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…’
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Friday, 20 June 2008
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…
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…
Thursday, 12 June 2008
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…
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…
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