Monday

Somersaulting car on cliff edge

I'm posting this, as I'm not too busy....but I will be at the rig, all day & night on Wednesday.

It's Jean's birthday today (12th)...and they'll be eating at the "Tavern on the Green" in Central Park, and seeing the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall tonight.
Happy birthday darling.

This set of photographs was sent to me by Revel.
The car hits the crash barrier, leaves the road and somersaults across the gap, and ends up pointing the wrong way :




But what a gap........

................the hand of God was working with split-second timing that day !

Sunday

Steve Heaven on the lawn

This was taken some time ago during the preparations for our celebrations for not having had a serious accident for 20 million man hours on this project.
This is the lawn behind our Esso offices.

The featured model is Steve Heaven, a Senior Safety Advisor, who is a Brummy living a clean & honest life in Thailand. He arrived here on the same day as me: 12th Dec 2001.
He is a good mate in spite of his diplomatic skills.

The skies are just like this now in February...30-35°C and with a very pleasant breeze.

And here is a good joke sent to me by Revel Barker, a friend who can be glimpsed on a photo in an early party-blog:

Bob the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets" and eight or ten roosters,whose job was to fertilize the eggs. The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced.
That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so Bob could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning Bob noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! Bob went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. But to Farmer Bob's amazement, Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
Bob was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the County Fair and Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The judges not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, but they also awarded him the Pullet Surprise as well.


Clearly Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?



Jean's In New York

Jean's now in New York with her best friend Larraine and with temperatures of -2 t0 -9°C, they are surviving Manhattan in their fur coats.


This picture is of Oswego, to the north of the state, where they have received up to 10 feet of snow. Because of the exceptionally mild winter, the great lakes did not freeze over, and now the cold north-westerly winds that are bearing down on NY state from Canada, are picking up warm moisture, and depositing loads of snow on landfall.

It's crisp (and freezing) in NYC, and the ladies have phoned me from various familiar venues. Friday they were listening to Jazz at Birdland on 34th, and last night the were eating at the exclusive Rue 57 restaurant where Jack Buttigieg, from Qala, is the manager.

I have made some more "exclusive" reservations for the coming week......and I'm a little jealous to be here in Chad...but my time will come !!!
Not much going on here down in warm Kome. It's 30-35°C, and very dry & dusty here in the winter season. But the skies are an unbroken light blue, and the constant breeze is refreshing.

Talking of "Blue Skies" : I noticed on the TV news playing in the office's commissary, that Exxon Mobil declared at $40 billion profit for last year.
This means that they are making $100+ million/ day.....NET

This is their stock price in comparison to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has also done pretty well in this long bull market.


But, big oil has done VERY WELL.



Everybody is very happy.

It makes you want to bug a honey....slug a dummy, rub yer tummy, tug it funny :

  • NO :--- HUG A BUNNY !!
Jean's over in Manchester getting ready to freeze in New York....and I'm chasing World Cup Cricket tickets for Barbados. The travelling life goes on......

Thursday

Well.......It's February.....normally a really dire month, unless you are in New Zealand or South Africa....eating, drinking, swimming in the sunshine.

This month Jean has her birthday (with Larraine) in New York....she'll be celebrating at "Rue 57 Restaurant" on 5th Avenue & 57th street.

Then there's Valentine's day , followed immediately by "Carnival" all over the world.
This will all pass me by; as I'll be here in Chad......working

All I have to look forward to is leaving here on the 21st and resting up in a London hotel.
Then I meet up with Tony on Friday; the next day we slide into couple of large 1st Class seats on British Airways to Barbados on the 23rd!!

Then it's : "Hit the Beach!"