INQ visits Tunis Medina

DIRE PROGNOSTICATIONS WERE ISSUED by a vast array of AMD ATI PRs yesterday evening that unless we took the shuttle front and back side buses down to the Tunis Medina we'd be lost in the labyrinth.

Yeah right.

Mildly panicking, we took the advice of top AMD spinner Uwe Semptner and forego getting a cab later and covering for news editor Paul Hales "because we'd never find our way to it", only to find it was close to the prime minister and finance minister's residence guarded by fierce looking guys with fearsome looking weapons. We have never felt safer and the Medina is spic and span. Twenty five thousand people live in the Medina and the biggest danger was having our existing broken leg further broken by eager journalists jostling us from behind in a clear case of Chinese Elbows.

The highlights of yesterday evening, were, in time order, as follows.

A man proved he'd got three white boxes containing non working samples of something or other. For security reasons we cannot name him, but we've had to cut Bill Donnelly's head out of the picture in case anyone recognises him and he's not allowed to leave the country.

An ex-ATI man who we cannot name for security reasons had the bright idea of rather than trudging round the narrow streets of Old Tunis, we should go find a pub and have a beer and later meet in the restaurant. This noble idea met its Waterloo when we couldn't find a pub or even a Guinness pub.

After trudging round the spotless streets of Old Tunis for an hour, we were taken up a dark alley and propositioned by another ATI man bearing a strange gift which so closely resembled a beer that I reeled and staggered with shock and dismay.

A young journalist from Croatian magazine Vidi explained to us that he'd bought a hookah and successfully bargained the guy down from 65 dinars to 65 Euro. Riyad from Trusted Reviews patiently explained to him that the idea of haggling was that you didn't offer more than the original starting price.

Someone called Theo Valich also bought a hookah and patiently assembled it piece by piece only to discover that one of the parts was broken. We patiently explained to him that these items were made in China and the bill of materials (BOM) was closer to two dinars rather than the 65 dinars he paid.

Dinner was fun. Half of the guys on the table including Humphrey from Tom's Hardware were puzzled when they were served with what appeared to them to be a plate of ice cream. Humphrey was so surprised that he took a photograph of the sorbet. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera so couldn't take a photo of him taking a photo of his sorbet. An ex-ATI guy who we cannot name for security reasons asked Humphrey what he thought about AMD. Humphrey said AMD was on its last gasp of breath. The ex-ATI man who we cannot name for security reasons because he's a tough guy went bright red, bit the top off his beer bottle and pretended he had a call on his Crackberry to give him time to compose himself.

After we'd polished off the ice cream, the fish arrived in a basket of couscous. We made our excuses and left. David Ross from Hexus.net just made his excuses. µ