This was penned just after New Year 2005. I didn’t realise then that this year would be the start of a whole new adventure for all of us, but more of that later.  For now enjoy more tales from sunny Sfax.

Greetings folks ,

And a wonderful Happy New Year from Downtown Sfax on the edge of the  Sahara!

Yes, the silly season is over and here I am back at work for BG at the  Hannibal Gas plant in Tunisia. It was a very pleasant Christmas break and a surreal New Year spent out here and I hope your own celebrations were as much fun as mine.

I actually managed to get back to the UK on the 14th December, but had to go to Aberdeen to visit a couple of rig companies. Two nights spent in aberdeen then a very early flight to London and a swift taxi journey to Reading to BG’s offices at Thames Valley Park for a  presentation to the International Operations group explaining why I want  to spend even more money of their seriously blown Project budget.

The upshot of all that was I managed to convince BG to spend heaps more  millions on an accomodation rig and made it home to Wales by the 17th.  Hoorah!!

The downside was that due to my successful presentation I also  had to go back to Scotland on the 20th and to Belfast on the 22nd to  view the two likely contendors. As it turned out I managed to convince a  BG colleague, who lives in Inverness to do the Scottish visit for me, but had a  fun day in Belfast.

I’d never been to Belfast before and I have to say it was a pleasant enough place. I spent far more time than I would have liked down in the  docks and on the Borgholme Dolphin, the vessel on offer there, but it was only a short cab ride to the city centre, where after coffee and  discussions in the Europa Hotel, I adjurned to the Oldest Pub in Ulster,  so it is,  for a very pleasant lunch. A wonderful steak in Guiness pie  with “champ”  – a concoction of mashed potato with spring onion washed  down by a couple of pints of local beer. Very nice too!

I did pass the  occasional mural reminding me, as if I needed reminding, of the countries troubled past.  These murals decorated the entire side of a terraced housing blocks and featured a man in a black ski mask and clutching an assault rifle and bore the legend, “You are now entering Loyalist Credibility Street, (or whatever the road was called) home of the Provisional freedom Fighters”   It was kind of disconcerting and I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to live here in the midst of ‘ the troubles’.

I was there the day after the £22MM bank robbery and the place was alive  with speculation as to who, how and why!! It was interesting as the taxi that took me back to the airport was well impressed by the robbery. He firmly believed it was the “provo’s” as they had the planning, support and audacity to pull it of. He was obviously a big fan! However, when we got to the airport there was a huge police presence. On seeing the Police our very vocal cabby clammed up a bit! In fact he became very coy  and suggested I might like to get out at the entrance to the airport rather than at the terminal. It was chucking it down so I politely suggested I would rather go to the terminal, at which point he did a U turn, said sorry, asked me to get out and told me to forget about the fare!!! A tad odd to say the least!!!

Turns out there was a bomb scare at the airport. I walked through the first Police cordon and tried to cut across the carpark to reach the terminal building. A little carpark security man with a peaked cap and a limp came running after me and warned me to stay back because of the bomb. Suitably chastened I stayed put where I was in the car park, wondering what these dogs were doing sniffing around me and the cars near by. That’s when it clicked, the bomb was not in the terminal but in the car park. So a sharp exit to the road and behind a nice big police van, where a beaming policeman with a thick Ulster accent smiled sweetly and said, ” Thought you boys were being a bit keen out there, never mind though, they rarely go of these days!!!!”   Nice!

Anyway, it was a false alarm and I made it back to Manchester and onto home safe, sound and in one piece.

Christmas went by in a blur of eating, drinking and lots of present wrapping and even more present unwrapping, punctuated by lengthy phone calls to and from work and multiple e-mail exchanges, sorting out contracts and funding for the hire of the accomodation rig. I’m pleased to say it all went well and the rig is now on its way having pulled anchors on the 31st and is somewhere near Great Yarmouth as I write this.

 

 

Gillian and I returned to Tunisia on the 28th December. We arived in Tunis to find it freezing and absolutely chucking it down. We were staying in a wonderful hotel called The Residence. A huge great place but with a lot of character, down on the north coast just outside Tunis.

Dinner was a fantastic affair of Chines style food cooked by a Singaporean chef. As you might expect in Tunisia. A few drinkies in the  piano lounge and so to bed in time to get up for the early morning train  to Sfax.

The train journey was pleasant enough. As I believe I have stated before, the  trains are really quite good. Not all new and plush but they do run on time and arrive when they say  they will for which I am very grateful. Our driver was waiting to take  us to the BG Village at Guebiba and once we arrived and unpacked, I abandoned Gillian and went into the office.

When I got back, Gillian was suitably impressed. She had had a chance to look around the village and was convinced that the houses  – which all look the same by the way – move around and re-arrange themselves during the night. It could happen I suppose, but its very hard to tell.

Over the next few days, I worked and she read books and allowed her mind to boggle at life in Tunisia. I drove her into town and we wandered around the Medina, or the old Souk as it is affectionaltely known. The Madina in Sfax  is an original working Souk. This is where the vast majority of  Sfaxians go to shop. It is definitely not a tourist trap. I find it fascinating. I love the spice market for the wonderful smells and unidentifiable powders. ( I once tried to stock up on cheap spices and bought lots and lots of spices in the Medina to bring back to the UK.  Arriving in Manchester airport with a suitcase full of Kilo plastic bags  stuffed with powders made me very popular in customs for a while!!!!!)

There is a huge fish market, not quite as pleasing to the nose but fascinating non the less. There was everything there from sharks to sqidgy things with tentacles. Lots of Tuna fish, snapper, grouper, sole, bass and well more fish types than I know the names off.

The meat market takes a bit of getting used to and could well turn you veggi if you looked too closely. My advice – don’t look just eat as the produce is very tasty in a non PC organic style. The fruits and veg are all a bit seasonal and do look a bit scabby, but again, they are so tasty. The locals don’t care what they look like, but the taste is, well the taste is how the UK supermarket produce looks as though it should taste,  but which it never manages to actually achieve. Does that make sense?

Well it does to me!

It’s the little artisan shops that I find most fascinating. There is everything from saddlers, to cobblers, tailors to metal workers. Turners and painters, potters, everything. All sitting on the floor doing whatever they do and doing it in incredibly cramped and unpleasant  looking conditions. These guys probably dream of earning minimum wage in a sweat shop somewhere!!! It really has to be experienced to get the sight, sound and smell of the place. Its worth a visit to Sfax just for  that alone. In fact its probably the only reason to vist Sfax now I come to think about it!

That night we dined in the Coreil Restaurant, sampling some of the fantastic seafood we had seen earlier in the day. I had a platter of mixed seafood to start, Octopus, squid, tuna, mussles, huge prawns and little clams all in a agaric butter sauce. Gillian started with something similar but au gratin and served on a huge scallop shell.

For main course I had a wonderfully tasty sole and gillian had fillets of sea wolf with mushrooms in a piquant sauce. A very pleasant bottle of local wine and a healthy portion of chocolate profiteroles with vanilla sauce rounded the meal off and jolly good it was too.

New years Eve was spent in the BG village club. Most of the residents,  (inmates as Gillian referred to them? ) had gone north to the touristy coastal resorts  of Sousse and El kantoui for the night but we wanted to stay in Sfax. Besides I had to work in the morning. For the dozen or so of us still around, our resident local chef did us proud.  What a feast. Huge tangy prawns, smoked salmon and caviar nibbles to get you in the mood. A cold buffet for starters, He had roasted a hugeNside of finest fillet beef for main course, sliced and served with a light pepper sauce. No kidding you could cut through the beef with a plastic fork it was so tender. Roast potatoes, carrots and the inevitable brussel sprouts complemented the meal washed down by a never ending flow of local red wine. Serina Reserve a revelation to me as I had never tried or even heard of this one and it was excellent. Fresh fruit, crème caramel, and chocolates completed the meal but by midnight we were down to only 5 people and by 5 past midnight there was Gillian and I left to do the tidying up and put the lights out.  So A quiet night but ultimately a pleasant night was had by all.

New years day was spent initially at work, but I left at lunchtime to grab Gillian and catch a train to Tunis. We spent another evening in the  Residence hotel and this time sampled the Mediterranean restaurant. Again a wonderful meal. I especially liked the duck which was cooked to your order in front of you and served in a very tasty port wine jus. The carpaccio of beef was excellent as was the roasted fillet of grouper with bell peppers and mushrooms.  Some super smelly blue cheese and an  orange mousse finished the meal, well about 12 different desserts finished Gillians meal, but I stuck with the cheese. A couple of cocktails and then it was bed and packing to get Gillian to the airport for her return flight to the UK next day.

And so it was Gillians first N African adventure finished with a couple of hundred duty free fags from the airport, a souvenir Houka pipe for our friend and local pub landlord Dave ( I wanted to get the matching Fez and curly toed slippers to go with the set but Gillian thought you could go too far!)

So there you have it, She flew North and slightly West and I walked around Tunis for a couple of hours before catching another train to travel south.

And here I am ready for the next challenge, so stay tuned and watch for  the next thrilling installement coming your way soon!!!

Best wishes to all.

Graham