holiday and email addiction

This computer at the hotel is so busy. I can type for about 10 minutes before someone wants to send an email. Why can't people send postcards like they did in the past. Some people I met had a signal on their mobile phones. There is no escape from the networked world.

leaving cuba

It looks as though I will actually be leaving Cuba after all. There is a flight at 9:30 this evening (Friday), that I am finally scheduled to fly on. I hope that this time that the flight really does leave. They have had 3 days to fix the plane and fly it over from Spain. Perhaps, they just got one out of mothballs. Hopefully not a Russian one.

yet more cuba

I have to admit I have spent the day watching cable TV. It is a sad fact of my life that I have seen most of the films on cable. I note that the WEATHER channel is very worried about the hurrican hitting Florida, but they don't seem to care whether people in Cuba (such as me) will get wasted by the Hurricane. Don't I count as a person. I am a viewer of the weather channel in Cuba. CNN is clearly the worst new channel ever. There really is zero content.

more cuba

There does seem to be a lot of Italian places to eat here. For the first couple of days, I just ate pizza. I have now widened by culinary experiments to various chicken based food stuffs. My idea of creating the Cuban-Liverpool friendship breakfast: shot of rum, cigar, and bacon roll has been shotdown, because I find that I am getting chips with my chicken. The chips are not particulary well done, but a plate of chips does quell the home sickness in the English heart. I am not homesick, but I would like to go home one day. What kind od execuse is"we don't have a working plane". Some of the local places that people eat at look quite dirty. My body is not ready for cuise that is coooked for the locals.

hurricane

I am not so happy about having my flight delayed. There is the whether channel in my hotel room, so I can watch the progress of Hurricane Frances getting close. Could God hate me so much, that my flight is delayed until I get hit by a hurricane. I have experience an earthequake, so perhaps it is time to face a hurrincane. Then what next? Perhaps, a volcano or a revolution. I would like to point out that I didn't plan any of this.

cuba

I have had agood holiday in Cuba. Although it will be nice when my flight back home is arranged. Cuba is very hot and sweaty. I can just manage about 2 hours of walking about before the heat gets me. I am spending a fortune on bottled water. All the buildings look very interesting, but many don't seem to have been painted for 30 years. It is nice to wonder the streets. Although the ciggar beggars make walking through the tourist areas very difficult. It is nt so easy to buy stuff (such a big bottles of coke) outside the hotel. The US embargo means that there are no 7-11 type stores. (I can live with out convenice stores). I got a copy of "History will absolve me" by Castro. This was an interesting read. It was his defence after being captured by a coup in 1952. He is full of revolutionary fervour, but there is very little Lennist propaganda. You can see from his writing style that he will waffle out great 5 hour speaches when he was in charge.

thoughts on cuba I

After staying in Cuba for 24 hours, the lesson that I learnt was that if anyone asks "Hey buddy, where are you from", I am going to punch them out. This is the common refraain of the beggars in Havena. You only have to walk 20 yards to get hassled by one of these people. I am not sure why these baggers giveme such a hard time. I can look at a cripple with an amputated limb and not blanch. The cigar beggars in Cuba are all healthy. No one lives out on the street in the Rain. These people would last 5 minutes on the streets od England. BUt still I have shalled out more monet than I normally do. Too much friendly conversation end in a dollar bill. My feeling is that I will never know the true Cuba unless I speak Spanish.

cuba and TJ hughs

I sit in Cuba, but my mind wonders back to TJ Hughs in Liverpool. For 4 pounds I could buy a chess set with short glasses for pieces. The box did say that combining drinking with chess could only make a god thing better. However, it did strike me that drinking shorts and playing chess were sort of incompatble as the mind is dulled by alchol (otherwise we woud all drink juice). After 7 days in cuba things are more clear. Part of the plot of the book our man in Havena involves a game of draughts played with whisky bottles. A gun is required and this is the only way to get it. Part of plot of the book takes part in the Hotel Saville that is close to the (cheaper) hotel I am staying. Spooky. It is good thing that I don't travel to learn about myself.

stuck in cuba

Hello, If anyone reads this blogs. I am stuck in Cuba. I was meant to fly out on the 1st September, but the flight has been delayed. I hope to fly out on Thursday, but everyhing seem confused. I am well though. Craig