Frankie's Adventures and Misadventures : Oman 0 Cyprus 1

And So it Ends

When I left Yemen I was going to take some time off but after a few conversations with my boss at the time he had convinced me to go to Houston. I was basically indifferent if not opposed to the idea at first but I ended working and living there for almost two years.

I was actually planning on going to Saudi Arabia to work to the point where I actually had the ticket but a rotation job came up with a company where my old boss as the Director of Finance. My direct boss was a chap from Nova Scotia and went to the same university as I did but I think I graduated one year before him.

A one-year contract ended up to be 3.5 years and I am now in the Erbil airport flying out on my last hitch. It was another great 3.5 years of rotating with time in Erbil and time in Abu Dhabi. Start-ups are always a lot of work and long, long hours. TAQA was no different but I think as I leave such a different place to work.

It was pretty much a normal job with normal rotating hours as I left. I think we accomplished a lot as a department and now I suspect that they will accomplish a lot more now that I am gone.

My ex boss’s wife reads this blog so holy feck was I busy my last week. If she does not read it I was not busy at all. I just had to be available for my national replacement so my last was pretty easy.

A nice send off with a really nice carpet that I will add to my collection and they are kind enough to send it to Colombia so I do not have to haul it around on this trip.

Also a cool cake (see pictures) as well. So very thankful to have another 3.5 years of work and rotation. And I finally made in to the Mosque that is Grand and the Palace that is Emirates my last night in Abu Dhabi thanks to Awat Yasin.

My plan is/was to take some time off to travel but now my aging body is just saying to take some time off.

So now a 16-hour day to get from Erbil to Muscat.

In all the years I have worked in the Middle East and mostly next door in Yemen I had no particular interest in seeing Oman. There is no particular reason just other places I wanted to see. Perhaps with that sentiment I should consider a job in the Omani Tourism industry. But now despite the 16 hours of “being so close” I decided to finally pay a visit. And pay you do, it is expensive with the Omani dollar 2.6 to the USD so a strong currency. I want to check out the Empty Quarter but it is prohibitively expensive to do it along so hopefully I can meet up with some people once I get there. I am thinking about renting a 4 wheel drive and doing it myself but I more or less see this as driving to my death so I will need to see.

Ok some dude just asked me to watch his bag and he leaves. Two thoughts are racing through my head. It is an explosive device and now I will become a CNN ticket stat. 20 killed including one Canadian. The other thought is how does he know that I am not the type that his bag needs protection from. Must be my angelic, non-threatening features.

For the first time ever I am using a Mac Computer. I am still learning how to use it but at this point the best that I can say is that it is light. I am learning as I go but after so many years on Windows it is new for sure.

Update – I have been watching the bag for two minutes now and no explosions and I have not stolen anything. Ok he is back, if I go he goes.

And now I have a mother pissed at me. I sneezed (loudly) and scared the baby Jesus out of a little girl. Both are giving me the stink eye. Reminds of the Far Side cartoon…

1/16/2017

And that is now my trip to Oman became my trip to Cyprus. I had lots of time in the Istanbul airport to catch a flight to Oman. As it was getting time to board there was no announcement as to what gate. Now it was getting really close and still no announcement. With all the chaos in the Istanbul airport it seems more people are missing flights as they are making them. So when mob rule cornered a Gulf air worker he said the flight will not be going out tonight. Next flight had terrible connections which only give me a 5 days in Oman and there was wasn’t really much I could do other than Muscat so I decided to go to Europe’s warmest destination in January which is Cyprus.

Great people, warmer weather, great food, great beer and wine, women ignoring my advances. A typical trip for me.

Shame on me as well. I was in Istanbul for two days and pretty much stayed around the airport and did a lot of nothing (but I have been there several times). I did however find something useful from Facebook. There was a snippet on wolves that were introduced to Yellowstone Park and the amazing positive impact they have on the environment and ecosystem so now I am just about finished a book called the Decade of the Wolf. I know, I know. I still need to finish my 2800 page book on Alexander Hamilton.

Highlights of Cyprus thus far is the food, Kolossi Castle built my favorite support to the Crusaders, which of course are the Knights Hospitallers.

It seems a bit strange to be cross over into another country while staying in the same city. No, I did not hop in a time machine and go to Berlin in 1980’s (or before of course). The Turkish side of Cyprus is only recognized by Turkey as a sovereign nation but you need to show your passport to get to the Turkish side and it really seems like you entered Turkey again. You walk through no mans land and immediately the language, religion, food, and culture changes. Nicosia is known as the World’s last divided Capital just in case you expect to be on Jeopardy anytime soon.

1/16/2017

Toilets

My sensei would be pissed if he knew I was bragging about anything but he doesn’t read this blog so boast away Frankie. I really believe I had an elite skill for lifting up toilet seats with my right foot. Let’s assume Cyprus is the 100^th or so country that I have visited do let’s assume that I have lifted up toilet seats in a 100 or so countries. I have it down to about 1 second with a 98.76% success rate. Some are designed wrong and will always drop will others are not affixed to the base. So please check out my new posting on Wikihow.

Onward,