Red leather, Yellow Leather

Bought a pair of second hand (or pre owned if you prefer) trainers today, boring I know, but thought you might like this picture - it is a typical shoe stall of which there are literally hundreds all over Bafoussam, and in every part of Cameroon.

For some reason the folk here are quite besotted by fancy footwear, if they have any spare money at all it goes on shoes and clothing generally - my pet theory is that this is an available antidote to the generally pretty grim surroundings - if you can keep yourself clean and smart then that helps somehow.

Another two years of hurt concludes...

Tried hard, but have now failed, to avoid commenting on Scotland's latest exit from a major tournament. At least this time they gave us a run for our money, and that was a really diabolical refereeing decision....anyway, look forward to a good draw in the World Cup I suppose :-(

Better view?

After many complaints (well two actually) I have removed the pic of me looking like Frazier (ok, perhaps more like the Elephant Man) and replaced it with a soft focus, long distance shot of me at the Palace in Bafoussam, which I overlook from my very spacious balcony. Hope you all find this more acceptable!

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies!

Feeling a little euphoric today, as just finished a major implementation - without getting too technical this weekend we have loaded vitually all the remaining manual accounts into the system - including the most difficult - Loans and Current Accounts!

I am now totally confident that we have a system that can be rolled out to all the other branches, which will be relatively straightforward given their much smaller numbers of customers and accounts. I will start this early in the New Year - RIC finances permitting - and it should only take a couple of months at the most - I might even come home a little early at this rate!!

The real sky is blue as well at last, apart from the odd overnight shower the rainy season is finally over, so now its back to dust and heat - wonderful!

Two new pictures - the team here at RIC - thats me in the back row right :-) .....and a new pic of the beautiful Esme!

Toodle pip!