Oh to the joys of Shisha

Moving to the Middle East for the first time has been an interesting experience for a variety of reasons. One of the things which I am learning to appreciate, no infact love is the Middle Eastern shisha.

The shisha can be found across the Middle East and Asia and is one of the traditional ways of smoking. They are found in the hundreds of cafes which are spead across the island in an assortment of sizes. In the evenings Arabs from all backgrounds converge on them to smoke, chat and play games.

Without a doubt the shisha is the thing which brings the people together. Basically in a nutshell its a pipe which you smoke through a tube. The substance (be it apple, grapes etc) is below the charcoals at the top and when you breath in the substance kinda goes through the water. Now I don't understand the technique or how it works but its fun. Alas I am also realising that one night smoking is the equivalent to 20 cigarettes!!! So by the time I come back from Bahrain no doubt my lungs will have taken a severe hitting so I must frequent the gym more often!

So anyway the key to a good shisha is the coals. Back home in the UK it is really difficult to get good coals that get hot enough to make the 'process' work well enough. Here it doesn't seem to be a problem as you raise you hand giving a signal which results in a man scurrying over to you with 'fresh' hot coals ready to 'replace' you diminished stock. Within a minute your shisha is refreshed and your ready to go all again!

So tonight (like an other 2 nights this week) I joined some friend for a smoke and played backgammon in the middle of the 'Indian' suburb of the city. Here I was, 27 years old, learning to play a quintessential English game surrounded by Indian and Arabian men!

Afterwards we headed to the beach, well rocks as Bahrain doesn't have any beaches, to sit and chat. There is a lot going on in Bahrain as it is very much at a crossroads at it trys to compete with the other Middle Eastern states. Needless to say it is an interesting time to live in Bahrain.

i'm in Bahrain

Hi all,

It's been a while, heck months since I last posted. The reason for this slackness is due to the fact that I have been working my arse off! Yeah sad excuse but its true. Alas I also had no internet at home (well I had a wireless signal I could 'sometimes' pick up - a la free).

Anyway to cut a long story short I have now moved to Bahrain! Yeah my employer asked me 'do you want to go to the Middle East?' Now ordinarily I would jump at the opportunity but as a) i couldn't drive, b) knew the summer was coming and c) wanted to live in London for the summer, i said no. Well fat lot of good that did as they sent me anyway!

So here I am in Bahrain experiencing the 'joys' of Bahraini taxi drivers on a daily basis and wondering/debating/contemplating life!

So yeah lots of posts to follow shortly but first things first I have to head down to the Souk in the Old Town to get a £1 haircut!

The trials & tribulations of house hunting

Currently I am navigating the complicated channels of house hunting and its proving to be difficult to say the least. Essentially I have simple criteria - be near work! Unfortunately in London nothing is ever that simple.

So over the weekend I experienced the array of house hunting options. The first house I saw was out in the Docklands, lovely Chinese guy was the housemate, but the area was dodgy to say the least. Got lost trying to find the damn place. Then when I found it the litter packed streets and general run-down look of the neighbourhood made me feel like I was in some kind of American gheto, albeit in London. Scratch that option.

Next place was near work and was dodgy in every way. The landlord was of Bangladeshi heritage and spoke with a thick Indian accent. As he showed me the room he was at pains to stress '£160 pounds peeer week sir, very good price, all bills incluusive so noo problemm for you' with a 'wink wink' of his right eye. I thought I'd chat to him as he interested me (for all the wrong reasons) so played the Trowers 'Anglo-Middle Eastern Law Firm' card and found out the man has 20 houses now which he rents out to 112 tenants! Every house has no front room and from the feel of the place I looked at there was NO communial atmosphere. Plus the man wanted 5 weeks rent deposit and only 1 weeks rent upfront! Very weird and I dare say dodgy indeed. Scratch that option.

Next up was a house also in Wapping with two Kiwi tenants. The house wasn't that bad actually, decent size, Sky TV, leather couches but the flatmates were unusual to say the least. One was wasn't there and was referred to as 'a girl who is 4,8 doesn't say anything and you would barely know she existed' whilst I spent 10 minutes chatting to the other flatmate and still couldn't figure out if it was a man or a women! Despite this strangeness was definitely considering it until I found out i would have to move in next weekend which is too soon for me. Alas scratch that option as well.

So here I am commuting from Kent 25 hours a week and trying to get a place before I start at Trowers at the end of the month. House hunting is a pain in the arse and right now its driving me nuts but alas its got to be done.

So if anyone reading this knows of a place going in Wapping soon LET ME KNOW!

Cheers

The view from Gokyo Ri

View from Gokyo Ri, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

This is the view taken from the top of Gokyo Ri which is some 5,400 metres up. The views are absolutely stunning from here as it is surrounded by mountains and overlooks the Gokyo glacier and lakes.

However, the three hour climb is at a 30-45 degree angle and never seems to end but is worth while in the end as the views overlook the mountains and the glacier below. From this photo you can see the main glacier and the third lake below. In the distance the second lake which you have to trek by is also visible.

The settlement of Gokyo is just by the lake and is to small to see from this height as its some 300 metres down. Unfortunately when we reached the top the clouds covered most of the mountains with Everest only showing itself briefly for a few seconds.

Still any trek in the Everest Region must include ascending Gokyo Ri for the views over the valley and glacier. A magical sight indeed.

Prayer flags by the 3rd lake

Prayer flags by the 3rd lake, originally uploaded by goingglobal.

Here is a picture taken towards the end of the trek to Gokyo. The lake in the background is the 3rd lake with Tibetan/Sherpa prayer flags flying.

It's wedding season

The first weekend of August is apparently the busiest weekend of the year for weddings and this year it was my uncles turn to gracefully arrange to get married on this day. So the entire family, including distant far flung relatives whose names and faces I cannot remember, turned up for wedding in a beutiful church which is hundreds of years old in the middle of rural Kent.

Have to say it was a great wedding. The wedding ceremony was led by a female Vicar who, with her thick funky glasses and curly hair, made everyone very relaxed and run a very modern ceremony. She didn't even wear shoes! Now that is modern!

Even the hyms, not my favourite things I must say, were good, including 'Lord of the Dance' which I remember being pretty much the only song I enjoyed at school when we were forced to sing in extremely boring assemblies! So I gleefully sung along to the song, didn't fall asleep (that used to happen a lot in Church for me) and really rather enjoyed it as the ceremony contained some odds and ends I have never seen before. For example, they lit two candles which represented 'both families' and then later in the ceremony lit a larger single candle representing them. The vicar proclaimed that they have to light this candle every anniversary to show their love and commitment to one another

Afterwards the assembled troop departed for the reception which was being held in the grounds of the bride's (Vicky) parents place. The marquee was magnificent and was placed in the grounds of the house with the animals moved nearby. Have to say the day was a lot of fun. Everyone had a really good time and the family got to together for the first time since our nan passed away. Grandad spent a lot of the day smiling and I think he was proud that his youngest son had finally got married and that he had found the love of his life at last. Even my cousin Dan was back from Dubai for the weekend to attend the wedding.

So all in all a rather good weekend. As the 4th wedding I think I have attended in the last two years I have noticed it appears to be wedding 'time' for most my friends and young relatives. No doubt this 'trend' will continue as I have another two weddings on the horizon! Think if this pace continues I'll end up feeling like one of the characters from 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'! Still can't complain, they are jolly good things to attend and involve lots of drinking!

September calling

Its been a long time since I last updated my blog for a variety of reasons. Due to unforeseen circumstances I am now back in the UK and things are now beginning to return to normality.

At the moment I am living with my auntie and uncle in Faversham and trying to organise work in the city. It's really proving to be a very frustrating excercise regarding the patience of a saint at times. You see the problem is I only need work for two months before starting with Trowers at the end of September. I have been rather truthful with agencies and told them I only need work for 8 weeks. With hindsight honesty might not be the best policy as most agencies seem disinterested in a candidate who can commit for such a short period of time. Then there is the problem with my resume. You see I am skilled, especially in I.T. and H.R. but am rather a 'jack of many trades and a master of none!' So with no 'solid long term' experience I find myself just short of positions I know I can do, especially in I.T.

Had the funniest experience yesterday with a agency in the city. Jeni, a really outgoing friendly Australian from Perth, spent something like an hour with me trying to work out a timeline for my last 6 years. In the end the timeline took up something like 5 pages with a variety of employment and an even larger amount of travelling. By the end of it I realised that I really need to spend sometime in one place and perhaps keep my feet on the group, of course with the occasional week here and there spent diving from planes or trekking mountains allowed! The poor girl said she had never seen a candidate 'quite as wide as me in what I have done'. Of course take into account I have done everthing from I.T. support through to selling forklifts and you can see what she means!

I also went 'flat shopping' to see what's on offer in the city for when I started work in September. Turns out if I can find another person there are heaps of well priced options. A two bed flat right in the heart of the city would set me back no more than £150 a week! I mean isn't that a bargain! I may even get en-suite which would be a first for me! The thought of walking to a gym and then straight to work without all that commuting crap is very appealing.

So I await September with a sense of expectancy and eagerness not felt in many years. For the first time in my life I am going to start a career, albeit as a lawyer, and I feel perhaps I am about to turn the page and embark on a new period of my life. At times the thought of me dressed in a suit providing legal advice makes me chuckle, God knows what my friends think. But it'll be a challenge I'll relish.

Bring it on!

update

As some of you might know I am no longer travelling. A few weeks back I got a phone call when I was in the middle of no-where rural China informing me that my nan had passed away. Although I love travelling its at times like this that you realise the imporantance of family so I headed back home at break-neck speed. I was largely raised by my grandparents and my nan seemed very fit and healthy so it has come as a bit of a shock to myself and the rest of the family.

I think I got from Kunming to Newton Abbot in 35 hours! This involed two taxi's, two plans, 1 train and 1 underground and lots of movement! When I walked through the door of my grandads place in Devon I felt emotionally and physically drained but it was good to be there for the family at a hard time for us all.

I shall endeavour to update the blog from my journals when I get round to it.