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...

On tour, again...

After a couple of very leisurely days in Karachi, Thomas and I headed for the airport at 6.30am this morning to fly to Lahore. I am currently writing this from the business centre of the Pearl Continental, after spending the day going round the Badshani Mosque, Lahore Fort, and the Old City. We have just swum in the hotel pool and will go from here to our 'exquisitly appointed room' (and I'm quote from the hotel brochure) for a shower and a round of Cribbage, before sampling the delights of the Dum Phukht, Moghul restuarant.

Tomorrow we are off to the Shalimar Gardens and then to watch the border closing ceremony at Wagha, with all its pomp, circumstance and silliness!

The more observant of you will realise that this is a repeat trip for me, as I made it in October with a certain Mr Frost (currently suffering the hardships of round the world travel, and at this moment laguishing somewhere in New Zealand!! I know the 10th Commandment doesn't explictly mention, 'your neighbour's 'round the world trip' ', being more concerned with asses and maidservants, but I feel the principle is there, I am however, finding it very difficult not to be covetess!! More details can be found on andysgapyear.blogspot.com).

Thomas and I had intended to go through Wagha to Amritzar in India and watch the closing ceremony from the other side. Unfortunately, there were problems gaining the necessary visas and so we decided that it would be better to travel to Lahore instead.

Yesterday, was one of complete indulgence. After rising late, we had a breakfast in Espresso, which is a very small chain (3 branches, all in Karachi) of coffee shops. From here we went to the kaprawala (cloth merchant) Moosajees. Now if you are picturing a little stall in some crowded back street, you obviously don't know me very well! Mosajees is 5, air conditioned floors of the finest cloth in the world. We went there to select material to make kurti and shirts for Thomas and kurti for myself. We ended up select enough material for 7 garments and with stiching this will come to the princely sum of 40 GBP! Not bad for made to measure clothing!

After this we headed to Clippers, for a haircut, head and shoulder massage and facial (told you were were being indulgent). The funniest part of this was, on the way there, when Thomas' girlfriend, Andrea called from Tuscon, Arizona, and was heard to cheer when she found out that he was getting his hair cut!! Apparently, she doesn't go for the scruffy look!

We returned to my aparment and after my Urdu lesson it was of to the Avari for some more swimming, and then showered and changed we were off to Lubna and Faizal's for dinner and some lively banter. Lubna accused me of not being adventurous enough in my travels (she spent the Christmas holidays trekking in Peru with her sister). She was trying to oconvince me that I should go up the Karakhoram HIghway, but every tale she told just convinced that it was not my cup of tea. The last part about the landslide with rocks the size of a room and trekking, in the dark, along a river path, really sealed it's fate!! As you are aware dear reader, I need aflushing toilet!

Well, Thomas has sat patiently, whilst I type this and he now wishes to update his blog, so I will post this and let him get on with it...

The Lord is Risen...

He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy Easter.

The day dawned bright and sunny here in Karachi, with temperature climbing to about 32 degrees Celsius by lunchtime. I hear that snow is on the cards for much of the UK, thankfully no chance of that here!

Thomas and I went to church this morning and from there moved on to the Avari where we spent a very pleasant couple of hours by and in the pool, where I manage to move a mile closer to France by swimming 90 lengths of the pool.

After this we adjourned to the Marriott Hotel for their Sunday Brunch, which was as ever delicious. The only slightly worrying thing being that the Maitre de recognized me, so does that mean that I have been there too many times, or maybe it’s a case of, ‘once seen never forgotten’…

Home Sweet Home...

I am safely back at home after, a week on tour in Egypt with 37 students of the British Overseas School, and we had a fantastic, if exhausting time!

We left Karachi on 14th March and flew via Dubai to Cairo, where we transferred to the Pyramisa hotel and met up with Thomas, and I was able to wish him a happy 21st birthday. Everybody went to their rooms and Thomas and I were able to get showered and changed and I was relieved of my responsibilities and we went out for dinner in nice little Italian restaurant and then back to the room for the first half of a Scrabble game.

Saturday we were up bright and early for a tour of the Pyramids and Sphinx, and it was great to see the excitement on some of the kids faces when they saw the Pyramids for the first time. One thing, out of many, that I love about our kids is their innocence when compared to kids of the same age in the UK. It’s great to be with young people who are not ‘mini-adults’ or ‘adult wannabees’ but are enjoying their childhood, it is very refreshing.

We remained in Cairo until the early hours of Monday morning, Thomas having left us on Sunday afternoon to return to Alex where he had a week of exams to look forward to, when we went to the airport to fly down to Luxor. It has to be said that Cairo airport at 4 am is one of the maddest place on earth, and it cam as no surprise that 7 of our bags did not reach Luxor with us!! Thankfully, six of them arrived on the following flight; unfortunately, Tariq’s did not and so far has not been seen again! He handling the whole thing very stoically and borrowed clothes from the rest of group, and when no swimming shorts could be found for him he merely went in, in his trousers and then lay in the sun to dry out!!

Tuesday morning required some of us to rise again at 4.15 am as we were booked in for a balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings and other antiquities. As some will already know this was a repeat performance as Will and I had done this back in 2003 on my birthday, but I can tell you it was just as breath taking the second time. At one moment we were nearly 2500 feet in the air and then the pilot brought us down so low that we were skimming the tops of the sugar cane, absolutely amazing, and I was sharing my part of the basket with a lady form Ilkley Moor, who will be 70 next birthday, proving you are never too old for a new experience.

After breakfast we went and looked round Luxor and Karnak Temples in record times, Joseph our guide, who was superb, commented that he had never been round the Temples in such a short time! We had done it so quickly that we were too early for lunch so Joseph suggested that we went to one of the Perfume shops in Luxor and gave the kids a 30 minute limit. An hour and half later, they emerged smelling sweetly and laden down with purchases! After lunch we drove for 4 hours to Hurgahda by the Red Sea and enjoyed a day of relaxing by the pool in the hot sun.

Thursday saw us rise at 6 am to start our journey home! We drove for 6 hours to reach Cairo, where the kids were fed at, as Yayha calls it, ‘M. C. Donalds’, this being by far the meal of the week according to the kids! We then went to airport and boarded a flight to Dubai arriving there at 12.30 am, with our flight tot Karachi departing at 8 am!! Dubai Airport is one big shopping mall with far too few seats, making sure that the most people possibly are wandering around the shops! Many of our kids had saved their pocket money or brought extra so they could shop here as they consider that the shopping here in Karachi is ‘rubbish’! And even though many of them had been looking forward to this, by about 6am several were heard to say ‘I hate Dubai Airport’!!

We final arrived back at school at 1pm PST which meant we had been up for 28 hours, and were a little on the tired side!!

I had hoped to make it to church for our Good Friday service but I got home and realized that I would have to shower and then drive and then sit for an hour and I am afraid that the ‘spirit was willing but the flesh was weak’! In the end I fell asleep instead and then woke about 8pm stayed awake until midnight and then went to sleep again and slept through until 8am this morning.

I was then back to the airport again at 11am to meet Thomas who had followed the same route as us, though he started in Alex. He arrived safely with all his baggage and a large bottle of Baileys!

We have been shopping and I have given him the edited highlights tour of Karachi and we are about to get changed for dinner and head out to BBQ Tonight to allow Thomas his first proper taste of curry in six months, sadly, Egyptians are not renowned for their culinary expertise.

Thomas is here until 5th April and we have several things planned include Easter Day Service at the Cathedral, a day at the beach, three days in Lahore and generally enjoying the wonders of Karachi, but more of that later as there is a vegetable kebab calling my name…

I'm in a reflective mood...

I rose just after 7.30am, checked my e mails and Facebook, replied to a couple and had a bowl of Weetabix. I dressed and departed for church, we have reached the Fifth Sunday in Lent and we were looking at Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones this morning.

After church I went to the Avari Hotel to join their health club, Olympia. I then availed myself of the facilities and spent a very pleasant time swimming in their open air pool, managing to swim half a mile, I then adjourned to the Jacuzzi.

From there, I visited the greengrocers and the Bread People and headed off home. I settled down to a brunch of warm croissants, freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh coffee and began the Saturday Telegraph General Knowledge Crossword (provided as ever by David and Katey via email from Belfast!), with an episode of Star Trek Voyager on the DVD.

Before settling down to brunch I started preparing dinner, by placing two pieces of fresh tuna in a marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, spring onion and fresh coriander. Later, this will be seared in a hot frying pan before being served with a homemade mushroom risotto containing both button and oyster mushrooms.

Now those wondering about my health and weight will be pleased to hear that I have lost half a stone since my TIA four weeks ago, and now I will be exercising regularly I hope that this will continue and even speed up a little.

Exercise wise I have set my self the target of swimming the Channel before I leave for the UK on 21st June! This of course will be done in stages and in the heated pool of the Avari rather than the cold waters of the actual English Channel. It means that I have to swim 1344 lengths or 21 miles in the next 14 weeks, approximately 96 lengths a week, I have already done 32 lengths today, but will have to get a ahead a little as I will be away next week in Egypt so may not get chance to get all the necessary lengths done.

I am now sat (in just my underwear, sorry if anyone is eating whilst reading this) with the ceiling fan turning and window open as the sun sets over the houses opposite content with myself and my life here.

Like Edith Piaf, ‘J’ne regrette rien’ about my life up to leaving the UK last August. I enjoyed much of my time in Stalybridge and my teaching career at Trinity. Equally, I am glad that I moved to Barnsley and ‘tested my vocation’ for Priesthood in the Church of England, if for no other reason I can answer the question, ‘Why are you in Karachi/Pakistan?’ with the response ‘because I didn’t want to be a Vicar in the Church of England’!

I am thankful to God for bringing me to this point and also to all of you reading this, that made the move possible. As John Donne said’ No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ Being here, apparently alone, I am very conscious that I am indeed part of a continent of friends and family that are supporting me with their love, prayers and practical encouragements, emails, text messages, looking after my finances, looking after my car, leaving comments on here and Facebook, etc. I am really grateful to all of you for your support.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers…your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you have refreshed the heart of this saint. Philemon vv 4 & 7 (with slight editing by me).

Well the tuna should be well marinated by now, so my culinary adventures are about to begin in the kitchen. Also the power has not yet been off today which means I probably have that to look forward to, probably just as I have finished preparing the ingredients, but then again T.I.P. (This Is Pakistan) and I love it with all its imperfections…

The curtain falls...

Well it does in a metaphorically way, as the curtain on our stage only moves with difficult, so the end of the play was marked by an immediate blackout.

I am pleased to report that all three performances went extremely well. The performances weren’t flawless, but they were very, very good, and extremely proud of each and everyone of the cast and crew, they have all worked extremely hard and reaped the rewards during and after the performances.

The Dress Rehearsal performance on Tuesday was well received by Years 3-6 (7-11 year olds), who despite their age really got into the plot and were keen to discuss the plot twists and turns during the two intervals. I also received a deputation of 7 year old Theatre Critics with their reviews this morning which were very well written and quite insightful.

The performance on Thursday was recorded and hopefully copies will be available soon and I will try and add some clips when I can. Dawn News was also there on Thursday night which resulted in a 4 minute report on the Dawn News channel during their News Hour shows.

The Friday night was there best performance ever and it played to capacity crowd, with some overflow seating and many people unable to get tickets.

After the performance some of the staff went to Pompeii for dinner, only to find some of the cast at the next table!! We retired to the garden tables which at least put a window between us and them. The meal was delicious with me partaking in the Stuffed Mushrooms followed by the King Prawns with lemon risotto, by which time I was not in need of dessert!

Today, Lubna and I took the cast out for lunch at Café Flo, which is part of Alliance Francais and we had a lovely time and enjoyed another delicious meal, this time I had the Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce and Baked potato, I followed this with the Crème Brulee which is (in the words of Mrs Guthrie!) ‘to die for’! The last four months have been a lot of hard work but I glad we did it. I can see a change in each of the students who took part, and they a buzzing with it all. They are all busy discussing what they would like to do next year, which currently range from Dracula to Alice in Bollywood!

Tuesday was also the Primary School Sports Day which went of very well, my favourite race was the Year 1 ‘running and putting your clothes on race’, where the 5 year olds had to run and at various points put on various items of clothes. The little boy who came in last showed true perseverance, despite getting completely lost in his father’s T shirt he kept going until he crossed the finishing line. The other race I observed was the ‘Dad’s race’, which continued to prove my hypothesis that men are the same the world over. 15 or so dads lined up for the 40 yard dash, and immediately some started limber up and look like they were getting ready for the marathon. The starting signal was given and off the went, unfortunately, some had not allowed for the fact there was a 12 foot wall at the race and so several of then need to ‘bounce’ of it to stop themselves!

The other event this week was my diving expedition. This went very well, and I had no problems ‘clearing my ears’ on the first dive, though I did have some problem when I tried to dive again and so gave up and returned to the boat. I then attempted to get back in the boat… I attempted to use the ladder, this was not the way… we then attempted to drag and push me into the boat, this meant that at one point both my feet and both my hands were in the boat though the rest of me was still in the sea and Stewart was attempting to push me up! This resulted in the comment from him along the lines of ‘I now feel strangely soiled’ and an agreement that we would never discuss this moment again!!

Finally, I replaced my fins and with the extra propulsion was able to make it easily into the boat, much to my relief as the alternative was hanging onto the back of the boat and being towed for 45 minutes back to the beach, of course if we had done this we would, at least have won the prize for the biggest catch of the day…

There's a glimmer of light...

I have just got back from school after a day of rehearsals for ‘An Inspector Calls’. We have the dress rehearsal in front of Years 3-6 on Tuesday and then the actual performances on Thursday and Friday. I finally feel that we might just pull it off! The performances today weren’t perfect but they weren’t disastrous either. The performances are being videoed and there will be lots of photos, which I will try to post for you all to see.

I am actually very tired at the moment, as for only the second time since January 7th we actually completed a full week in school. With all the elections, assassinations, and other religious holidays we have had a very disrupted term. We now have two weeks left before we finish for Easter which is also the time we leave for Egypt, which is all sorted. The kids have had their vaccinations, all the passports have been checked, and so it’s full steam ahead for the trip.

Tomorrow, Stewart and I are off diving again, which will hopefully complete our PADI Open Water diving qualification that we started before Christmas. I hope I can remember the order I have to put on the equipment, and that I don’t have any problems clearing my ears this time.

I am also getting just a little frustrated with our Exam Board! As this is a public domain I won’t name them but I have to say they take incompetence to unheard of levels!! Their website contains all sorts of broken links and lacks any sort of useful information! My latest problem is my GCSE entries for Maths, as none of the codes the board provides actually generate an entry when used on their computer system!

Well the washing machine has just finished so I had better be about my household chores, as you know dear reader, I’m a slave to the housework…