Take it!

Ok. We took the interview. Whether this will work or not, I jsut have to take the chance. Only 8 days until the broadcast and we have to send the tapes tomorrow, so the deadline for the tapes was today (we only can send tapes on Wednesdays and Sundays with the tapes reaching Tokyo's headquarters at least two days after the shipping)...
Ok. We did it. We only have to pray it will work!

PS
Last night, I couldn't resist sleeping on the sofa from around 1AM... I woke up at around 2:30 and went straight to bed after 30 minutes... I woke up at 7:30AM to get to work... oh, it's really killing me!

PPS
My friend in Thailand sent us a nice wedding gift!

a silver elephant!

PPPS
My wife gets her dictionary!

it's a very very expensive one... but quite valuable one!

Relax now or never...

In the nighttime, I had some brief time to relax... very briefly...
Today's filming was not as I intended it to be, but there was some good news that I would be able to film someone we've asked to for weeks! Let's see how it will go tomorrow!

We wandered around the streets surrounded with merchant stores, the bazaar...

then inside the bazaar we wandered around again...


quite a maze!


many great figures!


some edible small berries in our garden!


some food my wife cooked for my staff! thank you!

Couldn't wake up...

I had to wake up at 6AM to do some obliged work, but I couldn't! It was already 7:30 when I finally rose from bed and I rushed to my office to work!
After meeting some people, I had to make a decision to take it or not... I made the decision... we're gonna go for it!
After I made my decision it was already time to film! Only a day after returning from my trip to Bam, I'm already putting my full effort into another story to be able to make it on time! If this is not going to work, nothing will!


oh hello! you look relieved! I want to be relaxed too!

Back to work!

How sad I was I had to go to my office in the morning, rather than stay in my bed... My staff was coming and there was no choice but to get up and go to my office!
It was still a slow moving day in Iran as many people would take today and tomorrow off to make it a 9 day holiday. Some would take the next four days off and make it a 16 day holiday adding the three days off from April 1st to 3rd!
That is just a dream too far for me unless I quit this job, so I went back to work starting with the accounting papers... A very dull and painful task I have to do anyways... There were hope that my wife could get her exit and multi-visa tomorrow so we can go to Dubai together from Friday... Anyways there was a load of work to do and although everybody else in the Iranian world were in their slow activities, the day went past very quickly for me!


back to hamburgers for lunch!

No troubles...

Since I had hired two helping hands today, I should have prayed for something to happen to make good use of them, but I really didn't want any trouble... Fortunately, there wasn't anything developing today and we called it a day at 4PM, an hour and a half later than usual.

Before saying good-bye, I had my regular staff get a nice cake to enjoy together!


a nice one with strawberries and mango!

I hope they enjoyed their temporary stay here, because I'd need their help from now on too!


oh you too! well, next time you can help too!

PS
In the nighttime, I tried to find a satellite channel that broadcasted the race in Dubai where my favorite horse was competing...
Sadly I couldn't find any and I had to give up watching the race simultaneously, but could manage to enjoy it after about 30 minutes of its real race time.


at the site of the Dubai Racing Club...


sadly my favorite did not win...


Vodka finished fifth... but she still has a chance to win the real take!

Four minus two

Two of my staff are gone. One to a training session in Tokyo and one to a tour in Dubai. Both have press cards that are necessary to do coverage here in this country and I'm a bit worried that there's only two including myself that has a press card to be able to cover the events this week.
I've asked my staff to hire one with a press card for this week, but sadly he will only be here for three days... Oh well, there are weeks where nothing really important takes place, and why not hope that this week will be the same. Inshallah!

The boxes of Japanese goods are here!

oh these are important!


but I have to take all the styrofoam fillings out!
well I'll do it one by one!

Washed out...

I surely would have looked all washed out... I really didn't want to do anything though in the morning I did participate in a meeting organized by a Japanese organization. After staying at the conference hall for about three hours, I decided to return to our office.
After that, it was a long day. I tried to work on some of the paperwork, but I really didn't want to work. I understand I need some rest, but the weekdays are here as usual.
Luckily, tomorrow is a day off and I hope I can rest a little... I hope...


a view from the venue... a smoggy day again...

Crazy tour!

Leaving the office at 3:45AM to participate in a tour to the southeast.
We went to Zahedan and then flew in the sky to see what's going on at the borderline. It was very cold inside the chopper and I really regret that I didn't bring a warmer jacket to cover me up!

other side is Afghanistan... a very unstable area I wouldn't dare go alone!

I don't know if the tour was well planned, but the interesting parts of it just lasted for about 30 minutes. Using all day is quite a challenge when there's so many work to do back in Tehran!

We finally flew out of the city just before 11PM... oh what a long and crazy tour!

It is wonderland!

Dubai from the plane... Burj Dubai is in the middle like a stick!

We arrived in Dubai after midnight, and reached our destination on one of the largest man-made island ever at around 2AM. I had to work on my story and it was around 4:30AM that I finally slept in a very nice bed.


nice room... if this was a real vacation...

We strolled around the resort hotel and its vicinity for shots and interviews. We saw many guests smiling with the satisfaction being the celebrities on a newly opened first class resort. Though I was a guest too, we were not here to relax but to cover their opening ceremony and it was really regretful that I was not holding a cocktail on my hands but rather a heavy Sachtler tripod on my shoulders!


a great resort to stay for several days!

looking down on us...


like a castle...


the Persian Gulf behind the resort...

I'm sure it's the best time now as it would be too hot in the summer!

view of the Palm Jumeriah from the resort

enjoying the aquarium built inside the hotel

The other important event in the night time...

the red carpet! I'm never going to cover this unless I'm a correspondent in LA!

After 10PM, we moved to away from the resort to a spot where we can film the fireworks...

Second time in two weeks...

For the second time in exactly two weeks, I once met the exective chief of this country, but this time with many of my colleagues in the media world. I was given a chance to ask one question adn though they said it was broadcasted live, I didn't hesitate to ask about something that had to do with Japan. The meeting with the media was nearly three hours long, which was quite a surprise, as we were only given thirty minutes two weeks ago and I was the third from last to be given a chance to ask a question. I hope it would have been worthwhile!

I had some of the Iftar set my staff was eating after the fasting time was over...

they're sweet! they say it's because they should refuel with glucose after long hours of fasting

In the morning...

I saw a black cat hiding in the garden... he (or she) ran away when I went closer... oh, I'm not gonna hurt you...

Keeping my confidence

I'm questioning myself... can I really achieve all these things I'm expected to do!? I really don't know...
The reserach activities are hovering around at a low level and the number of breaking news especially about the nuclear issue is substantially smaller than months ago. I've always achieved satisfactory results through accidental and unexpected events but at peaceful times I've always been inefficient.
But I shouldn't be too pessimistic here. In this kind of environment I have to store my knowledge and start getting ready for an outbreak of events. I'm working my staff carefully to be ready for anything. It's a real tough period for me, but I surely wil not give up... in fact, I can't give up!
Oh well I gotta go to sleep because I gotta wake up in the middle of the night to head for a one day trip to my neighboring country!
Good Night!

BTW... no pics for today either!

Wrapping up...

One more job to finish before wrapping up, as I was preparing for a live coverage due to be broadcasted tomorrow morning... It's always sad when I'm under attack as an inexperienced foreign correspondent, but with each step I take I have to build the experience to overcome these charges!
I fell into a doze at night, but managed to stay up and finish the preparation. I hope things will go well... I really do!

it's always troubling to find a place to park in central Tehran... double parking is not an unusual thing... and it blocks the road... this would stagnate the economic development...

at least the lines at the gas stations are shorter...

pump it up!

Korean made pumps!

my staff tells me the pumps were doubled and hense the efficiency has significantly increased... but the cheap price is really luring people to use cars rather than any other ways of public transportation which is very primitive and limited...

a gift... cookie from the Caspian Sea!

Tired already from the start...

This week is going to be quite a challenging one as I was already tired from the start!
I had to take care of things I couldn't lay my hands on the past few days. I had to get ready for my live coverage on Tuesday morning, but time flew by so quickly, the day was over before I could write a single line of the script.

At night, I tried to find any channel that would be broadcasting Japan's soccer match against Bahrain in Manama, but I had no luck...


I found the US Open semifinal, but only the match Turkey at Armenia, where it was reported the Turkish president has made a historical visit, was on the air... later on I also found a match between the UAE and DPRK on Dubai Sports, but nothing on Bahrain TV... boo...

I was too tired to go on, and I decided to go to bed as early as possible... to lie down and sleep... good night...

PS
Quite later than the time it was okay to eat, I had my dinner...

just a chicken meat sandwich... enough for me without any luck at work!

many papers were writing about the exclusive interview...

The great mission...

It was time to take on the great task... It would alter my future here... It surely wouldn't be a big fuss if I was working in another country, but here it's never the same!

I remember I felt the same way exactly two years ago, determined, when I was in charged of the live coverage of the first hearing of Horiemon's trial, just only after one month and a few weeks after I took the new job... (http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/09/its-not-over-yet.html)

Today, we had limited time to do our job, and we really had to rush to get the story in the night news. I also had a tough time to get a report in for the morning news after giving out a live radio report late at night.


hailing the flag behind the exectutive leader...

Now I've hoisted a flag here in the land of the unknown... let's see how strict the commitments to repay will be...

PS
It rained briefly once again...

just for 5 minutes!

Set to go...

We were set to go... to take part in this mission... I hope everything goes well tomorrow... I really do...

Our friend was also set to go... leaving Tehran... I heard he is going to his owner's relatives' home somewhere near the Caspian Sea...

hey I came to say good-bye... but I guess you're not waking up!?

oh now you're up!

oh no... let me go!

see you Behruz!

yeah, you're so cute...


these are the last minutes I saw this lovely creature...

he was hiding... but from tomorrow he will gone forever...

another bento for the night after the sunset...

Start of Ramazan!

tIt was the starting day of fasting. I'm sure it's also about praying and feeling religious, but as I had some staff who will not even sip water, I wanted to see how tough it is not to even have a glass of water...
It was cruel... It's really a challenge when the climate here is so dry and the thirst attacks you with temptations...
Luckily, I endured the trial, and found out how happy I am to be able to eat!


are you going to fast too?

I guess not...

hey! where'd you get that funny clothes!
you're supposed to be a guy! why are you wearing a girly's clothes!?

can't get out!? you can stay there and reflect on yourself!

okay, okay... welcome back!

well... I guess you're comfortable with them on...

Okay... what time can I start eating today... on the left... ۱ yek, ۹ noh, ۴ chahar, ۷ haft...

after 19:47!!

but the sun ain't going down! it still like daytime at 7:30PM!

But they were starting the prayer... so I think it's okay!

let's eat!! I'll start with this glass of Coke!

And the dinner I had already ordered...

a Japanese bento! or much rather an imitated version of a bento...

It was another busy day to get ready for the biggest operation in a while. I really didn't like the way things were going, but I had no choice but to go on! Exchanging words with Tokyo and negotiating here in Tehran really is painstaking and hearing no words of reconciliation makes me pessimistic about my position. It was the first time I asked myself "why am I here?" Well, I have to try to keep my motivation going so I really would not lose my interest with the job...