Johannesbug Storms

One thing i forgot to mention in the last post was the mental storms that we are getting here - I have never seen anything like it. I have now been here 7 days, and we have had 6 pretty major thunder and lightning storms....they are extremely electrical - i have never seen lightning like it . Yesterday I was able to take a few shots my favourite of which is over thre on the right somewhere....

An update....

Wow - its been a couple of months since i last posted to the blog, and what a couple of months it has been...For reasons that might become apparent, i am not going to be able to go into loads of details, but here are the highlights....

Nov 29 - moved away from Germany.....my apartment has been packed up and shipped (see below) and I fly to Japan

Nov 30-Dec 22 - FIFA Club World Cup 2007 in Japan. Yup its the same event that brought me to Japan this time last year. Not going to say too much about the event other than I did not go to any of the games (Personal choice - wanted to catch up with mates instead) but the event was the easiest so far in my opinion. Loved being back in Japan, and was great to catch up with all the people that i did, as well as meeting a few new and interesting people along the way..

Dec 22 - Jan 8 - Christmas/New year - in the UK with Family and friends.
Was good to be back and caught up with a few people i havent seen in a couple of years - so all good.

Jan 8 - the big move. I moved to South Africa for a four year stint in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. I will still be travelling to other events too - but South Africa, and more importantly Johannesburg is going to be my base for the next few years.

I have been here a week now, and not much to say - I am looking for apartments, but biggest difficulty there is finding a reliable agent that wont keep cancelling on us. Currently living in some nice rented apartments in Sandton, one of the Jo-burg suburbs. Thats the biggest challenge about Jo-burg - it does not really have one centre - but more 5/6 different suburbs that are cool and i might like to live there...so before i can really look at apartments i need to work out where i actually want to live.

Downside to being here is that the new office (which opens in Feb - we are currently in temporary offices in Sandton) is going to be by the FNB stadium, which is almost in Soweto, and not in an area that i would want to live - so looks like i will have at least a 30 min commute to work each day - bugger...

FInally before i sign off - everyone always asks me about the safety aspect of south africa, and Jo-burg in particular. It is different down here, and it is worth taking more care than usual, but i have to admit i dont think it has been that bad so far - I so not feel particularly unsafe - although there was one evening when we ended up in a dodgy area in the car - but we quickly retraced our steps and got back on the main highway..I am suer there will be more on SA security in future posts.

Anyway - here i am, and this is where i will be for a while....as i am in temporary accommodation i no longer have internet connection at home so these posts may be few and far between for a while - but my intention now that i am here is to post more often with thoughts on the country area and people...

The Countries I have visited.....

Found a cool little link - it allows you to put in all of the countries in the world that you have been to, and then shows them up on a map......all the countries I have ever set foot in are coloured red in the pic at the bottom of this page....the aim is to paint the entire world red :-)

Ryder Cup - Ireland September 2006

The end of September saw me take my first trip to Ireland. It will not be the last trip to Ireland i hope - as I still need to see the country.

We got there on the Saturday - had a short briefing in Dublin City Centre, before heading out to the City West Hotel - we stayed at the apartments at the end of the hotel driveway, which was great on the first few nights while the other staff from Manchester were also there - couple of good nights gettting to know everyone.

I knew that i was there to assist with the transportation, but had no idea exactly what that would involve, until the Sunday morning, when I was asked to Manage the South Coach Park at the K-Club (the course where the Ryder cup was taking place) - there were 2 coach parks, and 2 park and rides and the coach park that i was in charge of was to look after apprx 30k people per day.

In theory there should not have been much to do. Bus Eirean and Dublin Bus had a load of staff to look after the busses, and really i was there only to make sure there were no problems. In actuality, it was perhaps the harest 6 days of work I have ever had to do. My "office" was on teh wrong side of the Security tents, and I could not see the coach park from the office - so I barely used it. The coach park itself was not tarmac, rather shale, which caused problems in itself. I also had three separate distinct areas (park and Ride, hotel coaches, and Private coaches) which i had to look after. So I basically spent most of my days walking around on the shale checking on the three areas. During the busy periods I was standing in the middle of the coach turning circle from where i could just see all three areas.

Ireland was not kind to us weather wise. It rained almost every day, and I can tell you it is not pleasant to be standing in the rain all day long. Blisters upon blisters on my feet, shin splints, aching back, aching miscles - it was nasty. WE were up at 04:00 each day to be at the coach park by 05:00 and we generally left the south coach park at 21:00 and went up to the north park, from where we went home for about 22:00. 6 days in a row of this was not pleasant.

The icing on the cake came on the thursday evening. It was about 20:00 and I was stanidng right in the middle of the coach park, when suddenly Hurricane Gordon hit. The weather man tells me that it was gusting at 120mph, which I have no idea what it feels like - but this wind was strong, and almost immeidately we evacuated the park - evacuated everyone that is, except for me, who had to stay behind and make sure everything was staying where it was and was not being blown away :-) That was a strange experience - somewhere that has been so busy was evacuated within 10 minutes, and suddenly i was alone, rain lashing down (and up!) wind blowing everything over, and not having anything to hang on to!!

All in all and weeks after the event, I actualy enjoyed the week, but I will be in two minds as to whether I do that again in a couple of years time.