London - Chapter One

The trip from Benghazi to Tripoli was somewhat uneventful.  I am sure glad that my genius driver was handy. He had to lead me thru the airport process step by step because none of the signage is in English and very few of the announcements over the PA system are in English. I saw a couple of guys in front of me at the ticket counter going to Tripoli and they had the same colored boarding passes, so I did not let them out of my sight as we made our way to the plane.

When I got to Tripoli, my layover was going to be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  I decided to take a trip into town and meet up with some of my fellow RWA collegues, at least check my email at the office vs. sitting around the airport and people watch. That was fun for a bit, but it would get a little old after six or seven hours. Took a cab into Tripoli and met some RW guys that I have talked to on the phone or emailed, but now I have a face with the name.

Got another cab back to the airport and off I went to London. My flight got me into Heathrow on Tuesday, so that way I could go meet Carol on Wednesday morning after she took the red-eye from Indy to Chicago to London.

My terrific little bed and breakfast that I found in Notting Hill turned out to be Nothing Hill. The room was so small that the door to the room actually bumped into the bed and the bed was pushed over to one side and was touching the other wall. The bathroom was so small I thought I was back in the airplane bathroom. The sink was so tiny that you have to be careful how you spit your toothpaste out or you will spit on your shoes. It was sad. I spent the first night there, but got up early the next morning and since the wifi did not work at the Nothing Hill, I went down the street to my favorite restaurant, McDonald’s and used their wifi. I found another bed and breakfast a few blocks from Nothing Hill and walked over and checked it out before I made a reservation there. Then it was time to go to the airport and meet up with Carol.

In another chapter I will talk about mass transit systems, but it is THE way to go to Heathrow. Carol’s flight was on time and we made it back to the hotel at Kensington Garden Square.

London - Chapter Two

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the annual Christmas event at the Royal Albert Hall. It is sponsored by The Salvation Army. This year is the Salvation Army’s 125^th anniversary. It started in the UK those many years ago. The program was terrific and the architecture inside and out of the Royal Albert Hall was breathtaking. My pictures do not do it justice. You will just have to come to London and see it for yourself. We had terrific box seats and the music and program were great. The weather in London was a little on the chilly side, so we took a cab over to the concert. From my maps it looked like we could just walk thru Kensington Park and we would be right there. Little did I realize that Kensington Park is almost the size of New York’s Central Park. It would have been quite a hike.

The jet lag caught up with us, so we did not hurry around too much on Thursday, besides it was Thanksgiving Day. We went to a English pub and had Cottage Pie and fish and chips, then we went to an old movie theater to see the new release of “Harry Potter.” The theater reminded me of when the Cirlcle Theater in Indy was a movie theater. Very ornate paneling and balconies to watch the movies.

Now about mass transportation. Indianapolis needs to get their act together and get some light rail systems going. The express train from London to Heathrow took 15 minutes to get out to the international terminal. The light rail lines are pretty much on schedule and thousands of people are using the system. It was very safe and very clean. Parts are very old, but still functioning well. We got a multi-day pass and we went everywhere.  Plus being underground, we did not have to worry too much about the outside temperatures.

London - Chapter Three

Friday was a gorgeous day. The sun was out and it was a little cool, but not nearly as much wind as on Thursday. We decided to take the Underground to the London Eye. The huge ferris wheel that was built for Y2K. It is right on the Thames and near lots of other stuff. We saw Big Ben and Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

The Eye has 32 gondolas that can hold up to 28 people. We were lucky and only about 12 or so were in our gondola. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes for the gondola to make one revolution. The views  are spectacular and since we had such a clear day, they said we could see about 20 miles away.  There is a clever four minute 4D video that you view before going on the Eye. I don’t want to ruin it for you, so you will have to see it for yourself. From the Eye it was interesting to see the old historic parts of London and all of the new contemporary architecture that the City has to offer.

Saturday was time for shopping and visiting St. Paul's Cathedral. It is quite something inside and it makes me want to see St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome now. The history of St. Paul’s during World War II and the previous cathedrals that were on that same site was quite fascinating.

Sir Christopher Wren was quite the architect of his time. He really knew how to make the interiors of the space make you feel that much closer to God.

Packed my bags again

Well I am off to London to see Carol and have a relaxing time in the UK. I noticed as I was flying out of the airport in Benghazi that the sand in and around my new temporary residence is very red in color. It made me think of the movie "Total Recall". The ground area is so red one might think they are on Mars. The flight to Tripoli went straight over the Mediterranean Sea. Only took a little more than an hour to get to Tripoli. I discovered that there was a flight to London at 8:30 a.m. I got in at 8:35.....so now I have to figure out a way to pass the time at the Tripoli airport until the 3:55 p.m. flight takes off. After an hour of people watching I decided to take a cab to the RW Armstrong office and hang out there. At least they will have a wifi where I can compose this blog segment.
People watching is fun......everyone is the same......little girls crying and Mommy can't do anything with her so she hands her over to Daddy and the tears go away. So we are all the same no matter what country we are from.....
I will try to add more blog postings this week if Carol will allow me to get the computer out of my briefcase. Cheers.........

Show Me the Money

Over the past few weeks I have decided that one currency for the entire world would be a good thing. In the past week I have gone from Libyan dinars to US dollars to Egyptian Pounds and back to dinars. This week I am going from dinars to British Pounds. Everyone of these transactions is costing me a transaction fee and who knows what else. When I flew to Egypt I had to show my transaction fee paperwork to the airport security guys, so that they can catch anyone that might be laundering money. When I went to the bank to get US dollars converted from dinars I was behind a guy in line that had bricks and bricks of money (dinars) that he was converting. I do not know what business that guy is in, and maybe I don't want to know what business he is in (if you know what I mean).
And why can't money all be the same size like good old US currency. Some of the 20 dinar bills that I have in my wallet are so wide they stick out the top of my wallet. The paper that some of this stuff is printed on is so flimsy that it tears very easily. So whatever paper mill the US uses is the stuff to have.
So I have decided that with all of the billions and billions of dollars that are being printed at our mints in the US these days, we might as well work out a deal with the rest of the world and go with US dollars everywhere. Then we don't have to convert 1 British Pound into $1.44 or 5.60 Egyptian Pounds into $1. I have a headache trying to keep track of how much I am spending. Thank goodness for a currency converter on my iPhone.

Cairo - Chapter One

I have so much to say about my mini-vacation to Cairo that I thought I would break it into multiple blog chapters. So don’t miss out on any of the info.

Traveling to Cairo was very easy on Monday. One of the guys from the hotel project was going to Cairo to visit some of his family. So he took me to the airport and helped me thru customs. It was nice to have my own translator as my left-hand man. The flight to Cairo was smooth and on schedule. The Cairo airport is very nice and modern. The hotel had a driver waiting for me and he happened to be standing right at the end of the passport line that I was standing in. What are the chances of that?? The driver could speak very good English and he gave me a tour of Cairo on the way to the airport. It was about an hour ride so we went by the President’s residence and took a bridge over the Nile. Interesting view from the bridge, there is an island in the middle of the Nile and a Christian church and a mosque sit side by side on the island.

I picked the Le Meridien Hotel because of its proximity to the Pyramids. The staff were very friendly and helpful. My room reminded me of the Sheraton in Abu Dhabi. The bathroom is a huge shower. The shower has one of those Kohler rainfall shower heads. I might have to remodel our bathroom at home to get one of those. It was great. The walls and floors are all marble.

I had dinner sitting on the pool deck and watched the sun go down and watched the Pyramids fade away in the dusk light.

Cairo - Chapter Two

My Pyramid tour started early on Tuesday morning. When I emailed the folks at the Le Meridien I told them that I would like to go on a tour, they said “no problem”. That is a favorite expression in Libya and Egypt. Usually when I hear it, I am a little leary, because it usually means there is going to be a “big problem”. To my surprise it was a great tour. I thought it was going to be me and a group of tourists on the tour. When my tour guide arrived at 9:00 a.m. I asked her how many people are going to be in the group. She said “you are the only one”. I was shocked, I had a private tour guide for a six hour tour of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, a visit to Memphis and to Saqqara. So I had a driver and the tour guide and me in a brand new Jaguar Xtype car. I am really spoiled on this mini-vacation. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about all of the sights and knew where to take good pictures. I hope you enjoy some of the images that I have uploaded.

You will notice a photo that I had to take near the Sphinx. It shows that capitalism is alive and well in Cairo. Pizza Hut and KFC have a restaurant located at one of the gates when you leave the Sphinx area.

At Saqqara I saw a movie about Imhotep, the genius architect that came up with the design of the stepped pyramid at Saqqara. This was around 2000 B.C. about 1000 years before the Great Pyramids were built in Giza near the Le Meridien Hotel.

During the various dynasties of Egypt, Memphis was the capitol. It is located on the West bank of the Nile. The Nile Valley is a very green lush area especially this time of year. So the contrast of the desert plateau where the Pyramids are located and the green lush Nile Valley was very interesting. 

Cairo - Chapter Three

Now that I have seen the Pyramids and actually have gone inside a few of them, I cannot figure out how they accomplished such a feat. I know they talk about ramps and log rollers, but the size of these stones is nothing to sneeze at. One of the pyramids had a black stone crypt placed inside the internal gallery. The local guide said that the black stone was one solid piece of black granite that weighed 6 tons. So just the idea of getting that big stone block into the pyramid was probably a marvel in project planning. These designers and planners could teach us a lot about project management. One of the things that my tour guide informed me was that the workers on the pyramids took place during the flooding times of the Nile River. The flooding usually takes place during Summer and early Fall. The water level helped them get some of the workers and the materials to the site. That is one of the reasons that the Great Pyramid in Giza took 20 years to build.

Cairo - Chapter Four

The Le Meridien Pyramids has a pretty good wifi, the trouble is, it is only available from a few places in the hotel.  One wifi location is the lobby and the other is the business center. If you use the business center it costs $5 for a half hour. So I opted to sit in the lobby and chat online.  I am using my headphones/microphone to chat with Carol, so if you did not know better, you might think that I was taking an online traffic controller course. The strange thing that happens every time I set up my system in the lobby is that I am invaded by tour groups. Not just any tour group, but Japanese tour groups. Each day I setup my system and before I know it, 12 to 20 Japanese tourists gather around me to wait for instructions to register at the hotel. It is like my Macbook has a magnet in it.  They are very polite and don’t make any noise while I am online, but it is strange that two days in a row I would have this sort of thing happen.

A little bit about the hotel room itself. Very nicely appointed room, lots of dark wood trim and the Le Meridien has “heavenly beds” like the Westin chain. I did not have any problems sleeping on these beds. The bathroom was huge and the shower was fabulous. It had a Kohler rain shower heads in the ceiling. I think I might have to get one of those if I ever get around to remodeling our Indy bathroom. 

Cairo - Chapter Five

Last day in Cairo and it was full of interesting stuff. I had a chance to check emails before my driver came to the hotel. He was suppose to arrive at 12:30 but he got there about 11 and said he was suppose to take me to see the Papyrus Museum on Tuesday. There is no charge for the museum so we could make the trip on the way to the airport. So I had an interesting one on one session with a guy that showed me the process of how the ancient Egyptian made paper out of the papyrus reeds. Pretty cool process. These Egyptians were pretty smart cookies back in the day. So then the sales pitch started and they would not let me leave the museum without purchasing a design. OK, I gave in. The the real drama started on the way to the airport. My driver gets a call on his cellphone and then he starts to cry. He says his father is being taken to the hospital and that he will have to go there after he drops me off at the airport. I asked “has he been sick”, evidently something out of the blue happened. He says his Dad will need money up front for the hospital to take care of him. I asked if he had insurance and he said “no insurance”. The driver named Mario, says that he will call his Mom who lives in Canada and see if she will wire him some money. She supposedly hung up on him. Mario in the mean time is wiping tears from his eyes with a Kleenex box in the front seat. I had cashed most of my Egyptian money back into US dollars at the hotel to get ready for my trip to London. So I did not have many Egyptian pounds left. He dropped me off at the terminal and said “Oh by the way, I need 75 pounds to pay for the toll gate to get out of the airport.” I said, “the guy that picked me up on Monday did not ask for money to get out of the toll”.  So I gave him 50 pounds and said “you will have to get the rest some place else”. Got my stuff and went into the terminal. Turns out he dropped me off at the wrong terminal. So at least there was a free shuttle bus to get me to the right place.

Now the best part of this story is the International Terminal is now my favorite place in Cairo. Not only did it have a Starbucks but right next to it was a McDonalds. Yes it was Big Mac time for Tony. After I ordered a No. One, I started wondering, do you suppose the burger will taste strange like the burgers in Benghazi……let me tell you it was two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle on a sesame seed bun just like in Fishers. What a way to finish my experience in Cairo.

Packing up

Just thought I would post a new blog before I head off to Cairo for a mini-vacation. Some of you probably thought my time so far sitting on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea has been one big long vacation.....wrong. I will be in Cairo for four days. This is Eid al Afar...Festival of Sacrifice. So the job site is going to be shutdown for four days. Most of the businesses will be closed for the week too. So I am off to Cairo to check out the sights. I got lucky enough to get a hotel within walking distance of the Great Pyramids. I plan to take lots of pictures to share with you later in the week.
I am not sure what sort of internet connection I will have at the hotel, so bear with me for the next blog posting.
On another note.....two interesting sights this morning. First I noticed that my neighbor across the street was out cleaning the red dust off his front porch. He is from Ghana. There must be a strange fashion sense in Ghana, because he had on flip flops, white/grey/red plaid shorts and a bright yellow and blue wide striped shirt. Either he was wanting to make a fashion statement or all of his other clothes are in the wash. I will try to take notice in the future and see if he is trying to set a new trend for Libya.
The other interesting sight this morning was a worm snake hiding under my desk. At first I thought it was a little worm (since we have had all this rain lately), but when I put my foot near it, the little guy slithered across the room like a side-winder snake would. Very interesting creature. I quickly jumped on the internet to see if worm snakes are poisonous or not.......whew....they are not.
I will keep you posted if I see any scorpions on the job site. Until the next time, I will blog from Cairo.

Fooling with Mother Nature

Sometimes I am amazed at the wonderful inventions that so many people have developed over the years. The light bulb, the TV, satellite television and the internet. None of these things compare to God’s ability to wipe them all out with a storm. Yes, my TV is out, my internet/wifi is out all because of a rain and wind storm that is going thru town. Things had better get back to normal soon, so that I can chat with Carol before she runs off to school. Of all days, here it is my day off and I have signed myself up for an AIA continuing education online class to get some more CEUs for my AIA and state license requirement.

Maybe God is saying, “Tony go take a nap and I will get things back to normal soon.”

So if I get this blog posted sometime today, then you will know that God came thru for me.

BTW…..some of you know this, but others may not. Next week the job site will be shut down for five days. This year the Eid al Adha celebration will take place. No businesses will be open. So I have decided to check out Cairo, Egypt for a few days. I fly over on Monday and come back late Thursday. That will give me Friday to rest up. I have scheduled an all day tour of the Pyramids and the Sphinx on Tuesday. Don’t worry I will post comments and photos on the blog by Friday of next week. I am excited about seeing all of the great stuff there. My hotel is suppose to be within walking distance of the Giza Pyramids.

Bachelor party

Another new experience today.....a brother of our electrical engineer at our office is getting married soon. So our engineer invited me to go to lunch with him, along with my boss and another guy. He did not say it was a bachelor party luncheon. Now mind you, there is no drinking in Libya and women are covered up so what does one expect to see at a Libyan bachelor party? FOOD of course and lots of guys sitting around in this huge catering hall. There must have been 200 guys at this place. They were all having a great time and we had a sit down luncheon.
We had roasted lamb and cashew rice and fruit juice and a potato pancake that was stuffed with a thin layer of hamburger. We had our after dinner coffee and it was back to work we went.
I was stuffed and ready for a nap when I got back to the job site.
I felt bad for being a wedding crasher, but as they say in Libya, "No Problem...."

Genius Driver

One of the perks that I have in Libya is that I have my own chauffeur that takes me to work each morning and takes me home. He is the one that found my great apartment for me. His name is Ali. He is a genius behind the wheel. I mentioned before how most of the people in Benghazi are a little crazy when it comes to merging into lanes here and there, well, Ali knows their every move and some how our car does not have a scratch on it.

He has been picking me up at my apartment for over three weeks now. I have always wondered why he stays about two car lengths back from the intersection at the traffic light. Today I found out why......he knew that at that time of day a school bus comes around the corner and needs extra room so we were able to give them just the right amount of turning space. He knows where every bumpy expansion joint is on the bridges and knows where to go to get the least amount of bump on the speed bumps.

I will put my driver up against anyone in the city.
BTW.....I have another food story for you..........I stopped into one of my local restaurants to get a pizza the other day. I noticed that they have a number of types of sandwiches listed.....
one was called "Mixy Cana".....I might have to order that one to see what it is....I am guessing that they take a number of canned vegetables and mix them together and put it in a pita pocket. Or it could be their way of creating a Mexican dish that Don Pablo's might start offering in the USA.

Too much TV

I had a rather quiet evening Friday. Went to the grocery got a few things and then picked up my dry cleaning and then headed over to one of the nicer restaurants on this side of town. Had chicken fettucini alfredo. Not bad, but I think someone got the cheese containers mixed up, so instead of mozzarella cheese it tasted like a very mild cheddar.

It was not bad, but it was like cheese and macaroni with chunks of chicken in it.

In Arab countries you have to ask for the check, because they think it is rude to bother you and appear that they are rushing you to leave the restaurant. I could have left about 15 minutes earlier than I did but the entire waiter staff was glued to the TV in the restaurant. It is like they have never seen “WaterWorld” before. I waved my hands a number of times, before a different waiter had to motion to my waiter that I needed the

check.

American movies have a big audience in Libya. This particular channel plays nothing but movies all day long. I saw Mission Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean just recently.

Still cannot find a resource to get some good old fashioned NFL football yet. I will let you know what I get worked out.

New sounds in the house

Friday is here and some free time to add another blog to the collection. Today I was able to sleep in a little longer than usual. I stayed up late last night to chat with Carol. When Indiana changes there clocks then I will be seven hours different. I might have to learn to live on five hours sleep soon. So I enjoyed my extra shut-eye this morning.
Usually I hear the morning chant of the local mosque.....today it was different. I was awakened by my twelve year old neighbor practicing the tuba. I can tell you from past experience, that he is a very early beginner. I am thankful that he did not start his lessons at 8 a.m.
Today is the Holy Day around here. So nothing is open until after 4 p.m. This gives me time to check my Facebook and LinkedIN connections.
I had dinner last night with my new American friends across the street. They invited me over to meet the head of the Anglican Church of Tripoli. He is performing memorial services in a number of places in Libya to remember the fallen soldiers during World War II. Northern Africa was the sight for a number of major battles. In fact someone told me that most of Benghazi was wiped out from the bombings during WWII.
So most of the buildings in town have only been around since the war was over.
My neighbors gave me a care package of leftovers and chocolate brownies on the way home.
They really made my weekend......talk to you soon.

INDOT should listen up

It appears that the white line on the roads in Libya just means that someone has a job to paint them on the street. It does not mean stay in your lane. Maybe this is the way INDOT could save money and just educate people that they can get three or four cars side by side on a two lane highway. After all they get three cars in a row side by side on the 500 track.

I have also been thinking about setting up a franchise for Church Brothers over here. The amount of damaged sheet metal on nearly every car around here would make me a very wealthy man.

Speaking of wealth......it looks like nearly all of the stores in Benghazi are dollar stores.

I do not know how many things I have bought while here that every item is usually one dinar. My shirts at the laundry were one dinar each to clean and press. My jeans were one dinar. You can actually get two Cokes for one dinar. Libya is pretty much an all cash society. Very few places take credit cards. Maybe that is a good thing in the long run.

I see the elections are over now in the USA.....maybe things will pick up in the architectural design world. Maybe everyone was waiting to see how the elections panned out. Just have to wait and see what happens now........

Neck and neck

I just had to share this with you....this morning I had a few extra minutes to eat my cereal and watch the news a little bit before heading off to work. I was flipping thru the channels and saw a channel called Dubai Racing. I thought, great, maybe they will have some car racing that I can catch up on......no, it was camel racing.

They have an oval track and about 30 camels lined up behind a screen. They have robot jockeys sitting on the back section of the camel. The owner of the camel is sitting in his Mercedes four wheel drive waiting for the start of the race. As soon as the camels take off the owners drive their cars around the track on the outside of the camel track. It is a dirt track. The cars are equipped with radio controlled devices to tell the jockey when to strike the hind quarter of the camel. These camels are flying down the track the owners are swerving their cars around on the other track and the little robot is flipping a little whip up and down on the camel.

It was quite the sight. When a camel wins in a neck and neck race it has a whole new meaning.