Money for Nothing….

August 14th 2005, 1840B

I have another early morning tomorrow, as once again I’m going to be going through to Bujumbura for the day. It’s a good 2 hour drive, but I’m not complaining because I’m going through to get some more money J
This time it’s an allowance from the UN, only about $40 or so, but it all adds up at the end of the day. There’s also a good chance that I’ll be getting even more cash in another 10 days or so, when the new contingent arrives and draws their first months allowances in advance. That money will likely have to last me about 6 weeks or so, but that shouldn’t be a problem as I’ve not spent much so far in the time I’ve been here – pretty much just smokes, & the odd coke or beer. With a little luck I’ll actually save up a little, as there’s this 60gb Photo I-Pod I saw in a shop the other day which looks rather nice. I’ll have to check how much I can get it for in SA, as the guy here wants the best part of $700 for it, which sounds a tad expensive. Then again, do I really want to spend R5000 odd on an mp3 player / mini hard drive, when I have so much else I need the money for?
Still on the subject of money I’ll be getting the first lot of allowances in my account this pay day, and it’s a nice chunk of dosh at that – R26000 or so. When you considering that I normally clear about R5900, you can see that I have cause to smile. Briefly anyway, as that money is already spent – all those other things I need money for instead of I-Pods, such as settling debts. Bugger L
It’s a fat paycheck this month as I’m getting all my allowances from 6th July till end August in one go, so next month won’t be quite so flush – about R16000 or so, I’m guessing – but that’s still a lot more than I normally get. And it’s not as if I’m working myself to death to earn all this extra money either.

Otherwise it’s been fairly quiet since I last sat down to type anything up for the blog. My mood is significantly better than it was, thank the Pope, though I still have fairly frequent down spells. At least they’re only lasting a few hours instead of a few days, & they’re nowhere near so dark. I’m still not sleeping as well as I’d like, but I’m averaging about 6 hours a night now which is a lot better than I was managing earlier in the week. Things are really looking up right now, but I’ll be taking my weekly mefliam tonight and it’ll be interesting to see how I feel by Wednesday or so.
I’ve not even taken many photos in the last few days – I’ve taken all the pictures of the crows & hawks around here that I care to, and the sunrises are also busy loosing their appeal :P
If I can, I’ll take a drive around the area in the week to see if I can find a few new things to point a lens at. That’s one thing I want to spend a little money on – another lens. “But you just bought one!” I hear you say, which is true. I’m quite happy with the 55-200 I bought before I came up here actually & it’s quite good as a walkaround lens, but it really doesn’t have the reach I’m looking for. It also doesn’t always produce the sharpest of images, but that’s more likely a problem that arises behind the lens than anything else :P Nothing that unsharp mask can’t fix though.
The new lens I’m looking at is a Sigma 170–500 that I remember reading very nice things about before I deployed. There’s also a 50-500 on the market, which is fairly well priced and a lot smaller, but I’m wary of the distortion you get on lenses with such a wide focal range. I also already have 2 lenses which cover a fair chunk of that range, the 55-200 & a 75-300. It seems a bit of a waste to duplicate the range of the two existing lenses, & I’m thinking it’ll be better to get the 170-500 & have fewer issues with distortion & sharpness. It’s a big bastard though, so it’s not going to be the most convenient carry lens which is a little off-putting. It’s not as if there’s any rush to buy a new lens though, so I’ll take a little time & do some research before I fork out the cash.
I still need to make a plan to upload a few of the photos I’ve taken so far, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get that right given how slow the net connection at the HQ is. I really don’t feel like sitting for 20 min trying to upload a 200k jpg file, assuming I even get chance to get onto the machine. I hope I do though, as it’s about bloody time I got this blog up and running, instead of it just sitting on my hard disk.
Anyway, that’s it for now – it’s time for me to take my drugs & read a little more of my book before I crash for the night. Keep well everyone, & I’ll try to call as many people as I can while I’m in town tomorrow.