Meet Levi

This is my neighbor's dog Levi. He is two year Black Lab and I spend as much time with him that I can. He loves life and people and is always happy.

Definitely a beta male and his extremely gentle and is a lot of fun to be around. I will miss him when I leave Houston.

Going to Work in Babylon

I often hear and read about Babylon in music and literature and I know it is referring to modern day Iraq but not sure what it is such a metaphor for different things. I think modern civilication is believed to have begun where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.

So I decided to go and check it out for myself. I am very excited to go over and work there on a 28/28 day rotation so very similar to what I did in Yemen. It is start up oil company based out of Abu Dhabi that just purchased a new block in the semi autonomous region of Kurdistan and I will be working in a city called Irbil.

Link to Erbil
Erbil

As with many Middle Eastern Cities they claim to be the oldest inhabited cities on earth. If there is a safe part of Iraq this would be it. Ebril claims to be the new Dubai and from what I have seen on the internet they have Dubai prices (expensive). Lots of modern hotels going up, new shopping centers, and rebuilding the infrastructure and of course with 45 billion barrels of proven reserves lots of oil and gas investment. 

As indicated by the countdown that I can't be bothered to buy I start September 15th so it all happened pretty quickly. My first hitch will be for 6 weeks and then I will go back to Houston to sell what I own and will call Nicaragua home again (yippee).

My new boss is my old boss from Yemen so it will be nice to work for Darin again and be part of another start up. I think for my first hitch I will be staying in Abu Dhabi for a bit and then Iraq. I think it will be a hotel until they get their facilities built. And as the geoscientist  say, hopefully there will be "good rocks" and a successful start up with great production.

Countdown to Iraq

In Memory of

It's goodbye to another friend. My buddy from Creignish was killed in a car accident a couple of days ago. He was probably the most loyal reader of my previous blog and always had great comments.

He was intellectually inclined with a working man's life. We had great conversations and I was always looking forward to talking to him and hearing his opinions whenever I was back in Creignish.

He will be missed.

This is pretty much how I live my life.

Toronto

On a spur of the moment I decided to go to Toronto and really glad I did. The best weekend in a long time. I met Denise, Ed and Eric and it has been a long time that I have seen the three of them together. It was a long day to get there with a long layover in NYC. I was an hour late leaving Houston but I still went to Midtown and met my cousin and her husband for dinner. It was an excellent restaurant and good to see them. With the hour delay it was a bit rushed so now I had to take a taxi back to the airport and onward to Toronto.

I met up with the three of them in a great Belgium pub smack downtown and it was a fun (and late) night. With a foggy head the next day we walked around for a bit and landed at the Kensington Market (and did not get me a fish to fry) but it was a great day with perfect weather.

It was funny because we decided it would be a grand idea to have a nap so in Denise’s temporary condo that is also smack downtown we put ourselves down for a group nap. And a lovely nap it was.

Showers for everyone and we were off for more of the finest beer the Toronto can make. Ed met up with an ex colleague of his and it was more of the same. Another foggy head and I was back to the airport for a long trip home. It was a very expensive bender but well worth it. Very nice to see old friends.

Onward,

Funky Graffiti in Toronto.  

First trip to Mexico

At the ripe old age at 48 I made my first trip to Mexico. It wasn't really high on my list but I did think about going to see the migration of the monarch butterflies but my buddy Darin emailed about the whale sharks that we near the Cancun Area. Isla Mujeured to be specific.

So three days later were we in Mexico. It was basically Cancun that had no particular appeal for me but I was really looking forward to seeing the sharks. I remember driving from the airport with all the shiny resorts and American influences if there would be any great Mexican food.

As we went over the trip and rules of being in the water we had the added bonus of seeing some very large manta rays. After a 45 minute choppy boat ride we arrives and there were sharks everywhere. We think we saw at least 30 whales and 20 rays. Both species are baleem  feeds and take in a lot of sea water and filter out the plankton. The average size of a shark is about 13 meters and 21 tons. Just amazing to be that close to so many. They are almost harmless to humans. The rays were very graceful to be around as well.

The next day was quiet with us renting a golf cart and went to a turtle hatchery. I basically live on a turtle beach in Nicaragua but still like to see them.

I don't think I would ever go back to Mexico just to go visit a resort but there are lots of interesting

things to do there.

The Creignish Dan C's

A couple of years ago I researched my family tree in Scotland (Hebrides)and found the entire process to be fascinating. Really glad I went and did it. My uncle gave me this picture so I thought I should scan it lest it get lost in some moving shuffles. The thick gent sitting down (not sure what happened to me) is my grandfather, Dan C and the little tyke to his right is my father Black Angus. We are known as the Dan C's. You need to distinguish yourself from the next family because there are so many similar names. And the first thing any Cape Bretoner is going to ask is WHATSYERFAAATHERNAME so you generally attache your father's name to you.