Time to get back out into the countryside again...

Time to get back out into the countryside again..., originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

It has been a miserable few days here, mist at the weekend and now ver very cold weather, grey, dry, windy, feeling the coldest it has felt all winter. Biting cold. Some person had taken away my woollen gloves by mistake but anyway, I try not to wrap up too much in order to toughen oneself up, but still it felt like my fingers were going to fall off.

Anyway, today was quite an odd day as I was on a visa trail, which started oiff wioth me receiving an official invitation and had me going to the office to pick up an official letter of guarantee, then go to the Rottedam Chamber of Commerce to have it signed, the rushing back to Amsterdam to get to the visa office before it shut. All well in the end until the chap at the visa office noticed that the invitation had changed from being one to be dealt with by the Embassy in The Hague to London. In the morning it was The Hague and in the late afternoon it was London, someone had changed something.. so with me leaving on Friday we have a bit of a race aganst time to get the visa in place.

I must say that getting the visa is the worst thing about going to Syria. However, having found a local visa office, just about 2 kms from the house, I wonder whether it might have just become a lot easier.

Here is a photo which I have been longing to upload, from our recent trip to Syria. It is a bit similar to other bedouin on donkey photos, taken from teh ground, which I have taken, but I find each of them are fascinating!