Friday, July 23, 2010

New Version of Crazy Eating

Last night at dinner i saw a new variant of eating crazy, how about this one to try, try sticking out your tongue all the way and then placing the spoon, fork or any other implement onto the tongue before bringing them in together, it looked insane, i just couldn't stop looking at him. I was so rude with the stare but it was by far the most bizarre eating habit i have witnessed here so far, maybe i will see someone even worse. I will let you know

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Eating Habits of Peasant Labourers

I am here with 5000 of mostly Indians and i can say without hesitation they are all peasants, I eat with the supervisors and even the majority of those are peasants made good, the reason i say this is that their eating habits are just unbelievable. The mostly eat with their fingers and it is a horrible sight, they mix up their food round and round with their fingers making like a puree, and then make balls which they shove in, they also use flat breads to wrap large lumps of the food to shove in wrapped in the bread. I have seen some of them using spoons and forks at the same time as this is easy to shove lots of food in together. The use of a knife is not really adopted here but i did see one guy with a knife and fork but had the use the wrong way round, he was pushing food onto the knife and putting the knife in his mouth.

The other main reason you can tell is that when you give a peasant free rein in the restaurant they go insane and pile the food as high as the plate will allow. also taking excessive amounts of fruit afterwards. They become very fat guys after eating like this for the usual 6 months they are here at a time. The pulling back of the lips is also something i have commented on before, watching someone try and at a huge pile of food without it touching their lips is just incredible, just try it yourself very difficult. The food is pretty good and as you are aware it is mainly catering for the Indian palette and even though i like it if can become overwhelming so i have started having salad at least once a day. I will try not to stare too much but these guys are like doing it for show, trying to outdo each other with the strangest method. God Bless Curry.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Abu Dhabi, What a Joke

What do you think of the United Arab Emirates, the UAE, you think of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but it is really just an empty desert wasteland, with a city in each emirate, Abu Dhabi is all new, very little is old and if it is old it is a shitty mess, there are apartment blocks with the bricks falling off and trees growing out of walls, yes I saw a tree about 30 feet in the air growing out of the brickwork where the water from an A/C unit was feeding the tree. all the new building look the same and mostly are empty. the City has no soul at all, just ugly great buildings and millions of poor peasants from India and Pakistan and Bangladesh and from all over actually, all trying to make a living, but it has no soul, no life of its own, no community. Just folks trying to make some money. Now don't get me wrong that is a noble thing, keeping your family fed but if you don't have to live there, I would rather be somewhere with real people and real places, not a desert city, the locals all live out of the city anyway, in their huge palaces out by the airport, why would they want to mix with the plebs in town, I found it all totally boring and lifeless and not an ounce of redemption. The esplanade along the sea front is crap also, with some low lying island in front so no clear sea view. I was desperate to get away but now i am back. Nothing to shout about, some of the guys have been to Dubai, and say it is one giant building site and again everything is empty, just a speculators building site and hopefully they have all lost their shirts on it. I can say that when folks say they are going to Dubai for a holiday, they are insane, temperatures up to 50C and high humidity, no wildlife and no trees apart from the obligatory Date Palms, it is a fake place with lots of fake people. Don't be fooled by the shiny glass and expensive cars, it is a place to make some money and run away, I will run away and never return if i can avoid it, life is too short to suffer such a empty place.

I didn't mention that it is a peninsular in a mangrove swamp, good for the birds and mosquitos, just hope the global sea rise will make it a second Atlantis, i would put a photo of Abu Dhabi in here but the country blocks Flickr as though it was a communist threat, it also blocks Skype and any VOIP software as that would mean your not paying enough for your phone calls. It is like being back in the sultans palace and he has all the toys and you can have none and no food and have your balls cut off so you cannot play with the girls. This place does my head in really badly.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Modern Life in the Jetstream

Well life surely gives you a kick in the guts now and again to remind you not to think your so special and privileged. I had to fly to Florence to my head office to pick up a laptop, it needed setting up and lots of security passwords and it is far easier for them to do this than send me the laptop and then let me try and get it done over the phone. So i had a crazy early morning, up at 4.30am and flew out via madrid and then i had to catch a train from Pisa to Florence, all very primitive i thought but it was the only way I could get there on time to pick it up. The train even dropped me off at the gates of the factory at Florence Rifredi station, perfect I thought. I was met at the gates but my old manager and I didn't recognise him as he seemed to have lost about 40 Kg, but it was my eyes that deceived me as he said he had gained weight. Well i told him i want to live in Australia again for the 20th time as I keep sending him mails letting him know. That evening i went out for a meal before going to bed early, outside my hotel was a food van which i had seen the previous time i was there 3 years before and i thought it must be good or it would have gone bust by now, I went over and was met by an English speaker who asked me what i wanted and I was offered the local specialty Lampredotto (Google It for description), i didn't know what it was but it sounded exotic, he pulled out a large break roll and then opened a pan with some spicey smelling sauce in it, and pulled out a huge lump of meaty stuff and chopped it all to pieces on a board, it was clear enough to me that it was cows stomach as i used to have it as a kid, i was worried but it tasted really nice actually it was just the texture that was pretty unappealing, it was like chewing a jelly fish that was full of dental floss that all stuck in your teeth. it was huge also, with about 1 pound of this meat in it, the beer i had with it cost more than the sandwich, total price 4.50 Euros. I felt over stuffed afterwards and i struggled to sleep right with such a full stomach.

I flew into Abu Dhabi with a copy of my work permit in my pocket and on getting into the terminal i was looking for the office that i saw last time, but i never found it, i just ended up at the immigration desk, last time the immigration officer saw on his screen that i had a work permit issued and pointed me to the office. This time he spent a long time just looking at his screen and then he stamped my passport and waived me through, when i got to the other side to be collected by the company rep, he asked if i had the visa, he was panicking as he was going to get his arde kicked for me not getting the visa, as we walked from one office to another, it was obvious that i had had my work permit canceled and a visitors visa issued by the idiot on the desk who didn't think to ask me first, it meant i had to leave the country to get my tourist visa canceled and issued with another. the next day I had to leave to Qatar and stay overnight to be able to have a new one re-issued. It all went find, i even managed to get time to visit the project manager in Qatar who is overseeing the job. But it was another 2 flights i didn't want and another night in a strange bed, but the internet was fantastically fast. I was able to download five of the movies that have just been released as i need some entertainment while on the offshore island. I was even downloading Jeeves and Worcester, some old comedy from the UK, i managed about 10 GB over 12 hours which i thought was excellent. pity the one in Abu Dhabi is about 20 X slower. I am now back from Qatar and everyone is smiling again and I have been to have my regular HIV & Hepatitis tests and X-rays for TB, so i cannot transmit anything to any of the 5000 Indian men who are all probably with tropical bugs that I don't want to catch. It is just a waiting game now until the company manage to get hold of my travel pass and get me a seat on the flight. I hope life is easier out there on the coral atoll now the job is almost complete.