Picture update.

Hello there,

just realized that there hasn't been a blog update in a while. Not much has happened since i got back to the middle east in June. In most of the places here it is illegal to take photos, and life is not not that exiting anyways. Still, i am who i am so i took some pictures. Enjoy.
I got new toys. A toolbox. And a white hardhat. So the people on the rig won't think i'm a rookie anymore. And everyone's gonna wake me up when the shit hits the fan.

Me and my Bolivian friends, waiting for our Visa in Bahrain. Last beer in months, and it's a crappy imported bottle, smaller than a beer should be. Anyways.

A decorative sign in that same bar. Was the hotel bar, decorated in Western style. A funny sign in a peninsula without pork.

Birthday ice-cream. Some friends back home wrote me that, well, they can't drink a beer with me or for me knowing that i might drink one here, but for sure i could get some ice-cream. And so i did. Was on the day after my birthday here. I was in town, but no one else there. Except me and the ice-cream. In the 'bachelor-eating-section' of a shopping mall. Pathetic, innit?

Another product from my home country that i've found in the local Carrefour: "Austrian Processed Cheese" from the Woerle Company. For a moment i was tempted to buy and try it. But just for a very short moment. Igittigittigitt.

Homer: "One of my all-time-favourites: Honey-roasted peanuts." Had to try. Not that special. Well, i also don't eat pork chops. I DO like beer, though :-)

I went to eat some Thai food. Yummy. This also was the first time that i sat in the 'family' section of a restaurant. Without being arrested, even though i didn't bring my wife and the kids.

I didn't go eat alone - it was the idea of a Colombian friend of mine. We were lucky enough to be in town at the same time, for once. Again i have to say the food was really nice. And surprisingly it was more than rice and chicken, which is what we get in the desert.

The classics, the classics. Had to take a picture. As close as i get to being in a museum :-)
This is in the mini-supermarket in my new compound. Which is a nice shop, one can survive with it, not like the "three products on a shelf and never open" shop we had in the last compound.

Dr.Pepper Cherry Vanilla - if you don't puke on that, well, ... you sure do like a lot of sugar.

Don't let the crocodile get your hands! At first, stickers like those were kind of confusing. Got them on nearly every door on our base. Apparently there were some finger-crushing incidents...
Btw, that's a safety door, holds back a couple of bullets from the bad guys.

Fresh dates? I am not sure. Were offered to me by a driver. Spoke only Arabic, of course. Some of them rotten, but that's part of the deal. To get them sweet. Having traveled quite a bit i didn't want to try unwashed fruit. I'm not the biggest fan of diarrhea, you know.

Some more pictures from inside the new compound. All the streets have Dutch names, for reasons unknown. This is the main road in the middle where the reception is, and the supermarket mentioned above, and behind it the pool. Went swimming when i was in town, at night, even though the water is a bit too warm.

Me in front of my house. Well, it's in the back of the one you see. But looks the same. Four people with separate bathrooms, a shared kitchen/living room. Quite okay. Picture taken in the morning, when i was heading for the bus to take me to the base. Company-organized bus of course, there is no public transport here.

Dates growing on the palm tree in front of my house.

I just had to take that picture :-)
(zoom in on the sign)

The Last Supper: we happened to be in town at the same time, luckily. More than a month after that Thai dinner shown above. We went to Friday's. And the next day, we went to the rig.

Toilet shot.One of the few places where it feels relatively safe to take a picture. If you're alone.

And that was taken on our way to the rig where i am right now. Just before we arrived. We passed a herd of camels. Humans included.

That's all, folks.