Off work early

Got a chance to start my weekend early on Thursday. We had to shut the job site down a little early because of another sandstorm. It rained all morning and then the sandstorm came up in the afternoon. I have posted some photos of the sandstorm that I took from the car ride home. I understand that this type of storm is considered to be just a plain old sandstorm. When we get a ghibli then it will be a sandstorm in conjunction with extreme hot air coming from the desert. Can’t wait to experience that new event……

Had dinner on Thursday with my new found English teacher friends. Instead of going to the Pisa Restaurant, we met at the villa where most of the teachers live. Met a few new people at dinner, one person from South Africa, another one from the UK and a German guy and his wife is from Chile. So my Libyan experience is becoming quite international. It is great to meet new people and now I am expanding my network to include all sorts of countries.

Got to sleep in on my day off and since the internet was down due to the sandstorm I thought I would fire up the Wii and improve on my scores. I thought I would rearrange some of the power plugs and not have the back of the TV so messy with wires. Had everything ready to go and blew a circuit breaker. Got that back on and then discovered that my Wii box might have tripped the breaker. Now the Wii does not seem to want to work. I guess I will have to do some more investigating and see if I fried something on the Wii. Keep your fingers crossed that it is nothing major.

Computers and food

You have probably noticed that a number of my blogs have to deal with food and lately I described my new laptop that I just received at work. Well now I might be writing more about food and computers in the same blog. I have discovered that I have a computer store located in the same building as the Pisa Restaurant and it is very close to my Cheese Cake Factory wanna-be store. Who would have thought that computer chips and chocolate chip desserts could be in the same building?? Looks like I will be going to the Pisa Restaurant a little more often than before.
I needed to get a mouse for my new laptop, so I decided to look into getting a wireless mouse. Sure enough, my computer store had quite an assortment of mice to choose from. So as I am purchasing the item the manager handed me a store calendar and a peel and stick protective cover for my laptop. I do not think that I ever got a calendar and other free stuff from Best Buys or Fry Electronics. I will have to look into my monthly budget and plan on getting some more computer items, just to make sure these guys do not go out of business. After all I need to help support the local economy.

Cheesecake Factory

I think I mentioned in a previous blog how I discovered that people are the same world wide. Well tonight was no exception. Friday starts the weekend for folks around here. So what do people do on the night before their big weekend…..they drink…..well, that does not happen in Libya, but they do go out to eat and hang out with their friends. So most of the restaurants are very busy after 7:00 p.m.

My local hangout is no exception. The guys were all hanging out in the lower section of the Pisa Restaurant, eating and having a good time watching…..guess what…..WWE RAW.

Guys of all ages had their eyes glued to the TV while three guys are wrestling in a cage match. Nothing goes better with a chicken shish-kabob than three sweaty overweight wrestlers trying to tear the other one’s head off and climb out of a cage.

The evening was complete when after leaving the restaurant, I discovered that I now have my very own Cheesecake Factory right next to my Pisa Restaurant. Just had to check it out on the way home and discovered they also sells éclairs. I am set for another week.  To top the night off, there was a full moon. Wonder what I will discover tomorrow on my day off??

Geek Squad where are you

Some people have told me this, but I did not want to believe them......I AM A GEEK. It is hard to admit it, but when you get so excited about getting a new laptop computer that you rush back to the house, throw open the door, throw your stuff on the floor just so you can plug in a new computer, I will admit that I am hooked. The drug of RAM, the smell of Gigabytes....there is only so much a person can take. I will try to calm down. The kind folks of RW Armstrong sent me a new Dell laptop with 500 Gb of disk storage and Windows 7 on a 64 bit machine......did you hear that.....a 64 bit machine. My life is nearly complete....I have a great Mac laptop and now a pretty nice PC laptop. Only thing left to finish out my collection is an iPad2. Maybe if I get a few more checks from Apple for my wallpaper app, I might be able to get the iPad after the new ones come out.
This week has been a good one. My new boss is getting settled into the ho-hum life of Benghazi. He is a good guy and I think he will do a great job on the hotel project. We had a great deal of rain this past week. The waves on the sea this week were pretty impressive the way they were crashing on the rocky coastline.

More expats in Benghazi

Sorry for not posting things to the blog lately. I had to bring some work home this week and read up on some reports that the contractor finally delivered to our office.
Life is full of changes and life in Libya is not much different. Turns out that my boss has accepted a new job and will be leaving RW Armstrong later this month. My new Project Manager boss will be coming into town on Sunday of this week so that he can transition into the way things seem to go around here. All I know right now is that he is a Syrian/American citizen. He speaks English, Arabic and French. So he will be able to communicate with just about everyone on the jobsite. He bleeds Black/Gold....not sure what years he went to Purdue.
I am looking forward to meeting him and hopefully we can keep the hotel project on schedule.
Last night I had the opportunity to meet up with a number of British expats that live in Benghazi. I had signed up for an Benghazi expat website and sure enough a guy emailed me and said that his little group of six English teachers go to the Pisa Restaurant every so often and would I like to join them. I said "Sure, that will be great....". Well it turned out that besides the six English teachers, the group included his three adorable children (one boy and two girls and they reminded me of my grandkids), it also included two guys from an engineering company that is doing work in Benghazi. It turns out that they are from a Spanish company and they actually were sub-contractors for my American neighbor that got moved back to Hawaii. Super small world.
So all in all there were twelve of us sitting around the table all speaking English....true some of it was British English, but still it was music to my ears.

Tipping not required

It is interesting how God has things planned out. I found out this week that my American neighbors across the street are moving back to the USA. Alex was laid off from his engineering company. So the family packed up and is moving back to their home in Hawaii. I met them for dinner a few nights ago, sort of a Bon Voyage dinner. They had been in Benghazi for a little more than two years.

So the next thing you know, I get an email from an Ex-Pat that saw my name on an Ex-Pat website that I found about Ex-Pats in Libya. This guy said that he is an English teacher at the British school in Benghazi. He said that a group of the teachers get together every Thursday night at a little restaurant in Benghazi called, you guessed it "Pisa Restaurant".....hmmmm......I know that one. So this week I am going to try and meet up with this gang of teachers and see what happens.

Speaking of restaurants, I have taken my other frequent food diner one notch down on my list. The place where I can get a $3 burger/fries and coke is not doing well in customer service. Tipping in Libya is not necessary and these guys at the diner are not getting any more of my hard earned money unless they shape up. I thought I would try something new instead of a burger and fries and a coke, I went with a chicken tawook which is like a Penn Station chicken and cheese sandwich. So I got the sandwich/fries and Coke. I did not want to vary my diet too much. Anyway, I got the sandwich, the fries and then my waiter had a Coke in his hand and the next thing I know he sits down to watch a soccer game and starts drinking my Coke. The tip meter dropped dramatically. So I had to get up and get my own Coke. Just not the way to make friends with me. So it looks like I will be going to the Pisa Restaurant a little more often. You do not want to keep me from my Coke if you know what is good for you.

Can't get away

Friday....my only day off from the work week. Usually I enjoy sleeping in until 9 or 10 a.m. Not this morning. Since we have had so much rain lately the residential contractors that are working on a house across the street have had their project put on hold due to the weather. So the first morning that they could get back on schedule was "you guessed it" this morning at 7:30 a.m. Just my luck they are building wood forms to pour some concrete. So besides the pounding of nails into the wood forms they then fired up the cement mixer and proceeded to lift the concrete up to the second floor of the project. It appears that the product WD40 does not exist in Libya. That had to be the squeakiest winch ever made. But then again, most of the tools and equipment around here are not that old, it is just that the weather and salt air plays havoc on anything metal.
Talk about problems with metal........we are having trouble figuring out what to do with a number of metal gates that we have planned for the hotel. Being so close to the Sea, the salt air will be very hard on whatever we choose. So the process of finding the right material and testing it to make sure it will work is a whole other process.
We got a special treat yesterday afternoon. To start out the New Year as a team building effort, we had a special luncheon for the whole office. About 20 of us met at this familiar restaurant down the street from my apartment the Pisa Restaurant. They have a very nice banquet room upstairs. We had a full Italian meal from soup to salad to pasta to main dish to dessert. Everyone was stuffed. I came home and took a long nap. I might not have to cook for a couple of days after all of that.

Wonders of Nature

Maybe I go on and on too much about the various sights around Libya, but the thing that has impressed me this week is the fact that we have had two beautiful rainbows in the past three days. Today's rainbow was actually a double rainbow near the seaside. The water of the Mediterranean was a dark blue and the white clouds in the distance were fluffy and a bright white. I will need to keep my camera close at hand for more scenes like that one.
When I am not talking about the natural beauty of Libya, I am usually talking about food. Well I have discovered a resource for bread. The various types of bread around here are very good. The restaurant that I tend to go to the most often has this terrific pita bread that comes with each meal. Last night I asked them if I could take four small loaves to go. They said what else, "No Problem". They put together a bag of four loaves and said "No Charge". So now I have a bread resource that will not kill my wallet. I will just have to watch how often I ask for the to go package, or they might get wise.

Back to Work

Monday morning came early for me today.....after traveling for nearly 24 hours on multiple plane rides, I made it back to Benghazi. This morning I woke up to rain hitting my window and the streets were nearly flooded. As I stepped out on my front door steps, the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared in the West.
I have added the picture of the rainbow to my photo collection below. Not a bad picture from my iPhone. So I thought, today is going to be a great day..........well it was not too bad. My morning meeting was short, the rain came back and flooded the parking lot at the job site. We now know where the low spots are on the site. Most of them are in places that should be the high points, so I guess we will have to push a little dirt around and get things fixed.
I brought back with me some snacks and candies to share with the gang at the office. A bag of Oreo Double Stuffs was a big hit along with a box of Abbott's Caramels. I think both items were cleaned out within minutes of me putting them in the common area. Good to know that my fellow co-workers have a sweet tooth like me.

Home in Indiana

Well the past eight days in Indy for Christmas went by so quickly that I cannot believe that it is 2011 already. True I was up for 48 hours traveling from on Dec. 22nd and 23rd from Benghazi to Tripoli to Rome to Chicago and finally to Indy. The good news is that I have another 12000 miles to add to my frequent flyer program. The bad news is, I do not know when I will be able to cash some of them in. I seem to get stuck flying different airlines all over the place.
Time home with the family was fantastic. Got to spend some time with family and friends. Charley and Jenny brought the grandbabies home for a few days from California. I had some good quality time with the whole gang. Got to spend a lot of time with Nicki and Brian too. I did not feel like I should make Carol cook at home, so we ate out a lot so that I can put some weight back on. I figured out that I have lost nearly 20 pounds in the three months that I have been in Libya. I think I put about 5 of that back on after going to Skyline Chili, Cracker Barrel and Outback Steakhouse. I needed to get my daily alottment of pork into my system before heading back to Benghazi. It is amazing what a wonderful animal the pig is. You can have pork nearly every meal and it comes in different forms (breaded tenderloins, pulled pork, bacon, spiral sliced ham and pork loin.) I was able to double up at Sahm's with a healthy chef salad that happened to have sliced ham and bacon. That hit the spot when you add in the cinnamon coffee cake on the side.