China in your hand!

Two tumultuous weeks and here I am sitting here on my Cyprus patio watching the sun come up. The early morning goats have passed by on their way to find low lying and cool pasture. They wear those tin bells around their necks, so you know when they are on their way over. The sound makes me feel like I am in a re-play of the story of Heidi.
Long, tumultuous weeks! Getting from Abu Dhabi centre to this little island was challenging to say the least. Despite the fact that we had already sent a mountain of stuff on with a shipping company, we still had a great deal of stuff to sort and discard or pack up and take on our travels with us. We paid for extra baggage. The greatest amount that the airline would accept. We were still over. Well over! Furthermore, we had left so many little bits at the hotel.-Our thinking had been that perhaps house cleaning staff could make use of most of the things. Looking back though, I'm not sure that the hotel manager shared that view. I have guilt issues around leaving the stuff in our room. It's not that we left it untidy. It's not that we had not organised it well, so that it would be easy to take away and dispose of. With hindsight, it was leaving it at all, for someone else to throw away. Ah well. I cannot undo that now, nor could I have done differently by the time our departure became imminent.
So we found ourselves on the road to Dubai Airport with so much baggage that we were each of us privately stressing about whether or not we would get it all on the plane!
Dubai Airport is such a big place, but we were travelling on one of those cut-price airlines, Pegasus. It's the Ryan Air of Turkey. Actually, it's no where near Ryan Air. We'd travelled on Pegasus before, when they had first started out and again on our return flight from Istanbul to Turkey last autumn. The first encounter was a great surprise. I think the airline was eager to make a name for itself. We found things more than comfortable and the baggage allowance quite generous. This time, with lots of bags to juggle, the attendant who booked us in, was very helpful and with her advice, we managed to configure the baggage so that we could indeed take it all without incurring heavy financial penalty.  She made sure that we both got our favoured seating too. All in all a favourable start. Handing the car into the hire company was pretty painless, but the temperature was high, the terminal had very little seating and we had arrived too early to check in right away, so before meeting the helpful airline staff, we had to find somewhere comfortable to await the opening of the check-in desk.
I'm often thankful for Tom's forward thinking. He's brought cushions for the flight and while they had made the juggling of parcels more tricky, they cam in handy when we were faced with the choice of standing for a number of hours, or using them to make improvised seating on the floor.
We had a lovely Terminal-nic, right there on our cushions and settled down to wait.
Queuing for the check-in was frustrating: we're British; we tend to do that sort of thing in a very orderly manner! Other people don't seem to attach the same importance to waiting their turn. I find this especially frustrating and poor Tom has to smooth things over when I decide to chew people up for pushing in. He's long suffering and patient that man of mine!
We got through the ordeal though, and finally boarded the plane. No meals with this airline, unless you order them. I always find that travelling and eating don't necessarily mix and airline food doesn't appeal anyway, so that wasn't a problem. No film was more of an upset. Note to self, when travelling on cut price airlines, medium haul, make sure your i pod and earphones are handy! The seats were very close together. I'm 5'2", so most airline seating is plenty roomy for me and my little leggies! Even I was space challenged on this flight. I expect that many of the passengers were not comfortable and I noticed one expectant Mum was looking very uncomfortable indeed by the end of it.
Istanbul SabGor. has always struck me as a very calm and much less busy place than Ataturk. I was not impressed this visit. It was busy, seating is limited and there are none of those small luggage trolleys that make life bearable as you move around a large open space.

Ticket to Ride

I am currently at my daughter's place in Manchester. There's always transport to get to the places I want to get to, but I hate to be a burden on two girls who work their socks off all day everyday, nor do I like to drag my husband off to places he'd not choose to go or at times he'd choose to do something else. In short I like to be independent. Accordingly, yesterday I decided that I'd choose to use the tram and bus system to visit my mother.
My timing cannot be judged to be the best-it was one of the coldest Saturdays of the year and I had forgotten just how biting that Pennine wind could be! Add to that the dreadful situation re public toilets in the stations in Manchester City Centre; I found that I needed 30 pence to use them. All I had was my card and a 50 pound note! Boxing clever, or so I thought, I visited Starbucks. Starbucks have no bathroom! I was going to buy a coffee but with 50 pounds felt I needed to order more than a flat white. One flat white, one sausage sandwich, a small yogurt thing and a piece of carrot cake to take to Mum: 15pounds + (I swear I am going to stop using Costa and Starbucks).
 I get my stuff, enjoy a very nice cup of coffee and a tasty sausage sandwich, along with the healthy yogurt pot and then I make my way to the loos. Still unable to use them due to the fact that I did not have the right change! No one around to help or advise. That was when I noticed the disabled loo in the corner. I decided to use that but boy did I regret the impulse. I won't shock you with the details. Suffice it to say I will carry disinfectant wipes with me at all times in the future!
 That was the downside of the public transport system, as I saw it. However, overall, I was hugely impressed by the tram, bus and rail facilities in my home . There is a very wide hub for quick and convenient travel in the Greater Manchester area and that means that I can be largely independent of my family for getting around.

Now is the time I get to do all those things I always wanted to do but never had the time for...explore my surroundings properly was one and renew my love of music and theatre was another. On Thursday of this week, I'm kick starting my new adventurous life with a visit to London. Christine will paint the fleshpots of the Metropolis a very rich crimson: I have three days and I intend them to be very full indeed. I will visit the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, West Minster Abbey and Temple Church and I will also visit the Royal Albert Hall to hear the British Phil perform Handel's Messiah and all without having to modify my plan because I have a bored companion. Perfick #Culture overload. 
 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

they speak Turkish!

For at least 12 of the last 14 years, it has been our intention to spend most of the time we have in North Cyprus. We are now 2weeks away from that reality, exactly; but getting there has been a novel's worth of stress and tension, I can tell you!

The truth is that living and working abroad is a double edged sword. The life of an expat in the UAE is one of privilege; even as my husband and I have lived it. Many of our colleagues and acquaintances from the West, spend most weekends away from their place of work. They frequent luxury hotels and enjoy the nightlife of the big cities. They may still be within the confines of the Emirates or they may have gone further astray. However, wherever they wonder, there is no getting away from the luxury demanded and received throughout the hospitality industry. With beautiful and beguiling places and sights to see, and amazing experiences to be had, we Western expats living in the UAE have certainly been spoilt for choice when it comes to down time!

Tom and I have much preferred to live the quiet life through the weekends and holidays. I actually hate the Malls which are the frequent daily respite of those who live in or vacation in the big cities. Yet, Abu Dhabi and Dubai could make a shopper of anyone, even a shoppa-phobe like myself: having been known for the mantra: 'I'd rather clean my cooker than shop,' still on a recent visit to Al Ain, I found myself examining a set of ceramic pans that looked and felt inviting and I also found myself perusing the jewellery shops. All this from a woman who had, at the time, 3 fully kitted out kitchens, one in the UK, one in Cyprus and the other in Al Mirfa! Furthermore, I have never been a great one for jewellery, preferring to wear ear studs on special occasions; my wedding ring, because not to means: '... you are not married anymore, Mum'; and finally a very petite, very plain but much liked watch!
We have been in the habit of spending our weekends by the local pool, or in the sea and rounding off the visit with a self prepared picnic. Even this, though, is luxury when you are not used to the kind of weather to facilitate the habit. I do love the outdoor life that is on offer here, while the occasional stay-cation  in one of the many sumptuous hotels in one Emirate or another definitely defines privilege in my lexicon.
While I have been here, six very happy and fleeting years, the way I have been pampered by service staff has been greatly appreciated. The Filipino workers here, really know how to make a client feel special. Throughout the six years, I have had a British trained Filipina hairdresser. A visit to see Alexa always made me feel special and well presented. While at the salon, I was  the beautician, who would keep the brows and nails looking tiptop! I should give a shout, too, to the lady who shampooed me. She developed the habit of giving me a lovely head massage. She had magic hands, making that, for me, the best part of the visit.
These things taken altogether have meant that my life over the last six years has been a darn sight more than pleasant; it's been idyllic.
So what then has been the flip-side? 
Sometimes, often actually, it was the way that people have been treated on the basis of their nationality. Often, depressingly frequently really, it was the whimsical decisions and changes that have made doing my job almost impossible. It has been the need to work around minor bureaucrats who have done their best to prevent the new ideas and methods that the Western Expats had been brought over to action.
So it is with some relief and excitement I will finally be able to give up teaching and go off over the rainbow to sample that quiet life of contentment in Cyprus.

Are we there yet?

I haven't blogged in such a long time! I love playing about with words; I love arranging them on the page to make them convey the meaning that I want them to convey; I like using other people's words and phrases to mirror my own thoughts; but I am not at all constant. I guess that it's bad to be inconstant. It's the Gemini in me I suppose. I can be distracted very easily. I get engrossed in things very quickly, then I find that my normal routine slips.
In fact, I have never had a normal routine, routine is something that has been hard won through work.-I teach and routine is a teacher's life blood! However, the big R is looming. Just four weeks away, as a matter of fact. Four weeks from tomorrow I will no longer teach. What will that be about?

So the plan is to blog, travel, take up my musical life again, become a foodie, chill, travel, chill, maybe learn a language and blog some more! Oh and read and knit...I think I'm going to need a routine!

In four weeks, I will swap my Gulf-side, desert existence for a mountainside, maritime retreat! I will move to Cyprus where we have a little place by the sea. Hopefully it will be a base only, 'cos people, I am planning to travel. Before that little indulgence though, I must bring my teacher existence to a close. Four weeks. So much to do-finish marking and putting my current students' profiles together, pack up six years of my life and move on. So little time to do it all in. I suspect it will be the shortest of times; I suspect it will be the longest of times; I suspect that I will be loath to let go; I suspect that I will be impatient to get going! It will be bitter sweet, but I am tired and I am excited for the future and I cannot wait to get started.

Apropos of that, I have a long weekend to look forward to. I can dip my toe in the sea of retirement. For the next four days I can linger over the task of getting up, getting dressed and having breakfast. I can set my own schedule for the day and then can depart from it as and when I like. I can do culture, but only if the Abu Dhabi Louvre is fairly quiet this weekend. I can support my other half as he watches the footie. (Oh noooooooooo! It's World Cup time.) I can be late, I can be early, dress up or dress down as the fancy takes me.
Thank the Lord in heaven, we are, most certainly, nearly there!