Meet Rueben

This is the friendliest stray dog I have ever seen. He hangs around our office and is somewhat skittish but I think he trusts three of us. The Journey Manager feeds him as do the Office Admin Manager and myself. She (Office Admin) has name in Reuben and it seems to have stuck. I think he is less that a year old and has a lot of puppy qualities. He is very docile and loves to petted and scratched. Considering he is feral and can be a risky business but he is really nice and gentle. He will actually and sit and give you his paw now. So I think he speaks English and Kurdish.

And good news for Reuben, Liz is a resident and I think she and her husband are going to take Reuben. I will dog sit when they go on vacation.

 

I don't look for trouble, it finds me or so the cliche goes. Actually I am not in trouble at all but I have Iranians pissed at me. This is their response when I said I would not be paying anything after I inquired about a visa. This is only inquiring.

When the two people that read my blog get wind of this there will be trouble. This is going to harm Iran's we are not an arsehole nation campaign.

Having an open unpaid visa application affects your consular files. Please arrange the payment for the service fee urgently. We need to report the matter to the related authorities in not receiving the service fee and the time is too short, so you will be solely responsible for the corresponding consequences. Hope you can understand carefully.

I think its the Harper Government pissing off the Iranians. I remember years ago when Iran and Iraq were always in the news and one wag said they should combine the two nations and call it Irate. 

Onward,

Maps that explain the world (Thanks Dave)

Maps that Explain the World




One can dream

 

My new favorite thing



Yes, this is my title





How can I keep (obtain) a girlish figure if they have bakalva stations.



I could get my phone to email so this is a picture of a picture. But not the time for a wrong turn

Mosque on the way to work



100m
Road



Mosque at night

Boring Picture but contstruction is everywhere here

Miley Cyrus

Can someone please tell Miley Achy Breaky Cyrus to feck off. I remember years ago I was in a small village in Cambodia. They were basically nomads that followed fish migration in the Mekong Delta. No electricity or running water and the kids were actually touching my skin because I was the first whitety that the young ones had seen. They only place that sold anything was a little hut and sure enough the were selling Hanna Montana shite.

Now years later in Erbil, Iraq that little rat faced d bag is still all over the news. Well after her little twerking stint I am no longer using my Hana Montana backpack.

And I am not making this up. I didn't know what twerking was. I thought it was a new form or tweeting.

And when I first moved to Texas I didn't know what was a brisket was. It the most dumb ass sort of logic I thought it was like a biscuit because biscuit rhymes with brisket. I am sure that sort of deductive reasoning will serve me well somewhere.

This always interested me for some reason. To think someone in the music industry did something sleazy.
And I added the Feck's sake but I don't why I added the apostrophe but I don't know how to change it. FECKS SAKE.

John Fogerty charged with plagiarizing himself. Feck's sake

This development is owned by friends in Nicaragua. Please buy a unit.


http://www.seadreamresort.com

This is a link to my dump in Houston. Please buy it.

I still have been able to get out and see much at this point. Being a rotator is 7 days a week and long hours but hopefully soon.


Management and Security are concerned about the local drivers and the amount of death on the roads is atrocious. I have not seen a traffic cop/police officer/army officer yet. I guess being that it is Iraq they have other things to be concerned with. I think the local drivers realize this and there is not much deterrence from reckless driving. I find it bad but I think Yemen was a lot worse.

Elections came and went without any problems and surprisingly no gun fire. The PM is trying to crack down on the amount of guns here, with AK 47’s being quite popular but I haven’t seen any of these either. (nope, see below)

The weather had changed quite a bit in the last 30 days. Mornings and evenings are civilized and I don’t really get out during the day.

I think by the time I get back from my rotation off we will have moved into our new offices and new apartments. Yippee.

Our new office will be in the new and modern area called Empire which I also think will be the Energy Corridor. Open and modern concept for the office where even the In-Country Manager will not have an office but there are many meeting room and smaller rooms for quiet times. Wait that sounds like a time out. Break out rooms to discuss covert activities (Just kidding NSA pricks and Kurdish Secret Police.)

http://www.empireiraq.com/

As I have said before, working in Iraq is a hardship posting and to further illustrate this we went for sushi and I didn’t like any of the 10 beer choices and the wine I would say was good but lacked any type of bold character that a man of my station has come to expect. What Fresh Hell is this…

A rewarding experience in Yemen was when one of the contractors were hired full time by Nexen. The pay, benefits, accommodations and food were so much better from being a contractor. They deserved and earned everything they received but the sheer elation was nice to see. Not the same here but they are happy to get on with an oil company and TAQA treats its people well as far as I can see.

Car Bombings

It was the first time in 6 years that there was violence in Erbil, 5 car bombs throughout the city with plans for me. I think the Kurdistan security thwarted the rest of the bad guys. The targets were government intuitions and not expats or oil companies. Security is tight around the city now with checks everywhere. Ignore paragraph 3 and I had to set the timer back to 10 car bomb free days. There were 5 car bombs throughout the city last week and I think I mini bus packed to the gunnels with explosives but the Kurdish security caught the bad guys an “extracted” more information for further arrests. Other than tighter security and no more sushi it didn’t really affect us that much.



Now I am not making this up. I was in a shopping center and saw a chap walking to towards me wearing a vest. No I am thinking fecks sake this could be how I go, a suicide bomber and being perforated by ball bearings. Turned out it was just a vest but I think they should ban them in this part of the world. So being the youngest master cadet in Canada in 1982, I put my training to use and mocked his fashion sense for wearing a vest in the first place.



Working here is pretty much like anything job in many ways, busy with accounting stuff but my boss knows me well enough to keep me way from the financial accounting stuff and I am focusing on management accounting stuff. And if you a recruiter reading this that is not sure I am as equally well versed in Financial and Managements accounting (coughing bullshit).

Flights are booked and I arrive in Houston November 7th and onward to Nicaragua November 16th for 10 days. Yeehaw.