Sunday Off

Like I say or thought I said before I’m in Concord North Carolina now, been here for about 10 days. Had another bit of a screw up when I got here couldn't get a hire car they were all sold out, Travelled up by plane a day early and my reservation was for the following day, had not changed it, though picking a car up would be no problem. As my luck has been going at the moment there was a couple of conferences in town and all the cars were out, had to spend the night in a hotel near the airport and get the car the next day.
Finally got to the new job site around lunch time Wednesday the 16th, it’s for a company called Windshear but if anyone follows Nass car in the states it’s actually for a company called Haas Racing.
Since I have been here I’ve been in an extended stay apartment, which is basically a hotel but it has a little kitchen in it, couple of electric hot plates fridge, sink, dish washer, microwave, pots and pans etc so you cans cook if you want. Stayed in these kind of places before and they’re pretty good, bit like living in a bed sit only better, especially the ones i remember.
One of the guys here I know has just gone to Japan for 10 days so now I’m living in his apartment while he’s away.
That’s the back ground to where I am, it’s Sunday now and I’m not at work so have just phoned round everyone for a chat and to see what’s going on back in the UK.
Where I’m staying right now is just opposite a big shopping Mall so have just been out for a look around.
Before I went to the Mall though found a gym that i joined, went in as I've not been since I left Stennis, the gym at Stenis was on site so it was real easy to use, not sure how I’ll get on with the new one as I have to drive about 10 miles to get to it, not sure how that will go down after work.
Gym was pretty good though, after coming out when into the local Wal-Mart Supercenter, these are one of my favourite stores you can get pretty much anything in them from guns to bananas to an oil change for the car all at real good prices.
Don’t think the staff like them very much as they don’t pay great wages and probably the conditions are not great but form a customer point of view they’re hard to beat.
After that went into the Mall found an new favourite shop, Bass Pro Shop’s, all about the outdoors hunting, fishing, boats, ATV’s they had it all, never been into a shop before were they had boats inside and I don’t just mean one, also never seen so many guns. After that it was on to get something to eat, was going to go to Applebee’s, went in but walked out as no one seemed to be serving at the bar, ended up in a place called Yazoos Cajun Bar and Grill, pretty nice.
Some photos above of the apartment I’m in, took some looking out over the Mall but they didn’t turn out, view of the outside of the gym, Wal-Mart and Bass Pro Shop.

Chapter Two - Back in the US

Well it's been about two months since i last posted, since then i have been back to the UK back to the states down to Mississippi and am now in North Carolina, flew into Charlotte last week and am now in Concord.
Getting home for Christmas was a bit of a nightmare, supposed to leave on the 19th Dec from Nashville but missed my flight. My fault as i was in auto-drive going to the airport, you know that place you go to sometimes when you're driving, you don't really pay that much attention to where you are and when i did it was too late, 35 miles in the wrong direction and not enough time to catch my plane, I'd cut it pretty tight anyway.

Couldn't get another flight with KLM for two days when i did finally manage to catch the flight got to Amsterdam and everything to the UK was canceled because of fog, at least that's what they said. It didn't look foggy to me when we arrived, reminded me of the exscuse British Rail used to make like leaves on the track or the wrong type of snow when the trains were late, not that it's any better now or so i'm told, finally got back on the 23rd December.

Oh forgot to mention had to que up for about three hours at the airport in Amsterdam to be told i couldn't get a flight till the next day, which made it a bit more frustrating, so from thinking everyone in Europe is more organised then us Brits, went to thinking no one knows what they are doing except us and get me back to England.

That delusion has now gone away, sent a package from the US on the 12th December to the UK it left the US on the 16th Dec for the UK and got to my mums around a month later. Took it about 4 days to travel 4,ooo miles and over three weeks to travel about 150miles work that out if you can, good old Royal Mail.

Cutting a long story short had to spend the night in Amsterdam, guess there could have been worse places to have to spend a night, so it was off to a hotel and out into the night, luckily met some one on the plane in the same predicament as me so we stayed at the same hotel and went out for something to eat and a look round.

Amsterdam looks a real nice place but when we were there it was freezing cold so only saw the inside of bars and the hotel, think you need to go in the good weather so you can get around.

Like is say am now back in the states until probably the end of February, getting in this time was much easier than last time. It didn't seem to be to much hassle but there again i did fly into a different airport, photo, fingerprints a few questions then have a nice trip sir all very civilised i thought.

Am going to try and do a few more blogs but when you are working all the time it's hard to find anything to say or the time to say it, as i say will try and do a few more.

The photos to the left are of my office, seems a bit empty right now but that's because I've basically closed it up, spent the last 5 months in here though. I was surprised when it first came bigger than the porta-cabins you get in the UK, 56foot by 12foot it had air conditioning which is a must in the south. The one on the right below is of my new car, which i don't have now just put it in as it's better than the one i do have.

Photos below are of what I've been working on for the last few month, a last view of site as i go out of the gate and the road out, check out how blue the Sky is, was about 75deg's the day i took these.