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…
Friday, 17 October 2008
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
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…
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…
Friday, 3 October 2008
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...
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...
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