Friday 2/5/10

A front pushed in last night around midnight. The wind was blowing about 40 knots out of the NNW and blowing sand and dust - it was like a heavy fog. By the time I woke up this morning the wind had slowed to about 15-20 knots and the skies had clear a little - still a little hazy (see some of the photos). I needed some technical pens to redo a map for my book cover, so I took the bus into Kobar to find them at the Jared Bookstore. Well, this is Friday and most of the stores are closed until 4:00 pm! The place was a ghost town compared to last night. You could shoot a cannon up the corniche road and not hit anything, So what was I to do but take a walk along the breakwater beachfront. Walked a mile or so taking a few pictures. The water was rough, but clear. A few people were out walking, playing cricket, or fishing. Most were from the Phillipines, Pakastan, or India. As I walked through the old section you could get a good look at the construction of the buildings - concrete and cement block. Just would not want to be in these structure in an earthquake. There is little wood used and just a little steel.

Back at the room I tried to do the drawing with the pen that I had, but it was a failure, so I had to catch the 4:30 bus to the mall and found my pens there, so I will do that map. While I was there prayer time came around. Every shop closed their doors and people had to come out into the hallways and sit around until the prayer is over. The only exception was the large Panda Hypermarket (about the size of a small WalMart). It is just impractical to run everyone out of the store, so the cash registers are turned off and the doors are closed, but shoppers can continue to look around and load their carts -just can't check out. It has to be hard on the retailers.

Back at the compound I met a consultant for England who is sets up and repairs mass spectrometers. Some how the conversation hit on fishing. Well you can guess where that went. He's fished all over the world. Quite fun talking with him. We'll probably get into some more conversation, as he is staying in a room on the second floor. BTW, his name is Hall.

Tomorrow is going to be a big busy day for me. I have two projects that I am now working and I will have to get things organized and rolling this week.

One of the photos shows Omer and Anas having a coffee last night.

Take care, all you lovely folks,
Richard