the fact that I have a lot to be grateful for and that how ever you want to call it, being blessed, being lucky, being spared... is a lot to have bestowed upon you. I just need to mull over this a bit more and answer the question "what does this mean to me?" because I've got the guilts for not even so much as feeling even a little affected by it.
Hmm....
Let the mulling begin....
Lots of things have been happening. Big things. it's like when the "Big things" happen (pregnancies, marriages, babies, engagements, breakups, international moves, etc) they all come raining down at once. That, in a nutshell has been my last month.
So it's like all the "meaningful" is happening to everyone else (thank God) and then just a couple bad things, to me directly. Respectively those include:
Mrs Doc is preggers
My brother is engaged
Bronnie in Aus (who we always used to laugh about being the "anti-mother") had her baby
Doc & Mrs Doc have gone
We had to sack an employee as it turns out he is a violent spouse abuser (long story)
I've been to hell & back for work (aka "up north")
We had a near-death experience in an almost fatal car crash which is still only partially sorted out.
I think out of all those things the thing I want to write about now has to be the car wreck, as it's still kind of messing with my mind. The point being, and making an INCREDIBLY long story short, I'm mentally wrestling with it because it HASNT changed my life in a "meaningful" way, and I keep waiting for it to.
The jist of the story is that we drove for 6 hours on a terrible highway that is notorious for being dangerous. We drove responsibly, with everyone in their respective seatbelt/baby seat, at careful speeds and avoided driving in the dark. 10km from our destination, the winter nighttime hours snuck up on us and it was pitch dark for what would have been less than 25 minutes before arriving at the lodge. In this incredibly short (proportionally) fraction of our 6+ hour journey, the typical textbook Botswana asshole drivers who drive drunk with their bright lights on full beam and at 140km an hour literally came out of the woodwork, one of which was hurtling straight toward The Mr. with his high beams on full blast, and completely blinding him altogether at which point a bull was standing in the middle of the highway but totally unseen due to the massive bright lights of the dickhead coming straight at us in the dark. Crash bam boom, and we carreen into oncoming traffic, missing a giant truck by about oh, 3cm, and smashing into a ditch.
And it doesn't end there - I had just taken LJJ to the potty and was putting her back in her seat AS we were driving, so I was facing backwards and crawling between seats like a freakin chimpanzee. This was a process that takes THIRTY SECONDS, MAX and during a long-haul drive of SIX HOURS, and so of course.... when was the exact second that the smash happened? What are the bloody odds? Seriously!? That's 2 out of 3 W's dead for sure, under most circumstances of this nature.
The fact that we WEREN't hurt and that we got out unscathed is like folklore. First of all, the majority of the entire highway is basically an elevated road with several metres' depth of ditches on both sides. Literally gaping chasms on either side which any car going over will either roll repetedly down, or jackknife on its face, if headed down straight-on. The portion of the road in which we crashed was the ONLY section for miles and miles in which the road was *almost* flush with the bottom of the ditch, meaning even though we careened out of control into it, we didn't roll.
Secondly, the oncoming traffic that was speeding straight into us was coming at full speed and also did not have time to divert away from our crashing vehicle. They just kept coming straight ahead, one by one, as our truck was spinning through their lane of traffic. I have no idea how it happened (because I had my ass thrown onto the floor of the passenger seat, and airbags were flying everywhere above my head) but somehow our vehicle went straight between two other cars (one being the jackass who blinded us and just kept going) and the next one just barely squeezed by the passenger side mirror leaving only a scratch.
Thirdly - well, what can I say, two of us out of our seatbelts in a head on? Completely unharmed? NOT crushed to death by the fact that the engine was all but shoved through the front of the 4x4 and into the cockpit? LJJ barely even whimpered. Only when I started screaming like a maniac because I needed someone to blame (so of course I lashed out at the driver, The Mr., even though I knew in my heart there was NOTHING he could've done. I apologized from the bottom of my heart later, of course).
And finally the angels on standby that we then immediately encountered after the drama: Like, just the fact that we had JUST come into cellphone reception as we were so close to the village in which we were staying, we were able to call the cops and get them there to sort us out which was such a blessing. We happened to be travelling with a phone book (???) so we could look up the local cops' number (no telephone-based directory info in BW) Followed by the fact that one of the first vehicles to pass the scene of the accident was a tow truck who could tow our obliterated rig to our lodge right then and there. And then the manager at the lodge who kept the kitchen open past it's operating hours so that while The Mr was doing his statement at the cop shop, LJJ and I could have something to eat... not that I could even process all this, I was so shaken up.
I don't really know what's wrong with me, it's like I've become so cold that I don't even appreciate to the full extent how lucky I am/we are, and this is not as meaningful or valued as it should be. I mean The Mr could be alone right now, missing his wife & kid, which crushes my soul to even think about. Or even worse, he could be widowed AND critically injured or paralyzed or anything else. We all barely scraped by, and here I am just going along like nothing happened and nothing's changed.
Not really sure what I can to to AMPLIFY the occurrence that happend so as to be MORE affected by it, but I feel like I should! I guess I have acknowledged the fact that I have a lot to be grateful for and that how ever you want to call it, being blessed, being lucky, being spared... is a lot to have bestowed upon you. I just need to mull over this a bit more and answer the question "what does this mean to me?" because I've got the guilts for not even so much as feeling even a little affected by it.
Hmm....
Let the mulling begin....
Labels: Meaningful, work trips
OK I'll admit it - (1) it's been a long time, and (2) I'm feeling little of meaning. damn.
But before I give myself a free pass to just keep on writing NOTHING, we just got back from a 10-day trip and I suppose that if nothing else, recapping said trip adds to my conviction that one reason my life has meaning during this "era" of my existence, is the flexibility and opportunity that my occupation/lifestyle avails to travelling and leaving home for extended periods of time.
So the trip.
First we started off in GNZ (or do I refer to it as "GZI"? I can't remember - that cow town out west by the Namibian border where we have a lot of work these days, anyway). It was a fun road trip with Doc, Mrs Doc, myself, The Mr, LJJ, and our newest employee, Cat. We all loaded up the 4x4 (with trailer, because that's a lot of adults and a choddler (my new moniker for LJJ since she's a chocolate toddler now, no more baby. Chortle)) and headed west. The reason Cat was involved on this first leg was because technically we were going out there for work (big meeting), which happened the next day. Prior to the work-day component of this trip though, we enjoyed a leisurely road trip with a hamburger stop and much banter and good time belly laughs on the lonnnnnnnnnnng drive. Stayed in a nice safari camp that we often frequent when out that way, ate some nice game for dinner, and drank a glass of wine or two before retiring.
The next day, after all work obligations were taken care of, we said goodbye to Cat and the rest of us headed for Namibia where we stayed at yet another awesome, quirky, could-use-some-TLC, quiet lodge on the fringe of the desert. Already being back in NAM was soooooo refreshing and wonderful. Just little things like how the staff at the lodge are POLITE AND CONVERSANT AND HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR AND ARE CLUED-IN AND DELIVER ACTUAL SERVICE really makes a difference. I loooove NAM. I pine for it. Anyhoo, good food, good wine, etc. the night we got there. Since Doc & Mrs Doc would be running the Cape Town half marathon within a week, they did a 16km run the next day, and The Mr. and I did about 12km (I had to seriously push him to agree to it as he is not exactly in peak condition running-wise these days) and we decided to just relax all day and stay for 2 nights before pushing south to the Fish River Canyon. R&R indeed.
The next day we drove (lonnnnng desert gravel roads the whole way) for hours and hours, heading southward, and the fuel filter started packing up and our top speed decreased over about an hour to about, oh, 30mph. Trouble. NO towns around here, NOWHERE to be saved. After about an hour or more of 30mph, we limped into a village where some cowboy mechanics (lovely, albeit drunken - see, I LOVE namibians!) patched us up just enough to limp into the next "major" town about 2 hours away (and also at top speeds of about, oh, 40mph) where we got the most amazing, excellent small-town Toyota service ON A SATURDAY NIGHT which fixed the rig up perfect and all in all the whole debacle only set us back a day - which didn't even matter because the 4 (5) of us could spend a month locked in a hole together and still get along and have good time belly laughs. So we swerved off schedule for 24 hours and stayed in that cow town at a crappy roadside motel but which just so happened to serve the most amazing food EVER (see? this is total Kul-d-sac-Krew luck) so it was all good. Plus, the lodges we were booked at for the remainder of the trip had no problem shifting our bookings with no extra charge or worry.
Next day we pulled into the Fish River Canyon (the world's 2nd largest canyon after that big ol' thing in the USA) way down at the bottom of the country and lo and behold it was like we landed on the moon. unbelievably gorgeous landscapes and boulders and vistas as far as the eye could see. The lodge we stayed at was super special and like nothing I've ever been to before. The chalets are built RIGHT into the rocks, and your room has natural boulders in it and everything. No place on earth I've ever been is this stunning. Ahhhh NAM and your beautiful STUFF!!! Again, amazing service, staff, scenery, environment, food, EVERYTHING was 100%. The swimming pool (and poolside bar) alone was a sight to behold. And since it's not peak season (well, even if it was, it's so far away from civilization you can see not many people are ever there at once) we virtually had the place to ourselves. It was glorious. Again more amazing food & cocktails & wine & games of Rummy at night after the choddler retired, runs during the day and a quick trip to the nearest Roadhouse for frosty mugs of Hansa beer. aaahhhh.
Then it was off down even-more-south-er, to SA and the Orange River Valley Wine Route, in the Northern Cape, SA. Or as I like to call it, "The Cape Winelands' poor hillbilly cousin!" There's only 7 wineries in this valley, so you can do 'em all!!!! Which we did!!!! We stayed in gorgeous guesthouses like this one in the area for 2 nights, and ate amazing food and drank semi-ok-have-drank-better wines. ahhhhh.
And then we said goodbye to Doc & Mrs Doc who flew down to Cape Town to run their 1/2 marathon and meet their american friends coming to visit for a week. At which point The Mr. and LJJ and I made our way leisurely back to G-city over about 2 days, just stopping where ever we chose to, and finding digs along the way. WHICH, I might add, turned up the most unlikely awesome B&B in the most unlikely south african cow town you could ever imagine - obviously run by gay fellas (how do they exist there? seriously?) with amazing taste in linens and antiques and wine. weird-ass stuff.
Our leisurely family road trip back got us home during easter weekend so we even had the sunday and monday to re-coup from all that fun and decadance, and start the adjustment-to-the-real-world and post-holiday starvation and exercise regime. Which is quite pleasurable in the winter because I do love soup and do make very amazing and healthy soups, if I do say so myself. Combined with having an opportunity to go running and to the gym several times this week already, it's all good once again and all the pants fit like they should. whew.
Now the axe waits to fall, as when Doc & Mrs Doc arrive back here tomorrow (and will move into our house as they've handed their keys back already) it will be 4 days with them and then POOF, they'll vanish into thin air as they relocate back to the states. whimper.
But before I give myself a free pass to just keep on writing NOTHING, we just got back from a 10-day trip and I suppose that if nothing else, recapping said trip adds to my conviction that one reason my life has meaning during this "era" of my existence, is the flexibility and opportunity that my occupation/lifestyle avails to travelling and leaving home for extended periods of time.
So the trip.
First we started off in GNZ (or do I refer to it as "GZI"? I can't remember - that cow town out west by the Namibian border where we have a lot of work these days, anyway). It was a fun road trip with Doc, Mrs Doc, myself, The Mr, LJJ, and our newest employee, Cat. We all loaded up the 4x4 (with trailer, because that's a lot of adults and a choddler (my new moniker for LJJ since she's a chocolate toddler now, no more baby. Chortle)) and headed west. The reason Cat was involved on this first leg was because technically we were going out there for work (big meeting), which happened the next day. Prior to the work-day component of this trip though, we enjoyed a leisurely road trip with a hamburger stop and much banter and good time belly laughs on the lonnnnnnnnnnng drive. Stayed in a nice safari camp that we often frequent when out that way, ate some nice game for dinner, and drank a glass of wine or two before retiring.
The next day, after all work obligations were taken care of, we said goodbye to Cat and the rest of us headed for Namibia where we stayed at yet another awesome, quirky, could-use-some-TLC, quiet lodge on the fringe of the desert. Already being back in NAM was soooooo refreshing and wonderful. Just little things like how the staff at the lodge are POLITE AND CONVERSANT AND HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR AND ARE CLUED-IN AND DELIVER ACTUAL SERVICE really makes a difference. I loooove NAM. I pine for it. Anyhoo, good food, good wine, etc. the night we got there. Since Doc & Mrs Doc would be running the Cape Town half marathon within a week, they did a 16km run the next day, and The Mr. and I did about 12km (I had to seriously push him to agree to it as he is not exactly in peak condition running-wise these days) and we decided to just relax all day and stay for 2 nights before pushing south to the Fish River Canyon. R&R indeed.
The next day we drove (lonnnnng desert gravel roads the whole way) for hours and hours, heading southward, and the fuel filter started packing up and our top speed decreased over about an hour to about, oh, 30mph. Trouble. NO towns around here, NOWHERE to be saved. After about an hour or more of 30mph, we limped into a village where some cowboy mechanics (lovely, albeit drunken - see, I LOVE namibians!) patched us up just enough to limp into the next "major" town about 2 hours away (and also at top speeds of about, oh, 40mph) where we got the most amazing, excellent small-town Toyota service ON A SATURDAY NIGHT which fixed the rig up perfect and all in all the whole debacle only set us back a day - which didn't even matter because the 4 (5) of us could spend a month locked in a hole together and still get along and have good time belly laughs. So we swerved off schedule for 24 hours and stayed in that cow town at a crappy roadside motel but which just so happened to serve the most amazing food EVER (see? this is total Kul-d-sac-Krew luck) so it was all good. Plus, the lodges we were booked at for the remainder of the trip had no problem shifting our bookings with no extra charge or worry.
Next day we pulled into the Fish River Canyon (the world's 2nd largest canyon after that big ol' thing in the USA) way down at the bottom of the country and lo and behold it was like we landed on the moon. unbelievably gorgeous landscapes and boulders and vistas as far as the eye could see. The lodge we stayed at was super special and like nothing I've ever been to before. The chalets are built RIGHT into the rocks, and your room has natural boulders in it and everything. No place on earth I've ever been is this stunning. Ahhhh NAM and your beautiful STUFF!!! Again, amazing service, staff, scenery, environment, food, EVERYTHING was 100%. The swimming pool (and poolside bar) alone was a sight to behold. And since it's not peak season (well, even if it was, it's so far away from civilization you can see not many people are ever there at once) we virtually had the place to ourselves. It was glorious. Again more amazing food & cocktails & wine & games of Rummy at night after the choddler retired, runs during the day and a quick trip to the nearest Roadhouse for frosty mugs of Hansa beer. aaahhhh.
Then it was off down even-more-south-er, to SA and the Orange River Valley Wine Route, in the Northern Cape, SA. Or as I like to call it, "The Cape Winelands' poor hillbilly cousin!" There's only 7 wineries in this valley, so you can do 'em all!!!! Which we did!!!! We stayed in gorgeous guesthouses like this one in the area for 2 nights, and ate amazing food and drank semi-ok-have-drank-better wines. ahhhhh.
And then we said goodbye to Doc & Mrs Doc who flew down to Cape Town to run their 1/2 marathon and meet their american friends coming to visit for a week. At which point The Mr. and LJJ and I made our way leisurely back to G-city over about 2 days, just stopping where ever we chose to, and finding digs along the way. WHICH, I might add, turned up the most unlikely awesome B&B in the most unlikely south african cow town you could ever imagine - obviously run by gay fellas (how do they exist there? seriously?) with amazing taste in linens and antiques and wine. weird-ass stuff.
Our leisurely family road trip back got us home during easter weekend so we even had the sunday and monday to re-coup from all that fun and decadance, and start the adjustment-to-the-real-world and post-holiday starvation and exercise regime. Which is quite pleasurable in the winter because I do love soup and do make very amazing and healthy soups, if I do say so myself. Combined with having an opportunity to go running and to the gym several times this week already, it's all good once again and all the pants fit like they should. whew.
Now the axe waits to fall, as when Doc & Mrs Doc arrive back here tomorrow (and will move into our house as they've handed their keys back already) it will be 4 days with them and then POOF, they'll vanish into thin air as they relocate back to the states. whimper.
Labels: holiday recap, Meaningful, work trips
10th time in L-town's the charm?
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 21 October 2008 at 10/21/2008 09:30:00 pm.
Well here we are, back in what used to be my most dreaded village of BW.
But this time I'm pretty happy. Me and the Mr. had a good morning at work - he's being uber productive this week and maintaining a positive, optimistic, easy-going attitude (I know! What did I do to deserve this? Is my good karma practice working???) and coping with our hectic overworked office life very well. We left town around lunchtime and the Honda decided to give us some schtick before we even left the city limits, so we turned around and had Eric bring us the truck instead. Major environmental disaster to have to take that big ass yank tank all the way out here, but hey, better than risking getting stranded in the middle of the trans kalahari highway. Anyway we lost almost an hour on that little exercise, but the Mr. STILL kept his head and didn't short circut. WOW. So it was an extremely pleasant ride up all 2000000 hours of it, and I was so happy.
Stopped for diesel and driver swap in Palapye and a few hours later pulled in here to L-town at sunset. Checked in at Granny's lodge and had a lovely if not greasy dinner at Granny's kitchen. Nothing on any of the 4 channels on tv though, so I'm getting some good laptop/study/Word Twist/email/recreational reading done before bed. AND there's A/C in this particular place so again... how could I ever complain!?! Well, ask me that tomorrow after I've been trudging around dense Acacia scrublands in the swealtering 45-50 degree (C) heat with my jeans and workboots on, with some geologist who isn't gonna be very happy to escort me all over tarnation.
Plan is to blow this popsickle stand in the afternoon and maybe even drop by the gym as we pull back into G-City. We'll see.
OK now just for comic value: HOW HARD ASS ARE WE AMERICANS?!?! I mean JEEEZ my honey boy J. (who's south african) just wants to come over for xmas and new years. a little xmas in Tennessee with other friends, a little New Orleans with us for NYE, a little road trip back up to DC, etc. 3 weeks max holiday and what does he get? A big fat "SORRY YOU NEED A VISA" from the ol' US State Dept. And how does one south african boy living in Glasgow obtain such a visa? By having to FLY DOWN TO LONDON for a friggin INTERVIEW at the US Embassy (on his own nickel, of course). The kicker is the greeting from the embassy.... I laughed so hard: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/index.html (gotta love the part about "even in inclament weather")
UN BELIEVABLE. When he queried what, prey tell, must he do with his cell phone if it's not allowed on embassy property, they kindly advised him to simply "leave it at Heathrow Airport in a locker". Niiiiiiiiiiice.
But this time I'm pretty happy. Me and the Mr. had a good morning at work - he's being uber productive this week and maintaining a positive, optimistic, easy-going attitude (I know! What did I do to deserve this? Is my good karma practice working???) and coping with our hectic overworked office life very well. We left town around lunchtime and the Honda decided to give us some schtick before we even left the city limits, so we turned around and had Eric bring us the truck instead. Major environmental disaster to have to take that big ass yank tank all the way out here, but hey, better than risking getting stranded in the middle of the trans kalahari highway. Anyway we lost almost an hour on that little exercise, but the Mr. STILL kept his head and didn't short circut. WOW. So it was an extremely pleasant ride up all 2000000 hours of it, and I was so happy.
Stopped for diesel and driver swap in Palapye and a few hours later pulled in here to L-town at sunset. Checked in at Granny's lodge and had a lovely if not greasy dinner at Granny's kitchen. Nothing on any of the 4 channels on tv though, so I'm getting some good laptop/study/Word Twist/email/recreational reading done before bed. AND there's A/C in this particular place so again... how could I ever complain!?! Well, ask me that tomorrow after I've been trudging around dense Acacia scrublands in the swealtering 45-50 degree (C) heat with my jeans and workboots on, with some geologist who isn't gonna be very happy to escort me all over tarnation.
Plan is to blow this popsickle stand in the afternoon and maybe even drop by the gym as we pull back into G-City. We'll see.
OK now just for comic value: HOW HARD ASS ARE WE AMERICANS?!?! I mean JEEEZ my honey boy J. (who's south african) just wants to come over for xmas and new years. a little xmas in Tennessee with other friends, a little New Orleans with us for NYE, a little road trip back up to DC, etc. 3 weeks max holiday and what does he get? A big fat "SORRY YOU NEED A VISA" from the ol' US State Dept. And how does one south african boy living in Glasgow obtain such a visa? By having to FLY DOWN TO LONDON for a friggin INTERVIEW at the US Embassy (on his own nickel, of course). The kicker is the greeting from the embassy.... I laughed so hard: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/index.html (gotta love the part about "even in inclament weather")
UN BELIEVABLE. When he queried what, prey tell, must he do with his cell phone if it's not allowed on embassy property, they kindly advised him to simply "leave it at Heathrow Airport in a locker". Niiiiiiiiiiice.
Labels: US, work trips
