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.

Bill The Butcher

Well that’s another weeks gone, seems like a long time ago but only got back from Mexico last Sunday. Had to pick up another car at the airport again as I’d had problems locking the other one at the car park, so that’s five different cars I’ve had up to now since being here, a nice new shiny black one, a Chrysler Sebring
Anyway got back into New Orleans about 3pm last Sunday, flight was not direct came through Huston which Is where I had to go through custom and immigration, had my photo and finger prints taken again but it was a lot easier this time not so many questions and did not feel so much like a criminal.
Got to work on Monday as normal, not a lot has happened this week, did nearly get into a bit of a car crash though. Went to the canteen for dinner or lunch as the say here, pulling into the car park and was just about to pull into a space when some guy in a truck decides to back out of one. He didn’t look just backed out, thought he had hit me in fact with hitting the breaks and skidding couldn’t tell with all the noise, was only when I got out that I realised he had just missed me. Haven’t been impressed with the drivers over here since getting here and that was just the icing on the cake, give me the drivers in Mexico any day they seemed a lot more aware of what's going on around them.
The only other thing to happen this week really is that I went to get my hair cut by Bill the Barber here at Stennis, think his nick name is Bill the Butcher, but didn’t know that until after I’d been.
Never been to a barbers before who never uses scissors, he only used the clippers and never had my hair cut so short for a long time, getting closer and closer to shaving it all off.
Bill didn’t do a bad job though even if it only seemed to take him about 30 seconds, wondered why there was no hair going on the floor, he had these sort of funky clipper things which had there own little suction hose on them, everything go sucked up just like a Hoover, guess it beat’s sweeping up all the time, here’s a photo of me with the new hair cut not a pretty site, took it myself as if you couldn’t guess.
Not much else has happened this week did go over to the Outlet Mall in Gulfport this afternoon though, bought some more clothes which I really don’t need but what the heck things were cheap, at least that’s my excuse. Not sure how I’m going to get everything back to the UK though, may cases were jam packed as it was, may have to FedEx some back or throw them away.
It’s Thanksgiving here this week think it’s on Thursday the 22nd a big holiday here Turkey and all the trimmings, almost as big as Christmas from the way everyone’s going on. Listening to the news the roads and all the airlines will be jam packed making it hard to get anywhere, starting to think of “Trains Planes and Automobiles” with Steve Martin and John Candy, one of my favourite comedy’s.
Work wise this week will probably be a bit of a loss as people wind down for the holiday and get ready to travel; in fact a lot of people have the week off.
Having lots of trouble with the computer at the moment so can't publish any photos, will try again to morrow

Mayan Ruins

Saturday, decided to try and go down to the ruins at Tulem again, so off i go in my little Fiat, had to fill up with petrol first though as i had used 3/4 of a tank nearly yesterday.

Every one thinks Mexico is cheap and it probably is when you're not in the Tourist areas, but I've been surprised at the prices since i got here, its more expensive here that it is where I'm staying in Mississippi. Petrol's not so bad but food and drinks are pricey, costing as much here as the states for food and beer is more expensive $4-5 a bottle.

Back on track again, got my petrol and of i go, straight down to Tulem, i know where it is now so i get there straight away just an hour and a half or so later. First thing i notice when i drive in the car park is a guy sitting under a tree who when he see me comes across and wants 40pesos for parking, I'm sure he was probably official but you just get the impression that everyone is on the make and it could be some guy sat under a tree ripping off tourists, there were no signs or nothing to say it was official or that there was a parking fee.

Checked the other cars when i got in the car park and they all had the same type of ticket i got so who knows, but it just seem like this everywhere, some random person wanting money. Finally got to the ruins and first you had to buy a ticket to get in, fair enough but you also have to buy a separate ticket if you wanted to take in a video camera in, copywrite or something like that apparently, just another way to make money more like.

Got in there and was a bit disappointed, not much in the way of telling you about things, a bit of a free for all really. Did see a real live big Lizard eating a plant though.

Think this is a Iguana, lots of them around but this was the biggest one i saw, it even posed on the wall for me.

All in all if you seen one Mayan ruin and you've seen them all, am sure they're not all like this but it was bit disappointing.

The photo on the left is just up the road from the hotel. One thing you notice walking around the streets is that everyone is on the make, it's hard to get away from it, bet i got asked ten times every night if i wanted drugs among other things.

Even parking the car as soon as you got out there was someone there, when you got back in to drive out there was someone there stopping the traffic waving you out just wanted a tip. On the odd occasion if i did take a picture someone was there wanting to know if i wanted them to take one of you, it's all about the tip.

As i said earlier think this is as bad as Thailand, mainly because they're more persistent, you just have to ignore it or you are lost. I'm sure this is not all of Mexico just the tourist areas because it wasn't like this in Saltillo but if you can get over that it's not a bad place to be, the regular people are friendly, even the others are friendly enough it just gets on your nerves.

The Hotel

Friday morning, got up and had a bit of a look round the hotel, pretty nice. I took some photos looking out from my balcony and around the swimming pool and at the beach, just like some of the pictures in the travel books, nice blue waters and golden beaches.
It’s low season here right now, not a real lot of people around, I would guess my hotel is probably only 30% full, am told in a few weeks though that high season will start.
Some one had told me of a place to visit last night called “Tulum”, about 140Kms away, worth a trip or so I thought, apparently there are some Mayan ruins there. Got about half way there and realised that I’d forgot my digital camera, remembered the DVD but not the other one, too late to turn back so I pressed on.
Mexican drivers are a little crazy, so once you learn to expect the unexpected which is the norm here not too bad, think I like them better than American drivers who all think they are good, but just seem to point as the cars are so big and don’t seem to be as aware of people around them as the Mexicans.
Got to Tulum, couldn’t find the ruins just drove around for ages going where I thought the signs said. In the end went in a local Taco bar got something to eat, asked the locals, which I should have done before, any way it turned out the ruins were just down the road but by the time I got there they were closing, so that was that, back to Cancun which was about 1-2 hrs away, dark by the time I got back.
Had said to myself before setting out to Tulum that I would take the car back tonight when I got back and on Saturday just chill out around the swimming pool and in town but now I’m not so sure my venture this way again, seem a shame to be in Mexico and not see anything, more on that later. That pretty much sums Friday up bit of a dead loss really was driving most of the day and did not really see a lot, wish I’d had the camera with me took a bit of video footage but no still shots.
Went out when after I got back, couple of the bars must have been in chains remembered the names from when I had worked in Saltillo in the north of Mexico a few years ago, names were Carlos and Charlie’s http://www.carlosandcharlies.com/ and Senor Frogs
http://www.senorfrogs.com/

Arrived

Got to the airport checked in, all went smoothly much to my surprise; just the security queue went on for ever. Oh one thing did happen, I was picked out for secondary screening, don’t think they picked me specifically just picked people at random, what this meant was that all my carry on bags were swabbed for traces of explosives, they even did my camera, the lady who did it was muttering all the time about the extra work load and not having enough staff, she was not happy with her bosses.
Getting of the plane the other end was totally different, real smooth not a lot of security. Going through customs you just pushed a button sort of a traffic light affair, if the light turned green it was a pass, if it went red it was a fail and you got searched totally random number syndrome, just the luck of the draw, when I pushed it turned green, so off I went into Mexico.
Got out in to the airport arrivals and for anyone who has been to Thailand it was just like that, people touting for taxis, limousines, hotels, rental cars and everything in between.
Had decided to hire a car for a couple of days do went to a rental counter, straight away she pounced, I knew she was ripping me off a bit but it was only for a couple of days and by this time I was past caring and just wanted to get to the hotel.
Got a little Fiat, well got a voucher for a Fiat then had to be taken to the rental place, which was a mile or so away. Hertz this time, got to say everything looked good but it was so badly organised it took about and 11/2hrs to actually get the car and by that time I was really past caring, it could have had three wheels for all I cared.
It was about 7.30 and dark by the time I finally got into the car and drove off into the night, they’d given me a manual car and after three months of driving and automatic I kept forgetting about the clutch and the gear stick was on the wrong side, felt a bit sorry for the gears they really went through a bit of a hammering that first night.
Got to the hotel and checked in about 8.30, room and everything think was pretty good, anyway had a quick shower bit of a rest and went out to look at Cancun and get some Tacos and a couple of bottles of Sol.

Booking To Cancun

It’s been a while since I last posted, not a lot has happened other then working 7 days a week, did have to get another new car though, check out the photos. Car is pretty nice but a bit impractical, sound like a real old man, but it's hard to get four in comfortably and when the roof is down it takes up most of the boot or trunk as they say over here.

I’m writing this in retrospect as got the new car about a week ago, also had to book a trip as I needed to leave the country. You can only stay for ninety days over here on the visa waiver program before you need to leave, and on the 8th Nov I would have been here 89 days.
Had been thinking of coming back to the UK but it would only have been for a couple of days, too much time spent travailing, it’s about 22hrs door to door so decided to go to Mexico instead. I booked a trip to Cancun leaving on the 8th Nov and coming back on the 11th, not long, but long enough. Never been to Cancun before so didn’t know where to go so just looked around on the Internet, ended up deciding on the Hyatt Caribe Resort http://www.cancun.caribe.hyatt,com/ don’t know why, they all sounded pretty good.
It got to Wednesday the 7th and I still hadn’t booked, ended up doing it over the phone with Orbitz.com, cost just over $1000 flight and hotel, bit pricey for 3 nights but it’s was one of the cheaper packages I could find that looked like it had a good hotel. Don’t really know why I bothered as the company was paying and it was cheaper than a ticket to the UK, I say the company’s paying I have to claim it back yet, but that should be no problem.
I’d been thinking that I would just drive to the airport and leave the car in the long stay car park for three days. Anyway the day of leaving came and as usual I packed my bag the morning before I left, always seem to be in a bit of a rush, but it’s my own fault.
Drove to the airport found the car park, got my ticket and went in, found a parking spot and locked the car, normally I just press the button for central locking wait for the beep and walk away. This time I tried the door as I was leaving it for a few days, it opened, went through the process a few times tried using the key, the drivers side door would not lock. Seems like I had been parking the car for the last week pressing lock hearing the beep thinking it was locked, it never was the lock was bust as we say in Yorkshire.
Could not leave the car in the car park when I found this out, if it got nicked with my luck I’d be responsible, had come to realise there’s a clause for everything over here.
Finally made my way out of the car park, had to pay because all this palaver took longer than 15mins. Needless to say I was in a rush, had to fill the tank and then go back to Dollar and I was late anyway. Got back to Dollar Rentals , they screwed up cost me more than it should have and it was there fault for giving me a car the lock was not working on. Had a bit of a row with them totally not like me, but was late and frustrated, anyway they agreed to refund me a few days on a new lease when I got back on Sunday. That been said I was now really in a rush to get on the shuttle bus to the airport and get checked in.
If you can remember had started off on this blog singing the praises of Dollar rent a car, not so sure now as 2 of the cars they have given me have been faulty, had four so that’s a 50% failure rate in anyone’s money.