Was looking around at the Doha airport duty free, and wanted to take a picture of some of the gold jewelry. Not a huge camera mind you, just the camera on my phone…

NOT acceptable!

Then they started following me around, just to make sure I don’t do it again.

Sorry baby, we’ll have to look at stuff and I’ll see if I can find something similar.

Boarding time in 10 minutes! Homeward bound!

Sitting in the airport lounge at Muscat International Airport, waiting on a flight to Doha, then connecting to Houston. Homeward bound after 5 weeks on the job.

More later!

So while traveling on the plane both to and from Dubai, the typical pre-flight mumbo jumbo is announced.  One of the instructions if to turn off your cell phones and do not use then during the flight.  Anyone ever here that?

It seems it only applies to some, because as soon as we get in range, I must hear 50 or so phones, ‘bing, bing’ ing, announcing a new text message has been received. 

Do people really not understand the verbage, ‘Turn off your cell phone’ spoken it at least two different languages?

I guess that isn’t as bad as the chap in front of me today that actually got a call, and answered it as we were coming in for a landing.

Was it that important?

Once again, it’s time to head back to work.  I’ll be spending time abroad, and I always look forward to my time at home.  I haven’t even left yet and I’m missing home.

This time has been difficult and I can’t say anything about it, but one day I will tell all.

I’ve got a lot of work waiting for me when I get back to Oman, and a lot more when I come home.

More later.

It’s been 6 weeks and I leave the desert life Wednesday morning (5 am).  Been wondering if it’s possible to actually beam me home?

On another note.

The BP MS 150 took place this past weekend. 

Multiple sclerosis is an extremely hard disease to detect, and treatment is. Well, a lifelong event.

I can’t say enough how much I appreciate the people that give of themselves to make this event happen and to the riders that drum up support for the cause.

God willing, I’ll be riding this event in 2012 with my kids (probably following them), and thinking of my beloved wife, for whom I will be riding.

I love you darling, see you soon!

My visa run is almost over. I’m sitting in the airport in Dubai, waiting for the flight to begin boarding.

Even though this trip was a little longer (I got to stay overnight), is was still short.

the flight was over an hour late leaving Muscat, and while that’s not a big problem, it does put me on the ground later in Dubai.

The Dubai airport was the busiest I’ve seen it in the 3 years I’ve been traveling to the Middle East. This, to me, is a good sign! I think it indicates the economy is beginning to pick up a little.

It just put me into the hotel at 1am. Not much time to wind down before I have to get back up and head back to the airport.

So here I sit, drinking coffee, and watching people walk by, destination unknown. I feel like I’m traveling in another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – my next stop, the Twilight Zone.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Yes, it’s that time again boys and girls.

Visa run for me.

I’m sitting at the airport in Muscat.  Got here in plenty of time for my flight, only to find upon check in that the flight is delayed about 50 minutes.

I wander around and wander around and wander some more.  Now that I’m done wandering, I find that I still have over an hour and a half before take off. 

I suppose that in the time it took me to come back up and sit at Costa Coffee, have a lemon smoothie (or whatever they call it.. It’s more like lemon juice and ice blended) and post this, it will be time to shut down and go queue up with everyone else to go sit and wait for the bus to take us to the plane.

We’re having fun!

Oh…  My crops are almost ready (Farmville reference).

Happy travels!

So as we continue the story. Coat in place and all warm and toasty.

Work continued the next day with many discussions, and questions regarding the programming vs. the design intent.   That’s pretty much the way it went for the week.

The evenings were spent seeing some of the city (mostly pubs and eateries).  I’ve come to realize that I work for a bunch of Brit’s that love to drink. 

I didn’t get to see too much of the area as I did not have a car of my own at the time.  That did eventually change when Bob left

After Bob left, another gent was coming in to take over the process of being ‘project manager’.  In the mean time I was working issues with code and interfacing with the engineers to work through problems, questions, concerns and generally being the ‘clean up guy’ for the project.

He stayed in a different hotel that I was at, even a different city (Delden) and seemed to be quite effective at making things happen.

Still more….

The food at the Jachtlust was great! I had a steak that evening that was great. I went to sleep that night with a very full tummy. I also fell asleep with the television on, which happens quite a bit with me. I woke up in the middle of the night to find what could only be described as… welll… I’m not sure what I would call it, but some sort of sexual live chat….

I changed the channel and there was a different kind of thing there too! Pictures of ladies with a bio of sorts and an SMS number. This was all very new to me. I decided to go back to sleep. Too tired…..

Hengelo was not exactly as I pictured the Netherlands to be, but it was picturesque…

It’s an industrial town, in the western part of the Netherlands, not too far from the German border. My colleague was pretty much in charge of “Operation Vendor”, as I was the technical liaison on the team. Meaning, I was the programmer that was sent to make sure the vendor coded things properly.