Matthew Watts
This blog started with the text below when I was working in Central America. The profile is me back then.Foggy Balla
Subsequently I added some diaries from time spent in the Balkans. Again this is how I was for a momentous year in 2002-2004.
As of now, 2010, I find myself engaged to be married to a Kiwi with a Small Boy. The blog had been neglected, but I decided to put things in it again...
ORIGINAL PROFILE
Foggy-Balla is the Overseas Programme Accountant for Raleigh International in Costa Rica & Nicaragua on project 07B, January-April 2007.
Foggy comes to the project following a career in banking and the British Army where he has served world wide, including for a year in Bosnia. The diaries are published here as an aside. Prior to this his fixation with the Indiana Jones films led him to read Latin, Archaeology & Ancient History at Birmingham University.
His hobbies include winter sports; trying not to spill his G&T while offshore yachting; and everything to do with London Irish Rugby Club, especially playing for the Flatulent Fairies 7’s side run by the Irish Supporters’ Club to enter charity events.
Despite his grey hair and furrowed brow (mainly brought on by the stresses of finance) Foggy is not (as popularly believed) 132 years old, but in fact celebrates his 35th birthday during 07B.
Now read on...
Visited Countries Map
Travel Blog Posts
October 29th 2010
This isn't a travel post at all. However It's been suggested that I collect all the things my small boy says together in one place. Here goes, a series of posts from facebook! "Listening to Peter & the Wolf with the Munchkin. He's taking me through a picture book of the story & commentating. I've been pursued round the house by some fierce French horns in anticipation of the wolf..." "The Munchkin's 4th birthday treat-Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall. One of his ballet teachers was dancing in it. Can't believe he sat (relatively) still & quiet for nearly three hours & is still telling random strangers about how 'the baddie Rothbart came back...'" "The Munchkin tells me everything is "AWESOME" and that lumberjacks are there to help people. No mention of chopping down trees, ... read more
St Patrick's Day in Panama -or- Breakfast in Buenos Aires, Supper in Siberia
Published: March 17th 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica
March 17th 2007
There are some roads the very names of which conjure up pictures in the imagination. Take for example Route 66, the thought of which suggests rock and blues music (especially Taj Mahal singing “Six days on the road (and I’m going to see my baby tonight), a song which provokes my mother to ask, “why is he making that horrid noise?”); roadside diners and motels; and endless hardtop stretching off to a place where one can get one’s kicks. Do roads in Europe have the same resonance? The M1 North makes me think of travelling back to work in Nottingham on a Sunday night, generally in the dark and rain, full of one of my Father’s roast dinners yet empty of lunchtime pint, but always with “The Archers” on the radio. Driving west on the ... read more
Inductions and Deployments
Published: February 21st 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Volcán Turrialba » Turrialba » CATIE
February 14th 2007
A constant motif of my time here in Costa Rica has been the need for early starts. Participant induction week was to be no exception, with for added variety some very late nights which were spent, sadly, doing lots of admin, having staff meetings and generally being organised rather than carousing with the Venturers. Admittedly as the week drew on and we all became more shattered the evening meetings became shorter and shorter as the Chinese Parliament decided having some kip was more of a priority than getting their two-penn’orth in. This was a relief as management by committee strikes against Mark and my natural instincts, but really grates at 10pm after a 13-hour day. Even Bella, usually full of beans and bright ideas, was restrained with her customary interjections ending in the Neighbours-inflected “….riiite?”. The ... read more
Into the Heart of Darkness
Published: February 15th 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Volcán Turrialba » Turrialba » CATIE
February 7th 2007
Smelling considerably sweeter than on our return from Jungle Camp the staff of 07B assembled at the Office to venture into town, and for the pre-advance party to induct the new arrivals into the dens of iniquity which make up the glittering nightlife of downtown Turrialba. It was a Sunday night and as Lonely Planet suggested that Costa Rica is essentially shut in the evening of the day of rest I didn’t hold out many hopes for a particularly rousing send off to my 34th year. I needn’t have worried as Alejandra had rung ahead to warn the good people of Turrialba that a hungry and thirsty bunch of Gringos, already sick of Beanfeast and porridge after 24 hours, were heading to town laden with mighty greenbacks. The lack of bridge-and-tunnel people was explained by Turrialba’s ... read more
Rough in the Jungle
Published: January 31st 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Volcán Turrialba » Turrialba » CATIE
January 28th 2007
Our road trip to San Jose was brought about as Julian, our country director, is currently hors de combat following a bodyboarding accident involving a disagreement with the sea bed and some pointy rocks. As a result Julian has sprouted an alarming number of pins sticking out of his right arm and shoulder and is not allowed to travel: therefore if the mountain will not come to brief Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain to be briefed. Mark was a little fragile after our night out and swore blind that it was the effect of the kebabs we had on the way out of Charlie’s. I did warn him about eating the third one… This was also the chance to complete the in country driver training for Ian (known as Jeremy Clarkson as he’s a ... read more
Settling In
Published: January 24th 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Volcán Turrialba » Turrialba » CATIE
January 21st 2007
I can’t remember the last time I got up voluntarily at 5am. However this is exactly what happened on the morning of my first day in Turrialba, although this could be because owing to the time difference it was 11 am in the UK. Having woken and seen through the window it was a lovely day I decided to make my way to the office, have a cup of tea and start on episode 1 of this diary. Having been issued keys (what responsibility!) I opened up, strode manfully to my desk, and then jumped out of my skin as the ear-splitting howl of the alarm (which I had neglected to turn off) disturbed the peace and quiet, caused a stampede of the cattle in the field next door, and caused various birds to take to ... read more
Arrivals
Published: January 20th 2007Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Volcán Turrialba » Turrialba » CATIE
January 19th 2007
The trip started auspiciously, despite the night before being thoroughly disturbed by frantic last-minute packing and insomnia. Between them South Eastern and First Capital Connect trains managed to arrive on time and in the places expected, although as a mark of the fully integrated transport system boasted by modern Britain getting to the airport did involve an interminable wait for a connection on London Bridge station which, apart from a few other people plainly bound for Gatwick seemed to be deserted and closed. Cold coke from a machine on a freezing platform substituted for hot coffee in a warm buffet, but eventually I completed the first leg of the journey. Things took a bit of a downturn at Gatwick, however. I’m not a huge fan of airports in any event, but on this occasion it appeared ... read more
A Work-In-Progress About Rugby. To be Continued...
Published: January 12th 2008Middle East » United Arab Emirates » DubaiNovember 30th 2005
LONDON IRISH ON TOUR IN WHICH FOGGY-BALLA DISCOVERS THE JOYS OF TOURING Anyone who knows me will be aware that I can bore for Britain and Ireland on the subject of Rugby. This enthusiasm is, sadly, backed by little real knowledge or any discernable talent. If it were a certain J Wilkinson would languish in obscurity as a relatively successful kicker somewhere in a part of the country better known for the round-ball abomination, pigeon fancying and hard men going out on the toon in Arctic temperatures; while the hero of the game would be F Balla having made the jump from Nottingham Casuals 3rd XV (2nd XV if they were really desperate) to representative honours despite his refusal to wear a jersey looking more like a T-Shirt bought from a petrol station by an “Engerlund” ... read more
On the Piste with the Flying Dutchmen
Published: January 29th 2003Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » NorthJanuary 29th 2003
Amongst the motivations for extending my tour in Bosnia was that while my TA Soldiers had been most impressed that I had volunteered to come here in the first place, by the end of the last training evening before my departure several of the Balkans veterans were muttering things about my being a “summer tour lightweight”. Having mentioned earlier that Bosnia in summer has lots of weather of the scorching one moment, drenched by rainstorms the next it bears reporting that the winter can be pretty special too. In fact while neither the hottest or coldest place on earth this part of the Balkans can easily lay claim to being the most extreme in seasonal variation. Our first fall of snow was in mid-December and gave a dusting several inches thick. Temperatures, which had been fairly ... read more
Mickey Disco & the Hen Night from Hell
Published: October 31st 2002Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina » North » Banja Luka
October 31st 2002
As part of the drawdown of NATO forces in the Balkans a programme of rationalisation of Locally Employed Civilian posts has been going on. Coupled to this the contract for managing facilities at BLMF has been changed leading to many civilian cleaners and laundry operators changing from direct employment by SFOR to working for a UK based contractor. This contractor has profit margins to consider unlike SFOR and so needed to shed further employees. In a nation like this where employment is difficult to find and wages very low working at an SFOR camp is almost like winning the lottery and so the posts are hotly competed for. Part of this is because in a woolly liberal way of thinking we pay what would be seen as a fair European minimum wage, forgetting that this is ... read more
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