h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Taff,

maybe a stupid question, but with a name yours are you Welsh?

I only ask because my dad's mom was from Merthyr Tydfill (spelling?) and I can remember absolutely wonderful childhood holidays there.

yes i am welsh

i came from a small town about 12 miles from merthyr

i now live in oxon.

Oh, where in Oxon (Oxfordshire?)

I'm a Brummie but have been working in the Persian Gulf/Middle East for about 20+ years.

You have experience (military) in this region?

Do you like Oxon? How's it compaired to your birthplace?

i live in bicester, its better than my home town was when i left 26 years ago, i lost contact with my peer group at home and now when i go back to visit family i'm virtually a stranger, in fact i met someone i used to know and he started the conversation with"didn't you used to be......."

as to the gulf yes i was out there for the first war, i was there from oct. 90 to march 91 and we were in saudi, iraq and kuwait in that order,

we were billeted in the tent city in the port of al-jubail, then we went out into the desert and we spent xmas in a sand storm and new year in a quarry

lots of fun, when it rained the quarry dust took on the qualitys of cold porridge....nice

Cryptic remaks from your miltary experience. Can't fault or question that.
I've worked in Kuwait, the Emirates and Saudi, In that order and have visited Oman (the nicest Arab country in my opinion).

Bicester eh? As a kid my school mate's dad used to drive us down to Upper Heyford air base to see the F-100 Super Sabres, McDonnell F-101c Voodoos and eventually the F-1-11s (some of which were used to bomb Libya). (Yes I'm an aircraft nerd.)

Do you detach yourself from your military experience, or try to, or is it a part of your life that'll always be there and reference with pride or disadain or whatever?

its part of my life and i am proud to have served my country in a time of conflict that was justified

this mess that is going on now was so avoidable

never get into a war in afganistan....look what happend to the u.s.s.r. ......and the british retreat from kabul should have been an obvious lesson to the politicians

and iraq, george just wanted to finish off what his daddy couldn't

Agreed: politicians seem to have the ability to F things up and make innocent people perish in the name of ideals. Sure there are nasty b's out there, but how to deal with them properly?

Anyway, I seem to recall that you're on night duty sometimes and then offline for a number of days?

yes week on, week off,

the working week is 77 hours and so with a week off it avarages out to 37.5 hours a week

what do you work????

do you work for the oil industry??

No, nothing as exotic or lucrative as that. I teach English in a university in Dhahran (Eastern Saudi), but it's only a 50 minute drive over the causeway to Bahrain (booze, pork: legal) so I rent a flat there and come over every weekend and all the holidays: Ramadan & Eid (3 weeks for me) finishes soon. I'll go back to Saudi on Friday morning.

yes i remember the pork and booze thing

funny beef sausages for breakfast and alcohol free beer, swan and moosey,

funny thing getting pissed is all about mental attitude, we had a few sessions on the lead free but they got as loud and leary as a real piss up.

There's nothing like the genuine stuff!!

Advertise, lie, promote as much as you like, eventually, if it ain't real/good, folk will fin out!