After much deliberation, contemplation and master…ful thinking, I decided that it was the New Zealanders that were going to be honoured with the presence of Hoox. I know, they’re lucky aren’t they? It’s a damn long haul from Zeroville so they better appreciate it!
All considered, planned, booked and paid for. New Zealand… Here I come!
DESTINATION: 
My Chariots:
Since I’m back in the saddle in the life of a contractor, I am up for vacation for 2 weeks every 2 months. The only downside to this is always having to come up with new and wonderful places to visit. I don’t entirely know where I want to go for my next holiday which is earmarked for roughly mid November. I wanted to go kiteboarding in Dahab, Egypt but an Egyptian mate of mine says it’s probably still not such a good time to venture up there.
What to do? Where to go? Oh woh is me!
Maybe I should just spin a globe and throw a dart! Anyone got a dart for me?
It was roughly this time last year that I decided to hell with life on the road and living in crazy places and acquiring crazy amounts of air miles. It was also then that I decided to go ahead and do my CPL (Commercial Pilot’s License). It was then that I decided to mothball and pack away my multiple passports for a while.
Well now it’s roughly one year later. Things change.
It’s time to cut the cord. Are we human?
~The Killers
Yup, I think you’ve guessed it. I am now deciding to hell with flying and going back to “The Life” out at 32000ft, departure lounges, crazy places and environmental situations that you will never truly “get” unless you have lived it and lived it hard!
There are many reasons for this re-change of mind. Many that I will talk about, many that I can’t talk about since they are simply feelings and thus relatively difficult to put into words. But in a nut-shell, I just don’t think it’s for me. I gave it a shot and by God I had some fun doing it. There were tough times, great times, nervous times and exciting times.
I really could go on but what’s the point? If you are even remotely interested then let’s get together for that bottle of red wine and let’s have a L&J (laugh & joke) about it all and life in general! No matter what you think, I can almost guarantee I could convince you that what I have chosen is the way forward! However saying that I have been told I should have been a lawyer or politician! God help us all!
So now the plans for the future? You should know better than that. I don’t discuss the future, I make it daily. So just for now the plans are to get back to work, back into the thick of it and settle back into “the life”. Options are open for now. Option 1 is I have a great opportunity to go and work for mates that I used to work with in Iraq. It’s a different company and now they are operating in Afghanistan, in and around the Kabul area. I would be heading up all their communications installations and IT infrastructure. Option 2 is an email that just popped up the other day for incredible work on a 3 on and 3 off rotation in North Africa for a major oil company. Option 3 is an unknown entity working with another good friend who has also changed companies and is trying her damndest to keep me out of war torn territories! Great girl! Miss the Italian conversations!
So I guess that sums it up. I can assure the world that this has not just been a fleeting decision. This has been coming for a some time and I didn’t want to rush into anything. I am still not rushing and these 3 options can take a while to come to fruition but at least it’s in that direction. I have not regretted taking this time and continuing my flying as I have done. It has been a wonderful year of catching up with good friends, buying a house and half settling down and spending more time with my folks than I have done in the 10 years prior to this. I have done so much in this last year. Loads of travel and seeing amazing people and learning new skills. Simply amazing. But now its time to pack that suitcase again, dust off the passports and make my way through security, immigration and the departure gates.
Goodbye Sleepy Hollow. See you soon! 8)
2008 was an “interesting” year to say the least, but I don’t think I have held back my feelings of late when I have expressed how glad I am for it to be over. It was not an all together terrible year and there were of course some special highlights but it certainly had its incredible amounts of challenges and hardships. “2000 Great” or whatever you called it, was a pretty shitty year for me but now it’s all gone and it’s all bright, positive and endless possibilities ahead.
Roll on 2009. A very happy new year to you all!
Here is a song I heard only today properly for the first time. I kind of heard some lyrics mumbled and the tune bashing away in the background a little while before but at gym today, while busting my ass, was the first time I actually paid attention to it. I would be a liar if I said I didn’t half get caught up in it and somewhat misty eyed, (could have just been the sweat mind you), but I swear the song was almost written about my life. All except the kids bit! Oh and I’m not 36 yet.
Sittin’ here alone I’m lookin’ back on where I’ve roamed
And laughing how I swore I’d win and not get burned
Left my family
Left my home
I worked my fingers to the bone
And there was not a stone I did not leave unturned
And I was havin’ a good time
Roll on Roll on Roller Coaster
We’re one day older and one step closer
Roll on there’s mountains to climb
Roll on we’re on borrowed time
Roll on Roller coaster
Roll on tonight
Roll on tonight yeah
It wasn’t so much a life altering moment at all but it was a life confirming moment. It really just boosted me with the energy required for the days ahead.
My life is changing again. Here’s how things are going to swing in the happy days of Hoox to come.
I’m going back to the exciting fast paced world of “Passport Thrashing”. The little red and the little green suckers are about to get a dusting off and shown who’s boss. Bring it on airport lounges. Do your best immigrations. Hoox is back!
After careful deliberation, this is what I have decided and this is how I aim to channel my life.
I am going back to doing contract IT work around the world in crazy places. That’s just me. It’s who I am. I have to face that. Only this time I will not go for the lengthy durations as I did before. I will be looking for something down the lines of equal time rotations (4 weeks on / 4 weeks off or similar). I will keep my house and home here in Port Elizabeth. On my time on I will work my ass off making pop-star wages. On my time off I will continue to fly and pursue my commercial pilot’s license. It may just take a little longer now. When I have my license I will continue doing the IT contracts and I will get flying contracts for my time off. If the charter firms I approach are not happy hiring me for only 3 weeks out of every 8, then I will tell them I will fly for them for free and I can pay for all my type ratings. How can they not say yes huh? In amongst this of course there will be some time for travel and I will continue to see the world with wonderful people. In 2 years I want to have visited all the 7 wonders of the world. Wow. I just looked up it (as per link). I had no idea there were so many different kinds. So I think I will start with the Ancient ones and move my way down the list. Might take a bit longer than 2 years. Any willing travel volunteers?
Hold on to your britches folks. Gawd damn this is going to be one HELL of a ride!
~~~ Oh and a very special thanks to my Shazza who got my sorry (being lazy) butt out of bed and on with my day today. A day which was definitely off to a good start but which turned out brilliantly. Thanks a mill. And remember Shaz, I OWE YOU! Thanks for the heads up as always and being in my corner! ~~~
I am officially putting the passport thrashing on hold for a little while. I have 3 passports (2 South African and 1 British) and they have all just sighed with relief I think. Certainly the British passport has taken a severe beating recently but now they all get to have a bit of a rest. Soon…
So the deed is done and the news is out there. I have officially tendered my resignation with my company and offered them some time in order to fill my position. I think it has all been handled really amicably and we will part company on good terms. It has been one hell of a run. I have no regrets doing what I have done and living the life I have lived and in fact I have gained so much working experience and more so personal experiences that I would never have been able to anywhere else. For this company I have worked in the UK, Tunisia, Iraq, Kuwait, Albania, Angola and some short stints in the USA. Due to the nature of this work and the terms of conditions of employment, I have been able to travel extensively and see the world. I have a couple of beaten up passports to prove it.
This has suddenly all come to an end. For now anyway. I have one last trip into Angola and then we call it a day. I fly tomorrow and in 45 days I will be home. Home in South Africa. It feels so good saying that. So really things haven’t come to an end, they have come to a fresh new start!
Older and Wiser, if you are still around and reading this, I would like to thank you, amongst others, for your great words of wisdom some time ago. Your words struck a chord and you have been quoted offline many times over the past few months. I am so grateful for you sharing your experiences with everyone. I hope that everything has worked out for you as per your wishes and dreams. It would be nice to share a beer and a laugh someday somewhere. I am taking the plunge. I am heading home. Thank you so very much.
This is quite a drastic move on my behalf but a move that has been building for some time. Events that occurred in the recent past never created this decision but simply accelerated it from a couple of years to a couple of days. If you read back I was always talking about it but now it’s come to reality sooner than later. I guess I figured “Why the hell wait?” To refresh your memory, check this out: Hoox… You’re such a Pilot.
So that’s the plan now. I am in London now and I will go back to Angola for one last tour for the company, settle everything up and head back to South Africa. At this time I will probably take a month or two off and just do crazy little things I have always wanted to. Photography courses, guitar lessons, a kewl road trip and maybe even work on a bit of fitness for my new life. I’ll even get married. Hey if I am going to settle I might as well go the whole hog, no? Hehe. But seriously, in this time I will look around for a suitable Commercial Pilot License (CPL) ground school training facility and enroll. This could be in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Alfred or Port Elizabeth. Once complete with my ground school training and examinations I will do all the practical flying required to build 200 hours which is required for the final CPL flight examination. It’s hard work but it’s going to be so much fun. Please don’t be nervous when in the future you hear, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Captain Hoox and I will be flying you today to your destination. Thank you for flying Off The Hoox Airways”.
Well so that’s it for now. Life begins at 33. Too young for a midlife crisis. This is not the end of thrashing passports, it’s just intermission.
The last week has been stupidly crazy busy busy. So hectic I was not able to write, again. So now I am back in Africa and since it is a holiday Easter weekend, I have found a few moments to catch up a bit. I do apologize profusely to those who have tried to make contact but I have been to busy to respond or too busy to hang around longer than 3 minutes. Hopefully that is going to change but I do not hold my breath…
Thursday was my last day in the office and of course it was all down to the wire to get things arranged, packed and prepped to ship. The big deal was how to spread stuff around so that the electronics that I am carrying look used and avoid duties or confiscation. It was a lot of stuff. Thursday night was a quiet night again as I had to wake up early, again.
4am bell and I was up. Yesterday became a very long day. The flight was only at 12 midday but we are advised to get there for 7:30 as this charter is always overbooked and standbys happen without your knowledge. Best to get in there in the front of the line and get through and wait later. I think its about 15 hours direct which is a long time to be sitting down. Sadly since this is me mobilizing to the project, I no longer get to fly business class. I was slumped in the back but at least I didn’t have to venture through Europe this time.
We were meant to transfer directly onto a local flight to the jobsite but without reason they canceled the flight so now we sit in Luanda which creates ANOTHER early start tomorrow, again!
I am really tied but it’s good to finally be here for real, on the clock, so I can start planning my first R&R (Rest and Recuperation) in 8 weeks time. This is really why I do this job, see the world every 2 months. Then I get to bitch about travel and airports and assholes who don’t understand international (MY) etiquette.
Another beauty to look forward to is me going to South Africa next week. It’s Super Bean and German’s wedding that has taken more than a bit of convincing the company to attend. It was not an option. I will be there even if the trip is fleeting.
I think I need to go get some sleep now. My eyes are burning.
See you around. Oh and get stuck into National Cleavage Day! It’s for a good cause! 8)
Time is really tight right now. I have almost lost my voice 3 times in 24 hours. There is so much to talk about this site and so much to hand over. With the history in this place everything has at least 3 angles that need to be mentioned, at great length. Today has been a really long day. I need a holiday. So much more still to do.
I sat and thought about it a bit yesterday. I am actually due an R&R. On the 15th Feb I would have been scheduled a break. I’m leaving on the 14th. I guess that’s why I feel tired. But there is no rest for me. It is going to be a very rushed one week in London.
I had a talk with my new bosses the other day. My new project is going to be daunting to say the least. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. God it’s going to be good!
I’ve got to get back to work now.
I will be around from time to time before I leave. I hope.
PS. Big pissup in Tirana tonight for yours truly! FIRE IN THE HOLD! There’s going to be a bombing session of note tonight! ~Jägerz
I really do wish South African internet services were at a standard which was as high as the price. I mean if it was cheap then you could sort of accept pissy quality and say, “well what do you expect, it may be pissy but at least it’s cheap”. Well it aint cheap and it certainly isn’t fast or reliable. Someone is making a killing out there and ripping off the user! This rant is merely to explain why I never really bothered to update anything online while I was away. I got myself a R35/day, R2.50/MB Vodacom GPRS, 3G, HSDPA etc card and the best I got out of it was a stupidly ridiculous 14kbps, slower than dialup, connection. I gave up.
So now I guess this stands as yet another catchup session which I don’t really enjoy but I will try and do it anyway.
Right here, right now I give you the choice. You can take the blue or red pill:
(Click for more – catchup)
So much has happened since I last posted anything but I will not list everything cos I really don’t think anyone cares about my itinerary. This should not read like a diary. All I can say is it’s been fantastic to be back in South Africa! I feel like I am home.
Leaving Istanbul was painless. Got on my flight and fell asleep. Maybe I suffer from a undiscovered variant of Narcolepsy called Aviation Narcolepsy which slips me into a coma as soon as my body acknowledges the seatbelt click. If that is the case then it’s a wonderful strain of this otherwise not very nice disease and I only wish it could be contagious as I would try to spread it around. My flight from Turkey to SA effectively lasted about 45 minutes for me.
Walking through Johannesburg International Airport (Oliver R Thambo Airport as it’s now been renamed) was incredible. A bit fat smiling immigration officer, effective baggage carrousel, more smiles at customs, walking outside into beautiful sunshine and picking up a hire care that was ready waiting for me (thanks AH). I got on the brilliant 4 lane highway and without crazy drivers or hectic traffic I shot my way through to the northern suburbs at 140 jiving to Roxette on the radio (Highveld Stereo). My God I felt like crying. I was finally home!
(Click for more)
I’m packed. I’m waiting for my bus at the hotel to take me to the airport. I have no idea what to expect at the airport so I am writing now to say AFRICA, SEE YOU SOON!
It’s likely I will not be online for a little while. I have so much to do and so many people I have to see and all in a very short space of time! So if you don’t hear from me I promise you I have not been eaten by a lion! Fuck I hope I don’t get eaten by a lion now! How embarrassing would that be?
I hope the chief of my tribe allows me the use of his new kom-pu-ta and interweb theeng so that I can get online. It’s all very new to my tribe so they limit access quite a bit. Lets hope them drums are beating and them pigeons are flapping… That way I will stay in touch!
Take care until the next time I get online (which could be now at the airport – hahaha).
Bon Voyage Me!
XXX
