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Lovely weekend back home, including lunch at Jasmin's cafe...finally got over the jet lag...just in time for a 17 hour flight further west to Malaysia...eeughh..when is someone going to invent a teleportation machine??

Mornin Drive

Post Ike and all is calm again on my last day in H'town for a while

And then...

Possibly another highlight of my life...all power was still out on sunday...except an english themed pub next to my hotel, they had electricity, air conditioning, free internet, food and beer...i tell you kids, its the simple things in life that we should never take for granted....so i spent 9 hours on sunday working (nothing else to do) and drinking Guinness...totally totally happy

actually worked here monday as well as work had no power

still no power at my hotel as of tuesday night, but have moved to one that has.

a few things to notice in the aftermath of a natural disaster like this...i am in awe of the people here...i have listened a lot to local radio, and it warms your heart to see how folks have gotten through this. there are no traffic lights in the city..and lets not forget, this is the 4th largest city in the whole of america, with 5 million, and the driving is so courteous, everyone waits and lets people go at lights, its a sight to see. and you know what, crime rates are actually down from normal levels, maybe after Katrina when looting was so evident and sickening, but crime is actually down, (read Freakanomics), neighbours are helping eachother, and generally people cant do enough for you, i had numerous offers to stay with people...have to say im impressed.

and at the the end of the day...it has been an experience...weird to say a good one, but it has been interesting, and is another story to tell, surely thats what life is all about no?...stories to tell

First 'signs' of life...(think about it)

as i neared my hotel...i saw a single neon sign and people...real human beings congregating...and the only place open in the whole of north houston?...an indian take away!...there is a god ladies and gentlemen...heartened and happy i went back to my hotel room (using ironically the torch that was part of my welcome to texas present) and ate a bad chiken tikka by torchlight...best dinner ive ever had

Aftermath

saturday i went back to my hotel, only to find the power still off, hungry and tired i went in search of food and water...eventually found a supermarket that was 'open'. after queing for 20 mins just to get IN, i entered a dimly lit and eerie sight of a half empty supermarket. i was actually lucky as they stopped letting people in just behind me. i picked up whatever food i could find and wasnt tinned or needed cooking and went back to my hotel. now, no traffic lights or street lights were working so it was dark and pretty strange. hungry, tired and bemused i drove back to my dark hotel...then a strange sight ensued...out of the blackness appeared...

Houston

This picture actually scares me, and brings home how bad this hurricane was. Houston was actually a direct hit, not long after this picture was taken. somewhere under that swirl was me drinking red wine and waiting...

Other pictures of Ike

The morning after the night before

have you ever seen the film 28 days later? houston was like a ghost town on the saturday...many many trees down, floods and total carnage. it could have been worse to be fair, but this was the worst hurricane to hit houston in many many many many years...i took these, but will put a few internet photos on in a sec.

Ike

to be fair, the house was pretty sheltered in a cul-de-sac so we never got the full brunt...but eventually Ike hit. one true postcard moment was looking over the balcony at 3am, with a cigar and on the ipod and battery powered speakers came Bob Dylans 'Blowin in the wind'...i tell ya it was sheer poetry...a beautiful moment in the midst of armageddon

Power-less

we lost all power around 10.30 friday night...and as i write this in a new hotel on tuesday night...it is still out in 75% of houston

...and we wait...

10pm ish...and the red wine removes ALL fear

Waiting for Ike

and we wait..and wait...Ike was due to hit around 2am...real shame it was in the dark actually. by this point we were ashamedly excited

Hurricane Ike Party

so, there are 3 ways you can treat a hurricane, 1. evacuate, 2. hide in a room with no window, 3 party hard and take it full on...and as NONE of us had experienced a full one, and all were ex pats...we decided to have a hurricane party. went with Nikki and a few of her friends to a friends of hers house...which started with the obligatory bbq. note, the yellow thing on the right of the bbq was a gas canister lighter and actually exploded minutes after this photo...we were nearly the first casualties of hurricane ike

'Hunkering Down'

new phrase to learn is 'hunkered down', which is staying during the hurricane and riding it out. went downtown with my friend Nikki and a few of her mates, thursday night we went to the pub, and played wii, we decided not to evacuate houston as we had no where to go...and i guess none of us had been through a hurricane and was mildly curious, and mildly naive of what it entails...the tv was 24 hours of full on coverage, and we began to see the devastation it was creating in Galveston, just 60 miles away on the coast

Hurricane preparations

Work closed on Thursday lunchtime to give people (5 million) time to evacuate houston, with the impending hurricane Ike due friday night...i guess many many lessons were learned from Katrina 3 years ago. Water being one of the most valuable commodities...the supoermarket was sold ouyt by the time i got there thursday afternoon

Welcome party

Strangely and conversely from my 3 person leaving 'party' from work in Norway, i took some of my houston team out for dinner on my first day in the office (others were away), and the contrast was wholly evident. we had such a lovely evening...i added to my collection of weird food consumption by adding Aligator to my repetoir...i kid you not..it tastes like chicken...which begs the question...

anyway, they bought my loads and loads of welcome to texas presents...highlights being:
cowboy hat (bit small), texas towel, chewing tobacco, spittoon...my very own spittoon!, a texas porcelain bell?? a road map of houston, stationary (???) and a hurricane survival kit...a bit of a joke, but included a couple of torches/flashlights, and a map of how you can track hurricanes...you get the co ordinates off the tv and can colour your own map in...and as jovial as it all was, i was incredibly incredibly touched...the presents were all jokey ones...but i guess they didnt realise how, after norway, how much that all meant to me...and...well, lets just leave it at the fact that i was very very touched and not go any further than that (especially after a glass of red wine)...lovely lovely people the texans, and am incredibly lucky to have a great team out here...

Houston

Not officially moved yet, but am stateside for 2 weeks to set up office and try and find a home...ah the week started so smoothly...hot hot temperatures though, and a rumour of an impending hurricane...

Home, home on the range

i love going home... i really do, and against the backdrop of a lonesome leaving of norway, coming home was very much the opposite. it was my brothers fiances birthday dinner with my mum and bro, so literally off the plane in nottingham, i hightailed up to sheffield to catch the dessert, which was lovely (seeing family, not the dessert...that was a bit 'doughy' truth be told). it made it all that bit more special seeing people when i got home. strangely also, Weeble were playing an acoustic gig in Junktion 7 of all places, in nottingham that very same evening, which meant wandering into the bar, just to have missed the gig, but as ever, most of my good friends were there, so it was beers and welcome home hugs all around...cannot tell you how nice that was...it felt very much like home. the rest of the weekend was spent at home with ryan tock and lucy, talking, watching tv on the sofa and eating chinese, going out for dinner, and meeting more friends...some real good friends, and even making new ones as well...i even caught a sheffield united game with some very very good and very very old friends simon and bob, and even got to meet bobs wife and 66% of simons kids...almost a perfect weekend really

Leaving Las Oslo...

Strange post to write really...am currently holed up in a hotel room in Houston, and although i only left norway last week, it seems like a million years ago. again, i always feel leaving a country should be a monumental and memorable experience which some final grande send off...invariably it isn't, the practical side of packing, getting the apartment cleaned and inspected, wondering why you didnt buy that extra suitcase, wondering why you have so so much useless stuff that never sees the light of day, handing back keys, cars and such sundries take away any romantic MTV notions of leaving a place. i remember my last night in tokyo was the same, so much so that i couldnt even be bothered to leave my hotel room that night. theres no fanfare, no tearful goodbyes, no 16 piece orchestra on the platform, no mayor shaking your hand as you leave...and in fact in this occasion, no one actually seeing you off at all, its just cramming things in suitcases, struggling up stairs with them, finding a seat on a crowded train and heading off into the sunset alone, feeling somewhat...numb? indifferent? whereas i was desperate not to leave malaysia or japan, it was different with norway. i was ready to leave. norway is a great place, perhaps the most stunningly beautiful place on the planet and ive met some fantastic people, but there is a certain coldness to the place, and not just because half of lies within the arctic circle. there are some wonderful people there, but norwegians can be quite a introverted, almost elitist bunch of people, and can appear to be quite rude to an outsider i guess...obviously this wild generalisation does not apply to all...but i have spoken to my norwegian friends about this and they can also see this and agree with this assessment. its a very family orientated country which is no bad thing, but for a single guy moving to a place alone, its not easy to become ingratiated...maybe its just me...i dunno. oslo is also quite a relatively small place, with 90% of the things to do based around the mountains and outdoors which, dont get me wrong, is great, but you can run out of things to do at a weekend. i once read an article on 'ex pats', which described the ups and downs of emotions in living abroad. the first 3 months you get homesick, then you get the novelty phase where everything is great, then you get homesick again, followed by life aborad becoming the norm, then certain things start to irk you and you get frustrated etc...i think the last few months i entered the latter stage, and was becoming a bit frustrated with it, and small things began to annoy me...hence, in reading this back in a few months i may be being a bit harsh on the place and people, but at the moment if norway was a celebrity, i would say that it was Paris Hilton...very attractive, very blonde, but lacking any real depth or interest, and can be extremely annoying...again though...im sure my feeling will change in a few months.
great things about norway are though: the snow, the architecture, the outdoors lifestyle, the moutnains, the fjords, the general aesthetics of it all, some good friends.
the not so great things: the cost of living, the perceived unfriendliness of the place, the fact that you cant buy wine from anywhere except govt owned shops, the fact you cant buy a double shot, but you can buy two singles and add them together yourself, the fact you cant buy alcohol after 6pm apart from in bars,

ah, im being harsh, i love norway actually, it is an amazing place, and you will struggle to find anywhere as beautiful in the world. i will be returning occasionally to work and visit, and i will genuinely look forward to those visits, but im done living there. Norway: tick

and so...home to the uk for a wee while