Swing it!
Only 4 nights left and I’ll be heading for Kabul. My ticket arrived last Friday: Amsterdam-London-Dubai-Kabul. Australians would pay dearly for a trip like this but I get it for free.
I was hoping to manage a stopover in Dubai, but arrival/departure times in Dubai suck. I arrive late at night, around 23:30 and leave again, early in the morning, around 7am. Moving the flights to an earlier or later date didn’t change these times so now I plan to get a stopover on my way back, when arrival/departure times will be much more reasonable. And if Betsy manages to get a decently priced ticket to Dubai, she’ll join me for a holiday.
Meanwhile, I received a warning from DACAAR’s director in Kabul. At night, temperature has gone down to -18, over the past few days. Great.
Betsy herself started her new job yesterday, at T-Mobile and it appears to be tiring, but she also appears to have a good time.
My personal T-Mobile connection started today, when I tried to get my current mobile phone subscription moved over to T-Mobile. It took me several weeks to decide, but I want to get an MDAIII, the coolest phone currently on the market WITH wi-fi. I shopped around today, getting the best deal for the phone, with a contract.
T-Mobile offered me the phone for some 270 euros. On the same contract, The Phone Company wanted to sell it for about 440 euros. But I ended up signing a contract at GSM-Shop.nl, where they’re giving me the phone for free. All, indeed, when getting the exact same contract.
At first, I considered waiting a while because now that Betsy works at T-Mobile, she can earn a bonus through bring-in-a-company. However, although this would earn her some money, it would, most likely, also result in more expenses for me.
During the weekend, for the first time in years, literally, I spent some dosh on new clothes. Four new pairs of paints (an increase in my stock of pants of 200%), two shirts, one pair of shoes, two sweaters and a jacket. I already feel like reborn.
But seriously, going to Afghanistan, I expect I have to look ‘good’. Hey, and I want to impress the girls. They’re wearing fancy dresses too!
Last Friday night was spent at Sukhbir and Anne’s. Sukhbir runs ITpreneurs and (although this is still something of a secret) they’ll be getting married early next year, in Goa. Read all about it here. I created the website, pro deo, so as payment, they invited us over for dinner and I received a very nice bottle of whisky, a Johnnie Walker swing. I believe it to be a Johnnie Walker black label (in a fancy bottle).