world traveler
by Tony Peters on October 7, 2006
Well I'm finally home after 2 1/2 weeks of wandering the earth...Diego Garcia is the definition of tropical paradise...granted the only things to do are exercise or drink and I'm not a drinker...long walks on the flour soft white beaches in the morning and evening. I found a turtle nest one evening, watched a bunch of sunsets and sunrises, snorkled almost daily in the lagoon and hiked some great jungle trails. An hour or two of work a day just to say that we accomplished something...it truely made up for the week spent in Bahrain which is about the furthest thing from paradise that one can get. I did my best impression of either a mad dog or and Englishman as I walked to a local mall under the noonday sun...I think it was 100degrees (or more) of as they say "dry heat" sorta like hell...I lost 7lbs in 2 hours...not one of my smartest actions that's for sure. I now understand why the locals don't do anything in the middle of the day...night time was a much better time to explore the markets (called souqs)...I bought a bunch of saffron for my whole family (xmas shopping early) and a couple of rugs...Rug shopping is very fun...I had a budget and a particular country of origin (Pakistan) of the rugs I wanted. Pakistani rugs are simpler, bigger patterned, and of lower quality than say Persian/Iranian rugs but of better quality than say Indian...I would love to buy an Iranian rug but they are waaaaaay beyond my budget (like 5-10 times what i want to spend) and in truth too fine a rug for my household (cats and dogs) but handling them while shopping sure is nice. I think I looked at 70-80 rugs narrowing it down to about 6-7 before walking on the rugs to figure out which one I wanted...then came the bargining...a good half hour of bargining from about $400 down to to what I actualtly paid which was $220...it was definatly worth it though and the carpet looks great in our bedroom. I also added to my collecting of prayer rugs. Sadly my trip home all 27 hours of it was not fun at all, topped off by KLM/Northwest losing our luggage (all 11 pieces) someplace between Bahrain and Detroit...Made going through Customs easy though. Oh yes and once I got home I realized that I left my cell phone in the room in Diego Garcia...thankfully they found it but it'll be two weeks before I have it again. Never thought I would be jonesing for my cellphone
vagabond-punk
The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »
Driving in europe.
OK one of the more enjoyable part of my job is the fact that I get to drive overseas. Part of this is due to the fact that I have had an international diving permit for 7 years now and another part is that I am actually used to driving on the wrong side of the road. (3 years in Japan). Go »awaiting surgery
I went into work yesterday...getting through the security turnstile that has replace the front doors of my building was more effort than I was expecting. The Elevator was not restful and when I finally did get to my office someone stole my heater (my office is so cold in the spring/summer/fall that an electric heater is required or icicles form from your breath (this isn't a joke). Go »Grommet
The latest addition to my family...his name is Grommet...my GSP loves him in a strange interspecies way, however my other two cats seem offended/insulted about his existence. Go »sure ain't kansas
well I've had my MAC for almost a month now and I'm pretty much converted I received my Education edition of Photoshop last week and it didn't take me a day to realized that CS3 is drastically different that CS2...Time to start learning again (not that that is a bad thing)...Thankfully it comes with video workshop I'm about half way through it, funny thing It's kindled an enjoyment to learn again...I Go »more liquid metal
My sculpture Professor decided that the burner we use for melting metal wasn't working out well, since it was designed for a forge and not a furnace he had a furnace burner made.....it used to take hours to melt 20lb of bronze, it took us 40 minutes yesterday. I have never seen the crucible as hot as it was. Go »
