Ah Africa, its good to be back! I didnt have a visa but that was no problem. However I had no local curency or dollars either which was fixed with usual African ingenuity. The customs offical wrote on my entrance form I was getting some money so I walked past the bagage claim area, through customs, out into arrivals, used the ATM and went back into reclaim my passport and new visa! I was very happy to get through customs in a reasonable time, the Ghana immigration took about an hour and a half, in the same time I was nearly in the Kampala after surviving the slightly dodgy 40km road from the airport to the capital. I had arranged a night in the Red Chili hostel which seemed like a pretty cool place. Pretty good bar area, free internet and Uganda was lovely and cool to boot. Not hard after the oven that is Dubai, but considering we are very close to the equator I was pleased to feel how mild the weather was. I dumped my bag and had a drink in the bar, it wasn’t that busy. I confirmed my tour for the following day and chatted to a big dutch guy for a while. He had just gotten in after a 14 hour bus journey from Nairobi, I dont think he liked me telling him the Emirates flight had flown via there and it only took me 55 minutes ;p but then I had spent slightly more than his $25, that was how much the taxi from the airport was.

Wednesday was the same routine but we had arranged to meet up with My Uncle Paul and Aunt Rita who live in the nearby state of Sharjah. We spent the morning playing in the Wild Wadi with dads video camera crammed in his old sport housing that I had brought with me. Not a great fit, but shove a pair of underpants in and it works just fine! We got a taxi out there, and inevitably he got lost, but then my parents were quite happy to let him sail past the junction we needed without saying anything. At least I got to see some more of the country, and we got there safely and not too late. I sneaked past Paul and Rita and surprised them too when they eventually came in. It was good to seem them again, as its been a while, and I got a chance to upload all the photos i had taken at the hotel to my website. We had a barbecue outside, filled the paddling pool for the boys and drank Singha beer until the taxi came back to pick us up at 11pm. No sneaking off or adventures that night, I was far too tired and my time in Dubai was nearly up and I had to pack for Africa. Still, I had another morning in the water park with the boys, and although I know they love me dearly, they were more upset that we had to leave than I was going for good. I had to console myself with the fact they asked for my all afternoon while was jetting across Africa.
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After I had bought my flight I sent them a text saying I had bought a laptop off Ebay and it was in Dubai, hence they could bring it home with them. This was of course a lie, but I didn’t know where they we and what their plan was each day. It worked rather too well as Mum was thinking it could be a bomb or something dodgy. My parents were even rowing about it in the hotel all the time. I was spoiling their holiday before I even got there ;p I sent another text outside the hotel telling them the guy was waiting in reception and wearing a white hat. I also told dad to video him :p So he turns up with the boys and is too busy videoing to notice its me! I guess if he had a high definition camera he woud have realised right away. The hotel was something else, at least compared to my usual standard. Five stars, loads of staff all saying hello and ready to run around for you, calling you sir and opening doors. Quite a change. I went upstairs to the room to suprised Mum, Louise and Steven. I dont know what was ging through her mind when I was saying ‘Laptop for Mrs Towner’ with a middle eastern accent outside the door. Sadlly for them they hadn’t bee upgraded to a suite or villa but the room was plenty big enough with a great view of the beach and the Burj hotel, the worlds only 7 star hotel. I didn’t go for a look but apparently its very posh! You have to get dressed up to go over, so that was me barred :p We went to see how much it would cost to add me to the room and went for breakfast. Thus started the general routine for the net 3 days. Breakfast, then down to the pool for a while, a hour or two in the Wild Wadi with the boys, a drink at the swim up bar in the executive club pool, afternoon tea at 3pm for an hour, back to the pool until late. Then free drinks and snacks in the executive club room followed by dniner. They loved it, after 2 days I was kinda bored, so after dinner in some pizza joint I excaped from the ungrateful tourists and jumped onto a bus on the main road. Destination : anywhere…. I ended up at the Marina and had a good trek around, there wasnt much to see but the skyline was filled with cranes and half completed buildings. It was 11pm and everyone was hard at work, I guess the place will be finished next year and look completely differrent. I wandered around for 30 minutes and then hopped in another cab. I just told him to drive, go left here, straight on, whatever. But when I found I didnt know where to go and we were going in circles I said to go to the city centre. Well that kind of worked bcause he was now happy we had a destination, but the shopping centre called ‘City Centre’ wasn’t xactly what I wanted. It was after 12 by now and it was still open! I went for a look around and to see if I could find a cold drink. Most of the places were shutting up, but I found some fresh mango juice after futiley trying to get the big supermarket to let me in to get a can of coke. Stupid jobs-worths, i only needed 1 minute. However, watching a load of DUbai residents finishing up their shopping wasn’t really what I had in mind so I went out ad jumped in another taxi to try to find the place I had passed by twice in previous taxis. The guy had no idea where it was, but we drove around and eventually I found an interesting built up area called Nasser Square so I jumped out there and went for a look. Even at 1am it was still pretty busy, with plenty of shops and restaurants open and severing, but you could see the place was windng down. Pity I wasn’t there earlier… Even in the middle of the night it was roasting hot, without all the oil and air con the place would be unbearable. It seemed everyone was just scurrying from air con island to island. Walking is impossible, the car is king. All my taxi drivers were indian or pakistanis, everyone working at te hotel were from all over the world, except dubai. A truely international county, but completely transient. They spend billions on building their tourism industry, but who will come when there is no oil to power the planes?

Last tuesday I decided on my plan,, which was to suprise my parents in Dubai, sleep on their floor for a few days and then head off to Uganda to see some wildlife. Tibet was too much hassle and far too expensive if I was going to need 2 single flights, the burning man festival in the US wasnt a good idea with all the hassle in the states, Japan was too expensive, Cuba just didn’t seem right. So I abandoned all my tentative plans and got a cheap flight to Africa with a free stop in Dubai. I was working Sunnday night as usual ad my flight was leavig at 9.10pm, which would have been fine if not for the new security restrications. Luckily it was quiet and Phil let me go a bit early, so I managed to get a shower and finish packing without too much stress. The Aitport was pretty busy, they were very strict on hand luggage; a good job I didn’t take my little suitcase on wheels as I planned. Getting there 2 hours before my fight was a first for me but I was still waiting in the departure lounge for an hour. So turning up early was a waste of time, and then we waited ages at the depature gate, finally boarded and had to wait another 40 minutes for the stuck stairs to be detached from the plane! I sat next to a kiwi woman returning home so we had a good chat, I watched the Incredibles in French (!) and slept most of the way to Dubai. We made up our time in the air and I sailed through customs and jumped into a cab for mum and dads hotel. They had no idea.

Cos then I leave this god forsaken wet country! I went into town to get a guidebook (10% off, thanks fake student card ) and some boots. I think I managed to put myself off spending £100 for boots I might only wear one day. My old ones will have to do I guess, but they are 12 years old and kinda heavy. But I need something closed where Im going, at least for a while.

I came home and found my new hat waiting on the step. Stupid post office makes me collect an old t-shirt Chris sent me that would go through the hole with some encouragement, but a brand new £50 hat is left for someone to steal. Glad we’re in a cul-de-sac!

Had fun at work, Jude is always sending dodgy mails to people when I leave my PC unlocked so he gave me a chance on his and I took it. Nothing too bad, but he was livid. It will be fun and games tomorrow as he attempts to exact his revenge. But he who lives by the sword, dies by it, and I can give as good as I get…

Found my CD and I booked my flight!

Destination is a suprise for now, but its warm, I get to see something few people do (and will cost me too!) and I get 2 (maybe 3) passport stamps! The CD was downstairs in the passage with my arcade cab. Phew!

Can’t wait! Now I need to go buy some boots, maybe get my guitar patched up and find a guide book. Looks like Im shopping after work tomorrow then… Oh and video camera films (I’ve inherited another one), and film camera… and a camera battery. Shall I make a list on a piece of paper instead?? :p

Where is my flipping CD!?! This is driving me insane!

Im uploading all my photos to my new website and just know that there is a CD with a load of images from when I was living in Sweden in 98 and I just can’t find it. Worst of all, I was looking at them recently and was dumb enough not to copy them to my PC when i *know* the CD is ancient and probably on its last legs! And I can’t find my brown shirt, or my spare camera battery! Its like a splinter in my mind!

Well, another weekend, another missed festival…. I bet V was really good, and I dont have any excuse not to go. Well, apart from finishing at 11pm on Sunday and starting at 7am on monday, thats all irrelevant. Guess Im not rock and roll anymore. Will have to give Nichola a ring later and see how it was, then again it could have been crap but you’ll never hear that off Nic.

I did manage to go out over the weekend, against my better judgement I went out into Brum with Oliver and went to a few club. We had quite a good time, Im not sure if Olly enjoyed it as much as me, but then he had no choice! 23 and never been kissed :p I bet he gets a few offers in Thailand next week!

Thank god Im not on at the weekend, they got the mainframe up just before I left and they were still frantically rebuilding rack PCs , but all the real work will be done in the next 2 days. Took a few calls, ate some pizza and waited for the phone to ring.

wow it works, that was easy!

What a day, the rain brought the roof in at work, knocking out the datacentre and leaving me with very little to do all day. Its sure to be insane tomorrow if they manage to bring the servers back up, and if they dont I dont know why I should be at work….