the hash booze cruise

two fridays ago, the hash group had dwindled a bit. many are away right now on their summer R&Rs, so it was down to just TheEweTrollop, TheKiwi, and me. TheEweTrollop had been trying to organize a small boat outing, so thursday, he calls me up at work and asks if i'd be interested in going sailing the next day rather than hashing. i thought it was a good idea, since i had a good time on the big boat in australia. he also invited me to dinner that night at TheKiwi's place. after work, i cleaned up and found my way to TheKiwi's. he has another younger kiwi roommate now, TheKiwiMike. TheKiwiMike was grilling some steaks, TheKiwi was making a salad, TheEweTrollop and i were supervising from a safe distance with beer in hand. the meal was good, but pretty much any free meal is good. the meat was a bit overcooked but TheKiwiMike was concerned about meat-borne diseases here in egypt. we talked, bullshat, dissed each other, drank, and then went out to ThePC. TheEweTrollop had some friends coming in and they were going to meet us there. TheKiwi and TheKiwiMike found a THIRD unknown kiwi at ThePC and struck up a conversation with him. TheEweTrollop and i took his buddies to another dive bar in town, TheSpitfire. there, TheEweTrollop caught up with his friends while i caught up with long lost full bottles of beer. i talked briefly with an egyptian teacher at the american college who noticed i was speaking a bit of arabic. i watched a few scenes from "open water 2" which i didn't take as a bad omen until i realized we were going boating the next day. far too late in the evening, we left the bar and went our separate ways to meet up the next day for the trip.

i arrived at the meeting point right on time. TheEweTrollop and TheKiwi were already there ready to get in the boat. TheKiwiMike hadn't made it as he didn't leave the bar until the bar asked him to leave around 6AM. the two kiwis even did so well as to piss off the stranger kiwi about something or other than i couldn't be bothered to care about. well, before i get too far into this story, i think TheEweTrollop documented the boat trip best in TheDeltaDrivel (the hash newsletter for the alex hash). check out that link for the rest of the story. and for more pictures, you can check out my flickr set.

ah, good times.

my EGYPT accident

today on the way home, we were involved in an accident. it's the worst so far that i've been in, but that's still a far cry from the carnage you can see on the egyptian highways. we all had our seat belts on, and TheDriver did the very best he could to avoid an accident that wasn't his fault. i'm proud of him, we're still alive with no injuries.

we were on a feeder road onto the alex-cairo agricultural road which we take all the way to alex. as you can see from the pix at the bottom, we were heading WNW on the feeder; whereas, this truck made it's own road from the highway offramp that loops east. he tried to get across our feeder to the gas station before we got to him. it didn't happen. TheDriver got as far to the right of our lane as possible to avoid him and started on the brakes. sadly, since this is in the desert, sand collects at the edge of the road, so though he was turning right (towards the gas station lot), his tires were nevertheless sliding forward. since he was on the brakes, our momentum threw the front end down so we basically slid under the side of the truck. we stopped in the lot ready to talk to TheTruckDriver until he bolted. well, TheDriver would have none of that. he threw it back into driver and bolted after him, even as the bumper and other hood underparts were grinding away at the tire. we caught him after 1/4 mile and forced him to the shoulder. THEN TheDriver, ThePartsGuy, and TheTeaBoy all bolt out of the car dragging TheTruckDriver out of his truck!! TheTeaBoy had procured a ball-peen hammer from somewhere and was threatening TheTruckDriver with it (i think this is actually common in egyptian accidents, i've seen bats and pipes pulled out on at least two other occasions). they yelled for a bit, we made some calls, some other drivers came out to bring the cops, and i was sent home while TheDriver had to go to the police station to file the report. i offered to go to ensure that he wasn't in trouble, because it was 0% his fault, but the cop (through a driver translating) told me he knows the problem, and i wouldn't be needed.

so, here's the damage...

the damage we received from the right (TheDriver's side)

the damage we received from the left (my side)

the damage WE inflicted... a bent bolt for securing the load and a bent sheet-metal mudflap.

that's a truck full of LNG (liquified natural gas ~ propane) tanks we ran into

how our accident happened... click the pic to read it a bit better

btw, there is a new poll up. whatcha think of my style?!