John Talbot – Page 24 – The Buttons of My Mind

Blue Arsed Fly

So much to do, so little time! That’s what it feels like anyway. The trip has come at a slightly awkward time really, the children back at school tomorrow. My Table Tennis league starts again in a couple of weeks and I’ve been collecting fees, team registrations and getting the website ready. My astronomical society starts its new session in a couple of weeks as well, so organising the speaker programme and arrnaging memberships before I go. And I haven’t even thought about packing yet…. gulp!!

< 1 week to go

Any avid readers of this blog (anyone?) will know that the primary purpose of this website is to provide an online diary during my trip to Mozambique. So I thought a bit of background should be in order!

Mozambique is a country in southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tanzania. The capital is Maputo (where I will be) which is in the extreme southern part of the country near the border with Swaziland and South Africa.

Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a close with independence in 1975. Large-scale emigration by whites, economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil war hindered the country’s development. The ruling party formally abandoned Marxism in 1989, and a new constitution the following year provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy. A UN-negotiated peace agreement ended the fighting in 1992. In the 21st century Mozambique has continued the sound economic policies that have encouraged foreign investment.

Interestingly (or maybe not), the flag of Mozambique is the only one in the world which features a modern weapon, a Kalashnikov assault rifle symbolising defence and vigilance but harking back to the armed struggle for independance. There is currently a competition to design a new flag as the parliamentary opposition insists that a civilized country, and Mozambique certainly believes it is a civilized state, must not have a national flag with a machine-gun depicted on it. However this is causing a heated debate!

Maputo was founded in the late 18th century, the city was named Lourenço Marques after the Portuguese trader who first explored the area in 1544. In 1895, construction of a railroad to Pretoria, South Africa caused the city’s population to grow. In 1898, Lourenço Marques became the capital of Mozambique. After independence, the city’s name was changed to Maputo.The name reputedly has its origin in an old, fierce tribal leader, Maputa, who once ruled over the region. Maputo is a planned city with square blocks and wide avenues, with Portuguese traces and their typical architecture of the 70s.

Maputo is a melting pot of several cultures, with a strong South African influence. The Bantu and Portuguese cultures dominate, but the influence of Arab, East Indian, and Chinese cultures is also felt. The cuisine is very elaborate, due especially to the Portuguese and Muslim heritage. Sea food is also very abundant (I’m going to starve!).

More information…
Wikipedia If you really want to know more
Imagens de Maputo An excellent site of photos with a location map

So there you have it, six weeks in a tropical paradise working ever so hard developing a website, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it!

Flash Bang!

What a brilliant, brilliant day. I’m stiff as a board and I’ve rediscovered muscles long forgotten about but it was such good fun. I got to shoot a live pump action shotgun (killed one hostage), fire an 81mm mortar (best activity of the day), fire replica pistols (killed one photographer), enter a killing house, fight unarmed combat and throw training grenades (kaboom!).

I think I got around 20 punishment press ups which are the first I’ve done since school I think, met some nice people and got shouted at a lot. What more could you ask for!

We’re In The Army Now

Last Christmas I was bought a Special Forces Training Day, my brother-in-law got one too! So tomorrow we’re off to Sussex to shoot some guns! The activites are…

Close Quarter Battle School
Grenade Range
81mm Mortar Range
Minefield Infiltration
Combat Shotgun (live firing range)
Close Protection Weapons Range

It’s going to be a blast, literally!

My Arm Hurts

Fist batch of jabs today – Polio, Tetanus, Diphtheria and Typhoid. My Yellow Fever expired two months ago (doh!) but luckily I don’t need it, that’s the one that makes you feel ill. I’ve got to go back for the Meningococcal ACWY and Hepatitis B vaccines next week. The following week I’ll have the 2nd Hepatitis jab.

Sounds like a lot, but I don’t mind jabs at all, I always watch them stick the needle in!

I’ll also be taking 11 weeks worth of anti-malarial tablets. All this for a website!

Tickets and Taxi

My tickets arrived today and the taxis are booked. I have a list of vaccinations as long as my arm to have, hopefully most will still be up to date from my trip to Kenya a few years ago.

Only fly in the ointment is my daughter who is getting a little clingy and has already said she doesn’t want Daddy to go. I’m going to set up Skype and a couple of webcams so we can talk to each other though. Of course my son seems non-plussed at the moment!

I’m also hoping that the flight delays are out of the way before I go, it seems things are starting to get back to normal.

Flights Booked

I’m off to work in Mozambique for a few weeks in the autumn to design and develop a website for the documentation centre of the National Directorate of Geology. Flights were booked today, 7th Sep to 19th Oct. Getting excited now!

By the way you may have noticed that this is the first post for a while, not my fault honest! The host was having some difficulties which are now sorted hopefully.

The things children say

Sometimes they come out with gems. This evening my wife got the old electric typewriter out for my daughter to play with. First thing she said after it was set up was “where’s the mouse mummy?”. It’s a generation used to technology that’s for sure!

Music to my ears

I’m a very faddy (is that a word?) person. I move from one hobby/activity to the next on a rapid turnaround. At the moment I’m rediscovering a lot of the music I listened to years ago. I bought reissued live CDs of the Scorpions this week, Tokyo Tapes and World Wide Live. Still a couple of the best live albums I’ve ever listened to. Sure some of it is pretty naive now but tracks like Top of the Bill still get me stomping. I’m also listening to the Korn back catalogue and have also been listening to Mastodon’s epic album Leviathan this week.

We’re going to the Cornbury Festival on Sunday to see The Pretenders amongst others. Taking the children as well and this will be their first festival experience. Download next year for them?!

Phew, it’s a scorcher

Work: A fairly uneventful week at work. A trip to HQ on Friday for a Toad for Oracle tips and tricks day, which didn’t teach me a great deal I didn’t already know. As usual with these software demonstrations the most useful features are shown at the end of the day for a version of the software you don’t have a licence for. I will endeavour to get project funds to buy me the Xpert edition.

We learnt that the top two from each Petanque group progresses to the KO stage, I hope we get drawn against a team that finished 2nd in their group as we whupped all the other teams in our group. We are the defending champions after all. Our team is called ‘Up a Gum Tree’ to celebrate the fact that we managed to sink 4 bottles of this wine between the two of us at our recent IT getaway.

Rest: A very disappointing World Cup from England. They just didn’t show how good they really are. And now we have lost all South American flare, we have the dullest semi-final line up I can remember.

Play: I finished Gun to 100%. I picked this up cheap a couple of weeks ago, one of the weaker 360 launch titles apparently. I thoroughly enjoyed it, a nice fairly simple action adventure game. Nothing too innovative, although the Wild West theme was pretty cool. Sure it looks like a spruced up Xbox game and some of the textures are very dodgy. Lots of side missions to take part in, from herding calves, to delivering tools, to playing poker, to protecting young familes. Quite a short game, well worth picking up if you see it cheap.