Aden

Apologies for the long silence; here is my excuse and also a vignette of Yemeni life.  I can only get internet in my apartment when city power is working in Sana'a, and lately city power has mostly been a memory.  This is due to the enterprising tactics of the tribes in Marib, east of Sana'a, who are spending all of their spare time blowing up pylons and power lines.  They hope that sufficient disruption of the lives of people in the capital will lead to their demands being met, which are many and varied.  Lately they have even been shooting the repair men, which is why being an electrical engineer here is a profession only for a daredevil.

I had a pleasant two days in Aden, capital of the South.  The British spent a few years in the 60s finding it a useful place to fill their boats up with 4 star unleaded on the way to India, but eventually got sick of the restless natives and left them to it.  There is still a statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Park, and a chip van that hasn't moved in the last 50 years.  There are some nice beaches in Aden, where you can be titillated by the sight of a lady's ankle as her abaya flaps up when she dives into the sea.

Aden Bay, or is that Aden Bay in the background?

Sultan's Palace, minus Sultan

The geography of Aden is complicated - it is built around the crater of an extinct (hopefully) volcano and on a series of peninsulas that jut into the Indian ocean.  The heat and humidity is quite something, and I'm glad that Sana'a is a mile and a half above sea level and therefore comparatively cool.  Our Aden staff work amazingly long hours, mainly because they want to enjoy the air conditioning in the office for as long as they can before they go to their sweltering homes.

Who do I have to kill to get a game there?

A lot of the Southerners are up for a return for an independent South, and they hold a thing called "civil disobedience" every Wednesday, which is quite touching.  This is basically a load of students who put up roadblocks in really inconvenient places, and they probably refuse to tidy their rooms as well.

Showing some respect in Victoria Park

Speaking of colonialism, I went to a reception at the residence of the British Ambassador the other day. Sana'a is predicted to be the world's first capital city to run out of water, but I am glad to report that the fountain was in full spout and the swimming pool full to the brim.  No one lives at the residence as its 20 foot walls are not deemed high enough to keep out the wannabe suicide bombers, so the grand piano doesn't get much use.  The gentlemen's convenience reminded me of the Executive Washroom in the Simpsons, essentially an enormous room with a lavatory right in the middle of it, although the string quartet must have been on their break.