No.378 Of Water in Abundance & Short Supply

Day 2 and youngen is exhausted and is asleep in our room upstairs as I type this blog and ignore the last call to prayer of the day from the Mosque next door.

In truth we're both pretty tired and so's our driver Ibriham. For today we all did the length of Jordan top to bottom via the Dead Sea.

It was especially hard work for Ibi baby because it's Ramadam and he's fasting at the moment. This means he told us "No water, no food, no cigarettes and no of the other business between sunrise and sunset". By lunchtime today he confessed to feeling tired and weak which is why I kept a careful eye on him as he navigated his way first through the plains, then the desert then the mountain passes with huge drops either side between the Dead Sea and Petra.

It was hard too though for youngen and I because for much of the journey to keep himself awake he was listening to the same one tape of music. It sounded like a Jordanian Nana Mascouri in an awful lot of pain and the last 200 kilometres felt very very long.

It was 45 degrees today at the Dead Sea. Youngen and I must have sank at least 8 litres of water between us so how our guide managed the whole day without a drop I do not now. May be he's a human camel or something. Tomorrow I'll check for a hump on his back. He did stop near to the spot where allegedly Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and soaked himself in water. I watched carefully to see if his tongue would come out to catch a precious drop of water while he thought no-one was watching but he didn't. Such discipline.

It's 8p.m. time to wake youngen go get some grub and treat Ibriham to a long slow drink.

No.377 Of Tintin and Travel

Wow! Our first full day in Syria and what a belter it turned out to be. We started by getting on the wrong bus to Bosra. Bosra is a Unesco world heritage site going back to 2AD not to be confused with Basra in Iraqi which doesn't really do tourists at the moment.
We hurtled out of Damascus at breakneck speed sharing our rickety old mini bus with 4 sacks of chickpeas, 3 hens and an awful lot of locals. One of them, called Joseph, looked straight out of a Tintin novel (Land of Black Gold if my memory serves me right) mighty shady looking but friendly and even a tad over helpful. He took great pains to explain that the driver needed all names of passengers "in case of crash and he tell you Fader". This is more information than we needed as the bus flies in and out of cars sometimes with heavy swerves as bigger buses sound their horns and right of way at even greater speeds. After an hour's travel all passengers are leaning forward onto the seat rest in front sleeping or possibly praying. Nephew David finds this journey novel, amusing, entertaining and a great story for the family at home. Uncle Barry finds it uncomfortable, claustrophobic, irritating and unnecessarily dangerous.

We arrive and I haggle with Mohammed a shop dweller for a full five minutes over the price of a Arabian head scarf. I knock him down a full 50 pence and we shake hands before going for a coffee where he tells me that he has one wife but is looking for another. The first he assures me cost him 25,500 Syrian pounds (about $800). "How much they cost in England?" he asked. I explained you don't really pay for a wife in England. "Ah then next one I get from England for free" he blagged with eyes turning huge and excited.

Tomorrow we head for Jordan and Petra. Our Hotel is wonderful but one of us at least will be glad to leave. Perched as it is between a mosque and a church David claimed to have slept little between bells sounding at 6.30a.m. this morning, the call to prayer at 7a.m. and someone's snoring. An eclectic treat for the lug holes if ever there was one if you ask me.....

No.376 Of Greatnesss in All its Forms

We had a really busy day yesterday at Legal-Island. It was the day of the great Legal-Island Antrim river clean up. In less than two hours we had fished out of our local river in a space not much longer than 100 metres three shopping trolleys, 2 bikes, half a T.V or something similar and goodness know how many bottles of beer. The local Mayor came along to lend her support although this seemed to be expressed more in the way she posed for photographs rather than help us lug the rubbish to where it had to go. But hey ho I suppose you can't let the ceremonial chain get dirty.

After the clean up we rushed back to the office for the great Legal-Island business barbecue. It started at 12.30p.m. and by 6p.m. people were still arriving. Pictured above are the Antrim Earlybird swimmers who came to partake in the great Legal-Island buffet table clean up. In the last photo Bruce explains the intricacies of car booting to conference manager Heather Stewart who had already had a hard day.

Altogether a great day at the office....

No.375 Of the Great Antrim River Clean Up

We have the great Antrim river clean-up today when Legal-Island staff hit the local river with waders and bags to relieve it of all the rubbish that has accumulated over the past few weeks, months and even years.

At least that's how it should have been but alas circumstances have intervened. We've been told by the council that we have to have the right gear, an outdoor company with us that has an expertise in river safety plus a certificate of insurance proving we have more than £5 million cover in case something were to go wrong.

I wonder if in amongst all the litter today we will find reams of red tape?

No.374 Of Funny Tasting Tea and what it means

I've decided for me swimming is like green tea. It doesn't matter how much I try and convince myself that I like it I don't.

Every bit of this morning's swim was a chore. The getting up for it. The drive in. The changing. The cold shower. The dunk in the pool. The 34 lengths.

On Friday of this week Legal-Island is competing against another firm in a "triathlon" of events including Rounders, Badminton and possibly Hockey. May be one of these will light a fire for me and will mean the end of early morning swims followed by rotten tasting tea.

Here's hoping...

No.373 Of the Rain & Radiators

I hardly slept night because of the heat and the noise. You see one was very much connected to the other. I had the heating on all night in an attempt to dry the plaster in my new extension in the hope it can be painted before I go on holiday. Unfortunately the radiator right next to my bed can't be turned down so it was on a full pelt. So I opened the window and listened to the pouring rain. Soothing though it is it doesn't help you sleep and it does tend to have you up in the night and looking for the small room more than you would otherwise.

Still I guess the heat is good practice for the holidays. Let's hope I'll not be listening to any rain day time or night.....

No.372 Of Swimming & Souks

I swam my statutory 34 lengths of the pool this morning. It was going so well that by length 17 I thought I try a couple of tumble turns. Somehow I managed to rotate 360 degrees and ended up swimming headlong into the end of the pool both times. Not only that but there were so many bubbles going on it looked liked there had been a piranha attack. More practice methinks.

I'm now in count down mode for the holidays. 14 days of relaxation and sunshine. Yes! Can't wait. I wonder if Damascus has its own version of the Antrim Swimming Pool and if I can swim my half mile before a day in the Souks and sightseeing. No doubt I'll know soon enough.