July roars in

Nice shoes for July!

I had a pretty busy time back in June whilst in Gozo.

Having had a week here by myself, I then went to London to have a drink with Tony Lloyd in the House of Lords, followed by a visit to Manchester to take my mum out to dinner.

Five security checks in four days....aaaaaggghhh!!

During this time I also spent a couple of days on my own in Malta.......in the Presidential suite in the Suncrest Hotel. The room was great, but the gambling was poor, unsuccessfully for me.

Then Jean turned up and we went out a few times.

Things were changing in Maji restaurant, and other ructions were going on around us.

My brother Chris was on the island for a few weeks, but I only saw him for a few minutes.

And I went boozing in the Grand Hotel and Gleneagles a lot as usual.

Now, I am packing to go off to Chad again. It seems that there may be work for me there until 2008. I don't know how this will impact our visit to San Fransisco in December, but we'll see to that nearer the time.

My only regret is that I didn't get my newly-paniered bike out to Nadur. They had their festa last week; the feast of Peter & Paul with what must be the largest flag that I have ever seen.

The flagpole that it is on is around 100 feet high, so I suppose that the flag is about 65 x 25 feet.

I'll have to go up there after I return at the end of the month.

Penultimate rotation down to Chad

So it's back to work.... this time at the rig for a full 3 weeks.

This is how my desk looks at Rig 342 : communications satellite phone/ internet connection, the mud-logging laboratory LAN, Esso computer on their LAN, and my local laptop & printer.With a Digital radio (satellite on roof), and one-channel TV (linked to whatever the drilling supervisor has on his satellite). Wires everywhere!!!

This is my office back down in Kome, where I do all the post-well reporting.

Bright, air-conditioned and fairly sterile.

It's in contrast to the porta-cabin, insects & noise at the rig.

I was going to leave the girls cuffed while I was away in Africa.

But Sadie (L) had to get back her John, and then work & sign-language etc...

BUT, young Lucy Lips (R) had to get back to her work & wedding on the 26th.

That's today Lucy.........

Congratulations Lips!

House full of visitors in early May

Nicole meets Bruno for the first time.....another bear-babe brought along to Gozo by Sade!






Lucy Lips came to get a tan before her wedding day on the 26th.
And she loves to get together with the girls and Uncle Peter!!


Jodie was staying at her parent's place in Qala..... she came around a lot.





Tony took us to his place for a party







His lovely wife Vanessa was giving some "hot guns" pointers to the girls.







We ate a lot... drank even more...sat on Peter's lap etc etc











But we were generally pretty presentable.
Qala was pretty hot for a week...but we cooled off in the sea, and a good time was had by all !!!

May Day in Gozo again

Josepha and Jean lead the frivolities at the flat in Qala.

Jason came early to do some stuff on my computer, and I started him off with a pint of Pinotage, then after that he was just capable of spilling champagne around.

Tony & Vanessa and Gaby were in great form as always.

And new faces, such as Gilbert & Frederick, Sacha and Vanessa were also present.

Here are Maji chefs Trevor and Joseph, with a very happy looking Kevin.

And young Justin with his lass

And we lasted just from late morning to sunset.....so it wasn't too punishing......but some of these restaurant people had to work that night.

Goodbye Barbados

We needed to some final swimming to make up for all the gourmet eating that we'd been doing.

The swimming pool was fairly empty, but surrounded by people intent on getting their skin burnt.

And young American girls are a bit too 'Precious' & 'Booby' to be around for too long.

We really like the rough sea...even though it smashed us a lot.

We limited ourselves to 30-45 minutes a day in the sea and sun.....trying to protect our biggest organ with lashings of factor.

It was pretty rough down in the south, from the trade winds. And I was smashed a couple of times.

Tony reckons that he nearly had his neck snapped like a carrot! In surf just like this.

Whilst watching cricket in the bar, we saw a wedding at our hotel beach :

And we said our goodbyes to the barmen. The Gregs, Louis and the rest!!

And here is Alvin with a 'rummy' bear :

Then we took it easy with our packing, and had our last 'Cane Field Beef'.

Snapping some last photos of the 'Vanilla skies" :

And we flew home Club Class,....a bit of a let-down from FIRST ....but we slept; and I journeyed on to Heathrow, whilst Tony headed up to Leeds.

We had a pretty good four week break. Great people, food, booze & beaches:

What more could you ask for?

Choice : Cane Field Beef

We were introduced to the fine "Silver Point" restaurant (Tel. 420 4416) by the indefatigable Jim & Jan fairly early in our stay and we kept on going back.

Also it was only about 1 mile from our hotel, near the kite-surfers (rough!) beach.

The lovely Kaisha (an artist / designer) and friendly Dwane (professional bullshitter-he says) were great with their service, and as talkers & entertainers......, and real friendly, as were all the other wonderful staff.

But the Chef Reggie, produced this most wonderfully succulent "Cane Field Beef" dish.

And here it is on the plate.

We thought it was reared in cane fields that had been cut.

But we found out that it was an area - "Cane Field", above the jungle in central Barbados:

"Cane Field " is where the cows - bullocks really, (owned by Sir Charles Williams -the famous sportsman), have an easy life eating the herb-filled pasture.

Here they are, on the hoof :

And here they are about to be consumed for the tenth time !!

We couldn't get enough...and Reggie knew just how to do it medium-rare....!!!!

The best steak I've had in 20+years!!

Siver sands entertainment

When we were not at the cricket or the races we were eating out .....

or generally having a good time with the entertainment arranged at the hotel or meeting other guests

We slowly learned that too much rum after dinner didn't bode well for the next day's head!!

Jim & Jan, the restaurant Gems

Another lovely couple that we met in the Silver Sands Hotel were Jim & Jan. He was big-time in to music, and they were both very knowledgeable about local restaurants.


We told them about our horror story at the Atlantis in Bethsheba....the black pork...and Tony's chicken turned out to be Dolphin!!!


But they sent us back to the Roundhouse in Bethsheba. Also Surfers point bar & the SilverPoint hotel (more of which later)....which were only two minutes form our hotel!







We had spare tickets for the "Party Stand" in the last friendly match in the ICC world Cricket.
And we had a very enjoyable day watching New Zealand triumphing over Sri Lanka by 19 runs!






After the cricket, we in turn introduced them to "Mojo's" in Worthing...where the music was 60's and Jim was ecstatic.... Led Zeplin etc..... & the photos are great.











We had a final meal together at another "GEM" of theirs - the Little Arches near the nicknamed "Miami beach" where we often swum.


Here we also met Stephen & Rachael, more fans of Jim & Jan.....

....and I also tried to clear Tony's windpipe with a tracheotomy!!!

New Friends all around

When you have out an outgoing personality, you tend to attract all kinds of interesting people.


This is Alexander who I brought back to our rooms at 2am, to awake Tony from his 7pm rum-slumber.



This handsome pair with the "Caribbean Hair" is that of Anita (Jet Pilot) and Phil (Engineer, ex-Navy)...all the NICE girls luv a sailor!!


And we kept on bumping in to them....



At the beach..





At Oistins fish-fry-on-a Friday





....where Bruno gets in on the act... as bears (think they) know all about fish.







So we all went out to the Gold Cup Day at Garrison Savannah... and what a great day we had : I had three winners but Anita picked the Gold Cup winner :

And you can tell that she was quite pleased, as she was drinking with her prehensile feet afterwards :


















But we had a few celebratory glasses of wine at the "Caribb" bar....and Tony sports his newly acquired black eye (accidentally received whilst slipping on the way to bed the previous night!)

March

Forgot to say that the month has changed....it passed in a haze of rum....
We are here in Barbados until the 20th....arriving in UK on the 21st.
I'll be back in Kome on 24th.....