Travelling in style...

I am typing this from the Business Lounge, Terminal 3 of Abu Dhabi airport. I left my apartment just under 7 hours ago and I have about another 12 hours before I arrive at my holiday apartment, a compact and bijou place, above the Music Box in Hyde! My accomodation is courtesy of my wonderful friends Bill and Gwen, who are not only providing me with a home this year, they have also managed to supply a car. I am really blessedand very fortunate to have friends and family that are so supportive and look after me so well.

I have written about Business Class before, but I never get bored of enjoying it. The flight from Karachi was only a couple of hours and the plane was quite small, but still I get excited about reall glasses, steel cutlery and china plates!

The aircraft on the next leg will be much bigger and I am hoping this is the one witht he full length beds, that way I can have a proper nap and arrived all refreshed, to be picked up by my courtsey car.

I have quite a packed schedule over the next 9 weeks, next week for instance I will be sleeping in Hyde, Great Houghton, Darlington and a little place just outside Doncaster, whose name escapes me. I will be catching up with Dave and Jayne, Meg, James and Neil and Catherine, I have a meeting in Durham and tickets to see Evita in Newcastle and that's all before the 6th July!

I also have lots of other things planned but more of that later. I had better go as all the complimentary water I am drinking to keep me hydrated, is now in search of a new home...

It's raining...

It’s raining…

It may seem strange to get exciting about rain, but you see after over 30 years of living in Manchester, where rain is an almost daily occurrence, regardless of the time of year, I do miss the rain. So, when it started raining yesterday I was so excited I actually called my mum to tell her!

However, it’s not all good news; a side effect of rain in Karachi is that the power has gone off. This is something that happens quite regularly here, for two reasons, one, water gets into the system and shorts it out, the other is that KESC switch off the power to stop it shorting out when water gets into the system!!

It was really great this morning not to hear my alarm go off, it didn’t mean that I slept through, but I did get a lie in. Last night was the ‘staff do’ at Lal Qila (Red Fort) which was good fun, with great food.

We had a very busy, but productive last week in school and we managed to get everything done that needed to be done and had an excellent assembly including the final of Frantic Formulae. For the uninitiated, Frantic Formulae is a list of chemical compounds and, against the clock; the students have 2 minutes to convert as many of the names into formulae as the can. The correct answers are then called out, and as the students make an error, they sit down and last person standing is the winner.

Another side effect of the rain was that when I attempted to start the car nothing happened. This required Haider (my latest chowkidar) and a couple of the neighbours managed to bump start me so that I could make my way to Clippers for my end of term beautification. As ever Mavis was great and my head and shoulders massage after my haircut and shave, for the first time involved machines!

I now have 12 hours before Zubair arrives to take me to the airport and I begin my journey to Hyde. I should arrive there about 5pm BST on Saturday. As ever, the thought of packing and travelling fills me with dread, but it is a necessary evil until somebody gets on and invents the Transporter!

I still find it hard to believe that I have been in Karachi for nearly two years, it seems like only a few weeks ago and at eh same time like I have never lived anywhere else.

I have lots planned for the next 9 weeks and, Inshallah, my next post will be from Hyde, wonder if it’s raining yet…

Darkness like a shroud, covered the earth...

Well not quite the whole earth, but most of the Province of Sindh!

At 7pm last night the power went off. Not an usually event in this city. Usually, the power cut lasts about an hour, so about 8pm I was expecting it to come back. However, 8pm cam and went, as did 9pm. At 10pm I went to bed with the generator still running. By 3.30am the petrol ran out, and so I switched to UPS.

The alarm went of as normal at 6.15am and still there was no power. So I toddled off to school, to find that the power cut wasn't local but actually effecting the whole Province. This means that between 20 and 30 million people were without mains electricity for over 12 hours!

Thankfully, the power started to return about 9am and now most of the Province is once again flowing with power!

An interesting note... When I looked on the BBC Website a few minutes ago for a report on the incident I drew a blank. Obviously, the BBC were unable to work in the phrase 'nuclear armed Pakistan' into the report, and hence decided to can it...

Just when you think you've seen it all...

Now it was my turn to preach again this morning, and so I departed my home at 7.45 am and headed for the cathedral. As in previous weeks it was ecclesiastical happy families at the first service, with three clerics and me, to take the service and only three members of the congregation for most of the service.

Then in the time between services Rev Frederick told me that the pianist wasn't going to be there. So our hope for music lay with Kate, one of the parents from school, who also plays in church. So I nipped out of the vestry to see if she had arrived and met her husband, Jeremy and two of their three children coming into church. Unfortunately, their youngest daughter was ill and Kate had stayed at home with her!

When I relayed this information back to the vestry, Rev Frederick was unpertubed and merely informed me that I had been promoted to the role of cantor. If you don't know what a cantor does, his role is to lead the singing!!

Now there may be some of my readers out there, who have never had the chance to stand next to me in church. Believe me, you have missed nothing!! I have many strengths, my good looks, charm and personality! However, I wasn't blessed with the best singing voice in the world but being the trooper that I am I just went for it, and we managed.

The last couple of weeks have been a seemingly endless round of reports and exams which has meant some very long days at school. I am getting really quite tired now and am looking forward to getting on the plane in 13 days time and head for my holiday in the UK.

That being said, my nine weeks away from Karachi, won't all be spent in the UK. In the midst of all the school work I have managed to book a week in Prague in August, which will be my first visit to the Czech Republic. I have heard many great things about the city and I am looking forward to the break and a chance for a holiday.

I have a couple of SU holidays planned for my time in the UK and a trip to Belfast. I also have to move my boxes out of Dave and Jayne's loft as they are going in for a loft conversion. This will give me the chance to go through my stuff one again and I will probably end up reducing it once more and moving it Darlington, to live in Meg's garage.

I will also need to stock up on something I can only get in the UK, like Seabrook salt and vinegar crisps for Tamkeen, and more Angel Delight for me, which reminds me, there is one in the fridge waiting for me at the moment...