1/11/11 Gym Drama

 

1 November, 2011

Well...today I had lunch, served by my new best friend who asked me what "Bon Appetite" et "Bon manger?" were in English. Thereafter I thought I'd terrify The Decimator a little bit so wandered to the gym. The Decimators (there are two of them) were busy, so I gave the treadmill a bash. What a blast!! Full of buttons to push! I walked down the Virginia Airport runway to Starlite, waving at the guys in the control tower on the way, I even extended my walk down to Mr. Lemmer's house, threw virtual eggs at his front door and then walked back up to JNC.

The Decimator, quaking in the corner…

I had the strangest experience while doing so... While I was marching on my oddly-inclined runway at 5kph, I heard a dog whelp in pain. I saw a solitary dog at the other well, so assumed there might be one here too, lying under the container out of the heat. The whelping carried on, though. And the poor dog was really being hurt. It was screaming in pain. Neither of the two other gym-goers even reacted. I ignored it for about 15secs, thinking that maybe two dogs were just being niggly with each other. However, after15-20secs I started to feel for the poor dog that was really screaming. Still no reaction from anyone else, which pissed me off,so I got off my machine and walked to the window to see if I could see the poor dog and what was wrong, to help it. As i got to the window (about 30s after the whelping started) it stopped just as suddenly. The two other guys in the gym started laughing and babbling French to each other. Then one of them said to me, "C'est la telephone!"

The treadmills, ready for action

Weight machines and bikes completing the gym

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone's cellphone was lying on the floor by the window. That was his ringtone! A dog, whelping in pain, was his ringtone!! I smiled since I'd made a burk of myself rushing to the window to save the dog, but as I got back on the treadmill I thought,what a sick bastard to have a ringtone like that! With my stunted French I couldn't say that convincingly, so had to ignore it... But sheesh... Strange people, some of us are...

Small gazebo in the "courtyard" of the camp

Just had a call from the Chief of Logistics for the mine. He asked what the weather was like tomorrow, as apparently he wants me to meet and engineer in Libreville who needs to fix something on the chopper, then fly a pax to Port Gentil, then two pax to somewhere near to Coucal, and then back to Onal in the afternoon. A bit of flying tomorrow, which will be good. Just hope the weather behaves itself and the cloud stays high. Although if I can't make it back I hope I at least make it to Port Gentil to I can upload my pics to FB in the hotel... Lets wait and see...