As you can see from the photos I've been getting out a bit. You'll see some shots attached of the Avenues Mall, a 1.5km long stretch of mall that is like a town, basically. It's got lots of expensive outlets but also a section that's arranged like an old style Arab market. It's even dimly lit with stucco style walls, arched doorways and wooden fixtures everywhere. Of course there's an Ikea which reminded me of the one at Adelaide airport... I was able to use their free wifi there too which was handy.
 
Honestly though, getting there was a massive mission. The GPS on my phone doesn't work as I don't have a data connection, so I had to plan the trip in the apartment where there's wifi, then follow the route:
 
http://goo.gl/maps/7XOCp
 
Even then I got confused though as, well, I'm new to the place and I was travelling on all these massive freeways with cloverleaf intersections. I had planned to go to 360 mall, another huge one, then go to Avenues. In actuality I got so lost I drove up highway 50 all the way to the coast in the centre of the city near the Holiday Inn, only recognising where I was when I was out the front of the hotel because I'd seen it on the map before. The reason for getting lost though, to be fair, was because I deviated from my original route to try and get petrol and then thought I could find my way through some back streets. My car actually has a compass in it but it wasn't calibrated (I fixed it later on that day by driving around a roundabout repeatedly) and I forgot to bring my wrist compass, so I lost my bearings pretty quickly. 

Anyway, in finding the holiday inn I was able to plan my reroute... I decided instead to continue along the coastal road anyway as that seemed more interesting than just walking around a mall. I had secretly been thinking it would be cool to maybe drive all the way to the Iraq border in the northeast but then I chickened out after about 20km and doubled back to go to the mall. This Saturday I may make a dash for the border on Highway 80 as that's the one the Iraqi army retreated on when the allied forces were bombing them... Perhaps I can spot a tank carcass or two.
 
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how I've been able to adapt to driving here. I think because of all the time I spent riding on the right in Cambodia I didn't have as much to get used to, only being on the left of a vehicle I'm driving. I keep finding myself drifting toward the right side of the lane I'm in as I'm used to being in that position when sitting on the right of a vehicle!
 
Another thing I saw in my adventures, and there's a photo of it, is all the jetskis. Everyone has them here! Obviously because there're all these rich kids in the oil business... although it makes me think I should consider getting one instead of a motorbike. A bike probably wouldn't be much fun anyhow as the roads are all so straight and the drivers are so psychopathic. 
 
I actually never got to do the mountain bike ride planned for last Friday as I hadn't put my bike back together at the time... it's all fixed now. There is another ride tomorrow but I have managed to score a spot crewing a boat in a race tomorrow! Yes, a sailing boat! I haven't done that since the cycling/sailing camp in Grade 8 going across the Gulf St Vincent! It's gonna be fun.
 
On the whole the work is rewarding and as I've said before I am very proud to be involved in this scale of a project with this size of a company. There is a lot of beaurocratic faffing about though. This work is very much about checking. I have to review multiple map submissions a week, and also the data supporting the maps.

It's also interesting to see how others on the team relate to me. They seem to think I'm pretty good. I also feel really motivated, obviously because I'm new but also because I finally feel really interested in a project I'm on. I have already made a 3D visualisation of all the sludge/effluent/gatch pits out of the data from one of the contractors and that seemed to really impress our main contract review guy here. So it's nice to be recognised for my skills and experience. This is the second time this has happened, they were all so appreciative of me at my previous company as well, so that's good for my confidence.  

I get plenty of TV on cable here! I think there are 700 channels, but only about 4 that I can understand. Unfortunately in the new apartment I've moved into (finally found a place!) all the interesting channels I have to pay more for... so I think I'll be sticking with my books and sitting by/in the pool on the roof. It's an awesome little place with a great view of the city at night and I can see the ocean too :-)
 
See the attached photos of a soccer match last night between our company and the client. There was a competition between a number of client's major contractors (like us) and them and my company and the client were in the final. We lost :-( 5-8 I think. They got a huge trophy! I think we have been pretty successful sports wise though in the past, there are heaps of trophies around the office, and they're all so massive compared to ones usually issued back home!

Anyway that's the wrap for the second week.