Wednesday 30 September 2009

Post Eid Tripoli

Well, we're back again, Ramadan and Eid have passed to be replaced by cooler weather and even rain.    I don't know if you've seen it but there were floods in northern Tunisia last week, seems they were deluged.  We've had a few light showers but nothing really to write home to Mum about.  The weather here at this time of year is stunning, nice warm days, cool evenings and beautiful breezes.  It's absolutley one of the nicest places to be here but we're told that we have a cold and windy winter to look forward to, a bit like an Aberdonian summer no doubt.
This place almost grinds to a halt for the month of Ramadan, even quieter than Saudi or Kuwait, there was always more to do there than we've found here.  One thing that we are finding now though are some decent restaurants.
There's the Safir down by Green Square, it's about a 3 minute walk east past the coffee shop on Baladia Street behind the Grand Hotel.  Pretty good food (try the Libyan Fish Tagine!!) and a stunningly decorated place.  It's all decked out in Persian type tiles with arches and ornate corniches, really a nice place and the owner / chef / waiter is a really nice guy.  Like all restaurants here, the menu is pretty limited and changed infrequently, what they do they typically do pretty well.
There are 2 pretty good Chinese restaurants along Gar Garesh road, they both have more extensive meuns than your typical Libyan restaurant, that's pretty standard about Chinese restaurants though, mainly variations on a theme.  The one further up Gar Garesh road is called ABSand it's close to the Libyan Petroleum Institute.  If you head along Gar Garesh road headed for Regatta Compound, the restaurant's about 1.2Km before the turn off to the compound.
The boss had her break in Oz while we had no hotel and I had a short trip to the UK, they still drink warm beer, maybe we'll be able to educate them at some time in the future to appreciate a nice cold beer.
 Now, the driving (again) .................... the roads are slippier and even though everyone has a somewhat more even temper, no more fasting makes for more even blood sugar counts throughout the day, the number of accidents are amazing.  Really, it's a miracle that there aren't more seriously bad incidents but I guess with the numbers of cars on the road, it's a little "safer"?  (A relative term, I know).
Still no seagulls, where are they all??????????????

Cheers

DADFAP

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Eating Harissa & Delivering Ice

What have these two to do in common one may ask?  Actually, they describe driving in Tripoli down to a tee!  You see Libyans love their harissa:  it's popular in North Africa and is a paste made up principally from chillies and garlic and like many condiments of it's type comes in a range of flavours from barely perceptible to rip your throat out and burn on the way out too. 
People that I know here use it to describe their mood and their attitude to things, if they say they have eaten a lot of harissa then they're hot under the collar.
Well, what about delivering ice???  Easy, it's used to describe a driver when they're in a hurry.  They're delivering ice, it's a bit of a reference to the fact that some numpty is doing Mach2 in a crowded road like Gar Garesh or overtaking and playing chicken with the oncoming traffic, who funnily enough tend to be accommodating and get out of the way of said idiots.  Self preservation kicks in.
Now, when you combine the fact that it's Ramadan, it's late summer, no food or water since very early in the morning and they need to get home for Iftar you can see how the two go together to describe the driving habits here. 
Driving, which is usually a fairly rough and tumble affair here has taken on the feeling of a full contact sport, so it's best to be off the road when people are trying to get home for Iftar.  The flip side of that is that travel to work in the morning and getting out and about when everyone else is indoors is almost a joy!
Even something like filling the car is an adventure, does this pump work? is this filling station open?  It's a bit like the Middle East, there's an African guy sitting at the pumps to fill your car.  Something else I should tell you, it costs about 10LYD (AUD$9.9 or US$8) to fill my car, about 65 litres, so there are a few things that are cheap here.  The picture shows the queue into the petrol station opposite the Thobacts hotel.
The moral of the story:   Driving and harissa are a bad mix, so cool off on the ice you're trying to get delivered.! 
Cheers
DADFAP

Tuesday 1 September 2009

THE Anniversary

It's the 40th Anniversary of the revolution here and it's the second day of public holidays, given that it's Ramadan, there's not an awful lot to do.

Tripoli is looking pretty good at the moment with the street decorations, the houses on the main streets have all received a coat of fresh, white paint and a lot of the rubbish has been cleaned up off the streets. That's one of the "little" things that I find it difficult to understand, the amount of litter on the streets, in the parks and worst of all on the beaches.

We went for a walk a few days ago, before Mrs. Dadfap was sent home, oh yeah on that. The government has commandeered a number of the hotels to accommodate "official guests" of the above mentioned celebrations so out we went, some home, some to alternative accomodation and some to ....................?

Anyway. back to the walk, we were out and about down by the old city and wandering about the back streets when we spotted some guys at work. These were coppersmiths and were working in typical street side style, open to everything. Anyway, they were intresting to watch at work while a shop keeper tried to get Mrs. Dadfap to part with some money, not likley sport! We were in Tangiers once and the shopkeeper told me that my wife bargained like a Bedouin woman, saves me plenty, she does! If she doesn't think it's fair then no sale, simple as that!

The more observant of you will no doubt have noticed the use of all of the necessary protective clothing that one would expect a person working in that environment to be wearing. Take a look at the item that was sent to me this morning by a colleague and see if you can figure out what the guy would have done in this instance. It's maybe a tad dated but it's still pertinent:

Melrose Drive, Tullamarine, Victoria, AU - January 16,2006, 14:35 hours: Highway patrol pulls over a Workcover inspector for doing 68 km/hr in a 60 km/hr zone. Workcovcr inspector says nothing and cops the $120 fine sweet. Policeman finishes writing ticket and proceeds back to his car. Workcover inspector gets digital camera out of bag, photographs the cop and proceeds to the police car - and issues the policeman with an $800 fine for not wearing his high-visibility vest when leaving his vehicle in a high-traffic area.

One thing that I've noticed here that's puzzled me, where are the bloody seagulls??? This is a coastal city yet I am yet to see a seagull. Not at the docks, not at the fish markets and not at the beach. One of the mysteries to ponder on when you're day dreaming!

Cheers

DADFAP