New org chart = many questions #

Acupuncture. Dozens of needles in your neck, back, hands and feet. Awesome. #

We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of tax. #

4 days off for Easter, and a huge list that didn't really get finished. Oh well, quality time was had with Lisa and Ella #

Amazing that an entire office of adults can suddenly go blind and not see the overflowing garbage bin. #

/* Commented out because... WTF!? - L.D.

if((gcAtlSlots+gcIntlSlots)!= MAX_ATL_NODE)
//Atl+Intl slots = MaxSlots. If user defines wrongly then the error validation is here
{

#undef gcIntlSlots
#define gcIntlSlots (MAX_ATL_NODE -gcAtlSlots)

}

*/

• 09:06 What a week! This doing 2 jobs thing is getting a little much.... #

• 01:52 first tweet #

Last day in Kuwait.

I had just finished the marathon system introduction conversation, and I was asked when my flight was. It wasn't for another two and a half hours, so I was invited to come and see something "cool".

Now, this could mean anything, but in Kuwait it means you should expect just about anything. I literally can't even begin to tell you what kind of things you should expect in Kuwait.

It turned out to be something pretty conventional by some standards. It was a shooting range.

We paid our money, handed in our drivers license, and selected our weapons of choice. I of course had no idea, so just let the other guy do all the choosing. We had a choice of about 8 weapons, a selection of handguns and rifles, all the way up to some sort of fully automatic machine gun. My partner told me was there is no fun in shooting those type of guns because there is no skill involved, just the act of moving of lead through the air, and shredding your target.

Having decided which weapon we wanted, a 357, we then decided how many bullets we wanted to buy, and away we went.

Into the range then, but before you go in, you must wear hearing protection. They wont let you in otherwise. Even with the ear muffs on, the first couple times someone fired, I became airborne. It is so loud. Louder than I imagined. And there is no long reverberating recoil like in the movies. In fact, there is very little in common with the movies at all. It is just a short, sharp BANG that you feel in your chest

"Have you ever fired a 357 before sir?"

"No, I've never fired anything before."

"OK, it's quite easy. Safety first: you always point the weapon down-range."

"Got it."

And on it went. I got my 1 minute safety induction, and had a few dry runs. I practiced cocking the hammer (in order to make the trigger lighter), aiming, and gently squeezing the trigger.

As I loaded in the first 6 bullets i found myself contemplating how weird this all was. In a few short hours time, I would board a flight to Dubai, and here I am lading a 357 handgun, and strongly resisting the urge to say, ".... well do ya? Punk?"

The first couple of discharges with real ammunition was an overload of sensations: the fierce bucking of the gun, the sparks and flame out the front, and the huge noise.

The most surprising thing of all though was the act of pulling the trigger. Because we were cocking the hammer prior to firing, the trigger was very light. So light in fact, that it was really quite impossible to tell exactly when it was going to go off when you are squeezing the trigger as gently as possible in order to keep your aim. This fact alone gave me the feeling that I wasn't in complete control of it.

In spite of all of this, I did quite well. All my shots where in a pretty tight group in the top left of the target, which I brought home with me.

My hands shook for hours afterwards, as I burned off the adrenaline.

Kuwait: a city that is part Mad Max, part Wild West but mostly Bombay slum. People disagree with me on that last bit, pointing to all the wealth, but all you need to do is point at all the unfinished civil works in return.

No alcohol, therefore no DUI laws, but plenty of drinking going on, and plenty of drunk driving accordingly.

A lot of people who like it there seem to running from something, hence the wild west kind of atmosphere.

The wealth is obvious: high end cars, well dressed people, expensive adornments, but it is all set against the backdrop of a country whose civil infrastructure is barely hanging on.
We drove by roadworks that started years ago, and haven't progressed further than a hole in the ground. Sidewalks out the front of buildings that just end in mid-air because no-one thought to make sure that the next building's ground level was the same.

The war was a long time ago now, there was no evidence of it. It was long enough ago that things should be back to normal by now.

The apartment we stayed at was not connected to city water. A water tanker came every night to fill the building's tank on the roof, which incidentally gets so hot in the summer, that you use the cold water as hot, turn off your hot water system and use it as cold, because it is inside the air conditioning.

The parking lot was filled with luxury vehicles, but the road leading up to the parking lot was dirt, and filled with rubbish.

The flight in over the tank farm lasted minutes, and the dessert just behind it looked like someone had dropped pickup-sticks everywhere: the pipelines were all randomly crisscrossing the dessert.

Mobile phone towers were all of the temporary, trailer kind. All fenced in, and burning diesel to keep the and equipment running inside an air-conditioned mobile hut.

A confusing mix of swaggering and excessive wealth, utterly wasteful use of resources, and all still trying to catch up to the rapid growth of the country.