Review of 2013

The last posting for another year and the end of the fourth year of this blog; Time seems to be passing so fast these days. 2014 brought 118 flights totalling 331 hours and visiting 45 different airports in 25 different countries flying 247,500Km. I created 31.5 tonnes of CO2 1.68Kgs of methane (by flying before you ask) and 1.37 tonnes of Nitrous oxide.  

Businesswise I thought 2012 was tough but 2013 was tougher still, I ended up having to close down businesses in the France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. but my businesses in the Czech Republic and Warsaw had a storming year making more money than all the other businesses put together over the last five years.  2014 should leave me clear to expand these business again but there are a couple of icebergs that have to be navigated in the last quarter of the year.  Closing the businesses has reduced my travel slightly but increased the distance travelled on each flight, I took 5 less flights but flew over 50 hours more than 2012. I see this trend continuing in 2014 with three visits to the Far East already planned and one of these extending across the Pacific to Hawaii.  

Highlights for 2013 were my first visit to the South pacific with a visit to Fiji and my first visit to Hong Kong for a number of years. I still get a huge amount of pleasure about my volunteering in the local school Football club and ATC unit. Being a workaholic these allow me to divert my attention away from my “work” to other “work”.

2014 has, as I indicated, three trips to the Far East along with other European trips and I am sure a number of other trips as well.         

Sri Lanka

After getting back from Fiji I was quickly off to Sri Lanka, and once again I had a small amount of spare time one evening. we walked out of the Hotel and stopped by a the beach, there were plenty of tuck tuck's passing us and trying to encourage us to use them for a tour. we were also being pushed by "passers by " to take a tour of their beautiful city" and visit the Buddhist temple where there was a big Festival about to start with Elephants. After a while of turning them down we picked one at random and allowed them to take us on the tour, as is the case with these sort of thing the price was difficult to pin down but we did not think it would be much. At the temple there was no festival but there was an elephant. The Elephant was a baby and obviously in some mental distress as it was chained on its rear left and front right foot and had very little ability to move. we were being encouraged to pay to feed it. when we were dropped back at the beach the discussions started about the fee, they tried to scam us but only for the equivalent of 15 Euro, we negotiated it down to 10 Euro and then paid him. I hate the bitter taste this sort of thing leaves and was distinctly uncomfortable about the elephant but there was nothing I could do about it.         

Church in Fiji

for the rest of my spare time in Fiji I opted for an organised tour of the local area. The tour included some time in a local village called "First Landing" as part of the village tour they took us into the Church, They follow Christianity. What interested me was the seating layout in the Church, During the service the adults are segregated by sex with the men and women sitting either side of the isle facing the alter, Grandparents sit in the to the left of the isle and children to the right of the alter. The third photograph shows the area where the village chief sits behind the children. Being a “chief” he gets a fan which is the only air conditioning in the building.

The Fijian tribal system has an interesting aspect to it, you are born into a specific role in the community so if you are born into the family of a fisherman you have a responsibility to feed the village, if you are born a chief then at some point on your live you may become the village chief. When the chief dies the village come together and vote for the new chief, they can only vote for people born into a “chief” family if you are from a fishing family you are not eligible to stand in the election.           

    

Cars in Fiji

Its been a busy few months and I have had very little time for the blog, now its Christmas things have slowed down a little and I have time to catch up.

I was in Fiji in October, this was a new destination for me I did not have much spare time but I found myself next to a used car dealer for a small amount of that spare time. Cars on Islands tend to be more expensive, they have to be shipped to the islands and this makes them easy targets for taxation in the form of import duties. looking at the costs of these cars they are more than double the price that they would be in the UK. this  Inevitable means that cars are very much a luxury item and therefore most people do not have them and those that do have them tend to have a basic car.

   

An great man died today

I heard late last night of the passing of Nelson Mandela, a truly extraordinary human being. And I think that David Cameron summed it up well when he said that “Nelson Mandela was not just a hero of our time but a hero of all time” I have visited Robin Island three times and on the occasion when I took the photograph was present to see Nelson Mandela receive the Olympic flame. That for me was an iconic day. When he walked out it was immediately obvious his body was broken and walking was really difficult for him, when he spoke it was clear his mind was as sharp as ever and you could hear a pin drop. There was a real charisma around him that I cannot describe other than that it was a very physical feeling and talking to other people they say the same thing about Bill Clinton.

For me the key thing that made him a hero was his extraordinary lack of bitterness about what had happened to him and his desire for reconciliation, somehow against all the odds he managed to pass this spirit and this message to an entire nation. I don’t believe we will see the likes of him again in my lifetime.

RIP Nelson Mandela