Jesus, the Light of the World has come…

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

I have had a wonderful day celebrating the birth of Jesus here in Karachi. In a packed cathedral, we sang carols and listen to the Bishop as he reminded us of the real meaning of Christmas that God came into the world in the form of a baby to save us from the mess we had made of our lives.

From church I made my way to Kathy and Zulfi’s where a delicious feast was laid out and mulled wine and home made mince pies a plenty.

From there I headed to Judith and Bunny’s for Christmas dinner proper. There were 15 for dinner, representing the UK, the USA, Pakistan, Russia and Burma! A spicy prawn salad was followed by Roast Turkey and all the trimmings, including bread sauce (by my special request). This was followed by a fantastic chocolate trifle. At this point in keeping with Pakistani customs many of the guests moved on to their next stop!!

The six of us remaining had coffee and Christmas cake and whilst we chatting, Bunny got his guitar out and treated us to some Urdu and English songs, which was lovely.

I am now home with all the candles lit on my Advent Crown and the Holy Family and the Shepherds and Magi (they have arrived a few days early as I will be in Kijabe on Epiphany) surrounding the manger in adoration of the Christ child.

I have been reflecting over the last few weeks and I really do consider myself as truly blessed. I have a job I love, with great students and supportive staff. And for reasons I can’t quite explain I love Karachi. With all its faults and failings, I really do love living here. So a very happy and content Michael, would like to wish you all, Bara dyn Mubarak, awr bwhat kushi neya sal (Happy Christmas, and a very happy new year). It looks like I could be here for a few years to come…

'Twas the night before Christmas...

I am sat typing this, in my ‘drawing room’ (they really do call it that here) with the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College, Cambridge on the CD player. On the bookcase, all four candles of my Advent crown are lit and next to Mary and Joseph wait by the manger for the birth of the Christ child.

In the kitchen my Christmas Eve meal of Sweetcorn Chowder is bubbling away nicely. Later I will head off to the Cathedral for our Christmas Eve Communion Service. This is the second time I have spent Christmas in Karachi and I am really enjoying myself.

This afternoon I head off to Clippers for my now traditional Christmas haircut, head massage and facial. Two hours of being pampered and spoilt can’t be beaten. I did attempt to do a little last minute shopping after my treat, but Park Towers was very busy so I shall pop in on Boxing Day as it is not a holiday here and the place should be a lot quieter.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, with so much to do at school. I have also had the very odd experience of being in school until the 23rd of December!! Now I am aware that you out there with ‘proper’ jobs will hardly be weeping for me especially as school does not open again until 12th January!

Last night was taken to dinner at the Karachi Boat Club, Naseem and Maria, friends from school. It was very pleasant, and as is almost inevitable in this city of 18 million, we ran into one of the students from school! The food and company was excellent, and I partook of French onion soup, King Prawn Thermidore, with potatoes and seasonal vegetables, followed by Baked Alaska.

Itvar ko may Kenya ja raha hu. May Karachi me do hafte vepas ke bad aunga. For those whose Urdu has yet to reach the tiny heights mine has. I hope I have written ‘On Sunday I am going to Kenya. I will come back to Karachi, in two weeks.’ Urdu is going ok but I have missed far too many lessons of the last month. I am starting to get the hang of things but feel a little frustrated by my lack of progress. I am particularly frustrated by not being able to read. I can write my name and a couple of simple words, and I can read most letters on their own but once they are part of a word, I am lost!

Well my chowder has reached the blender stage, and the chapel congregation have reached the Ninth lesson which means my favourite carol is next, so the neighbours are about to be treated “O Come all Ye Faithful’ at full volume, with descant!!! This could cause a serious setback to Christian/Muslim relations…

Banged Up Abroad...

As my regular readers will probably remember, earlier in the year, I took part in my first television production, where I played a British government official. I thought at the time that the programme was called 'Trouble in Paradise', however, I have just found out that my British TV Debut is on a programme called 'Banged Up Abroad'!!!

I have yet to see the programme as it was shown after I left the UK in September but I have found a link on the Channel Five website (http://demand.five.tv/Episode.aspx?episodeBaseName=C5140890004), sadly it is only available in the UK! If any of you knows how I can get to see this let me know...

Life is a cabaret, old chum…

Or so it would seem from the last four weeks or so!!

I have been so busy over the last 720 hours that when I thought about updating, I didn’t have the energy to lift a finger to type

The main news from Karachi is that the weather has turned cold. Now cold is a relative term, I am aware that snow and other wintery conditions have hit various parts of the UK, and although it is significantly cooler we are still having temperatures in the high teens. I am sat here with the fan going and wearing shorts and t-shirt. Some of the locals however, have broken out the winter wardrobe, including one man I passed onto the way to work the other morning wearing a very fetching tea cosy – on his head!

School has been incredibly busy since I last wrote; there have been meetings, and swimming club, and meetings, and diving, and meetings, and rehearsals, and meetings, and fire drills, and meetings, and in the middle of all of this I have also been teaching geography!

One of the meetings I led was for the parents to discuss security. We are constantly reviewing security here and have made some changes. We also went on to discuss with the parents, safety and security of students on the internet. It was a very useful meeting and I received several compliments on the presentation, apparently I am good a talking! Well you learn something new every day!!

Diving is going really well and the boys had their first open water dive last Sunday which I went along too as well. This was a new site for me as well off Cherna Island. It was rather rough drive in places, which was fine for the other two cars which were 4 Wheel drive jeeps. Whereas, I was in my 1 litre Chevrolet Joy which managed the journey, which was over sand in places, only not quite so quickly!

We have had a new fire alarm fitted in school which when it goes off sounds like the Final Judgement!! We have had a couple of practices so far and the kids are not bad at getting out of the building, we just need to work on standing in a straight line!

Rehearsals are ongoing for this year’s Secondary Production which is ‘And then there were none’ by Agatha Christie. It is quite a complex play to pull off technically, with a choking and two gunshots on stage and various other deaths of stage. Thankfully living here in Karachi getting hold of a gun won’t be a problem!!

One of the consequences of the cold weather is that I have had to suspend swimming club until the new year as the water is getting quite cold. The pool we use is unheated and even I had to admit that it was cold. Unlike the heated pool that the juniors go to which the PE teacher was calling cold, when I asked her what the temperature was, she said 28 degrees (and that’s centigrade). I felt duty bound to call her ‘nesh’ and point out that she does come originally from Birmingham!

We have also had a few days where the security situation has been tense. Some of the locals have been fighting with one another and this has made some areas dangerous, and resulted in some limitations on activities for a few days. Thankfully, things seem to have calmed down again, Ins’allah it will remain so.

We should have been diving again this weekend but because of the security concerns I decided to cancel, which turned out to be fortuitous as I came down with a bout of flu on Thursday evening and ended aching all over for two days. I missed school on Friday and then sewing circle and a dinner at the Sindh club on Saturday. As I type I feeling a lot better, though I still have a sore throat and a voice which Andy informs me, sounds like I should be working on an 0898 chat line!! His wife wanted to know how he knew this, though an answer was not forthcoming!!

Thankfully, the next three days are holidays here in Pakistan as Tuesday is the 1st day of Bakra Eid. Bakra (Goat) Eid remembers Ibhrahim (Abraham)’s willingness to sacrifice his son and God’s provision of a ram to take his place. This means that the number of goats and cows has gone significantly over the last few days, but sadly for them there time is short, by Tuesday morning, they will have all gone the same way as their divinely provided ancestor. I have therefore been to Musicka and stocked up on DVDs and have plenty of food in, so when I return from Bible study on Monday I will not need to venture out again until Wednesday lunchtime and will hopefully miss ou ton the blood an guts that will litter some of the streets!

I have also made my Christmas holiday arrangements. School will close on 23rd, and so on Christmas Eve I will head of to Clippers for a haircut, facial and massage and then later to church for the first communion of Christmas. Then after church on Christmas morning I have been invited to have lunch with Judith and Bunny as I was last year, which I enjoyed tremendously and am looking forward to it enormously. Then after a couple of days here I am leaving for Kenya on 28th to spend 2 weeks with my friends the Howorths, who live an hour outside Nairobi. Their youngest son Alasdair is also my other godson. Sadly, because of distance and incompetence on my part I have not been as involved in Ali’s life as I have in Thomas’, but this is something I am hoping to put right on this visit. I have not seen all the family since February 2007, but I have seen differing selections of the family in the intervening 20 months. In fact I won’t see the whole clan this time as Aidan, their eldest, started university in America this time and will be spending the holidays with girl friend’s family and his aunt and uncle and their family.

I have also been to the St Andrew’s Ball arranged by UKAP which included some passable food, but probably the worst provision of vegetarians. In fact their provision was to remove the meat and just give more vegetables!! The evening included some dancing and I was able to take part in a Cumberland Reel and a round of Stripping the Willow which was great fun. The ambiance, as always, was amazing. There may be many things we do badly in Pakistan, but when it comes to putting on ‘a bit of a do’ we are the world champions…

I've just had one of those surreal experiences...

I am currently in Dubai, UAE, with a group of 9 students and Miss Naveed (from the English Department) attending the BSME Performing Arts Festival.

We flew in from Karachi yesterday and teh children are busy in their workshops preparing their contributions to tomorrow's end of Festival performance. THe kids all seem to be having a ball and are throwing themselves into the activities.

I accompanied the group that went on the back stage tour to one of the local theatres, which was very interesting and great to see all the bits that you never get to see when you are front of house.

The surreal experiencene of the title was just now as I was walking around school checking up on what each of my little one was doing in their workshops. As I walked through the playground I could hear the chorus 'Hosanna, in the highest', coming loud and clear from somewhere near. Now having lived in a muslim country for over a year, I am used to hearing the azan (call to prayer) and even the Friday sermon, but I have never heard a christian song being broadcast. As I walked on I realised that we are next to St Mary's Church and that that was where the song was coming from.

Dubai is very different to Karachi. Here everything is bigger and better than the last thing. There are literally 100's of Malls, all containing the same stores and it would appear that retail is king! Naveed managed to get to IKEA last night after teh children had been despatched to their host families, and is now trying to find a child with a big enough case to fit a plate drainer in!!

I am left with strange feelings about Dubai, the compulsive shopper that lurks beneath my handsome form, thinks that it is in heaven. However, when I see the indoors ski slope, with real snow, I think of us only 2 hours away across the Arabian Sea, desparately in need of electricity for our daily life. Whilst, here all that power is being used to create snow in the desert. I don't know the answer, but it does make you think...

Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun…

Firstly, apologies for the lack of postings over the last two weeks, but I have been a busy little bunny.

As you will remember from my previous posting I finished for half term on Friday 17th October. On this evening I was invited to dinner at the home of one of the parents at school, whose father I had flown back from Manchester with, earlier in the month. This was a very pleasant evening, with most delicious fish pie created especially for me.

Saturday was another meeting of the ‘Karachi Games Club’ which this time was hosted by Kathy and Zulfi where alongside a delicious meal of potato and Leek soup, fish curry and chocolate pots we had a very funny game of Articulate.

Early Sunday morning, Meg and Dot arrived from the UK for a 10 day stay and after the first of about a 1000 cups of tea, we headed of to church and then on from there to the Bread People to collect breakfast and some other food shopping. The rest of the day was spent resting and planning the rest of the week, concluding the crowning culinary achievement, cauliflower cheese and mashed potatoes!

Monday we headed out to see the sights here in Karachi, starting with Quiad-e-Azam’s Mazar (Quiad-e-Azam is the founder of Pakistan), unfortunately this is closed on a Monday! So we headed of to Empress Market for the experience, though we didn’t go in. The cow’s head I saw on my last visit still haunts me! We then set out to see the Mohatta Palace; unfortunately, this is also closed on a Monday! So I resorted to some retail therapy at Park Towers. In the evening we set of to collect Laurie and go to Bible Study, unfortunately, we ran into my first demonstration, where some of the locals were burning their electricity bills in the street! No given that electricity has gone up by 70% in the last couple of months and some areas are experiencing power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, you can understand the frustration. I nearly got out and gave them mine to burn as well!

Tuesday to Thursday was spent in Lahore, following a very similar tour to my previous trips, but I still managed to see some new sights and thankfully this trip was ‘sans’ puppets!! (Please see my posting on 28th March for explanantion).

Friday was spent relaxing, reading and listening to music and then out to Maria and Barney’s for dinner. Saturday was a beach day and we had a fantastic time, it really is wonderful to sit in the sun (or shade in my case, or else I end up looking like a lobster!) on the last Saturday in October and then spend 45 minutes playing the waves of the Arabian Sea. Dinner was provided take away from BBQ Tonight (there menu available on www.karachisnob.com).

After church on Sunday we a farewell get together to say goodbye to Dan and Ruth Bavington who will be leaving Karachi after 43 years. On from here we finally managed to see the Mohatta Palace and then some more retail therapy in Park Tower. Dinner that evening was courtesy of Mr and Mrs Ryan and was delicious.

Monday had me returning to school and after the obligatory tour, Meg and Dot ventured of to the market with Zubair. They had a great time and we had a wonderful round of show and tell when I got in. Dinner was take away again but this time provided by Chairman Mao! (Menu available on line as above).

Meg and Dot departed on Tuesday from the warm shores of Karachi back to the cold, rain and I believe snow of the UK.

On Wednesday the school diving course started and I took our three students for there first theory lesson, which was a good refresher for me and means that I get the chance to get some more diving in.

Yesterday, I started the school swimming club again at a new location, which is better suited to swimming teaching and although its outside it is also covered which makes it better for me also.

This morning I was preaching so was at church for just before 8am and had preached twice by 10.30am. Just as I was about to begin preaching a message was received on my mobile phone, which was ok as it was on silent. However, my phone keeps vibrating until the message is checked so all through the sermon, my shirt pocket was vibrating which was a little distracting. The message was to invite me to brunch at the Marriott which we duly had, and was as always delicious.

The week ahead is another busy, as I am taking 10 students to Dubai on Thursday for 2 nights. We are going to the British Schools of the Middle East (BSME) (and I know that Pakistan is not in the Middle East, but we are members nonetheless) Performing Arts Festival. We went last year when the Festival was in Kuwait, and we are looking forward to a fun filled weekend.

I have calculated that by the time I get back from Dubai I will have flown over 30000 miles this year, which just seems mad!! Sadly, they weren’t all with the same airline and so the airmile are not racking up.

There have also been further upheavals with the domestic staff!! Sadly, Tariq has not worked out and he was given his cards on Friday and Habib has promised that I will have a replacement on Monday, hopefully, this one will work out better.

One other bonus to Meg and Dot’s visit is that my store of Angel Delight has been increased, and when I started typing this I had 29 packets in the cupboard, I now have only 28 and the other one is inside me…

Oh Ruby...

For those of you not familiar with Upstairs Downstairs (the classic 70’s drama serial), this was the cry of Mrs Bridges (the cook) to Ruby, the put upon scullery maid. The phrase has come to mind has there has been a change in my domestic staff. Since moving to 8th Street we have had a variety of chowkidars (gatekeepers) but all the incumbents have also been cook to downstairs and this has led to some frustrations. By frustrations that usually means I have to open the gate myself!! Not the most arduous task I admit but when you arrive home and are not sure whether or not you have to get out of the car and are sounding the horn, you look a little silly.

Anyway, I now have Tariq in residence as my chowkidar and we are working out his various duties and responsibilities. Tariq is the brother of Zubair one of the school drivers and so hopefully he will work out.

I have also been having a little trouble with Naseen the cleaner. She seems to have been building up her cleaning empire and has more work than she can do. This means she has been sub-contracting the work to her husband Iqbal. Unfortunately, whereas, Naseen approach to cleaning would earn awards from my mother, Iqbal’s approach is more akin to my own! After a few conversations, through Tamkeen, we have come to the arrangement that Naseen will come twice a week to ensure ‘standards’ are maintained. Life is hard sometimes being ‘master’ of the house!!

School has closed today for half term and Sunday heralds the arrival of Meg and Dot, who will be staying here for ten days and we have a variety of activities planned, including a trip to Lahore and a trip out to the beach, with some shopping and nice restaurants thrown in.

Last week saw a new winner in ‘The strangest thing to be seen on a motorbike’. The previous winner was two guys and 6 concrete paving slabs. This has been overtaken by two guys carrying 3 sheets of glass! These sheets of glass where 2x2 feet, 2x4 feet and 2x6 feet in size. The ingenuity and sense of balance of the locals never ceases to amaze me…

It's good to be warm again...

I arrived back in Karachi at 3.20 am on Sunday having taken a slightly different route than the one first envisaged!! I was dropped by Matthew at Manchester Airport at just after 8 am on Saturday morning and I made my way to the Business check in desk for Turkish Airlines. As I waited for the clerk to be ready I heard him say to his colleagues that hey should not check any one in for Delhi or Karachi!! When he was ready for me I told him that I would like to go to Karachi. He directed me to his colleague at the ticket desk and she told me she was just waiting for a call from PIA (Pakistan International Airways (more lovingly know as Prayers In the Air)) to see if they had a flight for me on their direct flight to Karachi. Now there is two things you need to know about this flight, one is that it is almost impossible to get on as it originates in New York and by the time it gets to Manchester it is almost completely full, and secondly, that ‘direct’ does not mean ‘non-stop’, for this direct flight calls at Islamabad and drops of passengers there.

The good news was there was one remaining seat in Business Class and it was now mine, this was fantastic news as not only was it an earlier flight, but I did not have to change planes in Islamabad and Business Class PIA was far superior to Business Class Turkish. Turkish was OK but certainly not worth the extra money, whereas PIA was great, not quite Qatar but a close second!

When we landed at Islamabad and the doors were opened it was lovely to feel the warm air rushing in and we were told the temperature was about 84F and this was at midnight! Now I know some of you think I have gone a bit nesh, but I know for a fact that several of you have turned on the central heating already, so who’s the nesh one now!

School is still going well and there is only a week and a half left until half term which is great. Half term will herald the arrival of Margaret and Dorothy (better know as Meg and Dot) my friends from Darlington. Meg is the Holiday Leader for Submerge which I help run every summer and Dot is her sister. They will be spending 10 days with me and we will be heading of to Lahore for a couple of days to do the sights. We had thought we might go north and see the mountains, the sisters after all have climbed Kilimanjaro and Meg has been trekking in Nepal, but I did such a good job on behalf of the Pakistani Tourist Board that they both are keen to see the wonders of Lahore, including of course the wonderful madness that is the Border Closing Ceremony at Wagah. This will be my third time of seeing it and I am sure it will be just as barmy as before!

Today has also seen the first rehearsal of the BOS Secondary Department Production for 2009 which is “And Then There were None” by Agatha Christie. Some of the cast from ‘An Inspector Calls’ will be taking part again and we have also got some new blood in the cast. I have also been joined by a new co-director, Nicola, fresh from her triumph directing the Key Stage 2 Production of ‘Jack’, which had the wonderful scene of Morag the cow and her Scottish Country Dancing friends. Our cast this year is 11 though, this being Agatha, they don’t all make it to the final scene. There is only 20 weeks to opening night so I just hope they are busy learning their lines…

It's grim up North...

I have been in the UK since Tuesday afternoon and have yet to be warm!! This country is soooo cold and soooo wet its untrue. I have been accused by some of being mesh, but it really is very cold.

I have enjoyed my time back here, and I have managed to squeeze a lot in four days. I met up with Thomas on Tuesday evening and we went into Manchester for dinner, which was great. Dropping him home was difficult as he lives in Rusholme just of the Curry Mile and Tuesday night was the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid and so it was party time and roads were closed so I dropped him off and he had to walk the last bit.

Wednesday, I called into Medlock Leisure Centre and caught up with Karen and Janet who I used to work with when I taught swimming in Tameside.

After collecting Thomas we headed off to Leeds where we under took some retail therapy and after an early dinner at a superb French restaurant called 'Kendall's' we went to the West Yorkshire Playhouse and watched 'Privates on Parades' a play based on the author's real life experiences in a concert party in Malaya in 1948. It was very clevery done and very entertaining. The drive back to Manchester however, was awful!! The motorway was very wet and the rain was driving into the car, I really don't miss driving in the rain.

Thursday, went in to Stockport and collected some vital supplies to take back to Karachi, including of course the every delicious Angel Delight!! After this I met up with Thomas and Stewart(former History teacher at BOS, who is now teaching in Bolton) and we had lunch together and I was able to deliver Stewart's bag back to him, which I had brought from Karachi.

Thomas and I then came back to the flat and watched the BOS production of 'An Inspector Calls' which Thomas really enjoyed. From the flat we went upto Thomas' parents house to celebrate his brother's 18th birthday. We headed out to 'The Happy Gathering' a Chinese resturant where we had a very lovely evening and welcomed William to the adult world.

Today after going round to my sister's to give my mother her birthday present which is a trip to Geneva in November which went down extremely well. Before we were born, our mother had a job in Geneva but turned it down and got married instead. Then back into Manchester to met Thomas for lunch and to do some shopping in town.

I have just returned from my mother's 60th birthday party which has gone very well. There lots of people there and they all were enjoying themselves when i left at 10.45pm to return my grandmother home. The 'highlight' was my mother's Cher impression, with full backing group of her friends. Now those who know me well, know that singing is not one of my strong points and it would be fair to say my mother's singing voice is worse!!

I am now 12 hours from taking off back to Karachi, I have enjoyed being here and being able to celebrate my mother's birthday. It's also been wonderful to spend a few days with Thomas, enjoying good food, theatre and each others company.

Well as all my worldly goods are still all over the bedroom floor I had better get on with the packing...

In the midst of life, we are in death...

This has probably been the hardest week I have had whilst living here in Pakistan. Sadly, over 60 people were killed on Saturday evening when terrorist exploded a bomb in front of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The terrorists claim to be servants of Allah, but the saddest part of this whole sorrow tale, is that the majority of people who died where the drivers waiting in the car park, most of whom would have been Muslims.

The result of this terrible attack has been to make most people here very twitchy. The BDHC (the British Government’s representatives here in Karachi) have been their usual helpful selves, and have given the advice that we should avoid the major cities of Pakistan!! They really are about as much use as a chocolate fire guard!

I have to confess that for the first time since arriving I have been feeling a little wobbly. I am no where near packing my bags and getting ready to leave, but I thinking about what I doing each day and where I am going. Your prayers for Pakistan would be appreciated.

On a lighter note I did a spot of entertaining last night. I was joined for dinner by Andrew and Tamkeen, George and Kiran (Pakistan’s answer to Richard and Judy) and then later Kathy. We started with a Melon and Pomelo salad and homemade hummus, followed by Lasagne (made with soya mince and three types of mushrooms) accompanied by garlic bread and Greek salad. The meal was concluded with coffee and a selection of petit fours (shop bought I must confess).

After dinner we chatted and played Risk, well Andrew and Kiran played and the rest of us sort of took part!! It was made more interesting by the forfeit that Andrew had arranged, ie every country that you lost you had to eat a Jelly Bean. Now that may not sound much of a forfeit, except that these Jelly Beans were either good or bad, eg Buttered Popcorn or Rotten Egg! Thankfully, I only hit a bad one once!

This week is going to be a very tiring one! My mother achieves the ripe old age of 60 on 4th October and she is having a party this Friday in Stalybridge. I, being the dutifully so that I am, will be leaving Karachi at 3am on Tuesday morning and traveling to Stalybridge, only to leave Manchester airport at 11am on Saturday morning, a journey of 9000 miles in 4 days.

There are also a couple of bonuses to this trip, the first being that I get to see Thomas for the first time in 6 months. I last saw him at Karachi Airport as I waved him off back to Egypt and as he spent the summer in America I have only been able to speak to him on the phone. He was going to pick me up from Manchester Airport, unfortunately, the clutch on his car has died and so Charlie will be collecting me in my car instead.

Another bonus is that I will be able to celebrate William (Thomas’ brother)’s 18th birthday on Thursday and we are going out for a family meal.

The last bonus is that I can increase my stores of the vital provisions that I can only get in the UK, including soya mince, Marmite (available here but at twice the cost) and of course that most delicious of creations, Angel Delight, is it too late to make some now…

oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

Today saw me undertake my first A level Geography field trip. Seven Year 12 students and I boarded a minbus and headed for the coast! Thankfully, this didn't take too long as we live only 10 minutes from the beach! Unit 2 of the A level has a section callled Crowded Coast and so we headed off to check out the coast defences and usage along the Karachi coast. We had a very interesting time and took lots photos which we will be analysing. We are hoping to head off further up the coast after Ramzan and look at the different coastal features and uses as we make our way to French Beach, where if the Sixth Form get their way will involve an over night stay and a BBQ! Then our next plan is to head of to Dubai so that we can compare and contrast the two areas, I am really enjoying teaching Geography!!

I have restarted my Urdu lessons and we are revising all the work we did last year. I remember about 60-65% of the vocabulary and only about 10% of the hand writing and reading which I don't think is too bad. I am trying to speak as often I can at school and I am managing to make myself understood most of the time.

I am preaching again this weekend at the Cathedral, I have the title 'Understanding and Overcoming Satan', just goes to show what happens when you don't attend the planning meeting...

Aunty Sybil was right...

I am sure you will all be pleased to hear that I am very happy my new washing machine. Although it is fully automatic it also a top loader, which is where Aunty Sybil's advice comes in. You see, Aunty Sybil has alway extolled the virtues of the top loading washing machine, and up until now I was never convinced!

However, I now a convert. You must have encountered that most annoying situation where you have just switched on the washing machine and you are heading back to the front room when you find a sock which you dropped on the way from the bedroom, or you turn round in the kitchen and see the tea towels you intended to put in the machine, now you can!!

School has settled down well into the new term and all seems to be going well. I have finished the re-vamp of the timetable and I am quite pleased with the results. As well as resolving the problem of the vanishing maths teacher, I have also been able to remove a couple of problems that were there for a couple of teachers which is an added bonus.

I am also enjoying teaching Geography A level for the first time. I have a grroup of 6 students and we have had some very interesting discussions, including the American Education System, the War in Iraq and does Global Warming actually exist! And that's just in the first week and a half.

Pakistan also has a new President, Mr Asif Zadari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was elected on Saturday as so far so good,we shall see what the future brings...

Back in the swing...

Firstly apologies for the delay in undating my blog. I reported that the man from Worldcall was coming on the 27th, he finally turned up last night and still has to return tonight to make my internet work!! The internet has also been a little hit and miss at school and I have had so much to do that by 5 o'clock I was ready for home and not in the mood for my normal witty repartee!!

The first week back has been good, apart from having 'lost' one of our maths teachers. Unfortunately, she did not return after the summer break and all attempts to locate her have failed. We have heard on the grapevine that she is still in the city and is not coming back to school! Sadly, this lack of good manners is not unique and we have had staff before who have just not turned up which inevitably throws everyone else into confusion and leaves some of us which a great deal of work to do. I have almost managed to cover her teaching load and now just have to modify the timetable to allow this to happen.

Last Friday saw my 38th (yes I am cetain I am only 38 regardless of the rumours being propigated by my 'friend' on Facebook!) Birthday which I spent in Karachi for the second year running. After a busy day in school I took myself of to Clippers and had a very enjoyable 90 minutes in the chair, having my hair cut and a massage and a facial, which I can highly reccommend it. After this Andrew took me out to dinner at the Japanese restuarant on the roof of the Avari hotel, where we had excellent sushi followed by tepanyaki, which was delicious.

Alongside some 'flat pack' birthday presents from my family, I had already had a Dalek tin containing confectionary from my sister before I left and I receive a wonderful present from my godson, which was exactly what I wanted(he did have the advantage of me having asked for it!). He sent me a poem he had written and five songs he had recorded especially for me. He has a wonderful voice and it is great to be able to listen to him whenever I want. Also the poem not only made me feel very special but also has given me something to think about.

My Urdu lessons start again on Wednesday and I am going to be in so much trouble, as I have done nothing since I left Karachi in June!!! I wonder if I will get away with the dog ate my homework...

The Eagle has landed...

After a very pleasant time in Business Class I arrived safely into Karachi at 6.30 am today.

The weather is hot and humid and I had only been here for 4 hours when the power went off in the apartment!! (T.I.P. This Is Pakistan).

Whilst away the internet provider has switched of my cable TV and Internet and Andrew has reclaimed various pieces of furniture that belong to him so I am in the midst of sorting all of that out. The new washing machine arrives tonight and the man from Worldcall comes tomorrow.

School restarts for staff at 10 am tomorrow and the students are back on Monday, so just enough time to finalise the timetable and get the school building ready for them.

The adventure continues...

Here we go again...

Well there are now 11 hours until my parents come and collect me and take me to the airport and I return to my life in Karachi. I am almost ready, at least everythin gthat has to go is in the same room, if not exactly packed at the moment!!

I sit here with mixed feelings. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in the UK and I have seen nearly everyone I want to, though some have slipped through the net. I have had a mix of holiday, work and just vegging out which has been fantastic. I am happy to be going back but am not excited. When I look back to last year it seems almost like a dream, which may sound strange but it's the only way I can explain how I feel. I am sure that when I get back there tomorrow I will slot back into life there and the UK will retreat into dreamland!!

Last week was a busy one which I spent cooking for 70 at The Great Adventure, which is a Scripture Union Holiday for 11-14 year olds which is held at Gilling Castle in Yorkshire. It was a great week and the food went down very well, and if I do say so myself the lasagne was particularly good!

The news from Andrew and Tamkeen is that the weather in Karachi is pleasant and that the AC is unnecessary over night which will be a great improvement on what we have had in the UK for the last 9 weeks. It has really struck me whilst I have been here the variation that there is in British weather and that is something we don't get in Karachi, as it is hot, followed by hot, with intermitant hot!!

Well I had better do something about this packing or else I won't be going anywhere, more later...

A wheel has come off...

After successfully completing, not one night but three continous nights in a pup tent (I amaze myself sometimes by my adaptability and ability to cope in the face of adversity) I departed soggy Cornwall and headed off to the big smoke!

I arrived here in London after a 7 hour journey across the country, which could
have been quicker but I needed a couple of pitstops for refreshment and the release of waste products!

I am staying at the Highbury Centre, which is strangely found in Highbury and is the home of the Foreign Missions Club. This is a club available to missionaries on furlough and rents out rooms when they have space to non missionaries. The accommodation is clean and tidy and relatively cheap compared with London prices.

On Wednesday night I met up with James, who has just finished his history degree and is working out what to do next. Until he does he is working in a bar and a spice shop in Notting Hill and sleeping on a friend's floor! The joys of youth.

Thursday saw me setting out to claim two more 'wheels'. I planned to ride the wheel in Hyde park and then the one at Greenwich. After wandering around the edge of Hyde Park for nearly an hour and being unable to find the 200 foot high wheel, I phoned Belfast and asked David to locate it for me on the website. He read out to me 'We NOW have three wheels in London' and then following a link was told that the Hyde Park Wheel would return in December 2008!! Now, I don't know about you but I take NOW to mean Now, not 5 months time!!!

Anyway, I benefitted from the stroll around the park and then headed off up Oxford Street to buy lunch at M&S Food. Suitably supplied I made my way via the tube to Westminister to pick up a boat to take me down the river to Greenwich. Apparently so rumour has it, the first time the Guthries visited Westminister tube, the Sci-Fi appearance prompted Philip to say 'you find the Millenium Falcon, and I'll disable the Tractor Beam'!

The boat from Westminister to Greenwich took an hour and we were provided with an unofficial guided tour by one of the crew, which was highly entertaining.
My favourite comments were thus:-

On passing Cleopatra's needle -"this is oldest thing in London and was brought back by Nelson after his defeat of Napolean at the Battle of the Nile, there is another one in Paris which they were apparently awarded for coming second"!

On passing the Globe Theatre -"In Shakespere's day the theatre was full of taverns, restaurants, brothels and other places of interest, today there's a Pizza Express'!

On reaching Greenwich I took the option of going on up the river to see the Thames Barrier and sail passed the Millenium Dome, and then back to Greenwich. Here I managed to ride the Greenwich Wheel which is actually there NOW and then I had time for a hot chocolate before sailing back up to Westminister and making my way to Leicester Square to meet Kirsten for dinner in China Town and then tickets to Chicago. We really enjoyed the show and I have been humming and singing various tunes from it all day.

This morning I headed off to Waterloo and boarded the train to Windsor to collect my second wheel, which I duly did. I do have photographic proof of all this wheels as soon as I work out how download them from my new phone!

After a pub lunch and train ride back to Waterloo I made my way to Leicester Square once more, where I was taken advantage of(and not in a good way!). I decided that as I have never seen a film in Leicester Square I would remedy that oversight!! I can safely say that today was first and last time, at £13.50 a ticket I can't afford the experience again!!

I saw Mamma Mia and it was hilarious, not to spoil it for anyone but the sight of Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and a host of Greek women singing Dancing Queen and dancing on a wooden jetty sticking into the beautiful blue Aegean was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time!

I am currently in an internet cafe just of Oxford Street whiling away a little time before I go to meet Philip from work at Waterloo Ambulance Station. We are then heading off for something to eat.

I return to Hyde tomorrow and will be there for a few days before moving on to Darlington where Meg, Dot and I will plan their forthcoming trip to Karachi in October and then off to The Great Adventure.

Time has really started to speed up and three weeks today it will be my 38th birthday and I will be once more in Karachi and my summer holidays will be over. What the next year holds who knows...

I don't do canvas...

As many of you will know I have had a long standing aversion to camping. In fact whenever I have been offered the chance to camp my response has been the title of this posting, 'I don't do canvas!'

Last night, however, I spent the night in a one man pup tent and at 4.45am I trundled of to the shower block for an early morning wee! It was surprisingly comfortable as I was sleeping on an airbed under a double duvet and I had a pleasant night's sleep! This does not mean that I am born again camper, and if I don't have to camp out again, I shan't be too upset, that being said I do have two more nigths here in Padstow...

Isn't technology wonderful...

I am currently sat in a caravan on the North Cornwall coast at Mother Ivey's Bay, conected to the internet via a wireless network!!

I have had a busy week on the Scripture Union SUbmerge holiday, which is a christian holiday for 11-14 year olds. We have been based in a boarding school in Salisbury for the last week.

There have been 76 people on site, 47 guests and 29 team, and we have had an amazing and awesome time. It is wonderfu lto be together with other christians and to see God at work in the lives of team and guests alike. It was also fantastic to see christian young people throwing themselves into the party games and dancing in the same way they entered into the praise and worship and teaching. There were no wimpy young people on our holiday, it was full of real people who have a desire to make God the centre of their life, it was fantastic!

We spent the week Acting Out the Bible, which involves a giant map of the Holy land and it's surrounding and working our way from 'In the beginning' to 'Amen' ie Genesis to Revelation, and helping everyone to understand how the Bible fits together and the story of God's dealings with his people.

We add to this, the Wetta the Betta, Multi Gunk and other mad games including the new invention called Chicken Hunt, which involved 6 team members dressed as chickens being hunted by the guests!!!

Also we celebrated Christmas on 31st July, and why not! We had reached the birth of Jesus in AOtB and so when the guests came out of the hall they were ushered into Santa's grotto and received their pressie nd then we went for Christmas day worship followed by a full Christmas dinner and then a Christmas Party. There are pics on Facebook on the SUbmerge page and I will try to pop some on here. We were really pleased as it came as a total surprise to the guests and the look on some of there faces was priceless!

There was some drama on the way down to Salisbury when my car overheated, so I did the last 60 miles on the back of a low loader and my car now has a new heater matrix and soggy carpets in the footwells!

Last night was spent in Exeter which is about two hours drive from Salisbury and about half way to MIB where I am currently residing with the Waggies, my friends from Great Houghton, who emigrate to Cornwall for a month every year.

I am here until Wednesday then I am off to London for my 'wheely good' experience and to see Chicago with Kirsten, which will be great and then back to Manchester for a few days before I head off to my next SU holiday this time as Chief Caterer providing 70 covers three times a days, do it standing on my head...

I've had a 'wheely' good idea...

Firstly, let me apologise for the appalling pun, I just couldn't resist it!

After my trip on the Belfast wheel I did some internet research and found that there are Wheels at the following locations

• Belfast
• Manchester
• York
• Royal Windsor
• Greenwich
• Hyde Park

I have therefore set myself a challenge for my summer in the UK. I am going to 'fly'n each of these Wheels. I am already half way there having flown on the first three in the list, the Yorkshire Wheel being added to my collection last Friday when thanks to the Daily Telegraph, Sian and I had a 2for1 flight on the Yorkshire Wheel, which is sited a the National Railway Museum, York.

I have booked myself a room in London for three days after SUbmerge, where I plan to fly the three London based wheels. I have already flown the London Eye which is not technically part of the set as it is owned by British Airways, rather than World Tourist Attractions. WTA do have moer wheels but these are in Australia so will have to wait for a while.

I have had a busy wheel since returning from Belfast, a process that took a surprisingly short time. I left Chez Guthrie at 7pm on Monday and after a 33 minute flight, I arrived back at the Music Box at 10pm.

On Tuesday I met up with my old boss, Ross, who is geography teacher and attempted to get my head around the AS geography specification so that I can teach it in September. We talked for just over 4 hours, without drawing breath and missing lunch completely! I have aslightly beter understanding of the geography now, but it was great to catch up with Ross, and it reminded me that I really do miss the chats we used have after school, when we would put the world to rights.

After this I headed over to Great Houghton, for tea with the Waggies and to get my instructions on how to get to Mother Ivey's Bay, so that I can join them for a few days in August.

Then on Wednesday I went up to Darlington to stay with Meg, so that we could go to Singalonga Sound of Music!!!!!! It was fantastic, there can't have been a nun's habit for hire in the whole of Darlington, 'not even for ready money'!

The theatre was full of SoM fans, who after a warm up and a fashion show, which included 100's of nuns, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, brown paper packages tied up with string, and even a huge warm woollen mitten, sang along to the film, cheered for Maria, booed at the baroness and set of party poppers when Maria and the Captain kissed for the first time and all in all had a wonderful time.

Saturday saw me at Stalybridge Congregational Church (where I grew up and where my mother is still a member) to share with them my experiences over the last 10 months. They loved my presentation and where very complimentary, this was followed by a lovely supper including my mother's home made meat and potato pie!!

I was back there again this morning to take the service and was once again very well received.

This week is another busy one in which I have to complete the wedding cake ready for it to be transported to the reception venue on Wednesday. I also have various sessions to get ready for SUbmerge which starts on Sunday.

One slightly worrying thing is that I completely forgot that I should have been meeting Dan and then gone back to Derby this evening with him. It had completely slipped my mind until he contacted me at 5pm checking that I was alright. I could only put this to a 'senior moment' which does not bode well for the future as I am only 37...

If you go across the sea to Ireland...

I have headed over the Irish Sea to Belfast to visit my friends David and Katey Guthrie. I have known David and Katey now for many years having met through the One to One/One UP/now to be called SUbmerge Scripture Union holiday for 11-14 year olds, which I have helped on since 1991! Katey is head cook and David is in charge of shopping! The Guthries are also responsible for providing me with the General Knowledge Crossword from the The Telegraph on Saturday, which I do on a Sunday morning after church whilst eating brunch!

I have been keeping busy over the last week, but not done a great deal really! Last Saturday, Andrew, Tamkeen and I went into Manchester shopping. Andrew is determined to redesign my wardrobe and so I am now the proud owner of a linen shirt and some Lacosse shoes. Tamkeen also managed to buy two pairs of shoes at massive discounts and came home a very happy little lady!

Sunday was church followed by a quiet day at the flat watching the West Wing and Fraiser whilst getting on with my current cross stitch project.

The rest of the week was spent keeping Andrew entertain as he has been off school with 'flu. So I popped round for a couple of hours each day and had lunch with him and play Risk and Scrabble. Andrew held the upper hand in Risk and destroyed each time we played, however, the glories went to me!

Thursday I boarded a BMI flight from Manchester and 40 short minutes later touched down in Belfast and will be here until Monday evening.

Today we went into the city centre and had ago on the Belfast Wheel and saw all round the city. This now means I have 'flown' on the London Eye, the Manchester Wheel and the Belfast Wheel and I am hoping to add the Yorkshire Wheel in York next week. I'm not sure if there are anymore in the UK, but if there are I may have to see if I can get up on there!

After the Wheel we went shopping and now have a second linen shirt and some new polo shirts.

Today is the 11th July which is the day before the 12th July. Now this may seem like a 'statement of the bleeding obvious' as Basil Fawlty would say, but here in Belfast the 12th July is know as the Glorious 12th, and is a major celebration here. It celebrates the victory of William III over James II at the Battle of the Boyne. This anniversary is marked with bonfires on the 11th and the Orangemen marching on the 12th. This also means the city will be more or less closed for the next three days as Monday will be a Bank Holiday as the 12th has fallen on a Saturday.

I return to the Mainland (as it's called here) on Monday and then on Tuesday before heading off over to Great Houghton and then on to Darlington for the rest of the week, I am hoping to learn AS geography in an afternoon so that I will be ready to teach it in September!

I will be going to the theatre on Thursday to see my friend James in his show and then on Friday, Meg, Dot, Wendy, Sue, Roz and I are off to see Singalong the Sound of Music!!!! If you could see me now you would see me clapping like a demented seal!?!?!?!?

If you are not a close friend or associate of mine you, may not know about my love of the world's greatest musical! I love the Sound of Music and my party piece is to perform the whole of the of the SoM on my own singing all the parts and telling the story. This has even been a command performance before the Bishop of Doncaster!

I inherited this particularly party piece from Sylvia Stevens who was chaplain to the Clifton Site of the Nottingham Trent University during my time there in the late 80s and early 90s. I first saw her perform this at a CU weekend away and we even did a duo performance on a subsequent year.

Singalong TSoM is exactly what it says on the tin, you get to watch the film and aing a long with all the songs, and I am very very excited about going along. Apparently, dressing up in costume is almost a required part of going and I am sure the auditorium will be full of nuns and people dressed in curtains, my suggestion to Meg was that we all should go as the Alps...

It takes some getting used to...

It’s really strange, in many ways it feels like I have never been away from Stalybridge and its surroundings. It’s almost as if the last 10 months are just a dream that I have woken up from. Yet in another way I have been changed by the experience in many ways.

The main two ways that I have changed are one, in my ability to deal with the cold, and two my driving!!

Now it’s not that cold in the UK at the moment, its been in the early 20’s and yet it feels flipping freezing to me. When I left Karachi last week it was about 34 degrees and that was at 7am!! Then passing through Doha it was 42 degrees so I am finding a little difficult to adjust. So whilst everyone else is wandering around in short sleeves I have been out to buy a jumper!!

Now I am not claiming I would have won any prizes for my driving before I left for Karachi,but if I am not very careful I might win some more points on my UK license. I found myself going the wrong way down a one way street yesterday, and I over shot the lights at a major roundabout last Monday. I am yet to actually run a red light but it was very frustrating on Sunday morning going to church, I actually had to sit at half a dozen sets of traffic lights that were on red, something I would never have to do in Karachi.

I have had a fairly busy week, with some light retail therapy and a trip over to Darfield/Great Houghton and then on to Darlington. I went to Darfield to see my friends Neil and Catherine who are Rector and Rector’s wife of the parish of All Saints, Darfield with St Michael’s and All Angels, Great Houghton. He is also my old boss as I was previously Lay Assistant in the Parish before I left for Pakistan. It was good to catch up with them and show them all my photos. From there I went to Dave and Jayne’s in Great Houghton for tea and then to join my old house group for another run through my photos.

On Wednesday after catching up with Jayne’s parents I headed off to Darlington to stay with Meg. It was great to catch up with her and to show her all my pictures. We also spent time finalizing the programme for this year’s camp, SUbmerge 2008, which is the new incarnation for the Scripture Union holiday I have been doing for the last 17 years. The holiday starts on the 27th July and we are just about there with the programme.

This week I have to get on and marzipan the wedding cake I am making for my friends Gregg and Julie who get married on the 26th July. I also have to get my eyes tested and my car MOT, so its going to be a busy week. I am also trying to get ready for next term so I had better have a proper look at next year’s timetable and start working through the AS level Geography specification as I will teaching that in September, a teacher’s work is never done…

Cold, wet and grey...

Thanks to the careful and gentle ministrations of Qatar airline, I and my entire luggage arrived safe and sound at Manchester at 13.30 BST. As we were coming in to land, the pilot came on the speaker system to tell us that the weather in Manchester was 8 degrees with light rain! Sure enough when the window blinds were raised in Business Class we were unable to see Manchester and its surroundings due to the heavy cloud cover.

After 10 months of almost constant sunshine and the last 6 weeks where the temperature even at night has been above 20 degrees it was quite a relief to see some proper Manchester drizzle. I have however, not packed any jumpers and so am now cold! I did try an pick something up in Tesco last night but unfortunately, they have their summer lines in so I will have to try somewhere else, for I suspect that the temperature will not be going up for a couple of weeks.

If you have ever wondered is it worth paying the extra for Business Class, let me say, ‘Yes it is’! I had thoroughly enjoyable time and the service was excellent. The food was delicious, and beautifully presented. We were given breakfast on the flight from Karachi to Doha, which comprised of fresh orange juice, scrambled eggs and grilled tomatoes. This was followed by the pastry basket and coffee. Then from Doha to Manchester we received breakfast again, though it was a different menu this time. This time it was stuffed artichoke heart, followed by Arabic meze and then the pastry basket again!! I thought that, that would be it but two hours before we landed lunch was served, so I selected the seafood cocktail with king prawns and gravlax followed by the fruit platter. All in all a very enjoyable and an experience which I get to repeat in 9 weeks time going in the other direction!!

Well I have lots planned for the next 9 weeks and so keeping watching for the next instalment of ‘Michael (temporarily) in England…’

T minus 10 hours...

I am sat in my living room, half packed with 8 hours to go before Zubair (one of the school drivers) comes to collect me to take me to the airport. My flight departs at 7.20am PST and I should arrive in Manchester at 11.20 BST.

It has been a busy week with all the end of term things that need to be done, reports, meetings with parents and Inter House Contest, yesterday and today. Thankfully all the reports were ready by 12 o’clock today and were handed out to the little darlings.

Wednesday, Stewart and I went out for dinner at Lal Qila (Red Fort) which is on the airport road and was great. As you go inside you go into a courtyard and find the buffet in the centre, the food was good and strangely for Pakistan there was a good choice of vegetarian food, essential for both Stewart and I. This was the last time we will be able to eat out here as Stewart left for England this morning and is sadly not returning in September as he is getting married in July. I will really miss Stewart as we have got on really well this year and it has be great to have someone to go to the pool, go shopping or eat out with.

As I sit here it is with a mixture of emotions.

I desperately want to see all the people that I haven’t seen for the last 10 months. In the time I have been here I have only seen Andrew (Frost) when he came to stay last October, and all the Trewinnards in December in Egypt and then Thomas when he came here in March. Thanks to modern technology I have been able to speak and email so many of my friends and family which has been fantastic and made my life here even better, but I can’t wait to see everyone.

On the other hand I not sure I want to leave Karachi! This place has really got under my skin and I can’t explain why but I really do love it here. There are so many reasons not to like Karachi, the heat, the power cuts, the impending Monsoon, the dust, the road works making travel even more complicated, the roads, the driving, and the list goes on. So many reasons to dislike the city and yet I don’t. I really do think that this is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Kathy, the art teacher, sums up the main reason why life here is so great, it’s never boring!! You never know what’s going to happen next. That sense of uncertainty makes life here great fun and it really is very difficult to explain unless you have been here. There is no where else like Karachi, even in Pakistan!

So, in a few hours I will be back in Hyde, probably in the wind and the rain (oh how I missed rain) recovering from my journey in Business Class and getting ready for a busy summer of weddings, Scripture Union holidays, school reunions, a trip to Cornwall, a trip to Belfast and many other exciting things, so I had better go and finish the packing and Inshallah my next posting will be from the UK…

We're going to start the Tufty Club...

One of the most frustrating things about driving here is the complete disregard shown by pedestrians. They really do have no self awareness and will just step out in front of a car, or cross a road without looking at all!! So to counter this Stewart and I intend to found The Tufty Club (Karachi Branch)!

For those of you who are a little younger than I, (yeah, yeah I’m not that old) then the Tufty Club was a club for children that taught road safety and as a child both Stewart and I were members and had our Tufty Club Badge! It was one of the public information films that did the rounds in the 70’s. Along with ‘Charlie says’ it taught children how to cross the road and not to play with matches!!

Life has been extremely busy over the last few days. We are now only 8 days from the end of term and there is so much still left to do. We have been writing reports, recruiting new staff and I am still trying to write next year’s timetable. Alongside all of this we are still running A level exams, which meant I had to be at school until 7pm tonight.

Also I have been conned into being the male teacher at the Year 6 sleepover tomorrow night, so that means that after the A level biology exam finishes at 7pm I get to join 20 over excited 11 year olds for a night in school! In fact it won’t be too bad as at least I am guaranteed power all night, which is more than can be said about my place at the moment.

As previously reported I have both a generator and UPS at my new apartment. Unfortunately, the UPS is playing up, and although Ali Electrician came to look at yesterday and declared it healthy, he was wrong! I reported this to Habib this morning and he came round to the apartment with Ali and they decided the man from the UPS shop needed to look at it. I told Habib I would at school until 7 and he said that it would be sorted by then!! However, T.I.P. (This Is Pakistan) and of course Ali and the UPS men didn’t turn up until 8.45pm. They have now removed the UPS and I will get it back in the morning Inshallah!

So, if or should I say when, the power goes off tonight the generator will need to be switched on. At the old place this happened by magic (or by Faroukh) now as we have no chowkidar I have to go down and do it myself!!

I am now really looking forward to my trip to the UK, it will be really good to catch up with all my friends and family that I haven’t seen for nearly 10 months. It will also be great to get away from the heat which is now starting to be unbearable away from the air conditioning, yesterday it was 40 plus degrees outside and I am actually missing the cold and the rain! I am trusting that Manchester can live up to it reputation and there will be rain for my arrival…

You don't know you're born...

The following news article found its way into my inbox yesterday

Electricity supplies are expected to return to normal following countrywide blackouts, the National Grid has said. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across London, Cheshire, Merseyside and East Anglia were affected on Tuesday. Blackouts were caused by Sizewell B nuclear plant in Suffolk and Longanett coal-fired station in Scotland going off-line within minutes of each other. In total, nine generating units across the country became unavailable. Stuart Larque, spokesman for the National Grid, said: "We think it will be a case of business as usual. We have a very robust system in the UK.

"It rarely fails and that's why everybody is talking about it so much." The blackouts were caused by the opposite of a power surge as the National Grid deactivated local stations to maintain the required 50hz frequency. When demand is greater than generation, the system fails, the National Grid said. David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, which represents the companies that generate the UK's electricity, said the problem was caused by several smaller issues that occurred at the same time.
"It was a huge coincidence. A couple of large power stations just within a few minutes of each other suffered breakdowns and the loss of power was more than the system is designed to take.

"People were without power for 30 or 40 minutes I believe. Everybody in the industry is very sorry but it doesn't happen very often." Independent energy consultancy, McKinnon and Clarke, has advised the government to build new power stations or face further power cuts.
David Hunter, energy analyst at McKinnon and Clarke, said: "The government's inability to make long-term energy security decisions over the last decade is coming home to roost. "Since the 'dash for gas' in the 1990s, the lack of political will to make tough decisions has left Britain short of power

I must admit that when this ‘news’ was discussed amongst the staff, it was with an air of great hilarity!! In fact one person was heard to comment, ‘If the power only went off here for 30-40 minutes we would be wondering what’s wrong!”

I may have mentioned this before but we experience power cuts, on an almost daily basis and on average they last for a couple of hours at a time. I am in fact typing this an hour into today’s blackout! Thankfully houses here (at least I my area) are equipped with the necessities to keep going, I now have in my new apartment both a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) which is basically two car batteries in my pantry and a back up generator. The UPS is great and switches on automatically as soon as the power goes off. I can’t power the AC but the fans and the lights stay on which makes life bearable. I can also power the TV but that tends to drain the batteries quite quickly so I have switched off for the moment just in case, so that I don’t have to go down and switch the generator on!

The chowkidar(gate keeper) at my new place is nice enough but he’s not Farukh! I think I was a little spoiled by Farukh and Yacoob just doesn’t measure up. I have come home today to find that Yacoob has gone on leave for two months and been replaced by Nasir. All this is organized by the landlord, but I do miss the reliability of Farukh!!

The last couple of weeks have been taken up with exams and planning for next year. We now only have three weeks left until the end of term and there are reports to be written and a timetable to produce as well as all the other end of term stuff.

Stewart and I did go and take the theory part of our PADI course last week and I am pleased to say that we both passed and are now fully qualified open water divers.
I am now also almost at the half way stage with my ‘cross channel swim’ having completed 10 miles. Just 11 miles left and I am still hopeful that I will make it before I leave. The pool at the Avari is lovely and it is great to arrive at the open air pool side and read on the notice board ‘Air Temperature 34 degrees’ and “Pool temperature 34 degrees’!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ‘It’s hard life, but someone’s got to do it’ and I’m extremely grateful that it’s me..

You gotta love em...

And by them, I mean the Government of Pakistan! In an effort to be seen to be ‘doing something’ the new Government has come up with a plan to safe energy. Now energy is a major problem here in Pakistan, particularly in the big cities like Karachi. In the last twenty years Karachi has doubled in size from 8 million to 16 million residents, with no increase in the number of power stations. This means that power cuts are a regular part of life in Karachi, with an average of at least one power cut every day. These last from between a few minutes to several hours and at the very least frustrating and in some cases very unpleasant.

So you are asking yourself, what great idea have the government come up with to solve this problem, are they going build more power stations? No! Start a programme to remove all the illegal connections that place an added strain on an already over stretched system? No! No our great and glorious government has decided to introduce, Pakistan Summer Time!! So on June 1st the clocks will go forward by one hour, this is a vain effort to save energy. You see the problem here is not the light, but the heat. The biggest user of electricity in Karachi, has got to be the millions of AC units that are running constantly at this time of the year. Unfortunately, moving the clocks will not help with this as many people run AC all day and all night. It will however, create havoc as it did 5 years ago, as a large number of people can’t tell time and don’t wear a watch!!

I have completed my house move and now happily ensconced in my new house. Most of the little jobs are complete and the cable and internet have been switched on. I will be taking some photos and showing you around in the next couple of days. The most amazing thing about the move was that when Worldcall came to switch on the cable and the internet, on both occasions they were on time!! Now that is a rare occurrence in the U.K. it is almost unheard of here!

Last night I was at the British Deputy High Commission (BDHC) for the St George’s Day Ball. Yes I know St George’s Day is 23rd April, but for some reason we were delayed until last night. The Ball was being held in aid of the Children’s Museum of Peace and Human Rights, which is managed by the husband of one of my colleagues from school. I was also involved in the evening as I was called upon to give the history of St George and propose the toast. It was a very pleasant evening and I finally rolled in just before 1 a.m., the latest I have ever returned home whilst I have been here.

This week has been a busy one as the IGCSE, GCSE and A levels are in full force. Our distance from the UK does make life a little more difficult for us as well, as exams need to be sat at the same time here as they are in the UK, this meant that I was at school until 7.15 p.m. on Thursday evening having reached school at 7a.m.! Now I thought that one of the good things about being a teacher was the ‘short; hours…

Lights, Camera, Action...

Sometimes you get some very strange phone calls!!

On Saturday afternoon I received a phone call from a young lady named Samina, who was a colleague of George’s. Who is George I hear you ask? George is a friend of my friend Andrew (the one responsible for me being here in the first place). George is married to Kiran and together they are Karachi’s answer to ‘Richard and Judy’. They present ‘George aur Kiran’ on Arg TV.

Samina had called me because she was looking for a white, middle aged, British man with a British accent. I was able to confirm that I fitted the build, though does 37 count as middle aged?

Samina was looking for this gentleman as she was trying to find an actor to fulfill a small role in a docudrama that her company was filming this weekend in Karachi, and was I interested filling this role. The part was of a rather unhelpful, staff member of the British High Commission (BHC) in Islamabad, who had been called to the Afghani border to help, a British Citizen, of Indian descendent, who had been arrested by the Pakistani authorities with an incorrect visa at the border and then charged with spying.

This is based on the true story of a British journalist, Amardeep Bassey who had travelled to Kabul after September 11th to look at the aftermath.

I decided that all this sounded like a fun, so on Sunday I went to meet some of the production team so that they check out my ‘physical appearance’ to see if I fitted the role. I passed this audition and was invited back to film the scene today. There was no dialogue to learn as we were improvising based on the actually events and so all I had to do was be disinterested and annoyed at being involved in this whole affair. In fact the man from the BHC informed Amardeep, that should he be convicted of the spying charge then he faced 15 years in jail, but at least someone from the BHC would visit him every 12 months to check on him!!

If anyone ever tells you that life on a film set is glamorous then they are wrong. We spent about 90 minutes shooting a scene that will probably last about 3-4 minutes on the screen. We shot the whole thing from 6 different angles, and between each shot my ‘sweat’ was topped up, from a spray bottle!!

It was great fun and Samina has taken my card and may call on me again in the future,

The production was actually being made for the National Geographic Channel and Channel 5, so I will be appearing on a screen near you (if you are resident in the UK) some time in the autumn. The Programme is called ‘Trouble in Paradise’ and this episode 8 ‘Afghanistan’ so watch out for it and let me know what you think.

I’m ready for my close up, Mr B. DeMille…

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley…

(with thanks to Robert Burns)

The scheduled move for this weekend has been temporarily put on hold. This is due to two reasons, the first being that my intended new home is no longer my new home. When Habib contacted the Landlady she had decided that she wanted to renegotiate terms and conditions!!! To which Habib told her that the time for negotiations was over and we were no longer interested in the accommodation.

Today we went to look at another property that was far better than the one we originally saw. This one is upstairs and has a balcony, which is shielded with a bamboo screen and has a covered area, where I can sit with out burning. It as has three bedrooms, all en suite, two of which have baths as well as showers! There is a large kitchen with space for the washing machine, and good sized living room and a dining area.

The other reason for not moving this weekend is that the chief mover and one of the school drivers, Zubair, is ill and won’t be back at work until next week. So, Inshallah, next Saturday I will be relocating to my new apartment.

I have also learnt some new Urdu words today, with regards to my impending move. My favourite one being the verb ‘to move house’ is ‘shift hona’ literally meaning ‘to be shifted’!! I suspect this is maybe a loan word from English…

Aslan is on the move...

Well actually it’s me that is on the move!

This is because I have to move house, not because I want too, but because my landlady’s son and family are returning to Pakistan from Canada.

So on Thursday and Friday I will be moving to a new house about 5 minutes drive from here. The best news is that Naseem, my wonderful cleaner, is coming with me. When Nadjma (the landlady) told Naseem that I was moving, and asked her what she would do, Naseem said she would have to come with me as I need looking after!! I am really pleased that Naseem is coming with me; she is very good at her job and is very, very reliable.

The house is slightly bigger than this one and on the ground floor, which means I get a small garden as well. Thankfully, the chowkidar will be in charge of looking after the garden as grass and plants are completely beyond me!

The move is giving me mixed feelings, I have actually become very attached to my apartment here, even though I have only been here 8 months, and I really don’t want to move, but I don’t have a choice so I am going to make the best of it. I am sure that once I am in I will soon settle in and it will feel like home as well.

I asked Habib (School administrator) on Friday, what I needed to do regarding the move and he said ‘Just tell people what needs moving and where it needs to go’! So it looks like I have been nominated as Supervisor, I think I can manage that role!!

The temperature here is going up again. This weekend it has been about 43 degrees Celsius, according to Lubna, and is due to get warmer still. I hear that things have started to get warmer in the UK ready for my arrival, which is great news. I just have to make sure that I don’t melt before I get on the plane…

Tempus fugit...

Time really is fleeing here.

I have collected my ticket for my trip to the UK and I am now booked on the 03.40 Qatar Flight from Karachi to Manchester on 21st June, which is just over 9 weeks away!! I have decided to treat myself on this flight as it totals around 10 hours so I am flying Business Class for the first time.

Now when my beloved godson reads this he will be saying, ‘yeah but what about when you took my business class ticket from Rekjavik to New York’. Now there is a story here which I feel needs to be told from my side before Thomas, twists it to his own ends!!

When Thomas was 18 we went to New York for a long weekend to celebrate. This involved us flying via Iceland (the tickets were cheaper) and this gave us the chance to spend one night in this fascinating and beautiful country. We even had chance to swim and bathe in the Blue Lagoon, which is a thermal spring. This was one of the most amazing places I have ever been and totally relaxing.

Now for reasons to boring to go into we were late in arriving at the airport for our flight onto New York. The result being that the flight was overbooked and we were told that we won’t get seats until they could unload two passengers. We were even offered a very generous incentive to stay another night in Iceland, which we would have taken if we hadn’t had tickets booked for the Lion King on Broadway.

This state of affairs ‘slightly’ stressed me out and I had visions that the whole weekend going ‘pear shaped’! When we were finally were given tickets one was in row 4 and one in row 7. Now on the way up from London the seats on Icelandair were somewhat narrow, and me being not so narrow, the journey had been rather uncomfortable. I worked out that the seat in role 4 would be in business class and hence would have wider seats, so I pulled the seniority card and claimed that seat, even though technically the boarding card did have Thomas’ name on it! So now when he tells the story it begins with the statement, ‘Oh, yes that was the time Michael stole my Business Class seat.’!!

Well this time the seat is definitely mine and as school was paying some of the costs I decided that the upgrade was a treat I wanted to give myself.

The last week or so has been very hectic, and I have found myself feeling quite tired. We are currently working on staffing for next year and in an ideal world we are looking to recruit two new members of staff. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and Pakistan is, for some reason I don’t understand, not a first choice destination for teachers!! So, if anyone out there is looking for a teaching post, and fancies a couple of years in this fantastic and wonderful city, get in touch and I will give you more details.

Outside of school it has been a quiet few days, I have got home from school and not really had the energy or inclination; unfortunately, this has left me floundering about 4 miles of the coast of Dover!! I do however, intend to keep going with my ‘cross channel swim’ and complete it before I leave for my summer break.

Just a word on the summer, could someone please ensure that the temperature is turned up in the UK before I arrive?!?! I have just spoken to my mother and she tells me that last night when my step father was taking my aunt and uncle to Manchester airport it was snowing!! It is now in the early 30’s here and the AC is running, by the time I leave it could be knocking on 40 degrees, and I fear that my blood has thinned out, so if some could arrange for a warmer summer I would be very grateful…

Where the grass is greener...

Today’s title comes from an article in the Economist, which was published Aug 22nd 2007, but only came to my notice this week, it is reproduced below:


‘With low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, Canada and Australia are home to the most liveable destinations in the world. Four of the ten most liveable cities surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit are in Australia, and two of the top five are Canadian. Vancouver is the most attractive destination, with a liveability index of just 1.3%.

(Click on the image to read)


While liveability considers factors of recreational and cultural activity, the "big city buzz" can hamper the scores of some cities, although not to the extent that a city will present significant challenges. Global centres such as New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong and Paris may find themselves let down precisely because of their size and attractiveness. Traffic congestion and higher crime rates associated with large urban centres have, to some extent, offset the obvious cultural gains of living in such locations. This has also been compounded by fears that large centres like London and New York will remain targets for high-profile terror attacks. Despite this, most major centres do not present any significant challenges to liveability.


Of the 132 cities surveyed, only nine cities present the worst-case scenario in which most aspects of living quality are severely restricted, reflecting general improvements on a global scale in areas such as education, health care and infrastructure. Four of these are in Asia, mainly South Asia. The other five are in Africa (accounting for three) and the Middle East (accounting for two).


The threat of terrorism and civil unrest is a major contributing factor to the cities that suffer from the worst liveability scores, as are poor development indicators. Algiers is the least liveable destination in the survey, with a score of 64.7%.’


So according to the article Karachi is the fourth worst place in the world to live. Both Thomas and I read the article and have to disagree! And Thomas’ first comment about the top ten places was, ‘Yeah, but they are all so boring!!’ and that is not an adjective you could ever use about life in Karachi!


Yes there are headaches about living here, for example I am typing this during a power cut, something that happens on nearly a daily basis here, and means that at the moment I have no AC or fan so the temperature in the apartment is going up.


There are also other things, like the driving and rubbish on the streets, the threat of terrorism, etc. But I am sure that I am much happier living in Karachi than I would be in sterile, save and sanitised Vancouver!! It is also a darn sight cheaper to live here as well, I am already bracing myself for the cost rises when I return to the UK in 11 weeks, I can hear myself saying ‘How Much?? I’m not paying that!!’ and ‘Do you know what that costs in Karachi!’


Today was another first for me as I have driven to and from the airport to drop Thomas off. Previously, I have always had a driver but as we had to be there at 9.15 this morning I thought I could manage that on my own and as I am now back and Thomas, Emirates willing, should be heading down the runway, I think I have been successful.


It has been wonderful having Thomas here for the last two weeks, and I will miss him now he has gone. It’s been good to talk, see new things together, play endless games of Cribbage, at which we are fairly evenly matched, to be able to polish of a large bottle of Bailey’s between us and just to have him around. I know I have told you all this before but it bears repeating, I am inordinately proud of my godson and thankfully to him and to God that he is a part of my life, I don’t know what I would do without him.


He has a hectic few weeks ahead as he arrives in Cairo tonight, then leaves again on Tuesday for Tucson in Arizonia to visit his girlfriend, Andrea. This involves a 12 hour flight to New York and then a four hour flight to Phoenix and then a 2 hour car ride to Tucson, oh young love!!! Then two weeks later the whole thing in reverse.


After that he has a month left in Egypt then back to the UK and then off to Spain for an 8 week placement before returning to Manchester University in October for his final year. Oh to be young again!


One thing I have enjoyed about Thomas being here is having the linguistic upper hand for the first time ever. In the past he has always been the one who has know what is going on and I have stood there as ‘stupid Englishman’. Now I am not saying my Urdu is as good as his Arabic, Spanish, German or Portuguese, but there have been times over the last two weeks when I have know what is going on and he hasn’t, or I have been able to say something to someone else and then Thomas has had to ask for translation.


It’s these little things in life that keep me going…

Homeward bound...

I am writing this courtesy of the free internet connection provided at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore.

After 3 fun packed days here in Lahore, Thomas and I are off back to Karachi. Our time here has been just the right balance between sight seeing and relaxing.

Yesterday we took in the Shalimar Gardens, Lahore Museum and The Heritage Museum. The gardens are amazing. They were built by Shah Jehan in 1644/5, just about the time the English were engaged in the Civil War. They were created as an retreat for the Royal Family away from the heat of the Lahore Fort. The image to the right is on the second of the three terraces and is were the dancing girls would have performed for the Royal Couple.

The museums, well I am sure someone finds them interesting, unfortunately, I have a very low boredom threshold in places like this and I was ready for going after about room three and there was still another 11 rooms to go!

In the afternoon we headed off to the Closing ceremony at the Wagha border. It is very difficult to describe just how much fun this ceremony is. There are soliders on both sides of the border, literally 'dancing' through the ceremony, postering and 'intimidating' the soliders on the other side. This is all done in good part and they do exchange handshakes are various points. I have managed to get this on video and after editing I will avail myself of the technical support of my godson to upload said video for you all to enjoy.

Last evening we went to Cooco's Den a resturant in the former home of Iqbal Hussain a noted Lahori artist, renown for his painting of prostitutes. This is right next to the Badshahi Mosque which is lit up at night and looks amazing. We were actually treated to dinner by parents of one of my students, whom we ran into at Wagha! I do love the fact that I have been here long enough now to run into people I know out and about.

After a morning in the hotel and a swim in the pool we were taken to the Museum of Puppetry. Now given what I have already said about Museums and also the fact that puppets 'creep me out' theh 20 minutes we spent there were 20 minutes too much! It was only redemned by Peeru's Cafe next door which served us with an excellent lunch!

Also it has dawned on me that 12 weeks from now I will be in the air, Inshallah, on my way to the UK for my summer programme of events which is shaping up nicely at the moment. I can't believe I have been here for 8 months, it feels like I have always been here and at the same time that I only arrived yesterday!

Well, the weekend approaches and I have several things to do, I have a sermon to write, Urdu homework to do, an Urdu lesson booked for Saturday morning, two services to preach at on Sunday(thankfully I can use the same sermon) and lessons to get ready for Monday.

There is all this, as well as further entertaining Thomas with meals and retail therapy and keeping on track with my Cross channel swim. I am currently 3 miles of the coast of Dover with just another 18 miles to go...