So it's the end of Triptych and I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the sell out all day gig at The Tramway in Glasgow where the mighty Mogwai were headlining (one of my all time favourite bands). Having newly moved to Glasgow (see my previous post) I had never been to The Tramway before but I have to say it is a rather nice place and the ideal setting for a day of fine music.
Although I was there for Mogwai I knew there would be a few other acts on the bill that I was going to be impressed by. I wasn't disappointed and was particularly impressed by Errors and opening act RememberRemember. I believe they are both bands local to these parts and so I'll be trying to catch them live as soon as I can. I think they both have albums coming out soon as well so keep an eye out for those.
Here is a little snippet of Mogwai closing their set (apologies for the sound quality - it was very loud!):
Wow...it took someone contacting me privately about my adventures in Angola (after reading this blog) to remind me that I actually have this blog in the first place! Okay, time for an update on what has been happening in my life recently, should anyone be interested...
2008 is going to be a year of change for a lot of people and I'm proving no exception to this. The Angolan adventure came to a mostly successful end in March after I completed what was necessary of me in the project. However since the start of this year, when I discovered things in Angola were coming to an eventual end, I started to think about the direction of my career. I realised that although working in Angola had been a very worthwhile experience my technical skills had been left to stagnate somewhat (the role I was performing in Angola was more process driven than technical). This tied with the fact that there was some re-structuring going on back at my company in the UK meant that I took the time to look for a fresh challenge in my career. This search became more urgent once I realised the flat I was renting was to go on sale (and in fact was sold last month). I had no ties left in Aberdeen aside from my current job and so I targeted the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and London as all potential locations for the next step in my career.
So what developed? Well, I didn't have to look very far for a new opportunity and in the end have not actually left the company I was working for before. Instead I've transferred to a new team and will begin working in the wonderful world of Enterprise Content Management from the end of this month. This also includes the exciting prospect of finally escaping the gray and dreary city of Aberdeen and relocating to Glasgow. I've already been lucky enough to sign a lease to look after a friend's flat for a year in the lovely Merchant City district (see below) and will be moving in over the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!
It's only April and already this year I have a new job and I'll be living in a new flat, in a new city. Who knows what else lies in store!
Why do I only post in this blog when I'm in Angola! Probably because it's one of the few times when I have the time to do so. So yes, here I am, a New Year and back working in Luanda and where I'll probably be working on/off until at least June now.
It has been interesting to look at the changes taking place in Luanda over the last five months or so. The pace of construction taking place in the city center is really quite frightening. Office blocks and luxury apartments are going up seemingly everywhere and the company I'm currently working for hope to be moving into their new flashy offices later this year.
The infrastructure outside of the city also seems to be improving with new roads and bridges being built, thus finally helping to undo a lot of the damage dealt by the long civil war Angola suffered up until 2002. This reconstruction work is in part to help pave the way for people to travel, register and vote in the first elections in Angola since 1992 that are due to take place in September of this year. I for hope everyone's sake those elections don't trigger the same problems we are currently seeing in Kenya.
It's not all positive though. There is still more people in Luanda than there are homes (flying over the expanse of shanty towns on the approach to the airport is a sobering experience) and affordable housing just doesn't seem to exist here. I've been told rent for a one bedroom apartment here costs around $1200 US which put the cost of living here almost on a par with London. A quite ridiculous state of affairs when you consider that Angola is still effectively a third-world country.
But I guess any progress is better than no progress, and when there is so much conflict and doubt in the world just now (is it just me or has everyone written off 2008 already?) it is encouraging to think that at least Angola should manage to end 2008 in better shape than it ended 2007. Here's hoping.
Looks like I've been rather negligent of this site in recent months but I can assure you all I've been rather busy. On Monday I will be departing to Luanda once more for my last 3 weeks in Angola for the year. Will there be more trips to Angola next year? The jury is still out on that one for now.
I'm looking forward to it once again. I'm developing a rather strange affinity with Luanda and the people I work with over there (a mix of Angolans, British, Americans and South-Africans!) so it will be good to catch up with them. At the same time though I'm starting to feel a little detached from my life back in Scotland and I think once I return home at the end of this month I'll have to make an effort to correct this. Either that or move to Africa for good!
In addition to the many photos I also tried to capture a couple of short films of the whales and shark we encountered while fishing off the coast of Luanda, Angola. They can be watched below. Viewer discretion is advised for the Shark capture video as it was caught accidentally and was in some distress.
So I made it back home safe and sound from my first trip to Luanda on Wednesday. Even my luggage made it home, which by all accounts is quite a fortunate thing. It was minus the lock though...
Thankfully nothing was taken from inside but my toiletry bags were opened which suggest it was bust open by airport security so they could take a look. I won't be locking my luggage on the second trip that's for sure!
There are many stories to tell and I don't have the time to tell them just now (will I ever!?). What I can say is that my experience overall was a positive one and I am looking forward to my second trip out there on the 2nd of October. The local people in particular made me feel very welcome indeed.
By the way, I've re-uploaded my photos from Luanda to Flickr so now non-Flickr members should be able to see them all this time. I screwed up the first time round! More photos will be added over time.
I did arrive quite safely in Luanda and I have been meaning to post a few updates. However, things have all been rather mad since I arrived. There has certainly hasn't been any dull moments in the last few days and I'm starting to appreciate what is, to me anyway, a completely different world than I've been accustomed to.
I'll post more in the coming weeks (I am going to be here for three weeks after all) but in the meantime more work, dining and parties are calling! I hope I survive all this...
I'll be flying to Luanda, Angola in little over a few hours from now. Wish me luck!
Stay tuned for stories from West Africa.
Like many people, I recently downloaded and installed the Mac OS 10.4.10 update via Software Update onto my C2D Macbook. All appeared to be well except for one apparent bug this update has introduced into the system. Many other users are reporting this same problem but Apple have yet to address this issue. In the hope of helping a few other people out with this I will detail the problems I've experienced and what I've done to workaround them.
First of all, I would only ever see this problem in the following scenario:
- My Macbook is running on battery (i.e. it's not plugged into the mains)
- My Macbook is connected to my home wireless network that is encrypted using either WPA+WPA2 mixed mode or just WPA2. My Belkin N1 Wireless Modem Router offers me both these options as well as the older WEP encryption modes.
The problems I experienced were the same most other people have been reporting. Frequently (every 10 - 15 minutes or so) my wireless connection would just drop. Sometimes Mac OS thought it was still connected to the wireless network even though I couldn't access any web sites etc. Switching the Airport card off and then back on again from within Mac OS appeared to the resolve the issue, albeit temporary. What was troubling and much more irritating is that after a few of these drop-outs Mac OS would kernel panic (i.e. hang completely). Following the required reboot the crash report would always point the finger at the Airport wireless card driver (com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros).
From what I can work out this problem seems to be with the updated driver used by the Airport card (that must be installed by the Mac OS 10.4.10 update) and how it handles specifically configured WPA and WPA2 encrypted wireless networks. The fact this problem does not appear to manifest itself when the Macbook is plugged into the mains also suggests that power throttling on the wireless card (if indeed it does that - anyone?) might have something to do with this as well. Whatever the root cause is, Apple have yet to fix it.
So how did I workaround this problem?
I did two things. I first configured my wireless network to use only WPA encryption using TKIP (not AES). I then deleted the wireless network locations configured on my Macbook through Network and then used the Airport Assistant to detect and connect to my re-configured wireless network. Since then, all has been well!
It's not ideal as ideally I'd like my wireless network using WPA2 with AES for maximum security as it was before. But until Apple fix this problem then I don't really have a choice unless I keep my Macbook plugged into the mains! And that really doesn't make much sense for a laptop...
Update: Looks like this problem got fixed in Mac OS 10.5 :)
