Warriorbern on the Move

Very unexpectedly I find myself back in Mombasa! My colleague who was supposed to attend the working party in which I am now a participant, took ill and at the last minute I was asked to step in. Fortunately I was available to travel and Mombasa is definitely not the worst place in the world to visit. The only thing that drives me crazy is the lack of direct flights. From Durban to Mombasa on a direct flight would be around four and half hours but because I had to use three flights going via Johannesburg and Nairobi the day's journey took thirteen and a half hours! There was one great benefit of flying through Johannesburg though and that was being able to meet up with my friends, Jo and Diets, for a good brunch and chat. It certainly was the best way to pass the stopover time and provide a nice distraction from the second flight which I was dreading. My reason for not looking forward to flight number 2 was because it was on one of the grand old dames of Kenya Airways...

At the end of yesterday's work session we had a nice little surprise. It was the Ship Logistic Coordinator's birthday and the hotel made her a cake which was delivered to the meeting room along with a customised birthday song. It was the last thing she expected and we all appreciated the cake. Teresa with her cake After work I met up with my good friend Kizzie for a long catch-up session over a beer, olives and peanuts. We only had one beer because the price was pretty outrageous at Rs180 (R50/$5.90) for a small beer. Luckily neither of us are huge drinkers so the one drink sufficed. The bar where Kizzie and I had our drinks Today is my last day in the meeting as tomorrow I will be returning home. The session today was for reviewing recommendations for the project and also a continuation of the budget discussions. Nothing too exciting actually. So today's blog is really short and I leave you with two photos: The view I wish I had The view I do ha...

Yesterday at lunchtime, I was informed that my presentation would most likely be moved to the that afternoon instead of this morning. Luckily I am quite used to this happening so was fine with the change and my presentation was ready to go. In the question time after my presentation I received some really fantastic feedback from some of the international players in marine science on the benefit and usefulness that they see WIOFish can provide. One of the French delegates gave me a bit of a hard time but he does this every year so it was nothing new. Anyway it was good to get the presentation out of the way and now I can just relax. At the end of the work day a few of us decided to go out of the hotel for dinner. The dinner at the hotel is $60 per person which is $10 more than the daily per diem paid to everyone to cover the dinner expenses. Since I have been to Flic en Flac before (a few times) I was asked to suggested a restaurant. I picked Chez Pepe where I had dined previously...