Two Pylons & Why A Duck?

Maybe it's the engineer in me, however, I'm totally fascinated by the two pylons which supply the peninsula of Cádiz with power. It could also be their spellbinding Flash Gordon like design. They are the first landmarks you see when you come to Cádiz after you passed the huge cranes of the Navantia shipyard.

The 160 m high pylon on the Puerto Real side:



The 156 m high pylon on the Cádiz side:



Here is some more trivia about the pylons.

Talking about a peninsula... this is my favourite peninsula joke. It is from the film The Cocoanuts by the Marx Brothers:

Volver

Finally, after a workday that lasted from 7am to 10pm, we finished our job. The open item list is endless, but we got the signatures we needed.

We went to celebrate to a flamenco restaurant. This was one of the song that was played...



Now to bed. In 4 hours I have to get to the airport. We'll have a shitty connection. It will almost take as long as from south east Asia tio get home. Although two days too late, volver is the word du jour but it just takes time.

Disfrutar Tapas

A perk of being sent to Spain is to spend an evening enjoying tapas. The downside of this is, you can't start doing this while the sun hasn't set...



Just some tapas that have passed our palate:

Goat cheese in phyllo



Tuna on hummus and onions



Gambas (prawns)



Sutchi catfish in salsa de cava



Sorry Toño, I forgot to make mental nots on the wines. They were good :p

Foobar - Washing Or Buying?

There were two highlights of the day:

1. amazing weather
   
2. shark skewers for lunch

I desperately needed a bier to accompany the shark skewers, because the rest of the day was a complete disaster.

I'm here in Cádiz to bring a gun through an acceptance test. Two weeks ago, there were two colleagues here to prepare the job. One buggered off on holidays and the other to another assignment. The job here is way beyond my job description, however, that is not something you bring up when you're asked to fill in for somebody. Normally, this takes 1 day and is more or less a walk in the park. My boss did not approve of it, but I told him we should not leave our colleagues in the lurch. What I did not know is that they took me for a ride:

• The gun is not fit for acceptance.
• There is even a hardware defect they knew about but they did not even care to order spares.
• While dealing with this and poorly trained maintainers, I destroyed a flap on the gun (several thousand $ damage - though I'm not a trained gun mechanic).
• Neither has all equipment been delivered that is subject to acceptance,
• nor all data has been gathered and implemented that is required at this stage.
• To add insult to injury, the client has not yet approved the procedure and demands loads of changes.

In other words, this job is fucked up beyond all recognition and yes, I have to extend my stay!

Washing or buying new undies & socks is the next question to be resolved.

Blue Collar Beach Attire

We arrived late afternoon at Cádiz in southwest Spain. It honestly feels a bit weird being on a blue-collar business trip to a place where everybody is running around in beach attire.

Whatever, we went over to El Puerto de Santa María, from where Christopher Columbus's second expedition to the Americas set sail. Our expeditions was limited to a brief stroll at the beach and some seafood.

Upgraded Personal Safety

I will not be partying all night on Switzerland's 718^th birthday. Early Sunday morning I'm supposed to fly to Spain. I will have to stay a couple of days & nights at Cádiz.

For once, I don't have to bring along some suits and ties on a business trip, but was given brand spanking new stylish safety footwear, which fulfils the ISO 20345:2004 standard for personal protective equipment.



Toño will be alone for two nights but he at least can be assured that my feet will be well protected while I'm away.