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8:45 p.m. 2010-04-11
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Catch up
OK, it has been a little while I know. What has happened? Well, it all started out with my houses internet going down for a few days early in the month, and then snowballed from there. Some highlights....
High speed convoy to a beach two hours away and once again going in the massive west African surf. On the way we were doing the kind of aggressive driving they teach to political protection teams, argued our way through a neighborhood road block (fish net across the road, and they had a metal bar with spikes sticking out of it to make you not run through the net). I know about 6 people here who aren�t affiliated in some way with work, and 2 of them were at the beach.
I�ve now been bowling twice. The lanes are about 10% shorter and narrower. I have no idea why. The balls are the same size. I am by no means good enough to notice a difference in my scores. One of my colleagues is. Walking into a bowling alley with your own ball is something people notice in this town.
This weekend I went to a fabric market. The Lagos fabric market is amazing. I have no idea how many square blocks and winding back allies were full of stalls selling bolts of amazingly colored fabric, but there were more than enough. Most of the fabric really did come from 4 or 5 manufacturers, but there were lots of exceptions. Hand made lace, the few stalls that actually sold garments. And even if you spotted some of the same patterns every 5 or 6 stalls the colors were still an attack on your senses. The lesson that I learned that I want to pass on to all of you: The coolest fabric patters are coming out of Ghana. I didn�t know about that before, I do now, and they are really really really cool. Texture/print overlays, dyes that seem to act differently than all the other fabrics.
Work has been very busy. Out of control co-worker vacations mean we are doing 90% of the work with 50% of the staff. That means two things, first lots of other responsibilities are sliding, but I think I�m about a week away from that getting really bad, and second I�m coming home from work exhausted. It didn�t help that it was my turn to be the first one in the office to open doors last week. That meant the days started an hour earlier.
My colleagues all going away for vacation is really making me look forward to my trip back to the US in June. Oberon is probably just coming out around now. Baseball has started. I�m really looking forward to J&Gs pizza, beer on tap, driving faster than 45 mph, Thurman�s Caf�, and nights that can be called cool.
And seeing the family. I really miss you guys.
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