Visited another major project today receiving a very comprehensive briefing and then then climbing up a 60ft watchtower in order to be able to view where the threat was most likely to come from! Afterwards we had a Q&A session with the guys. It’s hard work being put on the spot about stuff when you've only been in an organisation 3 months and they tend to ask about such a wide variety of things, half of which I've got no knowledge of. Then there’s a language issue…it's like the league of nations here as there are 22 nationalities working for us in Iraq so interpreters were required at points. At the end of the meeting they presented me with a company baseball cap and insisted on a photo shoot....they apparently love having visitors.

Had a beautiful Nepalese curry for dinner tonight and one of the Directors made a cheesecake in my honour... the guys have been really chivalrous, so nice to be treated like that once in a while. I have to say they’ve made me feel welcome and safe despite the circumstances. Speaking of which, there've been two incidents in 24hrs here. An IED went off on the route back from al Hillah an hour or so after we'd passed by yesterday and there's been an explosion locally a few minutes ago plus tracer fire...really know where I am now!!! The base is locked down for the moment but they'll clear it again once they have intelligence it's ok again. Am I in an underground bunker, with flak jacket and tin hat? Nope I'm in the HR office and we're all carrying on as if nothing's happened but the PSD guys have been taken off the road!! Back to Dubai tomorrow...at least it's a little quieter ;o)