Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Monday, 18 January 2010

Headbangers

[Wrote this yesterday but haven't had internet until today.]

Yesterday was a big travel day. Can't say it was too much fun, but there were some highlights.

The cons:
- getting up at 4:30 am to get in the vans
- driving 15 hours on Ghanaian roads in a single day
- sitting in the back of the van with my legs pressed against me
- having a sore stomach
- hitting a speedbump in the dark at takeoff speed and hitting my head against the roof

The pros:
- meeting with the Minister of Health and the Director of the National Health Insurance Scheme over breakfast
- reaching Accra alive

Next time, think I'll fly.

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Lost in Tanzania

Don't worry, folks. I'm not actually lost in some remote place in the West. I have, however, gotten back into Lost (the TV series).

A couple of years ago, I got really into Lost. I'm not a guy who watches shows every week (I just never find the time), but I do like to watch them back-to-back on DVD. I discovered Lost about a couple of seasons after it first aired. I watched seasons 1 and 2 in a series of red-eyed late night sessions spanning three weeks. There's something addictive about that show that just makes you want to watch... just... one... more. Then, halfway through season 3, I started traveling for work and kinda forgot about the show for a while.

My show and I were reunited this week over lunch. There are a couple of regular DVD-and-music salesmen who walk around Jackie's, our regular lunch spot, trying to drum up business. They carry everything from badly-subtitled classics, to pre-release versions of action movies, to curiously-titled adult titles. Their prices are excellent because the residents of my house have a sort of bulk purchasing agreement with these guys that goes back five months. They even offer a money-back guarantee if the disc is faulty, no questions asked. I guess the treatment is reasonable; we probably account for about 20% of their revenues, since someone in the office buys one each time we go.

I had casually asked about Lost last week and the sellers had copies of seasons 3 and 4 yesterday. I bought both, in anticipation of some (potentially) quiet nights in the northwest of the country (I'm heading up there on Sunday). Of course, I couldn't really resist watching them last night, so I knocked off 5 episodes in season 3 back to back. Just good, addictive fun with me, my laptop and the survivors of flight 815.

I'll probably post again before I take off for Mara and Mwanza. Stay tuned!