Day One

....and it's been a bloody long day !

5 cigars since 5pm on Sunday
1 small bottle of wine on the plane (no bars here so it might be the last for a while but I'll keep you informed !)

I set off from Northampton at 5 yesterday (thanks for the lift Matt), flew overnight into Dubai this morning (Terminal 3 at Dubai airport was absolutely spotless at 6.30 this morning), coffee and cake at Costa Coffee waiting for the office to open and then 3 hours of on-line company Health and Safety training ! I did well, passing both tests on less than 2 hours sleep (I did fall asleep at the computer at one point but everyone understood - it was H&S training after all !

Then off to Terminal 1 (what a shithole !) the only thing missing were the chickens and the goats. When you looked at the departures board you could see why. There was hardly a place I recognised, and the ones I did were all trouble - Basra, Beruit, Lebenon, Baghdad......news stories everyone of them ! The whole idea of queueing goes out the window with the Arabs. It makes Easyjet at Luton look positively civilised !

What can I say about Iraqi Airways....... not much really. We left an hour late and the scrum to get on the bus and then to claim a seat was astonishing. We got fed, and I suppose that wasn't to bad, and an hour and 20 mins later we had landed at Basra. We had been warned of up to 7 hours to get through immigration and passport control etc. and although I had to have 3 stamps at 3 different desks, as well as having my passport checked 3 more times (and all of this in the same room ffs !) we were through in 5 mins over the hour.

First impressions - 43deg at 6pm, the wind blowing off the desert, so it feels like you are standing in front of a hair dryers the whole time you are outside. The whole place looks and feels derelict from the outside. The US base where I'm staying is a bit of a misnomer - I should think there are at least 5 separate camps within the one perimeter. It's been a bit of a whirlwind tour so far but I now know where our/my office is and where my living accommodation is (Skylink).

I have my own room with Internet, satellite telly (haven't tested it yet), on-suite, fridge (full of water) and, holy of hollies....aircon ! It sounds very 4* but it's not really, just portacabins with a few useful facilities to make it bearable. My laundry gets turned round in less than a day and I had beef curry for tea so things can't be that bad.

It's 20 to 9 here and I've had less than 2 hours sleep in the last 30 so I'm going to get my head down ready for more training tomorrow and "badging", then off into the desert on Wednesday so see what we're building and to find out about my role.

One last thing - if you are reading this without being a "follower" it would be very helpful for me if you could take a few minutes to register cause then I know who I'm talking to.

Night all X