News in brief

Hello everyone!

I am sorry you have all been wondering where my posts are but can I just say that holidays are too short to be spending time in internet cafés - yes that's right, all quiet on the blog front due to some extremely fine times on the road.

In brief it went like this: I spent 5 days with Andrew in New York doing some fine dining and sightseeing and generally relaxing, didn't expect the temperatures to peak like a standard Syama day, but you can't always be lucky.

Next it was back to Paris where I met Sally and we started out with a spot of salsa dancing and sampling of some fine French cuisine. After a few days in our favourite city - including a surprise and long anticipated catch-up with Clare and Bella - we picked up the Renault Megane and hit the road to commence our first-hand education of the wine regions of northern France. It was an almost completely unplanned adventure, we consulted the Michelin map each morning and hoped for the best - we certainly hit the jackpot a few times with some extremely memorable experiences along the way.

Another night or two in Paris, this time with Annette as well, after which Sal and I parted company. I headed to London on the Eurostar (sooooooo much better than flying) for a whirlwind visit with Cathryn and Mike, and Trudy and Art on a Christmas break planning mission.

I spent my last night back in Paris where Karin and Ned rescued me with a fantastic 8-dish Belleville chinois extravaganza. They took me to their local supermarché the following morning where I discovered a veritable bounty of Pims (stay tuned for that story - it's a ripper - Kate, you will die, baby!), and all the other special treats I managed to squeeze into my suitcase for sanity breaks during this next stint at Syama.

And so what of Syama? It's a sea of new faces, there are now 230 people onsite and before I left I think we maybe had 80 or so people here - so a whole lot of new faces to get used to. But there are still plenty of lovely familiar faces around, thankfully, including - yes, you guessed it - the boys from AM King! Well, they tell me they are only here for another couple of weeks, "welcome to the Hotel California ..."

... ooo, ooo, and ...

... and did I mention that the last two months have been cool (by Malian standards, that is between 25 and 30 degrees) and very, very, very wet?


Clearing lines

That's right, so wet in fact, we managed to get the dozer bogged and it took a full day - and a few other stuck vehicles - to get it out!

I said my farewells to the boys from AM King who had threatened to leave for LA in July ... then Canada in August ... and now claim they will be leaving for Liberia next week!


Bye bye AM King

(We'll see if Anders and Paul and Seddon and Shorty are still sitting at their favourite table at Toguna Bar when I return.)

There were celebrations in Fourou on the 22nd of September to mark Malian Independence Day - Roy and John were lucky enough to be invited as special guests of the Mayor, but Simmo and Catherine and I hung out in the crowd.


Traditional dance

Roy managed to snap this awesome pic of the dancers mid-step.

And then it was congé time for me again, and since Marcus and Kev were both out, I left Simeon behind to manage everything on his own!


... waaaahhhh