Like any one lost for a conversation topic, I'll start with the weather. Its rainy season, the last two weeks it has rained more days then not. Last weekend it reached its peak. For a few days this whole camp was the land of the thousand lakes. It got bad enough that they ordered no unnecessary road traffic as all the unpaved roads were becoming nothing but potholes. We stopped using our gators, for an apparent six wheel “off road” they are horrible ride on potholes. There has been rumors of landmines appearing in some of the holes. A little reminder this camp is built on what was a Russian mind filed some 30 years ago.
My cold is gone but this place is hard on the immune system so it did take two weeks to get over what should have been a few day cold. In the process lost a few weeks worth of gym time so trying to catch up... Its turning out harder then plan to lose weight, I've only lost little more then ten pounds in the last two months.
The big chains like burger king and pizza hut were given the boot during Gen. McChrystal stints. They have been replaced by some independents that in truth are producing much better food then the chains were. I hate to admit it but the food is quite good with everything considered. The de-fac's still leave allot to be desired but there is nine of them so you have a bit of selection depending how far you are willing to walk/drive. To top it off you can smell your food now, the poo-pond has been shut down, being drained and cleaned up.
Before you really couldn't smell anything other then the over riding odder of sewage that you eventually acclimatized to. Now this place has a whole landscape of smells from the partially burnt diesel of the roads to the charcoal fires from the new burger place. I hate to say this but this place is becoming more and more tolerable to live at, too bad we are leaving this year.
For those who might be interested I'll be back in Ottawa for March 15th till April fools ... Any way that’s the news from the not so sunny shores of Lake KAF.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
It doesn’t matter some weeks are just going to suck...
I've spent all this week sick with a head cold. Getting sick here is part of life with so many people coming and going. It means i lost a week in the gym and fencing. I'll try to go to the gym every day this coming week and see what happens.
The bizarre was not so good this week ether, an outfit i promised someone had been sold, So I'll have to wait to see if i can get another when they restock. The prices are still going up with more and more US personal coming to base. You can't even get the $2 carton of cigarettes any more. I picked up some moves, three for $5 Chinese ripped copies. Due to miss labelling and bad copies only one of the three was watchable.
While there I let myself be swindled by shinnies. I brook two golden rules of market shopping; never purchased a gem stone at the bizarre, and always haggle. I've become a veteran of the market and built up a network of merchants and so become lazy. I am use to starting with the whisper in my ear price. The Gem are a totally new thing, so new merchants to deal with. The plan was just look around but one just caught my eye. Turns out its a lab grown sapphire, but it's pretty and didn't cost too much. It will still serve its purpose.
This new interest in gem and the new purpose started with a few shops on the boardwalk opening up, one of them is selling quite nice gem stones at not bad prices. The idea got into my head that it be nice if some of the household regalia had real ruby and sapphires, household colours. Before any one thinks I'm some kind of big spender these stones are very low grade, too low to be sold in North America.
So looked at my pictures form the British museum to see what cuts of stone are period. I can find round and oval faceted cuts but they are the exceptions and only 15th century and later. The dominate seem to be full sphere and cabochon. I can get cabochon that are star and sphere are totally out, no one cuts stones that way anymore.
On the upside i found an article about a DIY kit for a 3D printer. For those who don't know these are printers able to make plastic objects. The Kits about $1200 US, which may sound allot but a off the shelf unit is usually around 30 to 40 thousand. ( http://www.makerbot.com/ ) Another thing to same some money up for.
The bizarre was not so good this week ether, an outfit i promised someone had been sold, So I'll have to wait to see if i can get another when they restock. The prices are still going up with more and more US personal coming to base. You can't even get the $2 carton of cigarettes any more. I picked up some moves, three for $5 Chinese ripped copies. Due to miss labelling and bad copies only one of the three was watchable.
While there I let myself be swindled by shinnies. I brook two golden rules of market shopping; never purchased a gem stone at the bizarre, and always haggle. I've become a veteran of the market and built up a network of merchants and so become lazy. I am use to starting with the whisper in my ear price. The Gem are a totally new thing, so new merchants to deal with. The plan was just look around but one just caught my eye. Turns out its a lab grown sapphire, but it's pretty and didn't cost too much. It will still serve its purpose.
This new interest in gem and the new purpose started with a few shops on the boardwalk opening up, one of them is selling quite nice gem stones at not bad prices. The idea got into my head that it be nice if some of the household regalia had real ruby and sapphires, household colours. Before any one thinks I'm some kind of big spender these stones are very low grade, too low to be sold in North America.
So looked at my pictures form the British museum to see what cuts of stone are period. I can find round and oval faceted cuts but they are the exceptions and only 15th century and later. The dominate seem to be full sphere and cabochon. I can get cabochon that are star and sphere are totally out, no one cuts stones that way anymore.
On the upside i found an article about a DIY kit for a 3D printer. For those who don't know these are printers able to make plastic objects. The Kits about $1200 US, which may sound allot but a off the shelf unit is usually around 30 to 40 thousand. ( http://www.makerbot.com/ ) Another thing to same some money up for.
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