Not a common occurance

Insomnia. Suffered by many around the world on a regular basis, lucky I'm not one of them. Except tonight. Most you who are reading this would be familiar with my seemingly infallible ability to sleep anywhere, anytime. However having slept most of the day, and just after dinner, I find myself staring at the laminated plywood wall of my cabin planted in Northern Mozambique just outside a town called Tete. What else to do but update a much neglected blog I guess.

Music is on, a mix of chilled jazz and upbeat cafe tunes. Cheezy mood music would be another accurate description. It's the type of music that puts me in a reflective, somewhat pensive mood. So sticking with the tone of thought, I must say life is pretty good right now.

I've got a steady if somewhat random job. Friends around the world. Somewhere to stash my stuff. And a younger if somewhat naive brother to offer the odd bit of guidance to about a world outside computer pixels.
It's not that often that I look back or even at the right now of my life. Usually it's a perpetual case of 'whats next'. Always in a rush to get to the next step it seems. So it's a good change, and a bit of comfort and validation that all that effort has actually gone a way getting somewhere. I consider myself lucky actually, to have this kind of fulfillment. Something not seen all that much in the world that we live in.

Hmmm thinking about it, I tend to write about things that are coming up and what I'm heading to next rather than what's already been. I guess I feel that I've already lived it once so why go back and dig through it all again? Unfortunately I don't have a real time scribe to post with (idea for next big thing) so events tend to get glossed over. Probably makes for pretty boring reading. Oh well, I don't mind an audience of one.

Ok, now the head stuff is out of the way let's cover the travel part. I'm inland Northern Mozambique as mentioned right near the border of Malawi. A former Portuguese nation it's a reasonably friendly place with scattered development outside the main cities. There are still a lot of the National Geo type shots of mud huts, giant baobab trees and little kiddies playing 'roll the hoop down the street'. I'm here in a capacity to help a mining company dig up vast amounts of the black stuff to be shipped off to the super industrials. All in the name of global warming of course. Actually it's quite a laugh introducing one's self as a full time "Raper and Pillager of the Earth' to the various 'Save the World' types that frequent places like this. They either evil eye you and walk away, or if there's no escape say on a plane, there's a tirade of moral and conscience abuse to be dealt. Lol. If they had any idea how useless a lot of what they are trying to do is, they might not be so smug.
Anyway, I digress. I'm situated in one of the camps of the aforementioned R&P. It's quite well setup as would be expected with everything from aircon cabins, to unlimited booze and a swimming pool. I'm told the gym is on it's way. Far cry from the sandy crust of land known as the Ogaden from my last stint.

Days here now that we're setup and in a routine involve the usual early dawn starts, but settle (for me at least) into a day of sleep, drink, idle entertainment and more sleep. 9 to 10 hours a day to do diddly squat. Again it's not a bad life.

Hmmm 6 paragraphs and the insomnia still kicks on. More rambling then.

I have started to wonder about the longevity of this life style in recent times. Shifts are long, breaks are short, and the money earned during is spent on the not. Need to start thinking a bit further ahead. There is a change on the way however. Same job description more or less, but with shorter shifts, longer breaks, pay all the way around and harder work. Seems too good to be true but it's there and it's just a matter of time til I make the move. Hopefully a more meaningful existence can ensue. Relationships (and I'm talking in a general sense, not the candles and moonlight walks type) have somewhat gone on hold. It's turned in to a case of glimpsing the interactions rather than participating in them. The line, "sorry we didn't spend much time, but I'll be back in a couple of months is" starting to wear a little thin, and the need for a bit of social significance steps in.
Thing is, at the end of the day, as much of an Indiana Jones movie my life is right now, it's still work. I spend my days around 2-3 Kiwi pilots (I know I know how do I not shoot myself I will never know) and that's about it. The building of new friendships, the expanding of circles just doesn't really happen out here while at work.
So really, yes, the summation is that breaks need to get longer. More needs to be done in them rather than the nominal dinner banter, and participating in other people's lives rather than just observing is a must.

Lol. There is one person I know of in the world who is in utter pain at the moment reading this. A wandering, aimless, verbose script of words, interspersed with medium level literacy to purvey a sense of intelligence to the average reader. Ha! Too bad. My blog not yours so there :P

Sigh, anyway, on to the a preview of the next chapter. Back to London for a short stay, more to try and land an interview but also to fulfill a promise to come back soon from the last trip. Then back home for a few days before repeating again.

Somewhere along the line, I'll catch up on where I want to be and just enjoy life for what it is now. Promise to let you know when that is, coz there'll be a party at my house.

Africa Veteran

It's a strange thought but I worked out the other night that I had spent more nights sleeping at the Protea Centurion than I have in my own bed since I started this job. The idea of new day new place carries forward when you think about it like that.

Right now I'm sitting in my undies (again in the Protea) about 2 hours before we head off for the next adventure in Northern Mozambique. Thus far this trip has already covered a small stint in Namibia to calibrate some equipment. A summary of that trip would be a lot of alcohol, quad bikes, go carts, brushes with the local law, rental car abuse, oh and a little bit of work.



As far as places in Africa to go, Namibia is definately in the top 5. Botswana, Zamiba, Mozambique, and Egypt/Morocco being the others. (Ok that's 6 but anyway)
Other than getting accosted by the local 'parking watch' on a regular basis, Namibia is a generally friendly place where English is spoken eveywhere and there is plenty to see and do. Walking around you feel a lot safer as well. Having only 2M people in an area almost as big as SA might have something to do with it.

This shift is looking to be quite cruisy compared to where I've been of late. There is a crew right now back in the DRC and I smile to myself every morning that I don't wake up there.

My break after London was a brief stay at home. Didn't involve much other than catching up with the usual suspects, oh and getting half way up a multi-pitch climb in the dark. Ah, the epics. Keeps life in check.

Anyhow, need to get clothed and off to the flying fridge. Lookup PAC750 XL and you'll get what I mean.