At least these things always start off well. I arrive, and in a burst of enthusiasm, begin detailed accounts of all that goes on in my little corner of the world. This usually lasts a week, maybe two, and then I forget, or get lazy, or something, and find that I have a largish chunk of time unaccounted for. And then it begins.
Having set the bar fairly high to start with in terms of unnecessary detail and whimsy, I look at writing up the missing block of days or weeks and realize that I don't have time to do it right now. Too much has happened, so I'll have to wait for a day when I can devote the necessary time to the account, and, well, you can see where this is going. It is exactly the same process that had me filing my income tax returns for 2000 through 2005 all in November of 2007. (But they owed me money, so it didn't really matter, except that I was wrong in a couple of cases and boy were they cranky about it.)
All that to say this record may become somewhat spotty from time to time, and bits may get glossed over as my inevitable breakdown in personal discipline occurs. But I shall do my best to pretend that you are the CRA with all the awesome motivational powers that are at their disposal. We'll see how it goes.
The trip out was nice enough, apart from the doings of Air Canada (the Airline I Love to Loathe) who managed to leave half of my luggage on the tarmac in Vancouver rather than putting it on the plane with me. I shouldn't be surprised, they've done this to me before. But as I wasn't to find out about it until I arrived in Dubai, the trip itself was pretty carefree. Apart from the changing planes in Toronto, where, due to a delay and the inability of my two airlines to communicate with each other, I had to leave the secure area, get a new boarding pass, and go back through security. This left me with half an hour and a $25 dinner voucher from Emirates (usable only in this time and place) so I decided to grab a 'quick bite' in one of the cafe places near my gate. Predictably this wasn't all that quick, and I left the place only to my mispronounced name called over the PA along with the dire warning if I didn't show up, say, now-ish, they were going to remove my luggage from the plane and turn me over to CSIS for interrogation. I had the distinction of being the very last passenger on board before they buttoned up. I would later wonder if this is where my missing box went astray, but nope, it was still on the ground at Vancouver International Airport, so very much NOT MY FAULT!
Arrival in Dubai is when things begin to get sketchy for me. While waiting for my luggage, I met a very attractive young lady from the Canadian Foreign Affairs department. She was on her way to Kandahar to do something about police policy, and we passed the time chatting about what she will find there right up until my bag didn't show up. She was to meet a driver from Canada's Sooper Sekrit Base™ at one of the airport coffee shops, to which I proceeded to give her incorrect directions, as I'd been there before. I didn't realize that the airport had been remodelled since my last trip through.
I spent the next couple of hours trying to find my missing bag (box, actually) before giving up and heading to my hotel for the few hours sleep I would get before heading back to Terminal 2 for the flight to Kabul. As I passed the cafe, she was still there waiting. Evidently she was clever enough to compensate for my lack of up to date terminal floorplans. I hope someone eventually came to collect her.
Up at four, to the airport by five-ish, and through security where I meet by happenstance a co-worker named Juan, who was in Dubai getting his visa renewed. The plane leaves more or less on time, which is unusual enough to note for most Afghan airlines, and I'm back in Kabul. Still minus a bag (box) but it does turn up a few days later, mostly intact. It is now round instead of cubical, but apart from some minor injuries to the contents, everything was there. Hooray for duct tape! My roommate Neil tried to wind me up by saying it had been opened when Commander Farid finally brought it back to our offices. I called him a rude word in compensation for the elevated blood pressure he inflicted on me for a few minutes.
The rest of the week has been largely slipping back into the routine of the place and trying to sleep through until 6 or 7 in the morning, which is starting to take at last. Neil also needed to go to Dubai to renew his visa, but was very nearly arrested at the airport, as upon examination, his visa had expired 51 days previously, and not two days hence as he thought. However, he is a subject of Her Majesty the Queen, and does some side work with the British Embassy here. The security fellow who would not return his passport unless he paid up $250 on the spot was rather surprised when an embassy offical showed up, snatched the document from his hand and told him sternly "This doesn't belong to you, but is the property of Her Majesty." We are currently planning to get him out by other means, maybe via parcel post to Oman where he can catch a connecting flight back to Dubai. I'll let you know how that one turns out.
One friend I had been looking forward to seeing again, Jeff, who I first met in Kandahar back in 2006, was at home unexpectedly because his grandmother got very sick, but she has recovered, although still weak I gather from the reports. He's going to take his vacation now instead of in November as planned, so I probably won't get to see him until towards the end of October. This is doubly disapponting because he got me hooked on at TV show called Heroes, and the third series is starting up in the next week or so, and he's the one with the TV thingy that allows us to watch it over here.
The only other news of note is that we've had a bunch of sudden staff changes among our local guys, mostly due to corruption. It's disappointing, as some of these men I first worked with in 2004, and thought I had known pretty well. It's a wee bit tense around the office as a result, but should return to normal soon.
I expect much glossing over of things in future updates, and looking back can already see I've left out a bunch of stuff, like how we lost electric power for a couple of days, but in the main, everything is intact, and I'm getting back to work. Hope all of you are well at home. See you in December.
