might as well

[silax]

ok here's my blog
just about to start a new chapter in my life so might as well do this and see how it goes.
don't think this will be half as interesting as merlins and my literary talent devinatly isn't.
will start it from thursday.
sept 6th.
left spain for the unforseen future with mega hangover from 4 am drinking session. check in at valencia airport for the 14:45 to newcastle 18:30 still sitting in valencia airport looking for somewhere to have a ciggy. 22:00 arrive in newcastle almost 10 hours without nigotene. ring mate up for lift and straight to bed.
sept 7th friday
decide to go and sort out my flight to dubia on the 13th had a problem booking it as emirate airlines don't take visa debit bookings on-line now i don't use credit cards so i have to ring them up from spain to book the flight and because i can't book on-line with visa debit its an extra £65.
but for some reason they can't process my card over the phone so i have a reservation but its unpaid.
so i get my brother to take me to the airport decided not to drive in uk ever again (see rant). my brother is a bit stingy so in newcastle airports you get the first 10 mins parking free. every 10 mins he leaves airport in his new beamer and drives back in.
at the emirates desk a really nice camp person sorts out my problem and when i explain the extra £65 he gives me the original price but unfortunatly his card machine will not take my visa debit card either so i have to go to the bank and pay by cash. off to the bank back to the airport and my brothers doing circuts again for an hour while i have breakfast that will teach him for being such a tight ass.
ticket is sorted :wiggle:
borrow a playstation 2 off brother to keep me out of bars and discover no cd's in any of the boxes. that will teach me for pissing my brother off.
spend evenning in bars don't really know anybody so have a half in each one then a beef madras on my own talk to the waiter about ramadam still non the wiser on ramadam.
get home look through playstation boxs again switch internet on have sex with myself go to bed.

[buddhabee]

I have a feeling this blog is gonna be good :) :laugh

[MattR]

switch internet on have sex with myself go to bed.


Too much info :laugh

[silax]

saturday 8th
woke up switched internet on had early morning sex with myself.
mate rings me haven't seen him for a few years so meet in a bar at 13:30 telll him my life story over a few beers decide to go home get freshed up for saturday night. find out last bus home was 16:40 ;fire back to pub ring mate to pick me up :thumbs no time for freshing up now stright to bar meet more mates one of them just come back from dubia talked a bit about it explained all about ramadam i think :splapme
got a lamb madras and popadoms to take away.
woke up with yellow fingers no wiser about ramadam

[mathare]

Next time you switch the internet on, google ramadam before looking at other stuff. You may be in for a slight surprise...

[bigcumba]

You may be in for a slight surprise...

Yep, especially the bit where they do the blood sacrifice on the nearest white bloke they can find....

[silax]

Next time you switch the internet on, google ramadam before looking at other stuff. You may be in for a slight surprise...
hmmm would appear i can't smoke during day time hours what a silly religeon :)

[silax]

sunday 9th sept
a day for contemplation had a look on the intenet about ramadan now anybody who knows me quite well will know about my flying problem ever since 9/11 i've had dreams about plane crashs and me being in the fookers so far i've survived 4 but i'm getting used to crashing now and pretty well know the feeling you're gonna experience if it happens. my first came while on a holiday in portugal about 3 days after the event anyway to cut a long story short i was sitting in the airport waiting to come home and got chatting to some bird about 9/11 (that was all anyone was talking about at the time) she was saying how worried she was and all that so i said you can't be as worried as me i dreamt about my plane crashing the other night i'm still not sure if she actually got on the plane as that seemed to end our conversation and any chance of getting into the mile high club. which brings me to another thought dose self-pleasure count as qualification to that elusive club if so i'm fullly paid up.
anyway back to me thinking about ramadan now terrorists have a nack of doing things on special days and the start of ramadam is quite special i'm starting to worry about flying to dubia on the 13th now.
went out for sunday lunch with 2 vegitarians mine wasn't to good but looked a 100% better then what they were eating had 1 pint and came back from pub found a game for play station medal of honour rising sun played that for the rest of the day/night haven't got a memory card so will have to start again from the beginning today.
an old friend got in touch as well apparently now he's suffering from depression and is threatening to call over sometime this week that should be a bundle of laughs.
starting to wonder what my new maid will look like really hope i have to supply the uniform almost as much as i hope she's philipeno.
went to bed happy and didn't dream about plane crashes.

[silax]

whoops sorry about the spelling mat
thought i'd post this link its a song i found on utube which is great for playing loud just before you go out don't know if it ever made the uk charts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vemCgz0utsk

[vegyjones]

ever since 9/11 i've had dreams about plane crashs and me being in the fookers

It's not crashing you want to worry about, it's being blown up at 30,000 feet that you should be worried about! :ooo

[silax]

monday 11th sept
worked out how to keep my place on playstation without memory card just leave it on 24/7.
had mince pie and chips for dinner from the chippy. played on playstation most of the day had 4 chocolate bars and a packet of chrisp for my tea.
getting really bored now but only 2 more days till i fly to dubai. had 5 pints and quite a good night in the local bars took a beef madras home with me.
had a game of poker didn't play very well and finished up as bubble boy :(
gave new girlfriend a ring she's not at her best at 5 am.
went to bed

[silax]

i think but not sure that this is my new home for the next couple of years
http://www.goldensandsdubai.com/

[silax]

tuesday 11th sept
very bored doing quite well with medal of honour been reading up about dubai on internet and joined a forum for expats. found a shepards pie in the freezer so thats todays dinner. don't think anything interesting is gonna happen today and still sitting in my dressing gown.
might have a few games of poker this afternoon.

[silax]

wedensday 12th
have upset people on ex-pat forum they can't get there heads around someone moving over there who's only knowledge of the place is the exchange rate and i had to ask for that.
is dubia ready for silax will find out soon enough.
my depressed mate called around spent an hour telling me how crap his life is. well i couldn't really see what his problems were but then again depression is a funny thing. now if it had been peza sitting there talking to me i could understand 3 jobs trying to make ends meet and supporting manure. but this guy has a nice familly no morgagte on a nice house nice car and solvent. like i say depression is a funny thing hope i never catch it.
played a few games of poker was too excited about dubia to concentrate and some lucky sods got my cash today.
went out to watch footy owens performs had me thinking if only he'd been fit for the last 2 years newcastle could have won there first title for donkeys.
met 2 mates one interestinlly enough had just spent the last 6 years in dubai got drunk and for some reason took a chinese home instead of the beef madras. woke up and no yellow fingers not sure why
booked taxi to airport going early gonna have a huge english breaky in airport. start of ramamdam today so not sure how this will effect in flight meals.
this could be my last post for a bit as i haven't got internet sorted over there and might take a month or so to get sorted.
so good luck to everyone in there gambling hope peza wins the lottery. hope my plane dosen't crash and really hope new girlfriend is waiting for me at airport.

[silax]

waiting for taxi now my bags packed and all set to go.
which brought me around to thinking about masterbating i've decided today i'm gonna renew my membership to the mile high club i've got about 30 mins before the taxi arrives so i'm gonna do a quick pole

[silax]

haven't got time and don't know how to set up the pole so this is the question most poular reply wins
which country should i masterbate over my choice is france but i'll let the people decide most votes gets my load

[wb]

Best of Luck Eddie. Hope you get to go to the Dubai World Cup sometime :thumbs

[silax]

i've always wanted to do it over sunderland but the remove seat belts sign has never gone out in time

[silax]

cheers wayne thats in my diary of things to do along with the gp out there as i'll miss the valencia one now

[silax]

well so far france has it with 1 vote ooolala

[Win2Win]

Have a DUMP over France :D

[silax]

taxi is gonna be here very soon so unless there is a major swing it'll be a crap and a pull over france

[silax]

Have a DUMP over France :D
i think the jocks already beat me to that one last night

[lowe1]

ramadams not to bad in dubai, the supermarkets are still open.
all cafes and resturants are closed during the day but open at 7pm and the bars are open everynight the good thing is they stay open an extra 2 hrs duye to ramadam so we can carry on drinking till 3am not 1am

[Win2Win]

He's having problems....the forum is blocked.....and he's had a hand cut-off as insurance that he doesn't gamble :laugh

[lowe1]

the good thing is william hill have changed their web address to willhill.co.uk and its not blocked yet so there is a betting site we can use :)

i have a proxy for him so he can use win2win but he told me he will be without internet for a week or so

[silax]

27th october
at last thanks to keith managed to find a way round the arab filters woohoo should be around again most of the time got loads to write in here but first got to catch up on all the porn i've missed
lots of rep going keiths way

[Win2Win]

:Helooo If you want to know how to break laws, just ask a scouser :D

How's the luv ::hump life?

[bigcumba]

How's the luv ::hump life?


first got to catch up on all the porn i've missed

I think that answered that question Keith :laugh

[silax]

having a couple of probs here again whoevers internet i've hacked into needs to stop downloading music mines running ever so slow

[silax]

aprox 399 bits per second

[Win2Win]

having a couple of probs here again whoevers internet i've hacked into needs to stop downloading music mines running ever so slow

:laugh I had that problem piggy-backing in the Singapore hotels.

[Merlin]

Welcome back ...Eddie....watch you dont go blind...mate.....:yikes:

[silax]

ok i'll try and fill in most of whats happened to me since i left uk
thursday 13th got taxi to airport very early as i wanted full english breakfast at the airport before flying cafe and resturants all shut so made do with 4 sausage rolls from greggs and 20 ciggys. now i don't know about anybody else but when i am ever checking in to fly anywhere i always have a lookout for any asian type people on the same plane as me (need to work out a full attack stratergy just in case)
decide i'm completly outnumbered and knackered if any nutters are on my plane.
say goodbye to ciggys for the next 10 hours or so and board the plane.
congrats to emerate airlines best i've ever flown on got a seat next to the window with plenty of leg room now i'm sitting there waiting to take off and the planes only half full and the stewadess tells everybody there are loads of spare seats if anybody wants to take advantage of 4 together in the middle isle and have a bed for the flight i dclined the offer as i had 2 seats all to myself and made myself very comfortable. just about to take off and a last minute passenger gets on and plonks herself next to me :(
she's quite cute korean student on her way home so i can live with that self tickeling over france can wait if i play my cards right i'm gonna get the full membership here.
next 7 hours try to make conversation and she hardly says a thing to me untill we land.
plane lands nice and safley thank allah for that one and get off now this is the first time i've ever been to dubai the airport is huge and like a maze very confusing place takes forever to get through passport control but i made it using my tried and trusted sheep method.
outside the airport its like being in bombay just like the indian films now i'm crapping myself here cos the sheep method isn't gonna work and i'm gonna have to be a goat which i'm crap at.
no sign of new girlfriend (she's fallen asleep stupid bitch)i seem to have a million indian eyes looking at me i've got no cash no phone but 60 ciggys so no real panic.
20 minutes later girlfriend arrives and takes me home :)
end of day

[silax]

well september passed with a few incidents but don't have time to tell you about most of them.
to cut a long story short blew all available cash on xmas hols in india flying to bombay staying a day or 2 there then getting local transport down to goa (should be fun riding on top of a bus) only booked the flights and must remember to book accomadation before i get there.
due to postal strike had no cash for what seemed like ages lived on rice for quite a while. then finally got some cash boughta laptop with all of it and bank blocked my card so back to rice :(
gave up smoking on 23rd sept using chewing gum which is ok
can't get internet in apartment till g\f gets her work visa so having to hack into wireless connections which is ok at weekends in apartment but nothing through the week.
found a way round dubai filters so can access all sites on internet.
almost uptodate now shame it took so long to get sorted.

[silax]

don't know if anybodies ever been to dubai but will try and explain what its like from what i've seen so far.
i live in an indian area so lots of cheap shops and resturants and indians.
india is starting to facinate me and have been reading a book which i would recommend to everyone well i would if i could remember the name of it. will find out.
indian people seem to me very pleasent and genuine loads of philipenoes round my bit of the world as well a lot of the girls work in the cafe's and shops they are very cute and full of life and always smiling.
dubai seems a bit of a hypocrytical place on one hand kissing in public is very much frowned apon but it would seem that it is ok to pick up a prostitue and a hotel near me doubles up as a knocking shop now i'm pretty broadminded and realise there may be a need for prostitution but its not really my thing.
was walking down the street beside my local supermarket and a good looking girl stopped her car and called me over thought she was going to ask me for directions but no she wanted to give me a massage brought a new meaning to the word curb crawling. anyway i declined.

[silax]

29th october
now my cash flow and most things are sorted i'm settling in sitting in a cafe at the moment using there free wireless set up young philo bird serving is getting chatted up by 3 arabs. got myself a digi camera so gonna take some photos might post them here if i get any good ones had a game of poker on bet 365 with there free token things not sure what you win but came 3rd so it dosen't really matter g\f got a parents evening tonight so will be on my own till about 8 this evening. haven't been out much due to cashflow situation so haven't made any friends yet this has got to change soon there are hundreds of bars but the majority of people living here have jobs so building up a cirlce of friends may not be as easy as is normally the case with me.
a big chunk of my cash is tied up with my place in spain till that sells so can't really gamble for a living also with out having internet in apartment can't really take a chance on the wireless networks.
gonna buy a paper and have a look at the jobs in there but i have a slight problem with finding work the colour of my skin dictates that i will have problems finding an unskilled job. don't think my qualifications are good enough or the fact i haven't worked for the last 5 years will help either
got to buy a new pair of trainers today as i've started going to the gym in apartment block

[silax]

1st November
had a quiet couple of days bought a game for my pc called civilization takes ages to play so i've done very little apart from being glued to pc.
the name of the book i read is "a fine balance" by Rohinton Mistry very good stuff. started using my digi camera and got stopped taken photos in my local mall by a security gaurd not sure why.
haven't got any decent photos to upload yet will get some this weekend which brings me round to the weekends over here now thursday is friday and friday is like sunday through the day and saturday at night i think. sunday is monday and saturday is football day but like sunday night.
still not looking for a job but may put a cv together this weekend. the temp is getting a bit cooler at night which is good hopefully will get drunk tonight.
have been off ciggys now for over a month gave up on 23rd october still getting withdrawel symtems. g\f blew in my ear the other day and have had ear rake ever since (not good).
haven't been able to download betfair poker not sure why got ladbrookes and bet 365 ok pkr gets stuck when trying to install can anybody recommend some good sites which are busy as i'm gonna start playing again soon.

[mathare]

have been off ciggys now for over a month gave up on 23rd october still getting withdrawel symtems.It may feel like a month but 23rd October was only just over a week ago :yikes:

[silax]

very true matt was 23rd of sept when i quit the evil weed

[silax]

guy fawks
been an interesting few days now for a while now whenever i've been stressed out or run down a boil like sist has been popping up on my ass quite painfull and every time is bigger then the last. so through playing pc game till 2 or 3 in the morning and up early has got me run down a bit and felt the bugger coming back up so decided to get it sorted. went to see dr. wassel spent the next half an hour in real pain not a caring dr at all. that was saturday afternoon and didn't feel upto going to watch footy so managed to escape the excuse big sam has for a footy team getting beat.
ear is still uncomfortable but gonna put up with the pain for now. got to nip out the country friday as my visa is almost up should be interesting as i'm planning on hiring a car and driving to the border not sure which border yet or which way it is.
got my photo taking in an internet cafe for some promotion brosure they are making.
got really drunk friday night didn't have a great deal to drink but haven't been drinking much lately so my tolerance must be low tokk a couple of photos the other day must have been friday afternoon crossed the creek on a little boat will try and upload it today sitting in a cafe with my laptop so should be a good enough connection

[silax]

hmm my photo is 2.28 M big how do i make it smaller

[TheOldhamWhisper]

do a search for pixresizer on google - it's a freebie and will let you resize most formats and save them back in jpg file format for internet use.

[silax]

7th november
went to hire a car for my visa run on friday and found out i need a local driving licence. got told its very easy to do just go to the police station and they'll give me one. well i got a taxi to the traffic police building and was sent into a waiting room waited 30 mins just to be told i was in the wrong room.
went into the right room and discover there are 2 bits to a uk driving licsence of which one of mine is back in the apartment.
got a taxi to "the mall of the emirates" this is the one with the sking mountain built inside it. when i was in spain one of my favourite things to do was sit at a cafe have a coffee ciggies and watch the local ladies strut there stuff. as i've given up smoking i've replaced ciggies with muffins. as for the local talent i've decided that arabic women are very pretty even when they wear there big black cloaks obviously not the letterbox girls cos you can only see there eyes but the ones who don't cover there faces. so i'm starting to get into my new pervy habit once again biggest problem with this at the minute is not having any mates here to sit and perv with. after coffee and blueberry mufin saw a very funny advert in the toilet just in front of the urinal at eye level saying "look down if you can't see it lose it" advert was for slimming and made me laugh which is not the brightest thing i have ever done in the mens toilets but i think i got away with the giggle.
one of the things i've been meaning to buy is reading glasses as i've realised at my age my once perfect eyesight is degrading with age and i'm doing a lot of reading at the minute. i'm now the owner of a pair of glasses.
also in this mall they have a small lake with dancing water fountains every half hour the music starts and these fountains dance away very nice to watch so took a video of it with my new digi camera.think keith will have my balls chopped off if i upload the video here so will try and find it on u-tube and post the link if its up there.
got a taxi home chinese take away for tea found 2nd piece of driving licence and plan to get new licence today.

[silax]

this is the link basically my connection isn't good enough to play it so i can't see what the quality is like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXFAbClAUBo

[silax]

tried to download the programme oldham but my connection is too slow will have to wait till i go to a cafe before i can get it

[silax]

8th nov
up early and taxi to driving licence place what a scam first office guy fills out forms for me and send me off for an eye test 35 derems and i don't think the guys testing me understood my replys.
back to first guy 90 derems gave him a 100 note and no change come back later for you change and sent me to another room a photo taken and another 110 for that mind you i got a reseat off him so he's ok and a shiny golden emirate driving licence woohoo can now hire a car to do my visa run.
get back home ring car hire firm need a credit card which i don't have. (never liked them really so don't use them.) so looks like the driving licence is a waste of time.
now i'm in a bit of a pickle visa runs out in 3 days time and its proberbly not a good idea to be here without one thinking cap on.

[MattR]

Can you get a bus to the border and walk over or something? Or a cheap flight out to somewhere nearby?

[silax]

9th november
forgot to mention divali its happening now over here its the indian festival of lights as i'm stuck bang in the middle of the indian end of dubai i'm getting this right in my face great big apartment blocks with xmas lights hanging from every balcony really nice have taken a few photos of the blocks but they haven't come out very well.
back to the more serious problem my visa or soon to be lack of one. i've decided to be the first white skinned person to do a visa run on public transport busses leave at 3 minutes past each hour so i'm there with g\f 10 to the hour no buss for 1 hour 20 minutes then a full one comes along all it needed was a few chickens running around and roof top seats and it would have been straight out of dehli g\f is the only female on there and i'm the only white guy. its quite a strange system there are special seats for women which the guys have to give up for so she gets a seat and as they wont sit next to her i get one as well :)
2 hours later and we're dropped off at a town called hatta which is approx. 10 km from oman border. now thats too far too walk so go into a cafe and ask if anybody knows of a taxi to the border and back funny enough there's lots of takers 2 hour bus ride costs 7 derems about a quid and 10 minute drive costs 150 derams.
anyway problem solved and i've got another 2 months in dubai have tea and cakes in hatta before getting the bus home filled with lots of indians heading to celerbrate divali.
one of the things i'm noticing here is the class system seems the indians are pretty close to the bottom then the phillopenes then the white people and then the emirates. can't say i agree with it and definatly don't like it.

[silax]

back to the class system out here
a good example is in the supermarkets mostly philo girls on the checkouts so in the que there may well be an indian then me then an arab indian gets serverd asked for cash hands over money takes bag no chit chat. my turn philo girl "good morning sir how are you" i say "i'm fine how are you" philo girl says "i'm fine sir" asks for money which i hand over saying thank you and leave philo girl says thank you
next up is arab philo girl says "good morning sir" arab says **** all pays and leaves

[silax]

saturday
football day newcastle sunderland derby great excuse to get hammered and generally has a good ending for the black and white side of the north east.
4 hours ahead of uk means 4:45 kickoff so i get a taxi over to a bar i've never been in before but apparently its supposed to be good.
well at 4 on a sat afternoon its pretty dead only about 5 people in and its a big bar got a huge screen so i sit at the bar and there's a couple of drunk jocks there so alls not to bad a couple of pints and i should be able to understand them.
football starts and newcastle are crap well pleased to be 0-0 at half time inevitable happens sunderland score and my day is going downhill.
newcastle score and lifes a good thing again but i'm a bit squiffy jocks have dispersed and i'm bored.
well i'm tiddly and alone in a bar so thinking over life i dedide i'm going to have a look at bar near my place that apparently doubles up as a knocking shop should be a laugh. now when i'm drunk i don't really have much sence of time its either dark or light. so into a taxi and into the disco pay my entry fee and woohooo
at the bar i realise the place is pretty empty me and one other bloke in the place but i'm in a good mood so i dedide to chat with the native and see whats happening. i can't really remember much about the conversation but nothing interesting then as if by magic i realise the place is quite full and there's loads of women in now. anyway on one of my sortes to the bar a good looking girl asks me if i'd like to spend the night with her. now i'm very drunk but realise this chat up line dosen't work when i use it so its a bit of pay back for me verses the females i politly decline the offer better then saying "i'm skint" now stupid bitch should have asked me at 4 o'clock
end up chatting with a couple of locals and have to turn down another couple of ladies of the night.
late drunk and home quite a good day fall asleep on sofa

[silax]

sunday 11th
hungover

[Win2Win]

Do you get sand in the beer? :)

[silax]

nope but i saw my first camel on trip to oman

[silax]

monday 12th november
have decided to see if i can get a job out here. now i need a cv and references now for a normal everyday guy this is proberbly not a problem but with me its not alltogether straight forward. the first bits are ok qualifications and personal stuff. employment history now this is where it gets a tad complecated as i've spent the last 5 years sitting on my ass in various countrys i'm gonna have to use a little poetic licence i think.
been in touch with a mate and he'll write me a ref. now work history what i need to find is a few companies who've gone out of business how hard can that be. first things first though i have to decide what i want to do out here now teaching in spain was a laugh but the ref. from spain would not be too good "spent most of his time chasing female teachers" is not gonna do it and will proberbly get hung drawn and quatered for getting a teaching job under false pretences.
i was chatting to someone at the weekend who was an electrician and they said working out here is great white men don't work they supervise i got to be a natural at that.
there are quite a few engineers out here so that looks interesting and i have an hnc in engineering so could be interesting now what the **** dose an engineer out here do all of my past history has been in factories and well i haven't seen any factories over here so what do they all do.
http://www.jobsindubai.com/job_list.asp?job_cat_id=20
this looks interesting time to try and write some sort of c v anybody know of a business that went smash in the last 20 odd years

[silax]

downloaded that pikxel programme and unzipped it but can't make it work so need another user freindly programme that will reduce my photos down so i can post them.
also have put cv on hold and decided to go for a bimble down to shake zehead road i'm walking so could be interesting as the buildings along the way are fantastic and should get some good photos. i've also seen a chippy (fish and chip shop) down there so that will be dinner sorted and hopefully an afternoon pint somewhere to wash it down

[bonnylad]

saturday
football day newcastle sunderland derby great excuse to get hammered and generally has a good ending for the black and white side of the north east.
4 hours ahead of uk means 4:45 kickoff so i get a taxi over to a bar i've never been in before but apparently its supposed to be good.
well at 4 on a sat afternoon its pretty dead only about 5 people in and its a big bar got a huge screen so i sit at the bar and there's a couple of drunk jocks there so alls not to bad a couple of pints and i should be able to understand them.
football starts and newcastle are crap well pleased to be 0-0 at half time inevitable happens sunderland score and my day is going downhill.
newcastle score and lifes a good thing again but i'm a bit squiffy jocks have dispersed and i'm bored.
well i'm tiddly and alone in a bar so thinking over life i dedide i'm going to have a look at bar near my place that apparently doubles up as a knocking shop should be a laugh. now when i'm drunk i don't really have much sence of time its either dark or light. so into a taxi and into the disco pay my entry fee and woohooo
at the bar i realise the place is pretty empty me and one other bloke in the place but i'm in a good mood so i dedide to chat with the native and see whats happening. i can't really remember much about the conversation but nothing interesting then as if by magic i realise the place is quite full and there's loads of women in now. anyway on one of my sortes to the bar a good looking girl asks me if i'd like to spend the night with her. now i'm very drunk but realise this chat up line dosen't work when i use it so its a bit of pay back for me verses the females i politly decline the offer better then saying "i'm skint" now stupid bitch should have asked me at 4 o'clock
end up chatting with a couple of locals and have to turn down another couple of ladies of the night.
late drunk and home quite a good day fall asleep on sofa

Silax,don't let them Russian girls smoke your pipe or you will end up with ingrowing toe nails. :laugh

[MattR]

Try Irfanview Silax. It's free, quick download and you can resize pics etc easily. Just use the name and .com to find it.

[silax]

zooming across dubai creek on an arbour cost all of 1 derem about 15p

[silax]

cheers matt gonna have some fun now

[Win2Win]

Its still 234,000 bytes :helper Should be less than 100,000

[silax]

indian festival of light divali not a great photo but you get the jest of how the indian section of dubai looks at night

[silax]

Its still 234,000 bytes :helper Should be less than 100,000
whoops ok i'll see if i can make them smaller

[Win2Win]

whoops ok i'll see if i can make them smaller

If you want really small......ask Vegy....

[silax]

starting to get the hang of it now

[silax]

ok if you have a look at the buildings in the background thats where i was heading this morning

[silax]

this is part of the new monorail thats getting built by indians working for about 60 quid a month and i always thought the slave trade had been abolished every week i have been reading about people getting killed on the buildings and they are working for this kind of money.
passed these guys this morning and thought i might bring there plight to the attention of someone.
a lot of people getting very rich off there backs

[sparkyminer]

I shouldn't bother mate. If you start making waves, you might find yourself 'deported'. It's not the UK.

[silax]

this is an example of some of the buildings

[silax]

some **** put a crane in front of this one spoilt my piccy

[silax]

well just about recovered from my bimble after living in hot countries for the last few years you'd think i would learn to cover my head when i'm out and about but no i arrive at my destination sweating like a fat bird in a disco and feeling a little ill anyway a coffee and quiet read should sort me out. i'm actually reading saddam the secret life at the minute not the best book in the world but i'll finish it. now i have a problem my t-shirt is soaking round the edges from hot walk so i need a new one and some deoderant really i'm smelling not nice. in one shop and they only sell designer ones yeah right so i manage to find a sports shop and get one for about 12 quid some of doves best roll on and i'm just about sorted. now from memory the fish and chip shop is quite a way down the street so i better get a move on got some good pics on the way but forgot to take one of chip shop which has incedently closed down arggggggg taxi home

[silax]

this is one keith removed earlier

[silax]

i think this was my fav photo taken yesterday as it shows the sky line i was looking at as i walked towards all the big buildings you can notice the haze i'm not sure what that is could be polution but it clears up later in the afternoon i think the rush hour is from 10 am to 10 pm so maybe not polution

[silax]

14 november
gonna try and book my holiday accomadation in goa today found a hotel for 98 quid each 10 mins from the beach looks good to me for 9 nights waiting for g\f to ring me in 20 minutes to confirm that is ok then i'm out with the camera again need to find somewhere nice for lunch and cheap still fancy fish and chips after yesterdays disaster need to buy a hat as well. now i'm not into baseball hats as i think they look stupid so i want one of those floppy cricket hats as my ears are a bit on the big side and need the coverage.
will do cv later maybe
anybody know any good sites for downloading cv templates

[silax]

15th
hmm just typed it and lost it when i lost internet connection bugger
ok went to mall of the emirates with g\f finally found and bought my all time fav dvd dumber and dumber. also bought big electric water cooler as i'm getting sick of putting bottled water in the fridge to cool it down. had a chinese in mall for my tea and got a taxi home. finally worked out how to get laptop onto tv so could watch dumber and dumber with g\f and discovered her sence of humour and mine are slightly different. also worked out how to disable mouse pad on laptop has been driving me up the wall.
went to bed still chucling from dvd.

[silax]

16th november
woke up and decided to go to waffi mall for breakfast. now this is a posh mall done in a kind of egyption theme even has a big pyramid hotel like i say its a posh place with posh prices spotted a really nice place for breaky and take a seat on a kind of balcony with a view. one thing i've noticed the posher the place the less happy the staff don't know why this is but i devinatly prefer to have a laugh with the staff and when i saw the menu lost my sence of humour too. anyway had a coffee and a apperitive which cost twice as much as my normal breakfast at my local philopeno run cafe and i also get to have a laugh with the girls and boys serving. so have a look around and see quite a few people with more money then sence and leave for my local cafe.
had a strange conversation with an idian guy today he was on about going back to india he said he was sick of all the raceism here and i said so you're going back to india with the caste system then. he smiled and said "hmm i forgot about that." i guess to a lot of people rascism depends on which side of the fence you are on.
got to go now will continue today tomorrow going out for a drink and dancing

[silax]

16th nnovember nighttime
went out to see a live band playing quite a good laugh as i've decided to cut down on alcohol only had 4 pints of which one almost got nicked but being the ever vigilant drinker always keep an eye on my pint and caught the culprit who was very embarrassed.
and having real problems with internet

[silax]

saturday
now what did i get up to on saturday woke up without a hangover which was strange and can remember everything that happened funny enough i remember getting a bit annoyed with some drunk people but managed to have the last laugh with my razor sharp sober wit.
i asked them where they were from and they said huddlesfield and i replyed with oh i thought you lot were american. the look on his face was a picture as he tried to work out if he'd been insulted.
went for breakfast at my favourite cafe with g\f then its off for a walk along the creek have some photos to post. the creeks a nice place but still the weathers a bit too hot too stay out for too long which is a mistake i keep making. anyway we're both all hot and sweaty in big need of a taxi home but can't see any taxi's. bump into the british consul which has loads of cameras and fences all round it not totally sure why but it dosen't bother me too much now i know its a major short cut to my place if i can go straight through the british consul and not follow the roads. welll as it happens g\f is with me and talks me out of asking if i can just pass through but we do find a piece of scrub land next to the embassy where we can get through and do the short cut. manage to get a taxi and home.
managed to finish my book saddam now he was a nasty guy and based himself on a cross between stalin and hitler. don't know if i'd recomend the book not brilliant.
also got a big footy match on sunday scotland v italy and isreal v russia.
as the g\f is supporting scotland i've got roped into supporting them but i'm more interested in the isreal game. and what i think would be really cool is if i got myself an isreal top.
no luck finding anywhere that sells isreal tops.
started a new book called shantaram by gregory david roberts really looking forward to reading it.

[silax]

sunday 18th
scotland are out england have a chance of going through woohoo although i would have prefered scotland to be going through as well.
i'm off to goa over xmas but flying to mubai as it a lot cheaper well funny thing happened today g\f got speaking to some indians who have a house near mubai and have invited us to stay with them although i've already booked accomadation in mubai staying with the locals should be more interesting. also had some good news about g\f's visa should be through in a couple of weeks which means will be able to get internet in apartment and maybe start trying to earn some cash.
nothing else of note happened sunday

[silax]

here is some photos of the creek again

[sparkyminer]

saturday
no luck finding anywhere that sells isreal tops.


No sh1t Sherlock. In an Arab country.:laugh

[silax]

forgot about this was sitting chilling out on sunay night when a young philo girl knocked at the door selling dvd's now i'm a bit iffy about buying copy dvd's for a number of reasons the main one being they are crap quality. but i'm thinking well i suppose i could buy some might help her earn some cash. cost is about 1.40 quid so i get 4 will try them tomorrow night.

[silax]

No sh1t Sherlock. In an Arab country.:laugh
yep don't know how far down the street i would have got before i would have been linched

[silax]

yes i know that now sparky thanks for pointing it out anyway woke up this morning feeling pretty good and the temp is down to the low 30's in the morning anyway so i'm going off on my travels again i'm gonna go looking for the irish village i think which means a walk down to the creek and a quick arb trip across the water then maybe a taxi ride not sure about where it is exactly but i'll be armed with my camera again.
first things first though off to my local cafe for breakfast.
forgot to mention yesterday got propositioned by another prostitute on the way home didn't realise till i was past her she must have been a good one did it without moving her lips i was walking along and saw 2 youngish ladies walking along nothing unusual there but then i noticed one was showing loads of cleavage which is unusual here but i'm ok cos i've got my sunglases on and there's no way she can see where i'm looking but she manages to look me straight in the eyes i never noticed her looking me straight in the eyes till i was almost past her so i'm not really sure what she thought.
i still find it very flattering and a bit of an ego boost having these young women want to sleep with me (ok if there wasn't any cash envolved they wouldn't) so far its been very easy to resist them.

[mathare]

she must have been a good one did it without moving her lipsThat's really talented if she can be a prostitute and not move her lips. You might want to check what orifices she is offering :yikes:

[silax]

failed in my mission to get to the irish village it got too hot after breakfast so tomorrow the plan is to leave early before it gets too hot i don't mind getting a taxi back but part of the fun about exploring is well exploring not just getting a taxi there and back.
now getting well into my book and its living up to all its expectations realy can't wait to arrive in mubai now i think i would proberbly prefer to stay there then move on to goa but all the accomadation is now booked so guess i will have to.
still off the ciggys which is good but still got no mates here which is not so good.

[silax]

this is my first attempt at this pic will get it much better and will post my progress as i go

[John]

Alright mate, this is a good read. :D Where abouts are you? I've just read Page 3, and the last I heard you were in Dubai but you can't be now! You must be somewhere in India?

[buddhabee]

some **** put a crane in front of this one spoilt my piccy

Hideous. Goes to prove all the money in the world can't buy taste.

[silax]

Alright mate, this is a good read. :D Where abouts are you? I've just read Page 3, and the last I heard you were in Dubai but you can't be now! You must be somewhere in India?
fraid so john still in dubai and heres a pic of me in my new hat looking ever so cool

[silax]

wedensday 21st
well made it to the irish village but what a treck. taxi next time
set off at 7 am full of confidence and armed with my new hat see pic above which is taken after a few hours walking in the sun so i'm not looking my best.
anyway all went well skipped breaky at my local and caught an arb over the creek. now i have a good way of navigating i sort my map out then take my bearings from the sun was doing fine and making good time but it started to get hot and although i'm getting more confident at mixing with the indians i'm still not yet upto going into a crowded indian cafe on my own yet so i was gasping for a coffee and all the cafes i passed were crowded with indian workers so took me ages to find one that was reasonably empty but i managed it and got a coffee. the indians have very sweet teeth and if you go to the local cafes and ask for coffee or tea it comes back with loads of sugar in it so as i don't take sugar i have to specifically tell them no sugar which is greated with a strange look but then again i'm used to that as where i often go their isn't many white folk especially not walking round looking cool with the lastest fasion accessary on there heads. anyway in the cafe and out with the map just to check my sun bearings are working now i'm sitting there studying and well i got the feeling i was being watched you know that feeling a bit like when you are trying to do up your button flys when pissed in the bog. i'm also quite a nervous person so i casually look round and theres 2 indian guys looking over my shoulder at the map well i jumped out of my skin closley followed by these 2 chaps which was quite funny but i guess you had to be there to see it. but i laughed about it anf finished my coffee and left. what i did notice was i still had quite a long way to go and i was getting hungry so according to my map there was a mall just close by so i headed for that. now it dosen't matter hoow much i shower or how much deoderant i use when i'm out in the heat for a few hours i start to smell.
so on arrival at the mall head straight for a deoderant shop and buy yet another roll on. i've got a load of these things now and have made a mental note to take one with me next time.anyway have breakfast there and spruce up in the bogs to the watchfull eye of the indian bog boy who can't beleive what he's seeing.
leave the mall and head on my way to the irish village on my way i notice that i'm on the wrong side of a very busy road and have no way of getting across so i have a descion to make head back or persavere. onwards and upwards( i always make the wrong descions i'm a crap goat and like to be a sheep all the time)
anyway as i'm walking i pass a few indians gardening the road side and again i don't think they've seen anything like me as normally you don't see white people walking along the roadside not the major roads that is. but i say hello and they reply so alls cool.
now my path is starting to run out and there's major roadworks in front and i'm far to far forward to turn back so i keep ploddinh on passing indian builders as i go and the odd jcb for me this is starting to get a bit scary as i've proberbly got about 3 months worth of there wages on me. now just over the fence is the dubai golf club so being of sound mind and body decide that seems the better option so i'm on the golf course and dodging buggies and waving. after about 2 mins on the course an angry guy in a buggy is waving to me and shouting (cheeky ******) now this guy is too far away to see the colour of my skin so when i wander over there i take off my hat and sun glasses and woo his atitude changes as if by magic. now i tell him i'm just looking for the exit and he says how did i get in and basically go back the way i've come as there is a tournament in progress and i shouldn't be there.
so i'm back with the jcbs and indians finally manage to get out and find a road that goes over the top of the lot and follow that route.
now i know i'm getting close as i've seen a big sign dumped in the road side saying irish village but its nowhere to be seen as it the old one which just got renewed. anyway i wander into quite a nice little place with a few resturants and tables outside (looks promising) before you know it i'm standing on a tennis court with grandstands all around just like wimbledon theres a guy coming and its not a womble another angry bloke (this is not my day at all)anyway as it happens it the start of some masters tennis tourney here tomorrow and as far as they know silax isn't taken part so i'm ejected from another venue. my luck changes and if by chance the irish village is right next door. absolutly charimg place think i'm gonna spend a lot of time here. got chatting to a guy from palestine at the bar and we disscused a few interesting things i now know that in moscow before the wall came down property cost about 2k then whoever lived in said property became the owners and property in moscow is the most expensive of any city.
after this rifferting conversation went and sat outside read 2 chapters of my book and got a taxi home knackered

[silax]

now the irish village is at the aviation club so i follow this sign but its ok for cars but not for people

[silax]

you can just about see where the path ends and panic sets in

[silax]

unfortunatly didn't get any pics of the irish village but chances are i'm gonna go back tomorrow and will post some when i get them

[John]

Why are you dressed all in white? Are you trying to steal someone's identity?! :yikes:

[silax]

sometimes i wonder about you john

[John]

I'm glad someone does. :D

[vegyjones]

Marks worried.

He's still waiting to meet him in Barcelona thinking "he was supposed to be here 72 hours ago, I wonder if he's alright?" :D

[MattR]

Two major sports tournaments in one day :laugh Great read Silax.

[silax]

thats right matt don't know what the golf tourny was but the tennis one features past players such as pat cash.
got a taxi to the irish village today met g\f there and had my long awaited fish and chips with a couple of pints of shandy.
feeling pleased i didn't go to watch the england game last night kicked of midnight my time and couldn't be hassled with going to a bar. saw loads of blonde girlys going to watch tennis match very nice.
before i went played pro evo soccer on pc now i have a problem with my joystick some of the buttons don't do as they should and because of that i have great problems making the players dash and swapping the curser i've tried to rearange the buttons but nothing works. don't know how to uninstall my joystick so if anybody has any ideas how to get the buttons onto where they should be i'd be most greatfull as newcastle are struggling with this handicap and i could get sacked soon.
sat in my fav cafe doing hooker watch which is a game me and the g\f have started playing basically quite simple you have to guess which girls passing are hookers and whoever gets the most right gets free coffee.

[Onlyforfun]

don't know how to uninstall my joystick

Get caught by g/f shagging a hooker? :D

[silax]

friday 23rd
went back to oman today with another couple to renew one of there visas.
now what do you do when you leave one country and want to come sraight back but discover you have 4 people and 3 passports haven't got time to explain what we did but will do when i get the chance

[silax]

sorry guys the thing i use to get around the filters hasn't worked for ages (since my last post) but started working again just now will post again soon its late here now

[silax]

ok been a while and its quite late but i'll try and bring up to spec whats been happening.
as i mentione before my internet went wonky set off to oman to get a friends visa renewed set off in her car which was a lot easier then going by bus and less crowded saw a few camels on the way have photos to post and arrived at the border with oman drove through got the car boot looked at but nobody checked passports so we didn't think anything of it until g\f realised she didn't have hers so we have to get the person who's renewing visa stamped at border and return so on returning g\f nipps out of car round back of passport control box and over border back into uae. i did offer to lend her my passport and me nip round back of box but she declined the offer but thanked me for the gesture. anyway we drive through and nobody checks the passports. meanwhile she's standing about 100 yards up the road looking very suspicious so out of sympathy and against my advise we pick her up and head off to a hotel near the border that does a much as you can eat poolside bbq. very nice place got chatting to a guy who works with the sultan of oman ask him for a job but no vacansies. but whats really good about my new friend is he has a bottle of vodka in the back of his car and he's flying back somewhere ( can't remember now)with only hand luggage and has to get rid of this vodka so fresh orange juice all round mixed with vodka from a water bottle. it was strawberry flavour vodka but hey who cares.
anyway the place was a lot more fun after that and we were the last to leave and the happiest. slept all the way home and woke up minus my sunglasses.

[silax]

saturday football day
newcastle playing liverpool an early kickoff which is good for me start 4:45 local time watch the match get completly depressed decide england really do need big sam but don't have any ciggies which is good. now near me is this bar which is an indian bar and whenever i've passed i've always thought i wonder what thats like so feeling quite drunk and full of dutch courage i decide to investigate so in i pop. the first thing i notice is how smokey the place is. anyway i find myself sitting at the bar and order a pint having a look around i notice that i'm the only white guy in there and there are no woman at all. i started talking to the barman and his english is ok but i don't think he can understand my drunking geordie that well but he seems quite happy to chat. now i'm getting very confident and the larger is going down great so i decide to venture from my bar stool to chat with some of the locals. i'd like to explain what happened after that but i haven't got a clue.
needless to say woke up sunday on the sofa with hangover stinking of ciggies somewhere along the line i must have been smoking cos i got some bad cravings for ciggies for the next couple of days

[silax]

camels roaming the desert on the way to oman

[silax]

its national day today and tomorrow so a big holiday for everybody except maybe the slaves sorry indians found this on the way to oman and thought it might get everybody into the spirit of it.

[silax]

on the topic of slaves the indians had a strike the other week well some of the construction workers anyway about 400 of them.
they weren't demanding very much there wages are about 60 quid a month and a bit more for skilled chaps anyway the strike was resolved when the 400 or so indians disappared. i was thinking about starting up a trade union for them but this has changed my mind as the only way i want to disapear is if i get envolved with paul daniels

[silax]

poolside bbq place near oman border

[silax]

not a lot happened that springs to mind so will jump to yesterday
went to the beach had a swim came home pretty boring stuff

[silax]

saturday footy day
blackburn v newcastle hopefully going out to watch the boys but you never know may find something else happens was gonna go and watch celtic v hearts as g\f supports celtic but she's not feeling too good. i'm more of a rangers man myself but you know how it is he or she who controls the bedroom gets the loyalty so up the hoops and all that.
on a more different tune i've got an invitation by a possible future friend to go to dubai races on thursday night now i need some help here off people on the forum. where's oldham he should be good at this firstly need to find a racecard somewhere on the web and a formbook of the runners and if some bright spark can come up with the winners would be really good.

[silax]

sunday
getting sick of footy now went down the local to watch it on my own as mrs silax was feeling iffy but she joined me for the 2nd half and what a poor result for newcastle with arsnal to come in midweek big sam might be getting the sack soon. he's already come out with the "i could have stayed at bolton and picked up the money everyweek" well if things don't improve he's gonna get sacked and pick up a lot more compensation cash then he ever would have at bolton for doing sod all.
just waiting for him to come out with the i'm no quiter line i won't leave this challange well not unless i get me couple of million compy.
anyway after the footy took mrs silax to the disco come knocking shop that i went to after the sunderland game funny enough it would appear there is no entry fee if you go in with a woman so i saved a few quid there. once inside took the dancefloor by storm for a couple of hours (not sure if they'll let us back in after our performance) got chatting to sylvia from mynsk at the bar nice girl. but mrs silax a lot cheaper and has a better figure. went home late woke up without hangover strange.

[silax]

internet is being a real pain just lately got some good news may be able to get it intalled around xmas time.
now as i'm off to india over xmas i need a visa to go there and surprizingly it looked very straight forward i got the forms off the intenet filled them in and you just drop them off in the morning pick up the visa in the afternoon. now if thats how it really went i would be well chuffed but got the forms and took a taxi down to the indian consulate which happens to be very close by withing walking distance which maybe explained the reluctance of the taxi drivers to go there so i let one take me round in a couple of circles first.
now i know that once you go into any consulate such as the indian you are basically on indian soil but i don't think anybody has told the emeraties this and so its quite amusing watching the indians telling them to que up like everybody else. anyway i'm in the first room and there are seats that go round in a loop and everytime someone gets seen you move one forward a bit like musical chairs great fun cos these chairs are the niciest in the world so me and mrs silax are having a competition to see who and make the most noice. anyway its finally our turn and the forms are filled in wrong so we have to fill them in and come back which we do and then we have to go through to anther room and show him our forms then we have to take them back to first woman who agains decided we have missed something off and have to go get copies of our passports stapled to the forms.
back again in the que so we can get a ticket with a number on that tells us when we can see another guy who takes our forms and tells me to come back thursday morning to pay for the visa and pick them up thursday afternoon. simple really
now during all this time emeratie women kept coming in to get visa''s now these chicks don't normally que and as per usual they just wander up to the front and barge in (i still can't understand why these people do this cos they haven't got anything else to do with themselves) to cut a long story short these indians don't take any crap of them in there embassey so its fun watching them get put in there places.
off to the races on thursday night need some help if anybody knows where you can put a bet on this meeting it would be a great help to me as i'm pretty sure you can't bet on course.
here's a link to the race card i don't think keith will mind me posting the link
http://www.emiratesracing.com/eq/RaceCards.cfm
i can't really work out the form of any of the horses so if anybody thinks they can see winners let me know
cheers

[silax]

saw something funney in the local paper the other day
a canadian (although i suspect he must have had some american blood in him somewhere) travellingfrom london to dubai on arrival was found to have 0.66 grammes of dope on his person he was duly charged and appeared in court.
on appearence in court he discharged his solicitor as he would be able to handle the case and told the judge to hurry up work out the fine he would pay in cash as he was in a hurry.
minimun sentance here is 4 years in jail which he is now serving.

[lowe1]

eddie

lost your moby number if you fancy a pint anytime this week give us a ring or text us


oh left my phone in apartment so give us a call after 4pm if your gonna ring

tony

[John]

Enjoying the read fella. :D

Got your PM - will email you over the weekend if that's ok. :)

[silax]

eddie

lost your moby number if you fancy a pint anytime this week give us a ring or text us


oh left my phone in apartment so give us a call after 4pm if your gonna ring

tony

hi tony just seen this will text you today

[silax]

internet still being very iffy
its the start of the weekend today thursday and i'm off back to see my friends at the indian embassy this morning. hopefully that will go without a hitch and this evening i'm off to the races now i'm wondering just how much fun the races are gonna be as apparently there is no betting and no alcohol. in the uk whenever i've gone to the races alcohol and betting has been a big part of it i've got a bad feeling about tonight i mean its a flat a\w racecourse so can't understand how watching can be very interesting. hopefully you will be able to put a bet on even if i could find an on-line bookie that takes them that would be cool.
i see arsanal managed to hold the mighty mags to a draw couldn't be bothered to go and watch them. still no sign of internet and this is really iffy at the minute going days at a time not being able to connect to win2win

[lowe1]

eddie

if its anything like world cup dont worry about alcohol , i spent all my time in the champagne bar and didnt even see one horse

[silax]

horse racing is next thursday
guy i was going with is off to a ball tonight :ooo
finally escaped from india (or should i say indian soil) at 4:30 pm clutching passports with visa's attached sitting in apartment bored all night.
read in the paper police have started a crackdown on brothels and prostitution in dubai so far 250 hookers arrested 20 odd brothels raided and 65 clients arrested. interesting statistic's but personally i think all they are doing is renewing the prostitutes a bit like trading in old for new.
anyway i've got to welcome the intiative but i really think its just another front to give the impression of the police doing something about a problem

[silax]

first time i've been connected to net for a while and got through the filters that is. if i can stay connectted long enough will update

[silax]

well my internet is really doing my head in and just found out i won't be able to get proper internet till next year.
well just trying to think what i've been getting up to. the big problem with updating this only now and again is i forget things but i'll try and remember most stuff saturday seemed to be the most interesting day footy day with the mighty mags sorting out brummy albeit a last minute winner. now i went to watch it at a quiet bar and kick off was 7:00 pm here so i got in about 6:45 ordered my pint and got ready kick off approaches and man utd is on so i ask the guy behind the bar where newcastle so he fiddles about and gets sunderland on another tv (bloody marvelous) i'm in a bar with a full pint watching the mackems so i down the pint and decide i'll pop along to knocking shop bar they show all the matchs there on the way out i see the manager and ask him why he's advertising the newcastle game and not showing it. he says wait a minute and hey presto he's got it on. so 5 minutes into the game and i'm on my 2nd pint ho hum.
anyway another newcastle fan sits next to me and we get chatting and he's a single guy having a weekend piss up and whore weekend in dubai so i decide it could be interesting having a night on the drink with this fellow who comes to dubai quite often so he knows everywhere to go.
apparently a lot of the mafiosa from china russia etc. are running the prostitution in dubai now. quite an interesting guy to listern to.
well the game finishes and the mood is very good he explains all the prices of the working girls what you should be paying whats too much etc.
i get the distinct impression he dosen't listen to a word i'm saying as a few times i've mentioned to him i'm not interesting in going with one of these girls.
to cut a long story we find a hotel thats free entry into see the band playing.
now i thought the knocking shop near my place was bad but this place jesus wall to wall prostitutes pimps and clients and a band playing on stage.
band were quite good but one things for sure i wont be taking mrs silax dancing in that hotel.eventually he managed to find the right girl for the right price about 45 quid for the night and he went home so off i went as well it really wasn't the kind of place where you could sit and get drunk on your own.
got home sliced my finger open making a cheese sandwich and got no sympathy from mrs silax.
that was my weekend done. now this week on thursday going to central perk for coffee apparently gunther from friends opened it up here(not sure if thats true) with g/f abdul and indian guy and not sure who else but me and mrs s were thing who will we be i said i'd be joey but the mrs is making me be chandler bing she's monica and abdul is gonna be ross supposed to be quite expensive but how much can a cup of coffee cost.
after that i'm finally gonna get my ass to dubai races and hopefully make a few friends.
oh almost forgot to mention bought some dvd's here and they are perfect copies unbelievably good in fact some of them are the real i am. they cost roughly about 1 pound 40 so i bought 14 including american gangster
getting well into my book as well i really do recommend everybody must read it especially susan.

[silax]

phew you don't know how pleased i am that i didn't lose my internet before i got that entry uploaded.
now i've been trying to book my train ticket from mubai to goa and it would appear to reserve a first class seat they have to post out your tickets well if they post them to me they won't arrive before i fly so getting a little worried about the train.
also on the subject of indian i've been talkig to an indiaan guy who comes from bangalaw (i'm sure thats not the spelling) he was telling me you could rent a 3 bedroom house there for under 50 quid a month now if thats true i maay just bog off there for 12 months if its an ok place starting to get a bit sick of the hypockrasy that is dubai. maybe my views will change when i meet a few friends biggest problem i've got is most people round about my age work here so through the day i'm on my lonesome.
waiting for e-mail off john i'm thinking about doing an open university course and need some advise off him. hint hint john.
anyway thats enough for now will update when i next get a connection where my filters work.

[John]

I'm on it tonight mate :) what do you wanna know exactly?

[silax]

e-mail me and i'll tell you :)

[silax]

or better still have you got yahoo messenger or msn

[John]

OK darling, after I've watched Friends on E4+1. Ooh I love my life!

Edit - Yeah - MSN Messenger... ***

[silax]

ok john i've added you cheers

[silax]

ok went to central perk for coffee on thursday afternoon was a bit dissapointing really and didn't have my camera so no photos sorry. had a club sandwich and coffee then left lots of flys bugging me. couldn't find anywhere to place a bet on the horses running at nab al sheba so me and friends decided just going to watch horses runnning round a track was a bit of a no brainer. instead met him in a bar anf got absolutly out of our skulls quite a good night and woke up on settee next to a beef curry.
also discovered a strange phone number in my mobile haven't got a clue who that can be and definatly not ringing it.
have failed in my mission to book a train ticket from mumbai to goa so looks like i'll have to leave that till i'm in mumbai

[silax]

sitting waiting to go out to watch the footy all excited the mighty mags in london for the first time this season

[silax]

had a strange thought the other day. i wonder what they do with there disabled people round here i have yet to see one which i think is a bit strange don't you. the police force also seem really good at what they do the only crimes i have seen reported are the ones they have caught somebody for i think they must have a 100 % clean up record.
went to the travel agents today see if they can get me on a train from mumbai to goa no joy there

[silax]

woke up this morning wondering why there was no hangover and realised i only had 3 pints when watching the footballmakes a pleasent change i can even remember who scored the goal last night and everything think that may be the reason everybody has to get drunk watching football.

[silax]

made it to goa via bombay sitting in internet cafe will update this whe i get the chance bombay is one scary city

[silax]

ok now i'm still in goa but have a spare hour so will update loads happened so i'll start from saturday the 22nd as me and mrs silax head off to goa via bombay we decided to take the bus from dubia to abu dhabi quite cheap about 2 quid each for a 2 hour journey once at the bus stop a huge que of indians waitng for the abu dhabi bus and a taxi driver offering to take us for 12 quid ish so we're going by style. our plane takes off at 17:30 so we're at the airport at 10:30 mistimed that one but not to worry eventually the check out opens and we can go through no probs so far and we'r sitting in the departure lounge happy and laughing.
most of my flying in the past has been around europe and apart from flight to dubai never had a ticket so somehow i forgot i had recieved a ticket anyway this very exaspeated check in guy and a few sercirity gaurds are heading towards us and for some reason we're not showing on the flight list now the guiy who checked us in is in big poo. to cut a long story short after a few desperate phone calls to the people who we booked the tickets with i have to pay for them again now i'm not a happy bunny but i'm assured that i'll get re-embursed for the ticket.
and we're on the plane 2 white people and a mllion indians on air indias best 737 nice flight one thing about the indian peple they smile a lot and have a good sence of humour in flight meal is really nice and i'm very chilled out

[silax]

thought i better post that in case i get dissconnected.
ok now anybody who's reading this knows about my history with flying but i'm chill cos in all my dreams there's never been an indian in any of my crashes and i'm surrounded by a million of them so all is cool on the crashing front. that is untill we start to desend into munbai airport and the first of a million mobile phones start to ring i don't think anybody has told india that it is dangerous to have your mobile switched on during flying. nobody seems to give a hoot and we're coming in to land and all these people are chatting to thee famillies bare nuckel stuff for me i can tell you.
anyway the plane lands and off we get through customs which is also a bit strange everybody has to have there bags xrayed well as soon as it gets busy they stop doing that so through we go un xrayed so to speak.
as it happens i've booked a hotel; for the night in bombay and speakng to people i find out who to get a taxi with so i go to the counter and nobody knows where my hotel is i have the address but loads of puzzled looks its a pre pay thing so untill i give them an area they know they can't take get me a cab. panik is setting in and thats one thing i'm good at so i over hear a guy mentioning an area so thinking pretty quick tell the guy in the office thats where i want to go. i figure that the taxi driver should be able to find it.
so out the airport i go and am led through to a load of how do you say it i hjave photo's of the taxis to post later but the best way to describe them is noddy cars. its about 23:30 so its pitch black and the area i've told the taxi driver would appear to be a load of slums. i give him the address of the hotel and a puzzled look on his face ****

[silax]

well he asks people left right and centre and on the other side of the city we find our hotel. the driving there is mad we cross this 4 lane duel carrige way in our noddy car with traffic heading to the side of us at high speed. i'm gonna be having nightmares about that taxi ride for a long time.
i forgot to add when i boked the flight ticket i wasn't aware that 2 million pilgrims were comig back from mecca after stoning some satan guy which wxplains why my flight was put back a few hours.
not to worry though made it to bombay and found the hotel now all i've got to do is get me and mrs silax up to goa we've booked and paid for a bus but giving up any hope of that so sunday will be spent sorting out the travel arrangements to goa.
will update again when i get a chance as i've got to go now got some great picks of bombay but won't be able to post them till i get back.

[silax]

hotel room was ok very basic but ok got up early and thought we'd get the train to somewhere for tickets for a bus bought train tickets then while waitig on platform bottled it and took a taxi. found a tourist box and bought a couple of bus tickets to goa woohoo
now thats the plane and bus paid for twice and we have a day to kill as the bus dosen't leave till 8 pm there is a good reason for this its a windey road all the way to goa and the bus can see the headlights of oncoming traffic in the dark so its sfae to overtake. now i've worked out they have a horn code over here for overtaking basically when a buss is overtaking its 2 blasts to let the driver of the whatever in front know we're over taking another 2 blasts of the horn to tell him to slow down there's something coming and if it gets to another 2 blasts gt off the road we're pulling in scary stuff indeed.
anyway we ask the nice guy at our hotel if he can find us a taxi for the day so we can see a bit of bombay.
taxi arrives and the driver can speak loads of languages apart from english which is a shame

[silax]

anyway we did a whirlwind tour of bombay stopping at the gateway to india and getting bombarded by holymen and beggers of all desciptions.
we get out taxi driver to drop us off near we're we bought tickets and had arranged to meet the guy who sold us them. he's late so i explain to another guy whats supposed to happen he laughs and wobbles his head very funny indeed so this one adjusts our tickets and sends us with this old chap who takes us to the bus stop and we get on and we're leaving bombay woohoo.
we arrive in goa at about 9 am shaken but not stired and frigging knackered.
off for a beer will start again maybe tomorrow.
mrs silax managed to save the life of a young indian boy who got into trouble in the iffy currens of the sea then she had to be saved will explain that one tomorrow

[buddhabee]

silax If you're having internet connection problems, just write your blog out using notepad. You can copy and paste it onto the net when you have connection. That bit only takes a few seconds.

[silax]

now thats a good idea budd will do that when i get back to dubai but should have a proper connection before end of jan with any luck

[silax]

ok almost forgot about a strange incident on the bus down from bombay to goa the bud was a big volvo thing with reclining seats well i was quite happilly dozing when i felt something poke my bum then i felt it again and again looked at girlfreind and realised it was somebodies feet in the seat behind well i didn't want to look around so i asked mrs silax who was sitting behind me she said an indian woman thats a bit of a releif and i told her i could feel her toes she didn't believe me so i lent forward and there they were 10 little brown toes mrs silax pushed them back and all was ok untill 20 minutes later and they started massaging my back again it was kinda erotic but not if you know what i mean well i put up with it for a little bit then let mrs silax push them back again and they dissapeared for the rest of the journey.

[silax]

we're staying at a resort in goa called canungute now when we booked the hotel g/f told me book somewhere quiet and relaxing in the north well because of limited hotels with vacancies and the price i found this place which is a bit like blackpool on a sunny day beaches are crowded and its so busy could be summed up in 4 letters really hell.
but we're making the best of a bad job and we've found a beach that is ok and freindly enough.
now as the sunset starts to come the tide goes out and with it you get pretty bad under currents but me and mrs silax sussed this out the first day and were aware of how dangerous it could be and as my swimming is not the best a width of a pool on a good and a lenght in a panic so i'm quite happy to stay at nipple height g/f is a good swimmer so anyway there is this bunch of indians a bit further out then us and obviously they don't realise as all we can he is there cries for help g/f (silly billy) shoots off after them and i venture to chin hieght before my brain kicks in and says **** this back to belly button height for me. anyway girlfriend gets this young kid and manages to stop him panicing and sends him on his way oyut when she gets hit by a few big waves and she's in trouble but thankfully a few people have realised people are in trouble and a jet ski thingy goes over and helps girlfriend get her breath so she can swim back.

[silax]

g/f has had a touch of dheli belly so not much been happening have decieded after visiting what used to be a really quiet place that northern goa has been spoilt by tourism not gonna come back to this neck of the woods ever again.
maybe will try southern goa next time but obviously a lot of research is needed i think goa has replaced the likes of greece for a cheap beer holiday.
its new years eve and off out tonight getting the bus back to bombay tomorrow and hopefully air india back to dubai i'll proberbly not be able to update this for a while.
all the best to everybody and a happy new year

[silax]

New years eve
Now before I tell you what happened I need to fill you in on a few things. The hotel where I'm staying is called the colonia de Braganza by Indian standards its quite good but proberbly only a 2 star at best by European standards well as you enter in the foyer is this picture on the wall of mother Teresa and matthew Braganza (owner of the hotel)must have been taken about 30 years ago. every morning and evening me and mrs silax pass this picture. On news years eve the hotel is throwing a party with a free buffet. To cut a long story shorter we had planned on spending new years eve there the g\f's dodgy stomach a major factor in this descion. We took our table about 8:30 just in time for them to start the food. There was a band playing and the kind of stuff they were doing reminded me of when my parents took me to featherstones carvan site in the 70's (really)
When the band finished for food I noticed the bar guys putting a tv onto the bar. Well who should get on stage with a microphone a rather inhebriated Mathew Braganza who goes through the formalities of welcoming us all to his hotel and thanking us for spending new years eve in his company. He then starts rattling on about meeting mother terreza and what a wonderful women she was and its at this point that we realize the guys had more then a skinful as he starts crying with emotion and then points to the tv on the bar he only has a video of mother terresa when he met her. So the video starts and he wobbles over to the bar juggling his microphone. Video starts and he starts explaining whats happening in the video which would be ok if he wasn't standing right in front of the screen so you have to picture the scene of some drunken guy babbling on with his back to everybody pointing to a tv screen that nobby can see.
This is too much for us two so I suggest going down to the beach and escaping this sharade funny as it is and anyway we've had the free food. So we sneak off and leave Mathew Braganza talking to the telly.
As beachs go calangute beachs is a bit like benidorm beach only full of Indians but as we've been here for quite some time now we've discovered a much quieter beach about 15 minutes walk from the hotel so that’s where we are going to see the new year in. on arriving at the beach there's a few people there but quite quiet really and just about right for us. The sunloungers have been left out and we sit on 2 together (very romantic stuff) and watch the waves breaking.
As we're sitting there a youngish Indian chap stops by and starts chatting to us. He's had too much firewater already and asks us all sorts of questions. He's quite harmless really and as he's about 5 foot nothing not a threat or anything like that. As it turns out this chap has sex on the brain what you have to remember here is the Indian boys are very sexually repressed and believe me if mrs silax had been Indian this chap proberbly wouldn't have been able to chat with her. He's after a threesome or a onesome or anything really but we're both pretty sussed with this and we manage to keep him at arms length. By the way the guys name is ram which is quite appropriate for him.
At About 10 to 12 the fireworks start don't really know what it is about the Indian race or maybe its just all the dodgy watchs but the fireworks are early and nobody seems to mind it’s the start of a major party and that’s what counts. It’s a great display of fireworks not the best I've ever seen spain holds that title but very good considering and they seemed to go on for about 30 minutes which is quite good and the whole length of the beach is lit up. So we say our goodbyes to ram who still wants to go swimming with us but has to make do with goodbye. We decide to walk back to the hotel along the beach rather than the normal way as it's quite dark and a bit iffy that way and the mood ram is in we don't want to tempt fate.
So along the beach we go and the further down we get the more busy it becomes finally we make it to the steps which take us off the sand and onto what we call brick lane which is a main road leading eventually to our hotel the steps are mobbed with Indians and mrs silax gets a few gropes off them as we make it up the steps funny enough I didn't get any gropes its just a mass of Indian chaps all the way with the odd white European amongst it all the strange thing is the lack of Indian women or maybe not so strange for me now.
Back at the hotel the bands in full swing with agadoo or something and I see mr. Braganza weaveing his way to the toilet to the amusement of some of the waiters. Its bed time for us and I'm sober the one downside to the evening is I've started smoking again normally people give up on new year so I'll have to asses that problem when I get back to dubai.

[silax]

The journey home
Woke up new years day without the normal new year hangover (strange feeling).
Now the journey home was never going to be very straight forward as we'd tried to do the holiday on the cheap but somehow managed to pay for everything twice. On the bus up from Bombay we were in seats and sleep was pretty impossible and female toes up my bum was although erotic not really what I was looking for so we booked a sleeper bus with a bed and all it cost quite a bit more about 26 quid each arriving in Bombay at roughly 9:30 in the morning with the flight not till 23:30 the plan was to sleep on the bus then do another sightseeing tour of Bombay through the day.
As luck would have it I had the hotel room booked an extra night so we wouldn't have to leave our hotel room until the last minute the taxi was picking us up at 5:30 pm so we went out and had a nice lesurly breakfast overlooking the bustling street. Now I don't know what it is about british people on holiday but they seem to think that safety is only important in the uk . an example of this and I have a photo which I'll upload when I get the chance is the scooters and mopeds now india is the most dangerous roads I've ever seen but for thelocals and we've all seen it a family of 4 all on a moped fair enough they have grown up in this environment and understand it. So what poseses a middle aged british dad to put his whole family's life at risk by hiring a scooter and riding it with wife and kids abored the photo I've got is not the worst example I saw.
Anyway back to what happened on the last day in calengute got back from breakfast about 12:30 and told reception we would be checking out a day early the girl behind the counter said we should be out of our room by 12:00 but I tried to explain to her I had the room booked for an extra day eventually I told her I would go get the paperwork and show her so back in the room I found my booking form and shock horror today was our last day well we needed showers and everything so the next 90 minutes was all boxers and g strings and we did a panic pack went down to reception and popped our bags behind reception. We'd decided to go to mapusa (where our bus was picking us up from)early to ensure not missing the bus which left at 9:30 pm taxi came and dropped us off this has to be one of the most expensive taxis I've ever taken when I booked the accomadation in goa for some reason it took 60 quid off me for airport transfers well we didn't arrive at the airport and took a bit of hassle to arrange for a transfer to the bus station instead so a 30 minute taxi ride had cost me 60 quid. We got to mapsa at about 6:00 pm and had a few hours to kill so we fed the moscitos outside this park for a bit then found a hotel with a restaurant where we could get fed before our 12 hour bus journey up to Bombay. Going into the hotel the first thing we saw was this bloody poster of mother Teresa with Mathew Braganza again I deeply regret not taken a photo of this poster now 
Anyway we went up to the 3rd floor and found the restaurant and had a really nice meal got taking to one of the waiters there and he was going to be a bollywood star eventually once he got his portfolio finished. We managed to spin the meal out until 8:30 then set off to confirm our bus booking at the office on our way out who should we see but the kareoki king himself Mathew Braganza sober as it happens.
Now we checked in at the bus depot and everything was in order bus duley arrived on time and there was a mad rush for people to get there cases in. now rushing isn't something me and mrs silax are good at so we are quite happy to get on the bus last we've got our bed numbers and that’s all that counts or is it no it ******* well isn't it would appear that blankets are in short supply and its every man for himself so being last on the bus means no blankets bugger.
I don't know what it is about buses in india but it would appear that the a\c is permanently on you have a little switch in your berth which you can turn the air blast off or on that’s cool but when some sod has smashed a hole through the vent right above your head you have permanent freezing air blowing on you. By the time me and mrs silax arrive in Bombay we are like 2 penguins numb and knackered.
We get off the bus and get the bags now the plan has changed we gonna get to the airport and take things from there the taxi drivers are all over us so I find one and agree a price to the airport but I've made the fatal mistake of not asking him what kind of taxi he has. Its one of those open air 3 wheeler rikshaw things. So we are blasted by cold air all the way to the airport and the 2 penguins have made it alive and we only have 14 hours till the plane leaves 
Checking the flights I notice there is a flight to dubai with air india leaving at 14:15 so I decide to see how much it will cost to change our flights back. The guy in the office tells us it will cost nothing to change them so i'm one happy penguin now but alas there are no spare seats .
So we resign ourselves to 14 hours in the airport we're too tired to do the tourist bit so we try and make ourselves as comfortable as possible we end up sitting outside watching some guys working. Time passes and about 1:00 mrs silax comes up with an idea why don't we check to see if everybody has arrived for the 14:15 flight to dubai so we find a chap and ask him and he says not yet but put our bags through the x-rays just in case as it happens 2 people haven't made it in time woohoo we're now rushed through and can't believe our luck the queue at security was big so we thought better get to the front of this an Indian guy stopped us and asked why we were jumping the queue to which we reply we might miss our plane he said don't rush it won't go without you. He then explained he worked at dubai airport and once you had your boarding card the plane couldn't take off without us they have to come and find us if we don't get there in time.
All chill now and a nice leisurly stroll to the plane and can't believe it we're taking off almost 10 hours early and instead of going to abu dhabi and facing a 2 hour taxi ride we're going straight to dubai 
I take my hat off to air india even though they charged me double for not having my tickets I should be able to claim that back. But it took them all of 3 seconds to change our flights from the 23:30 plane to abu dhabi to the 14:15 to dubai for no extra cost.
Mobile phones going off as we landed even to the extent that the pilot had to come over the announcer will you stop using your phones it is interfering with my instruments.
Got through visa control no probs and the control person nearly fell off her stool when I told her we had been to Bombay for xmas. Anyway went for a taxi and queue was huge what you have at dubia airport is illegal taxi's which charge twice as much but no queing I normally won't use these people but a 30 minute wait was a no no so I gave in to all my scruples and took an illegal taxi got home and for the next few hours all I could think of was we could still be in Bombay what a clever girl she is.
I've missed a few things out so this is where I'll put them
Stupidest comment of the trip has to go to mrs silax while in Bombay in a taxi she asked the driver what festival are they celebrating to which he replyed Christmas do you know of it.
Another funny comment came from me we went to this book shop in goa where the Indian girl behind the counter thought I was a customer who had orded a book and was here to pick it up and she was convinced it was me so I said to her "we all look the same " to which she laughed and said yes you do I replyed we're just like sheep and that was too much for her "yes yes you do "
This a quotation from a book which I now kind of understand "why should I go to india? Indians don't even want to go to india! Everyones leaving india, or else wants to, and I don't blame them. I understand why – I'd want to leave, too, if I lived there, which I don't, nor do I ever want to go to that shitty place again"

[silax]

tuesday 8th been off the cigs now for 4 full days and its not been too bad weather is a little nippy out here at the minute. i've moved pc out to my terrace as it would appear i get a good signal there but i'm frigging freezing. now as my connection seems pretty good out here i'm gonna have a go at poker. not a lot has happened since i got back from india although i seem to have brought a cold back with me.
me and mrs silax have been trying to think of something interesting to do and we've come up with the idea of climbing the worlds tallest building which per chance is still under construction and not too far away from us. so i rekon that if we bung the builders a few quid they might just take us to the top of the thing now i really don't like heights but feel this could be too good an opertunity to miss anyway we're thinking about it watch this space.

[silax]

well finished my first game of poker for quite a while it was a 10 seat stt and was doing ok 4 left in and i had pocket a's just when i was gonna raise it with the other 3 playing the hand lost my connection still managed to finish 2nd in the end so not to bad but i'm getting cold out here and for the first time since i got here its raining thats typical isn't it i've got a cover on my balcony\terrace so not too bad but i could do with a pair of gloves or the sun to come out

[silax]

wedensday 09th january
back out on the balcony sun is out now and again a bit like the perverbial turtles head. its not raining today which is a bonus but there are plenty of clouds so that might happen yet played 2 games of poker yesterday finished 2nd in the first and went out early in the 2nd my pocket kings getting beat by pocket a's always a bugger when that happens and a sign that its time to stop poker for the day think i'll upload some holiday snaps while i've got a good connection

[silax]

where it all started from after the 2 hour taxi ride anyway

[silax]

the airport taxis and the famous gateway to india

[silax]

now here we have the famous taj mahal hotel the central station a noddy or taxi car and a statue of a bloke with an umbrella

[silax]

this is calengute like blackpool with indians

[silax]

people on holiday never cease to amaze me saftey out the window on the worst roads in the world and this wasn't the worst example by a long way

[silax]

this was quite a nice place in goa called vagator by the beach was nice anyway. where we had breakfast and a few of the local cows a bit like beached whales

[silax]

almost missed out my favourite

[silax]

friday 11th jan
not a lot been happening went for a walk and an arbour ride across the creek decieded to start playing a bit more poker it would seem on the balcony i have a good internet connection so because of this i'm moving up from 20 cent stakes to $5 stakes the rake only being 10 % at this level. played 2 10 player tournys this morning and didn't do too well in either the dreaded pocket kings my undoing yet again some numbskull goes all in pre-flop with aj s now with kk i know only 1 hand will be ahead of me pre-flop so if called i've got no choice but to answer and yes he hits his ace on the turn and i'm out. i know there is quite a lot of luck in poker at this level so i'm disapointed but no probs my bank roll is roughly $200 so i decide to play a 6 player table and finish 1st gicing me overall profit for the morning not much but its nice to see my bank roll move almost into profit.
weather isn't that good today sitting on the balcony in a tea shirt but no sun and lots of clouds so could be rain might go down to the pool later and see if its heated. been nicotene free now for 7 full days now its been ok but can feel my stomach getting bigger so might start the gym tomorrow maybe.
while out on my travels i spotted what looked like cable cars going over the city 2 big black balls swinging in the wind so i've decided to investigate these things. i've put climbing the tallest building in the world on hold i really don't think i've got the balls to go that high up. but if i can find these black balls i'm ok with a cable car ride.

[silax]

just to add newcastle got rid of big sam i must say i think most of the supporters contary to the media were ok with letting him stay till the end of the season i guess he got what he came for his 2-6 million pay-off and now we're going for another dodgy money grabber in harry rednapp

[wb]

'Genuine Fakes' leather shop is the best!

[silax]

my filters stopped working and although i was able to connect to the internet wasn't able to get win2win big thanks to keith yet again for sorting it out for me

[silax]

well its george bush day today here in dubai well he arrived yesterday and today he goes places. now i popped down the local supermarket and they've run out of eggs but the chances of anybody getting cloe to him are quite small. what they've done for security here is close all the majorr roads till he goes. now what you also have to remember is dubai has no other means of transport apart from roads so when you close them you can't go anywhere unless its within walking distance. imagine london closing all its roads and the underground the city just stops i looked out the window and all thats moving is a helicopter in the sky. so what to do now i'm an ex smoker and ex alcoholic my options are a bit limited. g\f has a day off work so gonna have to find something to do. its raining and there are no taxis or roads for that matter. one thing i bought the other day was some muffin mix. i only bought it for a laugh but hey i think it might get opened today i need to find some of those cub cake paper cup things and hey presto i'm gonna spend some time making muffins.
my good run at poker finally came to an end my record in 10 player stt is 12117 and i was really unlucky to go out in the last one so my poker bamk is looking quite healthy with an increase of 20% from its starting level don't think i'll get a chance to play today though

[silax]

i've just checked the flights into dubai and out of dubai today and there isn't any looks like its muffins today then

[silax]

being a bit bored on the internet the other day i decided to type peoples names into google well i typed my mothers maiden name in and it would appear that i could be related to this chap Aehelfrith King of Northumbria whoever he was need to investigate more i like the sound of king and would not be surprised if i was the long lost benifichary of alnwick castle (harry potter) :)

[Win2Win]

Bush.....you can keep him....while the cats away, me & the Yanks are getting down to some serious business...... ::hump'em like they've ::hump the world :D

[silax]

raining again today. made 12 muffins yesterday and got 7 left which i'll have for dinner pleased my balconies got a roof on as i'm having a poker day today just finished first game finished 2nd and banked $10 always nice to start the day in profit in any form of gambling

[silax]

well rain stops play raining too hard got to go inside won the 2nd tourny i played so not too bad at all

[silax]

wedensday and keegans back anybody who has any kind of affiliation with newcastle is all excited at the minute with the prospect of a seeing a proper football team again. its motivated me enough to get me down the bar to watch the stoke game but first i played a board game with 3 others called wealth of nations. it was ok but didn't win. after that 4 of us stormed the main sports bar/knocking shop to watch newcastle play and bugger if its not on tv. thats the first time a game envolving newcastle hasn't been shown:(
anyway not to worry went to see a rock band playing instead with 3 philopeno girls singing got drunk and smoked my head off it would seem that it takes very litle encoragement for me to slip back into my old ways

[silax]

thursday hangover stay in bed

[silax]

forgot to mention on wedensday went to a mall and saw some dressing gowns in a big pile reduced and only 2 quid each as it happens just what me and the g\f need so as usual i pick hers and she picks mine now what a couple of plonkers we look first thing in the morning we've got sweden dressing gowns in bright blue and yellow with "sportswear milk and honey" written in bright blue on the left arm. they've got hoods as well i feel like big sven the boxer in mine

[silax]

friday for a while now we've been thinking about moving apartments. we're on the first floor and its quite noicey and the balcony gets very dusty so finally we get the chance to move up to the 3rd floor on incpection of the new aparytment the furniture is nicer in ours so this means swapping it over now i'm all in favour of paying a couple of indian chaps to move the stuff but g/f decides it will be fun to do it ourselves. the fun has completly dissapeared from our lives when we get a 3 seater settee stuck in the lift it went in so somehow it had to come out now i'm all in favour of running to the nearest pub and forgetting about it but that plan is scupperedby g/f who is also stuck in the lift behind the sofa.anyway after much tooing and frowing and swearing finally we get the thing out and by the end of the day we've got most of our stuff moved. we now have a shopping trolley in our front room.
anyway it would seem that the result of us moving is a continiuos internet connection and a balcony which hasn't got an inch of dust covering it also the noice difference is amazing.

[silax]

would just like to add how cheap electrical stuff is over here i bought a dvd player the other day and all it cost me was 14 quid its small about 8 x 8 inches and plays all copies known to man.
laptops are very cheap here and will be bringing one over to the uk to sell if anybodies interested maybe easter time.

[silax]

just got in from watching the mighty mags under special k it would appear our star plater is a centre half who is now playing in midfield anyway bolton spoilt the party i've now found some mates and one of them has one of those projector screens so was good to watch.
will start playig poker tomorrow full time

[silax]

started my poker day played 2 games and bubble boy in both :(
mattfish was playing in my second is that matt

[silax]

well 3rd game was first out went all in with a low chip guy had ak s only to get another player going all in as well with a pair of 9's leaving me with 70 chips and out.
as luck would have it won the next tourny giving me a small profit so far and my bank is now 38% up on the starting roll :)
a little bit of luck in the first 2 games and i would be flying.
another game calls

[silax]

got a 3rd place and an out in 10th by playing crap
bank finishs for the day 37% up

[silax]

played one more game yesterday and managed to find a couple of :butthead:s who spent the game slagging me off very annoyed for getting put off my game and wound up by them hence out in 5th lesson learnt its 7:30 am here and about to start poker again something struck me the other day when i was out on my balcony that it was chilly checked the temp and it was 72 degrees very strange my body must have aclimatised to hot temps

[silax]

well first game of the day and i'm bubble boy yat again got to convert these 4th places into a top 3 finish

[silax]

bubble boy 3 times in the first 3 games and i'm mad as hell :(

[silax]

not gonna be my day at all set of queens beaten by j,5 o when i raised 5 x the bb before the flop :(

[silax]

a difficult day playing poker played 8 games 4th in the first 3 won only 1 a couple of bad beats and the last game of the day had to leave when just got started so bank is well down only 25% in profit now hopefully today will see an improvement.
now i've just got myself a cleaner a young indian girl and i know now her language is very limited she came round to see me and i asked her how much and she said 300 which is roughly 35 quid so i said a week and she said yes ok how much an hour she says 300 hmmm how much a month i ask she says 300 now i'm about to do the deal of my life when i ask her how much a year she replys 300 so i then say how about 350 she says ok 350 so anyway i think she does an hour 6 days a week for 350 a month which is good for me and good for her. it was her 2nd day yesterday and i went out to get my head sharpened when she came and got back just to see her leaving. well i haf this black forest gateux in the fridge and i noticed there was a little piece gone so i've gone and bought a cream cake for when she arrives today.
she's quite good but has a problem she tidies everything up and puts everything away spent ages looking for the bin last night and she rearanges my furniture might buy her a book on fen shuy.

[silax]

tuesday
poker started badly again lost first 3 hands and going into 4th game bank was down to 13% profit. things got better from there finishing in the cash 4 out of the next 5 games and closing the day with the bank at an all time high of +40%.
now i've come up with the idea of moving to india for a couple of months of all places i quite fancy mumbai although when i was there for a couple of days over xmas i never really felt i saw what the city had to offer so i've been flicking through the internet and hopefully will find an apartment to rent for about 100 quid a month as the cost of living in next to nothing i should be able to have a fun time there.
i've e-mailed one company to ask how much the rent is and i'll take it from there but have made a mental note note to go in the rainy season as i don't want to be splodging in a sea of floating turds.
must also try and remember to ask my maid what her name is when she comes round.

[silax]

wedensday 23 jan
well not a lot happened yesterday only played 4 games of poker and could only manage 1 top 3 finish and that was a 2nd hence bank down to 37% profit.
got a reply form the india apartments place and i think they are taking the micky in total about 2 and a half thousand quid to rent for 2 months. will look elsewhere.

[silax]

poker has taken a turn for the worst again but not really my fault was doing really well when had connection probs half way through a hand almost totally committed and lost connection had a very good hand and was down to almost out because i couldn't bet then hit a really bad beat and decided to give up for the day played a couple more hands since but have lost a bit of confidence and bank down to +26%gonna play another game now and hopefully get back the confidence

[silax]

finished last weeks poker with my bank at +30% a little bit dissapointing but not to worry i'm not losing money. discovered a thing while plaaying called sharkscope where you can see how all the players are doing and i was a mazed to see that just about every player i've checked so far is in the red or down overall. now this might explain why quite often i get people slagging me off as i'm well up and as one guy put it doing very well. i don't really see the point in subscibing to this bit of kit but will use it in future to maybe shut up the plonkers trying to wind me up.
went out last night to watch the mighty mags take on arsnal and was quite impressed with the first half but overall the expected result came special k has a big job on his hands.
had a few beers with mrs silax and a couple of mates 5 pints and i was 2 sheets to the wind my tolerence to alcohol is definatly dropping now i don't drink on a regular basis

[silax]

well for some reason my poker dosen't seem to be going anywhere at the minute and i may even be getting worse or unluckier. started today off with pocket q's losing half my stack to pocket a's closley followed by my pocket k's losing the rest to pocket aces. then hit a bad beat in the next game and my bank is looking glum managed to win a game next up and bank stands at +28%.
i might have mention i have an indian maid who speaks very little english. she's been working for us now for a week and friday she asks for 3,000 derhams advance as her mother is in hospital and she will work it off now its not that i don't believe her or anything but just that i haven't got that kind of cash to spare at the minute about 400 quid i might give her 1000. anyway yesterday she turns up for work and asks me for 200 for a scratch card or something mentioning how lucky i am :(
the problem is most indian people think all white people are millionares so i will play her by ear and see what she wants today.
at the minute i'm on the verge of getting a new maid philopeno variety would be nice.

[silax]

i'm starting to realise how stupid some players in poker really are a good example is a hand i played i'm bb and i have a 3 and a 5 i get the chance to check and 337 flops now if i was in any other position the one person i would not go in against is the blind guy but no someone calls and raises my bet and there's one less player at the table.

[silax]

its been a while since i have been able to connect some ships anchor pulled up the internet cables apparently.
since the last time i've managed to get my internet sorted finally. last thursaday i went to nad al sheba races and had a great time for a people who frown on gambling and alcohol they do it very well.
went with a couple of mates on thursday. arrived by taxi about an hour before the first race went to an information desk and found out where was good to be. there is a free section but no bar in there so that was out the window straight away. we chose to go into the guisbourogh room or something like that and it cost roughly 12 quid. now to get from the info desk to the ticket office we set off walking when a young filly on a golf carty thing stopped and gave us a lift. got our tickets and yet another young filly in a golf buggy thing took us straight to the door of our end. took some seats just to the right of the winning post and oppisite a big screen a waiter comes across and takes a drink and food order fish and chips with a bottle of lager for me and i'm sorted. now there is no gambling in our bit anyway so we've all placed our bets via the net. now i mentioned earlier that i couldn't get a connection which is true so in the afternoon i went round to a mates to use his legitimate internet. it was running really slow and although he had something to get him past the sencors it wasn't the same as mine and must have routed him through the us which is about as much use as a snake in a bowel of spagetti when you are trying to access betfair which is where i've got a bit of cash in. so after an hour of trying i finally get the log on screen up at betfair only to be told my isp is in a banned country.
so off to bet 365 to stick the bets on there another half an hour gone and i'm buggered if i can find nad al sheba on there.
i'm running out of options and one of my mates already in the bar having his first pint and the other is getting frustrated (not half as much as me).
anyway i remember getting a free 10 quid off paddy power so i'm in there and they are covering the meeting no chance of me having time to deposite any more cash in there so i've got 1.40 quid on each race (which by the end of the night was a blessing in disguise)
night of racing starts badly for me and one horse that pops its clogs just after the finish line. i manage one winner and see some dead certs finishing well back.night ends with one of my mates hitting 4 winners and clearing a couple of 100quid me losing 6.40 and my other mate not getting one horse even placed.
on our way out we spot our taxi rank and its quite small the que anyway. i think they must keep all the people in the free end in for 10 mins to allow the paying guest first dabs with the taxis. now there are free busses laid on to different parts of dubai and for some unknown reason we jump on one. then spend 30 mins looking for a taxi outside some hotel.
then we finally get close to home into the bar a couple of quickies then off to bed

[silax]

so much for getting my internet sorted. it worked fine for the first couple of days then sunday morning went to connect and nothing. although after playing around with it i could connect to messenger sites but no internet explorer so also phone had never worked since guy connected the line didn't realise till he had gone as you have to buy your own phone here. anyway monday 8:00 i went down the phone office and told them and they said there will be someone out within 24 hours. 23 hours and 50 mins later a guy called round twiddled with phone and that was working woohoo but no internet. now i'm not an expert on the pc but i kinda thought the problem was internet explorer not the line. so the guy arives to fix my internet and spends a couple of hours finally finding the problem in internet explorer. what impressed me was that there was no charge for his service even though techinackally speaking (my spellings getting better say what you see)it wasn't there fault. i think bt or telephonica would have charged me.
so i'm happy but my filter thingy ma jig isn't connecting thats not good as win2win is banned over here. woke up this morning and woohoo my filter thing is working so here i am.
i've done nothing with poker really because of above problems. bank is low at +18%. what i have done is apply for a job over here will proberbl not even get an interview but i thought i would test the water. its a driver job with one of the tourism companies here hopefully driving one of those toyotar landcruisers on the desert safari. i'm fully qualified having kinds good spoken and written english apart from the spelling and grammer and a slight geordie accent but they won't find out about that until its too late (suckers). sent them a short letter explaining how i've driven for the last 20 years and even drove a toyota land cruiser (hint hint) that should put me one step above the indians

[silax]

decided my balcony was looking bland its quite big gets good morning sun so need to brighten it up talked to a carpet guy and he said he would put a grass flavour carpet down on it cost just over 100 quid so thats done now and got some furniture arriving today nothing special nice table 4 chairs and a 2 seater swing for those romantic nights with mrs silax.
oh and had to sack my maid/cleaner the language barrier was getting too much my hindi was as good as her english manuel from faulty towers would have been better so i'm on the lookout for a philopeno one now there english is excellent among other things.i played in a mtt on betfair last night and finished 35th from 94 way out of the cash and got caught by a bad beat flush when the pot should have been mine.

[silax]

garden furniture arrived and somehow i've managed to put the table and chairs together on my own so i'm now sitting on my balcony with my own wifi internet connection temp is cool but nice proberbly hit the high 60's/low 70's once the sun hits me.
on the poker front had a good day yesterday ended my 8 tourny losing streak played 3 games finishing 1st 3rd and 2nd respectivly bank now upto +35% and hopefully will get over the +40 % today. which seems to be a bot of a stumbling block for me have been +40% numerous times only to get pegged right back with losing runs.
going to the races today and will try and remember my camera and hopefully get some cool shots of nad al sheba and a few winners would be nice anyone with hot horses there could let me know.

[silax]

woohoo finally made it at poker played 2 games this morning finishing 1st and 2nd closing bank for the weekend is now +50%.
will start again monday morning have been playing sundays but seem to do badly on a sunday for some reason or other.

[silax]

went to nad sheba racecourse on thursday have a couple of picks, managed to have 4 pints before we got there followed by lots on course. one down side about waiter service is you never get a break from drinking and as no matter how hard i've tried in the past can't say no when someone asks me if i want another beer. managed to get one winner and very drunk.
watched newcastle v villa on the saturday afternoon my god we are so bad we're going down unless kk manages to wave his magic wand (thanks for that big sam).
didn't play any poker yesterday but will hopefully get a good session in today with my bank at an all time high of +50%. if i can get that to +100% by end of feb will increase my stakes.

[silax]

nad al sheba

[silax]

monday saw mw start ok on the poker with a 3rd place then 2 bubble boy finishes was the best i could do. sometimes it dosen't matter what i go all in with i get beat and this would appear to be the case right now closed bank +35% and well sick about the day

[silax]

couldn't connect yesterday a nothing day at poker bank closed +32%
anyway wedensday had a really interesting day started the day with coffee and poker played 2 games finishing 3rd and 2nd the second game was fun as there was some good banter and i ended up heads up with elvis presley.
i'd had one bad beat earlier but had the chips to cover it and last hand i get caalled all in with ak now elvis has k6 o i'm happy with that a king flops and makes no difference to either player and that river caard is a 6 dear me.
anyway back to the events of the day i bought another juicer as my old one broke and used it for the first time went to clean it and couldn't get the filter thing out so i'm off down to the place where i bought it and ask them to sort it the guy looks at it and says you have to undo those 3 screws and i say you shouldn't have to anyway he's adamit about this so i tell him to do it and hey presto the filter comes out. so i tell him it dosen't say so in the instruction and he says well its just common sence ok i know when i'm beat. on the way back i call into my fav coffee house and have a coffee and a read of the paper then a look at the jobs bit and i see another job with a tour company. i never did get a reply from my last e-mail. this ones a bit different you just ring up so back home and go to work on cleaning my juicer out with the filter. underneath the filtis another bit which you have to take out and thats not moving as the base of the filter is keeping it in. getting a bit peeved now but i'm back down to the shop and after much head scratching they need to get someone out to look at it so now they've got my juicer and i'm waiting for a phone call to say its fixed.

[silax]

now i've kept the jobs section from the coffee house and decide to give them a ring the advert says must be fluent in english. i'm almost that so no worries there i speak to a guy who asks me about it and then asks me where i'm from so i tell him uk and then what job are you applying for "driver job" are you sure he says i say yeah and he says come down today between 12 and 1 ok now its about 10:30 and i spend the next half an hour hunting for clothes to wear now i only have jeans here and 1 pair of lightweight canvas trousers and most of my tops are tea shirts but i find a shirt and hey i look ok not for job interview but would be pulling if i went down the disco. now shoes all i have is jesus sandles, flip flops and trainers not a proper shoe in the place jesus sandles or flip flops means cutting toenails and i haven't got time for that so its trainers my best nikes.

[silax]

taxi to the place and before i go on i won't tell you the proper name but if you say it like its written sounds like whores r us tours. the thing i find attractive about the driving jobs with the tour companies is they give you a toyota land cruiser or hummer to go dune bashing in the sand. they don't have to pay me for that plus being white i should have first dabs on any sexy tourists but i'll sort that one out if anybody is stupid enough to give me a job.
so i go into reception and its empty apart from an indian sitting down having a snooze so i'm thinking woohoo the competitions asleep jobs mine.so i'm sitting there in my disco gear praying that someone comes into reception and finds him sleeping. his mobile goes off and that wakes the chap. he then gets up and uses the office phone (looks like my kind of place to work) we start chatting and he asks me what i'm there for and i say the driving job he says the driving job???? what you have to remember here is dubai is the centre of modern day aparthead and white people don't do driving jobs and the normal salery for a driver is about 200 quid a month. so i say yeah the driving job and he asks about my background and i'm wondering if this is the interview as it happens its not but he's trying to talk me out of the job(maybe he's got a mate coming for it) anyway he gives me the name and number of a guy who works for a huge company thats looking for engineers. so i tell him i'll give him a call after the interview. i can see one of the landcruisers out the window and at the minute thats all i'm thinking of bashing around the sand dunes with a load of blondes. eventually a guy comes downstairs and asks me what i'm there for and i tell him the driving job and he says the driving job are you sure? well i'm getting used to it now and he leads me into an office and what a pleasent surprize there's a cute little japanese girl dressed in a quite sexy comona. the first question she asks is what job are you applying for now i'm feeling sharp and a little curious so decide to be a bit bold and have visions of me and her bashing about. the driving job but if there's anything else going. ah ok she's says can i see your cv well this is not a good start i don't have one but hell its only a driving job my cv isn't very relevant. hmmm she says you have your passport again i say no sorry and as this is a driving job your driving liscence nope sorry don't have that on me either. you have any id on you and again its a no from silax. so she asks for my phone number and i'm think whats she want that for the jobs out the window just maybe she's on the same wave lengths as me. back downstairs and i meet the sleeping indian again and he tells me to ring his mate which i do and have quite an interesting chat with him although the kind of engineering i've done is not relevant to his particular field he'll pass my cv round and see what happens. so i'm feeliing quite good about that and decide a walk home with lunch and a pint on the way. outside the temps must be getting upto the 90's and its not 1 pint i'm gonna have. i found a new bar just recently and have been meaning to try it so todays as good as any.back in a minute

[silax]

as i was saying arrived at this bar and had a look at the menu and there it is bangers and mash hmmmm i wounder if they can give me chips instead of mash no problemo. in dubai the service you get is always very good and presentation of food is excellent now i'm woundering what they gonna do with sausage and chips and well i wish i'd had my camera with me 2 long sausages shaped like a v with the beens inside the v and a little bit of garnish and the chips all placed in straight lines and a bottle of hp's finest in the conduments.
a couple of phone calls and 2 mates gonna join me after they finish work i'm celerbrating not sure what but i'm celerbrating 4 pints later and my mobile goes whores r us want to see me again tomorrow with my cv and passport maybe not a driving job something in the office. now i have a delema in front of me i'm just about compos enough to sort a cv out but do i leave the bar and do that or stay and celerbrate hmm no real dilema there now i have a stinking hangover and need to get my cv sorted got to be at the office by 1pm.
one question i was asked at the interview was what was the minimun i was prepared to work for too which i replyed whats the most you're gonna pay me. she wouldn't tell me so i just said about the equifilent of 450 quid a month which is way over the top for a driving job here. but really i've got to try and squeeze a bit more cash out of them if i get offered the job today. might do it for a few days cos i really do fancy the dune bashing.
also anothing advantage is i'll get a proper work visa for here.

[silax]

ok went for my second interview and had a nice chat with my japanese girl i start tomorrow and have to be there for 9 am my normal hours are 7:30 :( till 4:30 in the afternoon 6 days a week which comes out at 54 hours a week ( i feel like an indian ) now unfortunatly i'm not doing the driving jobs so dune bashing is out. i'm gonna be doing all the bookings in the office and co-ordinating the trips which means i have to go on most of them. got a phone call just as i'd left the interview asking me if i wanted to go on the desert safari today which i declined as its a 6 hour jolly and didn't really feel upto starting.
so tomorrow at 9pm is the big kickoff when silax takes control big downside is my pro poker flirt will have to wait. at the end of feb i decide if i want to continue with the job if so they will process my visa.
i think they will have to come up with a bit more cash to keep me but gonna enjoy doing all the tours in the mean time.

[silax]

my first day at work
wake up shower shave etc, 2 slices of toast with peanut butter and make my fav sandwichs cheese and pickle in a cheesey bun. a 20 min walk followed by a trip across the creek in an arbra. don't understand why they call it the creek cos its as wide as the tyne or wider anyway then another 20 minute walk and i'm there first day is a 9 am start then 7:30 after that so i arrive nice and prompt. get introduced to an indian chap who's gonna show me the ropes ok all going smoothly and i'm looking forward to dinner and my cheese buns. its a very relaxed atmosphere and my japanese girl hasn't shown her face i find out its her day off and also she's married to the boss:( but on the bright side i've got a philopeno girl working next to me) everybody in the office is a bit curious and dosen't really know how to treat me as i'm white in an apartead culture. its a bit or proberbly a lot like the first black guy going for an office job in southern america in the 60's. or better still a white guy in south africa going to work with the coloured chaps in the 80's. silax is breaking the mold here.anyway lunchtime comes and the boss asks me if chicken birriani is ok for me. i'm not wanting to offend so i say yeah ok cheese buns will have to wait. so i'm sitting downstairs with the reat of the office chatting well listerning cos all the chats in arabic and hindi. and the food arrives now so again not wanting to make a fool out of myself i'm blending in nice and quietly and watching as a guy lays down newspaper then puts a big tray on top and starts emptying all the birrianis onto the tray. ok i can live with this but where's the cutlery fortunatly one of the guys asks me if i've ever eating with my fingers to which i reply not yet. and gives me a spoon great now i'm watching as they all tuck into it with there hands and all thats going through my head is wonder when they last went to the bog. so i start digging in with my spoon what the hell.
there is an art to eating rice with your fingers cos i think i spilt more from my spoon then anybody else.now i came close to being sick when one guy said have some chicken and proceded to rip a piece off and put it next to my spoon. dinner finished and back to work i'm gonna hopefully work out what i'm supposed to be doing soon. bonus they put me on the desert safari leaving at 3pm for 6 frigging hours. anyway i'm in the landcrusier with the big cheese driving and hopefully chicken birriani is gonna stay in my stomach.
first up is dune bashing excellent fun like a rollar coaster on the sand. then some sand sking and off to do some more dune bashing before watching the desert sunset. then its off to camp where everything is free apart from the alcohol :( have a massive dinner washed down with coke and sit chatting/listening to the drivers then a belly dancer rounds off the show and its back home one of the driver drops me off at my hotel. on the way back i found out that i think almost everybody at whores r us 7 days a week and he's a little confused when i tell him tomorrow is my day off. oh well thank goodness for being white. another strange thing happened while at work there is a list of everybodies phone number who works there and i think it goes in order of importance i'm embarrased to say out of about 20 people i've been squeezed in at number 4 on the list.
i wonder if they have me pencilled in to run the office :).
day off tomorrow 7:30 start on sunday :(

[silax]

had my day off saturday and bought some new shoes and a couple of shirts for work. up early and off to work on sunday a good day getting used to answering the phone now. booked in some cockney bloke who couldn't beleive he was talking to a geordie on the phone in dubia newcastle united came up in the conversation and he was rubbing it in so i said you must support man u and he says how did you know i'm from london? aren't they all.
new shoes are killing my feet so its back to trainers. got tested on the brocher by the japanese girl hadn't learnt it so that was interesting.
they are sending me off to oman on a full day tour today so i'm just waiting to be picked up got my camera so will take plenty of snaps its a 12 hour tour and have dinner on a wooden dhow boat somewhere the downside is the tourists i'm going with are french but hopefully 2 females so they can feel the silax charm. had to run away from the immigration people today i'm working illegally at the minute until the company proccesses my work visa fortunatly the colour of my skin keeps me out of trouble. well there first thought are white he can't be working here so saved by being white.
got to make this quick as got to get some breaky before i get picked up.
hopefully i'll get some more time to write a little bit more about what i've been getting up to

[silax]

sorry chaps haven't updated for a bit been really pushed for time will try and get some stuff done on this later tonight

[silax]

been a while and loads have happened. oman is a beautifull place amazing views got some photo's to put up whem i get the chance. battery on camera ran out just before we bumped into the dolphins swimming wild. anyway got back in one piece knackered but quite happy. my first week at work is complete and i'm starting to be accepted a bit. my japanese girl is chinese well they all look the same to me. got a phone call today telling me i had to go for a dhow cruise dinner up the creek and could take my wife with me good stuff. what i found out was the company had booked the whole party for 86 chinese people ffs and i've got to make sure they are all comfortable and there tour leader dosen't speak to the boat owners. well we push a lot of business through this boat so when they find out one of the company is coming down to have dinner its a case of **** the chinks lets make sure mr. white company man has the best service so me and mrs. silax apart from being the tallest on the boat have a table right in the middle of china town. i think our clients must have thought we were triads or something. these small people take an awfull lot of photos and now i know how i get them confused with the japanese. my hours at work have been put up i'm now doing 58 hours a week. i know how peza feels but he gets better paid then me. also met the pakistani owner of the cafe i get my teas from who was pleased to meet me coversation went along the lines of pleased to meet you my names eddie he says harry i say no eddie he says yes harry no eddie yes harry mr. harry ok harry it is then.
i'd like to write more but i'm knackered and off to bed soon will get 20 questions from the boss tomorrow on the dhow cruise

[silax]

my day off today. got a bit of time so i'll explain a bit about the office where i work there's 3 of us taking bookings for tours and for some reason the other 2 do 12 hour shifts and i only do 9 hour shifts. one is a pakistani guy and the other a philopeno girl. 2 nice people with a good sence of humour. we have about 10 drivers and i'm having difficulty learning there names its funny how hard it is to learn foriegn names and put them with faces for instance asid asam amar abid. most of the people working there are muslim and i'm finding out a bit about how that religeon ticks. the majority do drink alcohol but i have not to tell anybody........... they all want to meet mrs. silax hmmmmm......... we have a chinese women who does all our leaflets and an office boy cleans the place and gets me tea and coffee. the md is from yemmen and its his wife who i thought was japanese. now this company can't believe there luck as they have a white british guy working for them which is very unusual but something that they push to anybody and everybody they can. the job suits my needs for the time being and i'm having a lot of fun.
i now know well its been confirmed through actually dealing with these people that the americans are the stupidest people in the world closely followed by the chinese which begs the question how did these nations get to be 2 of the most powerful in the world. monkeys guns springs to mind.
next week i'm off to oman again with an overnight stay in a 4 star hotel the trip i'm going with is 3 germans so that should be a bundle of laughs although also comin g on the trip is a guy called solurman an omany who drinks but keeps it quiet what he hasn't got is 20 odd years of drinking so will be interesting to see how he keeps up with silax in the bar. i've also discovered why these arabs wear dresses. there dress sence is terrible now take soluman my omany friend looks very handsome in some of his fine robes but the other day came to work in normal clothes cream cheno's and this shirt red and white thick strips he looked like a sunderland fan. he's gone down in my estimations after that.

[silax]

been a while. just completed my first month at work and decided i needed a wage rise so asked for 1 and now i'm unemployed again oh well back to the poker............
will explain all tomorrow as i haven't got a lot on

[silax]

well as i mentioned before i was working loads of hours for very little so on completione of my first month and after recieving my wages i decided to see how much the company valued me. unfortunatly they didn't think i was worth as much as i did so although they offered me a little bit more per month about 30 quid i turned it down which was a shame as apart from the hours i really enjoyed my job.
on another note i learned a great deal about the muslim culture which at times was a bit strange and the way an employer has to control there employees over here. i don't think they really have got to grips with how the western world operates in terms of man management.
today is just gonna be chill out i think and maybe go out later for a few beers as that is something i have missed while doing a strange thing like work and getting up early.

[Merlin]

Great read Eddie...:laugh

What's plan B , then.... or have you retired...?

[silax]

plan b well as its getting hot here that maybe lying by the pool unless you're going to give me a job recruiting some of the rich kids over here for your Brazilian sex camps but that will also have to include a visit myself to try out your local hospitality.
i'm actually thinking of trying some other tourism companies over here as i really enjoyed the job and the amount of sure things i passed over to our sex starved drivers was nobodies business. still in chill out mode and that may well last for a while. the main problem i have is the amount of hours i have to work over here and the serious effect it has on my socialising. today i'll go out for a coffee and contemplate my future here my fav coffee house supplies free daily papers so i'll have a good look through the jobs section but again the kind of jobs i'm trained for i don't have high enough qualifications for and the other jobs i like doing get done by indians and pakistanis so the wages are really bad. writing a proper CV might be a step in the right direction but that gets a bit complecated with the gaps where i've retired over the years. house in spain has still not sold. sometime soon got to start thinking about my next destination have to choose between Philipenes, Thailand, singapore or south america with an outside chance of australia. staying here is a possibility but i think max would be another 2 and a half years its too bloody hot.

[silax]

starting to settle in nicley to being unemployed again whoever put the idea of work into my head wants to keep there ideas to themselves. went out on thursday night down by the creek. it was the prophets birthday so i was expecting fireworks or at least a couple of goats being slaughtered but no not a thing happened had a nice meal at a resturant watching the dhows go by and the building lights shine.
now i don't know if i've mentioned this but i've been battelling against my nicotene adiction for the last 6 months and losing on wedensday i couldn't be bothered to go out and buy any cigs so decided to give them up again i normally use chewing gum which is ok takes the edge off the bad temp. after the meal i find i've run out of chewing gum so pop into carrafore on the way home the chemist then asks me if i really want to give up smoking and i say yeah ok and she offers me these pills chymidia or something now i know all there is to know about giving up smoking and i also know that over here these tablets aren't cheap about 100 quid a packet. and chewing gum is ok for getting me off the cigs staying off them is my problem. i know about the side effects of these drugs as well insomnia, weird dreams and mood swings kind of. as the chemist is a bit of a cutie i ask her if there are any side effects with them to my horror she says no there are no side effects whatsoever. will continue this a little later got to go.

[silax]

i then told the chemist that in her position she has to tell people the side effects of any drugs before selling them she turned a whiter shade of brown and asked me what the symtoms were so i rattled them off and went on my way gonna put pen to paper and send the local rag an e-mail about this when i find the time.
popped into another chemist on the way home for my chewing gum and the same thing happened.
with thursday bedtime approaching completed my first day nicotene free and declared my lungs now clean.
friday went out for breakfast at a place called french connection had rather a nice breakfast which consisted of 2 poached eggs on spinich placed on 2 muffins and some turkey ham topped with a layer of salmon and cream cheese very nice and completly satisfied my new found big appatite that has replaced the ciggies.
got a taxi to a mall that i haven't been to before called ibn ittuto mall or something similar anyway as it happens this guy ibn attuttu is quite famous a bit of a mathamatician apparently to rival isacc newton and the mall itself is themed with different countries that he visited during his time doing maths or whatever it was he did. there was a chinese section with a huge chinese dhow boat in(got some great pics) and various other ones which escape me apart from the indian one everybody seemed to be trying to get out of that one (nothing changes i guess). the whole idea of going to this mall which is at the other end of dubai was to go to watch a film "the kiterunner" and the cinema there was the only one showing it. quite a good film but like so many things the book was much better.
me and mrs silax had decided to hit the town friday night i'd recently bought 6 pierre cardin shirts and 3 pairs of trouser for work which i no longer needed so i was going out smart tonight. someone had told me about a bar where the live band is quite good so that was the destination. found it no probs but instead of a live band there was kareoki :( i'm not a fan but don't mind watching people make idiots of themselves. well i don't think i've ever been to a karioki with so many brilliant singers unbelievable. i'm going through quite a few chewing gums so decide to change the venu and head off to another bar where there is a live band playing only stayed for 1 pint as they weren't very good and a few of the karioki kings were much better. so its off to my local club were the rock spiders are playing by this time i've had a few and got my dancing shoes on. i like the rock spiders a philopeno rock band who can play just about any rock tune that is requested. mrs silax plays guitar and for weeks now i've had to endure her learning californication by the red hot chilli peppers so that what i'm gonna get played and so they do which is cool 2:30 in the morning make it too bed and wake up with big hangover and realise my lifes back to normal woohoo.
got a special day to look forward to today keegans gonna get his first win and owen is gonna score first goal. thats the plan anyway the highlight of the day is gonna be my plate of chicken wings while i watch the game. yet again food is replacing my ciggies and becoming a big part of my life. i've only just got my waistline down to normal after the last giving up attempt.

[silax]

got some photos of khasb in oman i think you will have to agree that this is a very beautifull place

[silax]

here are some of ibn battuta mall

[silax]

on reading my local paper i've decided to do a bit of charity work now i've never been a great contributer to charities so feel if i want to get into heaven better pull my finger out and do some stuff. back to the local rag i read i can remember somethin g coming up about maids over here who get abused so thats gonna be my charity i'm gonna donate some of my spare time to helping abused maids. now as i'm finding the tricky bit is finding this charity i spent 2 hours of my internet porn time looking for abused maid charities in dubai and struck out so to speak. so the hunt is on i've got to find this charity and the first thing i'm gonna do is get it some publicity as if i can't find it how the hell are poor abused maids who can hardly read and write gonna find it. anyway off out for a coffee and a little ponder at my situation. oh and for the first time ever i've sent a reply to my local rag on an issue in there letters page that bugged me. will post the link if they publish it but its got to get through the sensors so they might not.

[silax]

nothing much been happening i've applied for a couple of jobs but don't think anybody's going to give me one just yet. now a lot of people keep telling me Dubai is a very safe city well i have to dissagree with that cos if you drive or do manual work it is anything but safe. the last couple of week has seen a 300 car pile up leaving 30ish people dead it would seem people here don't slow down for fog or maybe just 1 person slowed down and well snooker on a tragic scale. also a factory exploded yesterday rumour has it it was an illegal fireworks factory god knows how many indians and pakistanis will have been killed in that one all surrounding areas were evacuated and i watched the smoke engulf dubai. fortunatly all the rubber necking must have slowed the traffic down and as far as i'm aware no extra car accidents.
ranggg up one place for a job yesterday quite a funny converstation asked what the salery was and the girl on the other end of the phone wouldn't or couldn't tell me so i asked to speak to someone who could got chatting to a Mr. bindi quite a nice chap i'm sure but he was very evasive when it came down to salery but i put him in a corner and he still wouldn't tell me so i asked him if i would be told in the interview he said maybe so then i asked him if i would have to wait till payday to find out. i now know Mr. Bindi dosen't have a sence of humour.
another job i quite fancied was local t.v anchor man but i kind of ruled myself out when i learned it was for a tamil t.v. station.
back to job hunting today

[MattR]

i spent 2 hours of my internet porn time looking for abused maid charities in dubai and struck out so to speak. so the hunt is on i've got to find this charity and the first thing i'm gonna do is get it some publicity as if i can't find it how the hell are poor abused maids who can hardly read and write gonna find it. .


So in effect you gave up one kind of abuse to look up another :D

[silax]

after unsucessfully finding the charity i fancied doing a bit of work for i decided it was about time i got into movies so with no further ado made my camera debut on saturday morning. now i don't know how many readers we have out there but the film i'm in is gonna win some awards i'm sure if just for the way its being made. its a film of the book "the witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho if anybody has read the book which i haven't its a story about a girl who lives in various countries throughout her live and paulo rather then use the same film crew etc. at each location has used a local film crew in each place with amature actors at least i didn't see brad pit or anybody. which should make the film a bit unique anyway. so come 7:30 am i'm off on location to the desert in a bus with some of the shieks daughters (he's funding the thing) i've been told to dress like a tourist so its my newcastle top i'll be a geordie tourist which i think would have been really cool but mrs silax is non too chuffed and i have to go as a normal tourist. filming starts and the leading guy in my scene has a practice of his lines with of all people me and i'm starting to think hey i could get a speaking part here but no thats not happening either. so cameras finally roll and action i've positioned my self in this tent right in front of the camera when the leading guy sits right in front of me ffs now i'm pretty sure he's blocking my face which is not good. but as bit of a bonus they decide my sun glasses are better then his so we have to swap sunglasses i now have another claim to fame. another scene and they change the angle of the camera move me out of the picture and plonk mrs. silax down in my place so my big movie moment has been stolen from me. finally get finished and get home about 1:30 in the afternoon a little disallusioned with the movie world.
1 thing i did see which is the first time i've seen it out here is a couple of emirates greeting each other by rubbing noses eskimo style apparently its very common.
dubai world cup was a complete sell out before the day so couldn't go there last night and today i have newcastle stuffing spurs too look forward to also sunday is my cleaning womans day and today is payday for her.
all in all an interesting if alcohol free weekend and still off the ciggys which makes it over a week nicotene free

[silax]

So in effect you gave up one kind of abuse to look up another :D
Quite :wink

[Bulldog]

I know Newcastle are pony mate but are you trying to get as far away from them as possible?. How are you? Long time no speak.

[silax]

hi bulldog how are you i'll send you an e-mail if i've still got your addy.
woohoo the mesiah make the mags rock 1-4 against spurs big celerbrations with my mate start smoking and play a few games of poker when i get in mortal drunk. did very well at poker played 1 stt and won it played a 20 player game and came second and played 2 6 pays 3 games and got a payout in both. the funny thing was i played 3 of them at the same time what happened was i entered 3 and was gonna cancell the ones that didn't start first but forgot and in my drunken stupar kicked everybodies ass :)poker bank at a new record high of + 53% very reminisant of the old red wine days in spain. also found out about a really posh resturant that does a special offer on a wedensday whereby you buy a main course meal for about 12 quid and all drinks alcoholic that is are only about 12p each. wedensday could become my favourite day. nursing a hangover at the minute. gonna make my first ever vegy quich for tea today

[silax]

well woke up this morning with big hangover but it now feels good to support newcastle had a deep and meaninful chat last night with a russian prostitute who couldn't speak any english the plan was (and take into account 10 pints) i was gonna rescue her from her evil pimp. i was with mrs silax and a mate and i don't think they could stop laughing as i tried to explain to her i wasn't a custormer got back to the apartment and played some genius poker again was almost unbeatable at 6 pays 3 poker and entered a 30 player mtt which paid 5 places with 6 left i'm looking good about 3rd biggest stack and have pockeet a's as the bb chip leader tries to steal my blind so i'm all in he has 88 a third a flops and he manages to river a flush :( a real stinker of a bad beat for me and i'm bubble boy to make matters worse. supposed to be off to abu dhabi today but my mate who's driving would appear to be hungover in bed somewhere.

[John]

had a deep and meaninful chat last night with a russian prostitute who couldn't speak any english

:laugh - only you could undertake and complete such a task!

Hard luck on the poker mate, I've stopped for the time being because I was getting beaten with crap hands. Keep writing the diary. :wink

[silax]

hi its been a while and loads of things have been happening. i've gone back to work which is still fun as you may recall i find it very hard to say no to people. about 3 weeks ago had familly staying over here and went on a desert safari with my old company and they asked me if i'd consider going back so i said yes and well thats what i've been doing working loads of hours for peanuts but like i say its fun and gives me something to do. weather is getting really hot now above 35 every day and my cold water is now hot which saves on the lecky bills. thats another strange thing here cold water is hot and hot water is cold the sun heats the cold water tanks and makes it hot and the hot water tanks are insulated to keep them cold good stuff....
gonna right a pirce on the working conditions of the average indian pakistani and philopeno sometime soon which may shock and disgust people but i feel strongly about it so i;m gonna do it and as this site is banned in the U.A.E. should be able to get away with it.
still drinking and smoking drinking is not a problem but smoking is so i need to address that asap maybe next week when my imediate hangover subsides.
went out last night my day off is today so drinking was ok. saw a band called clannad playing apparently quite a big band in there day and they were pretty good it reminded me of well i don't know what but the setting was outside a bar which suited me not too crowded and plenty of room to dance if neccesary. met the band in the bar after they had finised although didn't see the lead singer think she must have copped off before i met them. there are times when i wish i had my camera with me but being stupid never thought about taken it. just off for a ciggy will post this and continue in 10 mins

[silax]

ok after the band finished i went to the loo and came back to find mrs silax chatting to a couple of guys from UK and a very pretty girl from indonesia with big sticky out jugs which didn't come out but oh how i was wishing. anyway enough of that as it happens these guys were working in construction and one had only been here a month or so so got chatting to him and i told him in a very drunkenn way my work history and he asked me if i'd like to work with him "how much" and i nearly dropped my beer. so we exchanged phone numbers and hopefully i'll be meeting him today but if not what the **** haven't lost anything. i still can't believe how much cash he was saying to put it in lay mans terms means mrs silax can give up work but a long way to go and need some major bullpoo in my CV.
my hangover is throbbing so will end this episode now and hopefully update in the near future

[wb]

saw a band called clannad playing apparently quite a big band in there day and they were pretty good it reminded me of well i don't know what

Clannad are pretty huge in America, and were big in Ireland too. It's Gaelic haunty kind of music. They're from Donegal in Ireland (my brother is mates with one of the guys in the band). Their most famous song is the theme from the movie Harry's Game. It's the only Irish language song to ever enter the UK top ten! The main singer was Enya, but she left a few years ago.

[silax]

been an eventfull couple of days out here the new sport here is chucking cats out of the cars. what some people here are doing is driving up the main sheik zayeed rd. 8 lane duel carrage way getting themselves into the outside lane and chucking a live cat out of the passenger window the said cat almost always survives the intial fall but within seconds is splattered by another vehicle. as of yet nobody has been caught by the authorities yet but as a local policeman just got a 1 year prison sentance for kidnapping and rape i can't see anything more then a slap on the rists for the perpitraors of this feline crime if ever caught. next up a guy gets 4 years in jail for having marwana in his blood system even though he had smoked a joint outside the country that didn't wash with the local govement. Another road accident sees a familly of 3 wiped out. we can do u-turns over here a most junction and as this car did a u-turn not sure what happened but the car caught fire and nobody could get the dad mam and your child out of the car. one guy got close enough to smash the drivers side window but his efforts were in vain as he couldn't get the child out, this is true she was sitting on her dads lap as he drove with the seat belt keeping her in. its quite common to see out here the child sitting on daddys lap as he drives.
imigration almost caught me working again but the colour of my skin saved me if i'd been indian i'd now be on a plane back to the Uk, very close shave and am quickly reviewing my employment situation.
on the bright side it was mrs. silax's birthday over the weekend so we went for lunch at the emirates palace in Abu Dhabi, i've got some pics to post which i'll do a bit later.
Abu Djabi looks a nice place with lots of greenery and a nice beach still very hot though. company gave me a car for the weekend (not the HUMMER).
Has anybody ever been in a Hummer well I've driven one and they are like tanks the one we've got is an H2 (the big one) and when you put it into reverse a video screen comes up beside the rear view mirror and shows you the rear view. not sure if you can record what you see but would be useful if you could :)
well i'm not going back to work for a few days don't fancy being deported just yet will have to have a chat with our MD and see if he can bribe the authorities which shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[silax]

arrived back in the Uk on monday, just about had enough of Dubai so for the time being i'm living in the UK. going to sign on the dole on friday which could be interesting got an interview with a woman so i'm comfortable with that. i've been looking around the job situation and quite fancy working with animals a zoo keeper or something along that line might be interesting. As far as i know there aren't any Zoo's in Newcastle so if i have to move away so be it. One thing i have noticed since i got back is how miserable people seem to be. mrs silax hasn't come back and i don't think i'm going back to Dubai so as Ross in friends would say "i'm on a break":). My laptop packed in on tuesday which is supurb timing its the power box thingy thats knackered so battery won't recharge been quoted 42 quid for a new one although its under garuentee i bought it in Dubai so thats out the window. Have resisted the temptation to go out and get drunk am saving myself for Saturday night. Had my lunch today sat outside a church and just watched the world go by for an hour or so it felt really good not having to hide from the sun, should be back down to earth in a few more days :(
nothing much to report and as you can see i'm not updating this very much these days i may still update it now and again but not everyday.
Hope everybody has enjoyed hearing about Dubai

[Street cry]

Hey eddy good to have you back zoo keeping looks fun, was at flamingo land near me the other day and the guy in charge of the sea lions was loving it. you can be azoo keeper for aday there give it ahwirl ha ha ha ha watch those siberian tigers though