It was a particularly cold Wairarapa winters night, my wooden Greytown villa was impossible to heat. A year in perpetual summer seemed appealing.



I was talking on the phone with Jarl and I remember saying that it will be an adventure. If that was the only reason I went to Saudi then it's been one hell of a success.



These are my adventures from since arriving in Riyadh, one August high summer night. Mostly travel orientated but also an account of life in Saudi, compound style, on the rare occassions something intersting happened.




Friday, January 2, 2009

Cairo

My friend Mohammed organised me a driver, a buddy of his called Islam. It was a great arrangement.  Everyone will tell you Cairo is more than hectic, it is chaotic. The traffic is insane and you have to be purebred Egyptian to get anywhere through it, which Islam did with ease, he was amused that I didn’t want to go to the Pyramids but did want to go to the local Thursday market and the back streets. I did make it to the smaller Step Pyramids of Djoser tho.
The back streets were great, narrow, busy, good folk making and selling their wares on the roadside while cars tried to manoeuvre around them, small fires for cooking or welding and just activity and industry everywhere.
I didn’t get my best results here, the colours aren’t quite right and I was struggling for focus in the haze at times. I wa sseriously starting to get annoyed with my D80 and the all in one Nikon 18-200 didn't feel sharp. As Ken Rockwell says, focus is down to the photographer and not the camera.....but as every golfer knows, if you game ain't right then it's time for a new set of clubs.