Work Woes

[SteveJB]

Clive launguage is not the problem its the French but if you start talking in Romanian and they do not unner stand then you say Poly Voo onglay and if they do then stammer in english a bit and then wait to see what happens they could be just as uneducated as land rover owners or they hanker after A LANDCRUISER and speak to you knowingly

 

[Gary820]

I'll swap you for a few days in Reading

I know the reaction I'd get at home if I came home to tell Emma that! She wasn't greatly pleased with next year's training calender.

Hopefully you'll get chance to see some of the area and do a little exploring.

 

[clivehorridge]

Do you do face time Clive ? good way of keeping in touch with the family.

I don’t as it happens, I’ve used faceache, but it drives me nuts, I have a big problem trying to navigate it.

I’ll use Wassap as much as possible, or Skype. We use Skype for business at work and that works well, but it’s mostly Wassap we use for family members spread around the world.

My brother’s in the uk, sis in law in Fiji or Papua New Guinea, my family in România, a cousin in New York, and me wherever they send me, so it gets a bit international sometimes!

Emails are good as a backstop, but my daughter likes pictures and video clips, so Wassap is good for that. The time difference is Montreal about 7 hours behind us, so not so good for live chats, it’s a fairly short coincident “window” ....

Good suggestion though mate, maybe we’ll give it a go. Cheers

 

[StarCruiser]

It's pretty easy with a reasonable wifi broadband connection. Like Skype between Apple devices.

 

[clivehorridge]

On top of this, my wife doesn’t drive.

Well that’s not strictly true, she passed her test 12 years ago and hasn’t driven since. We have a second car, and she’s a Construction Quality Inspector, and her colleague usually takes her to the company quarries at various locations around România. Anyway, he’s retiring soon, so she has to get back into the driving seat!

This weekend she decided to drive up to the house

It’s 110 km not too far, and as we needed to take the 3 bikes back there from Bucharest I drove the truck and followed her!

She insisted on doing it alone, a brave move in my book, she’s never driven a car without having someone with her, before.

OMG, what a journey, leaving the city Friday night was the worst bit. Her clutch control is close to non existent, so it was stall after stall at traffic lights with angry motorists beeping her when she sat at a set of lights for 2 change cycles, before she got away

When she did, she went off like a rocket, wheel-spin the lot, leaving black lines on the road

Anyway, after escaping the city, she settled down well on the open road, even if she did drive painfully slowly. Better that I suppose, than racing out of control.

All in all I was very proud of her, it was a brave move.

She’ll drive more now and get more used to it and the car. Everything was new to her yesterday. We’ll leave early today for the return journey, and see if we can get Home in the light. Otherwise, at her speed, it will Be midnight when we get home...

 

[StarCruiser]

Well done Aura!

She'll get better and better from now Clive. It's just the confidence. I had a similar experience with the lass I was with before Lynn. She learned to drive and had only driven in Germany many years ago. I got her a car and she started driving it and within half an hour got stopped by the police, for no good reason as it goes apart from driving a bit slow. That didn't help, though the copper was very nice to her when he found out the reason. It didn't take her long to get her confidence up.

Aura doesn't strike me as someone to let something beat her, Clive.

 

[Ben Stratford]

Going to our chevron office in Luanda for this trip, hotel is right next door, won't see much of the place

There wasnt much to see last time i was there Andy but it was very hot. Lost my passport at the airport which wasnt much fun

 

[clivehorridge]

There wasnt much to see last time i was there Andy but it was very hot. Lost my passport at the airport which wasnt much fun

What a nightmare!

Last time in Istanbul, a woman in front of me dropped her passport and a bunch of papers.

She was running and the place was very crowded. I stopped to pick everything up, but when I looked up she had gone.

I continued towards my gate intending to hand it all in, and a moment later a guy stepped out to stop me, he had seen me stop to pick up the stuff and had decided to grab the woman, so that we could reunite her with her passport. It worked like clockwork, I was impressed by his quick thinking.

She was apologetic and very grateful indeed.

Hard to go anywhere these days without a passport in your hand.

 

[hopeless wanderer]

Must be something in the air ...
I'm idle at the moment too, watching zombie films mainly. Canada sounds great if not a little cold though.
May be jettisoning some bits of Brenda soon as I'm shipping her as a standardish car to NZ, can't justify 3 cars on two continents until planned projects pick up next year.
Have a great time on your travels, the secret with flying found after 4 years of monthly 18hr flights is melatonin.

 

[Chas]

Hard to go anywhere these days without a passport in your hand.

I think you can still get into Brixton without a passport.

 

[Chas]

On top of this, my wife doesn’t drive.

Well that’s not strictly true, she passed her test 12 years ago and hasn’t driven since. We have a second car, and she’s a Construction Quality Inspector, and her colleague usually takes her to the company quarries at various locations around România. Anyway, he’s retiring soon, so she has to get back into the driving seat!

This weekend she decided to drive up to the house

It’s 110 km not too far, and as we needed to take the 3 bikes back there from Bucharest I drove the truck and followed her!

She insisted on doing it alone, a brave move in my book, she’s never driven a car without having someone with her, before.

OMG, what a journey, leaving the city Friday night was the worst bit. Her clutch control is close to non existent, so it was stall after stall at traffic lights with angry motorists beeping her when she sat at a set of lights for 2 change cycles, before she got away

When she did, she went off like a rocket, wheel-spin the lot, leaving black lines on the road

Anyway, after escaping the city, she settled down well on the open road, even if she did drive painfully slowly. Better that I suppose, than racing out of control.

All in all I was very proud of her, it was a brave move.

She’ll drive more now and get more used to it and the car. Everything was new to her yesterday. We’ll leave early today for the return journey, and see if we can get Home in the light. Otherwise, at her speed, it will Be midnight when we get home...

Brave girl, Well done Aura

 

[BobMurphy]

I think you can still get into Brixton without a passport.

Yes . . But can you get out again .

Bob.

 

[Chas]

Yes . . But can you get out again .

Bob.

Only if you are accompanied by a black person.

 

[clivehorridge]

So I’m not a fan of city living, and I’m in an apartment on the29th floor!

Very nice though, I must say. Well appointed, I think that’s how realtors would describe it.

The office is 4 tube-stops away, so no big deal

Not far from the St Lawrence River... but nothing very scenic...

I’m also no fan of TV and there’s no cable installed, literally, the plug is on the wall but no short cable from it to the TV.

So, as I’m alone, its utoob for me (as usual)... been watching these guys.. and now I’m addicted, very funny!

If you’ve not seen them before, you need to watch a few episodes to see how their minds work, they’re not dumb by any means, but they do have fun.

And, BTW, it's -8C this morning and blowing a howler, with a sprinkling of snow and sideways it seems

 

[clivehorridge]

I might have mentioned that I’m not far from the St Lawrence river, here in Montreal city, and yesterday, on my freezing lunchtime walk, I saw a gunship moored up at the jetty in the distance.

It was well quite a long way from me and hidden behind a row of trees, and I regret now not taking a photo.

This morning, and as its only 7 minutes past 11:00am, we’re half way through a Memorial Day gun salute.

They’re firing this thing off in the harbour, and my word, I’ve never heard anything like it!

It beats any thunderstorm I’ve heard, and that ship is at least 10 miles from my apartment.

Truly amazing!

 

[Shayne]

I'm not sure why but it seems relevant that i read on the wall at my 4 year old grandsons school the other day

"there's not enough time to see everything there is to see or do everything there is to do"

It made me chuckle to wonder if this was a profound premonition of a teacher watching the kids grow , a teacher nearing retirement , or a teacher thinking put your bloody toys away so we can get on with it

 

[clivehorridge]

I’ve noticed out of my 29th floor window, that there’s a Rememberance Day service going on, so here’s a very bad and short, iPhone zoomed-in video, which also captures one of the gun volleys mentioned above.. turn up the volume

 

[AndyCook]

Good to see you have been exploring at bit,
It's a blooming cold place as you say
It was -20 when I was there briefly, they were running out of places to push the snow in car parks

 

[StarCruiser]

…they were running out of places to push the snow in car parks

I've seen that. Takes forever to thaw out when the weather warms up.

 

[SteveJB]

Hello Clive not trying to push you or anything but have you got any photos of the trails and mountains from you hire truck yet