Waiting for Skopelos

Settling In

2011-09-04T14:55:00.002+04:00

During the last week Mrs Istanbilly and I have been settling into our new place - an ideal time to move as we were both off work for a week for Bayram (the rest of the world normally calls this Eid - I don't know why the Turkish should be different but...). Anyway, the move went well and then we spent the rest of the week sorting out the place - honestly it is a lot easier to move countries than to move houses. But we are now all sorted and getting used to the new place.

As you saw in a previous blog, we have a lovely view down the Bosphorus and I have been taking a few piccies from the balcony. Regular readers will know that I enjoy available light photography so here are a couple of offerings:

This is looking towards Yenikoy

The right hand side of this photo is Yenikoy on the European side and the left hand side is the Asian side.

I enjoy watching the shipping on the Bosphorus, from the little boats that people use for pleasure, to the fishing boats and ferries, the small rust bucket cargo shipsplying their trade up to the huge tankers and container ships, it really is a fascinating water way.

This is the Ottoman Equity, a 269 metre long tanker being escorted by a tug through the Bosphorus on its way to the Black Sea

Smaller at only 135 metres long, this is the 11940 tonne MV Mega Star.

Watching these ships gliding by is very relaxing, they seem to move so serenely and they can't be heard so they seem to float in silence - quite different from the little motor boats and small ferries that are really quite noisy and can be clearly heard from our balcony.

House Hunting

2011-08-21T10:53:00.002+04:00

Since we got back we have been house hunting! We decided that we wanted to move from our house in Zekeriyakoy because it is just too noisy at night here. There are somewhere in the region of 20 dogs live in the vicinity and the just bark all night long! We get vertually no sleep. We have put up with it for a year but enough is enough.

So we have been house hunting, and we have found a place we like. It is in a very quite area, close to the twon of Sariyer and overlooking the Bosphorus and this is the view from our balcony:

I think I can live with that!

We move in next Friday - and we are both looking forward to a really good nights sleep!

Summer in Skopelos...

2011-08-21T10:34:00.002+04:00

was wonderful!

What an absolutely delightful time we had, meeting up with old friends and making new ones, having visitors come to stay, our eldest son and his girlfriend coming to the island and getting engaged there. It was a really lovely time!

Now we are back in Istanbul, work has started and the holidays are just lovely memories.

But for two of our friends, Mike and Dot, the holidays don't end! They have taken the plunge and moved to the island permanently so we are hoping to hear how life on the island is when all the tourists have gone and the harbourside tavernas have closed for the winter. Skopelos will be a very different place, though I think Mike and Dot will survive and still be there when we get back next July!

Our holiday started and finished with a 9 hour drive between Istanbul and Volos, an over night stay in Volos and a 4 hour ferry trip between Volos and the island. Fortunately we have a GPS (we call it Kate) and Kate knows the way from our front door to the front door of the hotel we stayed in. Now, I know that a 9 hour drive doesn't sound like much fun, but it really was quite pleasant, the road was fairly quiet both ways (though on the way back we did get some pretty busy pre-Iftar traffic in Istanbul).

When we got to the island we drove up to the house to drop our bags off - that was a bit hairy as some of the streets on the way up are not much wider than our car! We had to close the mirrors at one point. So on the way back, we asked our good friend Reg to bring our stuff down to the port because his car is a bit smaller than ours. We brought so much stuff back to Istanbul that Reg needed to make two journeys! Ah well, Mrs Istanbilly never has quite mastered the concept of travelling light! Maybe next year.

The time in between was just relax, relax, relax! And much needed relaxation it was too. Actually it wasn't all relaxation, I did do a little bit of work - I built a new shelf for the kitchen, which rekindled my interest in working with wood so I am going to do some joint making in my spare time this year in order to get better at it because I intend to make a book case when I am there next year! We will see how it turns out.

What was it?

2011-08-21T10:29:00.002+04:00

It was the beautiful uniform blue of the sky over Skopelos just about every day between the 27th of June, when we arrived and the 2nd of August when we left to come back to Istanbul. There may have been one day with a cloud, but the majority of the time, the sky looked just like this!

What Is It?

2011-07-10T11:58:00.003+04:00

This is probably the third in my (very) occasional series of what is it photos.

Here is a hint for you...

At the moment Mrs Istanbilly and I are on our beloved and idyllic island of Skopelos, Mrs I is at home but I am sat at a harbourside cafe blogging al fresco. The weather is simply beautiful, we are totally relaxed, the cares of the world are behind us and will be staying there until the middle of August. We haven't seen the news since the 26th of June and have no intentions of catching up with the world just yet, for all I know armageddon could be well and truly underway in the rest of the world, Greece may well be stony broke, for all I know, Portugal, Ireland spain and Italy may have gone the same way, but here on Skopelos... life is good.

So what is it???

Answer in a few days.

Back on Blogger

2011-06-12T12:49:00.002+04:00

It would seem that blogger is no longer banned in Turkey, that is good 'cos it means I can start writing drivel again - if I have got any drivel to write. Actually it will be nice to be able to post some pix again.

But not today!

What will be nice is that I can start reading other blogs again!

Curioser and curioser

2011-03-26T17:39:00.003+04:00

I have just got back from my trip to Geneva - well, I got back yesterday actually, but what is one day between friends.

Anyway, I decided to check to see if my blog is still blocked - now, this is the interesting bit:

http://blogger.com is definitely still blocked
http://www.blogger.com takes me to my dashboard from where I can edit blogs and even write new blog entries (like this one).

But http://waitingforskopelos.blogspot.com just goes into some kind of limbo - I don't get a message telling me it is blocked but, at the same time, I can't get into my blog - so I can't check this post or look at other people's posts.

Now, the result of all this is that, when I click publish post for this post, the only people who will really know for sure if I have managed to make a post are you, dear readers - I can't get on the site to see it for myself!

Back in Blogger

2011-03-20T10:52:00.002+04:00

Well, it is nice to be able to get back into Blogger. I am currently sat in a hotel in Geneva (I am here to do an Accreditation Visit on a school over here) and I took advantage of being away from home to get back into my blog.

Why did I do that here? Because, for some reason, the Turkish Government has decided to make Blogger a banned site.

I have no idea why. I am sure that nothing on Waiting for Skopelos is subversive, but they seem to think that I shouldn't have access to it. Shame, I wanted to post some pictures of the snow we had the other week, but I put them on facebook instead. Maybe it was subversive snow...

... or maybe the TG just doesn't like anything to do with Google - You Tube was banned when I arrived here last August...

Funny isn't it, I thought Turkey wanted to join Europe where freedom of speech is an absolute right...

Oh well.

No 1 on Google

2010-12-15T23:03:00.001+04:00

I have just discovered that if you search google for "Skopelos Blog", Waiting for Skopelos comes in at number 1!

I'm quite chuffed with that, but then you know what they say about little things pleasing little minds!

Gallipoli

2010-11-19T19:37:00.008+04:00

A couple of weeks ago on a bitterly cold weekend at the end of October, Mrs Istanbilly and I took a drive down to the Gallipoli peninsula. Now, you may or may not be aware, Gallipoli was the scene of a major battle in the first world war. On the 25th of April 1915 allied troops landed at various beaches along the western edge of the Gallipoli peninsula. If you don't know anything about it why not read more here

My Grandfather was one of the troops who died in this ill-fated conflict. I wanted to go there for two reasons - 1. I had been told that it is a remarkably beautiful place and 2. I wanted to see where my Grandad died.

We took a drive down - it is about 5 hours from Istanbul and it was pouring rain down all day! We got there, checked into our hotel The Gallipoli Houses where we quickly settled down with a bottle of wine waiting for dinner.

The next day it was bright and clear but windy and very cold, but out we went to visit various places of interest. I have never been to Flanders but I imagine that it is similar - around every corner is a war memorial or cemetry and we visited quite a few of them.

This is the Helles Memorial and is at the southern tip of the peninsula. There is a wall around the memorial and the names of all the allied soldiers and sailors who died but have no known grave are engraved on that wall. My Grandfather is amongst them but I couldn't take a photograph of his name because the section of wall that he is on is currently being refurbished. Oh well... I will go again.

We didn't just visit the allied cemeteries, obviously there are many Turkish cemeteries and memorials as well.

This was taken at the Cannakale Martyr's Memorial.

Every grave stone has the names of 10 soldiers on it and there is just row after row of them.

This is Soğanlı Dere Şehitliği (Soganlidere Cemetry)

The grave markers are in the shape of heads with Turkish helmets from the time on them. Each head represents a village/town/city/area where the soldiers came from.

The next day was a little warmer and we went to the western side of the peninsual to visit ANZAC Cove. Gallipoli is very important to the ANZAC's and every year on the 25th of April (ANZAC Day) Australians and New Zealanders gather here to commemorate their ancestors.

This monolithic monument is the Ari Burnu Memorial at ANZAC Cove, it is the words of Mustapha Kamal Ataturk in 1934:

"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives...
you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
in this country of ours...
You, the mothers,
who sent their sons from far away countries
wipe away your tears,
your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have
become our sons as well"

Ataturk 1934

Right next to the Ari Burnu Monument is the Beach Cemetery, an allied cemetery in perhaps the most beautiful setting of all.

Although I have many more photographs of the weekend, I will finish with one of the Lone Pine Cemetery. The reason I am in Turkey is because I am a member of staff at the British International School Istanbul and the lone pine is our logo so it felt right to go and visit.

I took several shots of it but I rather like this one taken directly into the sun using my wide angle lens.

As the weekend progressed, the weather got better and the drive home was really quite pleasant. We had a lovely weekend down there and we want to go again in the spring - apparently the peninsula is covered in wild flowers (and it isn't quite as cold as it was on this weekend).

Something to look forward to and, perhaps, the work on the section of wall that bears my Grandad's name might be finished!

Another walk in the forest

2010-11-19T17:15:00.002+04:00

Mrs. Istanbilly and I took another walk in the forest this morning. This time I took my long lens with me - it has the advantage that it also doubles as a macro lens. Of course, a dedicated macro lens allows you to get even closer to the subject but I am happy with the photo's that I managed to get.

Long time readers of the blog will know that I particularly enjoy taking macro photographs of flowers - on our 6 km walk today, this was one of very few flowers we saw, but how lovely to see such a beautiful flower growing when all around are the rich colours of autumnal decay!

But plants can be beautiful even in death - this teasel with its attendant shriveled leaves is certainly testament to that.

There were lots of trees whose leaves were in the process of changing from green to yellow and brown but it was difficult finding the right combination, but in the end I was pleased with this study with leaves which are completely dead, leaves which are completely alive and leaves which are somewhere between the two extremes.

It isn't holly, but I suspect that this prickly little bush with its bright red berries is a relative. A lot of people who walk round the forest take sprigs of this bush home with them - perhaps it is some kind of tradition at this time of year here in Turkey. To me, this is nature preparing to provide winter food for the forest creatures that live here all year round.

This is just a view of the path we were walking along. I really think that Belgrade Forest is going to be my favourite part of Istanbul. I wouldn't describe me as a 'tree-hugger', but I have missed seeing natural forests like this during the last decade and a half in the Middle East, and now I am so close to one I am determined to take advantage of it!

Belgrade Forest

2010-11-17T19:09:00.003+04:00

Mrs Istanbilly and I took a drive down to Belgrade Forest today, it is a beautiful area a little way outside the village of Bahcekoy, about 10 to 15 kilometres from where we live.

We have been there before, it is a beautiful area where lots of people go to walk and have picnics. There is a reservoir in the middle and a 6 km walk around it. It really is a lovely walk and was made all the better today because it is so long since either of us have experienced autumn. It is at least 17 years since I have seen the leaves changing colour and falling as the trees prepare themselves for winter and it is even longer from Mrs I.

Of course this is nothing like New England, but I think it is beautiful.

Right at the start of the walk I spotted this little bridge over a little stream and thought it would make a lovely picture.

I have to admit that I am not to well up on my fungi, so, mushrooms or toadstools? Either way they weren't going home with me - take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. I'm quite pleased with the result of this one.

Looking at the reservoir through the trees.

I just love the colours in this photograph, the greens, reds, browns, yellows and the beautiful blue of the sky, what a gorgeous day!

I found this branch with frilly fungus growing on the end of it. I would normally have taken a macro photo of it but I didn't have my macro lens with me. This was taken with just my normal lens, so I am quite pleased with the result.

I've always liked taking photographs of reflections (probably something to do with me being a mathematician)and I couldn't resist the reflection of the trees in this stream.

This is Mrs I's favourite photo out of all the ones I took today - trees stretching back as far as the eye can see, all standing up like bare stalks (in her words).

I am looking forward to going back to Belgrade Forest again - we will probably go again this week but I think I will take my long lens (which doubles as a macro) with me. But more than that I am looking forward to going there when it has snowed (something else I haven't seen for a very long time). I can't wait to see the photo's that I take on that day.

Did the earth move for you?

2010-10-03T21:49:00.002+04:00

So Mrs Istanbilly and I are sat at the table in the lounge surfing the internet when we just experienced a smallish earthquake - not very far up the Richter scale to be sure but nevertheless it is a strange feeling when you are not used to that sort of thing!

I'm sorry, I thought I lived in Istanbul!

2010-09-25T10:58:00.003+04:00

The sound of cow bells reached my ears this morning - at least I thought it was cow bells, actually it was sheep bells and this is the sight that greeted my eyes when I looked out of the window:

And it wasn't just a few sheep, there were lots of them:

The sheep were baa-ing, the goats were bleating, and the sheep bells were clanging, so who could blame the local domestic dogs for adding their voices to the overall cacophony?

Though the local street dogs (and there are lots of them!) seemed to be a little more laid back about the entire event.

The sheep dog took no notice of the noise and just strolled about amongst his flock - most of which were smaller than him! So this then is the spot the dog competition!

Not to be outdone, the local population of crows cawed as they hitched lifts on the back of the sheep and, presumably, de-ticked them in the process.

Since I moved here I have seen (wandering the streets of Zekeriyakoy) sheep, goats, cows, bulls, horses, donkeys, water buffalo (I kid you not) and more street dogs than you can shake a stick at!

Megacity Istanbul? Don't make me laugh, I live on a bloody farm!

A Good Day

2010-09-19T17:48:00.003+04:00

Today has been a good day!

This morning we went down to Dalia Beach for a breakfast organised by the PTA - pleasant conversation was had in a lovely setting overlooking Dalia Beach on the Black Sea.

When we left there we went through the village of Bahcekoy to the Belgrade Forest and had a lovely 6km forest walk. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera - never mind I will take it with me next time I go there.

When we got back I took a couple of photo's of the car as I had been promising you:

It is a lovely motor - beautiful to drive (as I can honestly state now that Mrs. Istanbilly has let me have a go).

Coming in from photographing the car I saw this beautiful little creature sat on the tiles on my porch:

He didn't stay long so I was pleased to get the pic.

Then we had dinner - Mrs I made a superb Thai green curry - she hasn't made one since before the summer and she really does do a good job of Thai green curry! It was fantastic!

To end the day we are going to go on line on our separate computers (yes, my laptop has finally arrived and it's working!) meet up with Janet and John (names changed etc as usual) and while the evening away playing bridge!

As I said, it has been a good day.

The new wheels have arrived!

2010-09-17T19:20:00.003+04:00

It seems like it has been a very long wait but the new wheels finally arrived today! I haven't taken a photo of it yet but I will do that tomorrow and post it then.

Interesting, Mrs Istanbilly came with me to the dealers to pick the car up - I'll give you three guesses which one of us got the pleasure of driving it home... here's a clue for you, it wasn't me!

Not to worry, she says I can drive it the 5 or so kilometers to work and back each day but at weekends it is her turn! Something doesn't quite work there for me!

Under what thumb??????

Weather

2010-09-05T14:49:00.005+04:00

During the last 13 years in the Middle East, the one thing that I started to miss was weather. Wall-to-wall sunshine does become a little monotonous after a while. The joke is that you have two seasons - Hot and Hotter. Alright, as anyone who has lived there knows, that isn't strictly true. I have known very heavy rain in the Middle East - it is just very short-lived and very infrequent and is only notable because of the problems it causes. But, most of the time, the sun shines and there are very few clouds in the sky.

Here in Istanbul things are a little different:

It had just started to rain when I took the second photo as you can tell by the wet roof, a few minutes later it was bucketing it down - I might get tired of it in time but at the moment...

I love it.

Time to get some wheels

2010-08-28T11:35:00.002+04:00

So, Thursday afternoon saw us on a trip over the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul to go and visit a car showroom. We have made the decision to buy a set of wheels and have gone for a Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Should have it some time this coming week and I will post a pic when we get it!

Can't wait.

The Basilica Cistern

2010-08-22T20:05:00.002+04:00

Eldest son and his girlfriend have descended on us for a holiday - our first visitors in Istanbul. They arrived yesterday and today we took them out to do the tourist bit. Eldest son wanted to see the Basilica Cistern.

I will be honest and say that I didn't know about this but was keen to see it when I heard about it (interestingly I can't find any reference to it in the Rough Guide to Istanbul; might be wrong but I haven't found it and it isn't mentioned in the index).

Anyway, regular readers of this blog will know of my fondness for available light photography and the basilica proved to be an ideal place to practice. Here are some of the results

The place is fantastic and well worth a visit next time you are in Istanbul.

Whilst I was in the area with my wide angle lens and in the mood for available light photography I went back to the New Mosque at Eminonu to take these:

I think the roof of this mosque is absolutely spectacular. And I love the way the lights have all starred in the photograph below - I promise you I didn't use a starburst filter for that effect either.

The Princes' Islands

2010-08-22T08:58:00.002+04:00

On Thursday the school organised a trip for all the new staff (yours truly included) to the Princes' Islands. These are located in the Sea of Marmaris about 15 km south of Istanbul. The incredible thing about these islands is that there is no motorised transport allowed on any of them! They are havens of peace and tranquility!

We took a nice slow ferry from Karikoy and relaxed for the 90 minute crossing.

Eventually we arrived at our destination Buyukada where we took a phaeton (that is the name they used but I have always known them as landaus, but anyway, a horse and carriage) up the hill to our hotel. This was the only part of the two day trip that I didn't particularly like and that was because our phaeton driver was rather obnoxious to both his passengers and to his horses. I don't like to see horses being mistreated and this guy was rather too free and easy with his whip for my liking! Hence no photo of the phaeton.

The hotel was a lovely if somewhat rustic place perched on top of the island and from the top we had great views of the next island in the chain, Heybeliada.

Our time there was delightful, very restful with good company and good wine and good food and a beautiful sunset.

The next day we walked back to the port (a very pleasant stroll down hill that took about three-quarters of an hour) and caught the ferry back to Istanbul.

On the way back I took a series of photographs of the Asian side cityscape and stitched them together to make this panoramic view.

The ferry calls in at Kadikoy on the Asian side on the way back and I managed to get a couple of photos of some famous sights of Istanbul. The first one is the Aya Sofia which is well over one thousand years old and for most of that time was the largest enclosed space in the world. The second is the Sultanahmet Camii, better known to the world at large as the Blue Mosque.

All in all we had a delightful couple of days. On Monday work starts in earnest!

Another Tourist Day

2010-08-14T19:30:00.002+04:00

So, after an early start this morning, we decided to head back into town again. So it was back on public transport for us. Dolmus into Sariyer, then we got the wrong bus from Sariyer - wrong in that it didn't go where we expected it to! What the hell. Where its route ends there will be a little bus station so we will try to get where we want from there. I guess it took us about two to two and a half hours to get where we wanted rather than an hour. By that time we were extremely hot and sweaty!

Anyway, we went to Eminonu to have a look at the Egyptian Bazaar - lots of ceramics, lots of Turkish Delight and lots of spice stalls. Lots of people as well. Saturday is not the best day to be doing this sort of thing - especially in the hottest and most humid summer anyone in Istanbul has ever known!

After the spice bazaar we visited here:

It is wonderful that the "New Mosque" in Eminonu should have been built between 1597 and 1663!

This is a beautiful mosque and visitors are allowed inside. This is a walled court yard containing the ablution fountain outside the main mosque.

The mosque is as beautiful inside as it is outside. It quiet and it is peaceful and the faithful at their prayers are very patient with us tourists, even allowing us to use flash photography in there.

Above is a view of the beautifully decorated multi-domed roof of the New Mosque and below is an interior view.

Well, there is only so much culture a person can take in one day so, after visiting the New Mosque we made our way over to the very flash Kanyon shopping centre and finally got home at about 10 past 5 in the afternoon... Knackered!!!

Baggins in his new home

2010-08-14T18:46:00.002+04:00

He might be a pain when it comes to finding dry food that he will actually eat, but he is still a beautiful cat.

Here Comes the Sun

2010-08-14T07:49:00.002+04:00

I woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. At about 20 mins past 6 I decided to get up. This is the sight that greeted me when I looked out of the window:

Beautiful! How could it possibly be anything but a great day after this?

Bloody Fussy Moggies

2010-08-11T16:36:00.002+04:00

To say that Baggins is a discerning eater is to somewhat understate the case!

Baggins will eat dry food and he will eat wet food. In terms of wet food he likes Miaow Mix (well one of the flavours of it anyway) and he will deign to eat certain other brands at a push.

In terms of dry food he will eat Friskies.

That is it. Friskies. Nothing else.

But they don't sell Friskies in Turkey.

We have tried all sorts - Whiskas (that was always going to be a loser, Baggins won't eat any manner of Whiskas), Kit-E-Kat (tried one piece), La Cat (winning by miles, he has eaten maybe 3 pieces in the last few days), some expensive stuff from the Vet (not interested), Eukaneuba (didn't even bother to sniff it)

So far, in the 9 days we have been here we have spent about 50 US dollars on dry cat food in an attempt to get him to eat - result, nothing.

And the trouble is, if he eats exclusively wet cat food he starts throwing up.

What to do!

Bloody Fussy Moggies!

Istanbul Touristy Stuff

2010-08-10T13:08:00.003+04:00

So Mrs Istanbilly and I arrived in our new home on the evening of the 2nd of August. I've been into school a few times - they are constructing a new building and I need to make sure all is well. I've had a tour of the construction site.

We've been to a couple of shopping centres and spent more than we would want to!

On Saturday we decided that we should do some exploring and some of the touristy stuff. Now, Istanbul seems to have a fantastic public transport system! Dolmuses (really a shared taxi that has a specific route but more like mini-buses that will stop anywhere on their route for passengers to get on or off - quite an experience), an extensive bus network, a metro, trams, funicular railways and ferries! And remarkably cheap! Apart from the ferries we made pretty good use of the rest of it on our day out.

We decided to head for the centre of the city, so we took a dolmus from Zekeriyakoy to Sariyer and then a bus to Taksim. At Taksim we caught the antique tram down to the bottom of Istiklal Caddesi.

I love these little antique trams, and I suspect that they are one of the most photographed vehicles in the world (those of you who want to be picky please note that I said one of.) In a shop on Istiklal Caddesi I saw a great photo of one of them in the snow - I shall look forward to seeing that in January or February for myself.

When we got off the tram we walked about 250 metres down hill to Galata Tower.

Built in 1348, the tower dominates the skyline and has a great view over the Golden Horn. There is a panoramic view balcony around the top and also a restaurant at the top. I am pretty sure that the lifts up to the top were not part of the original feature but they are a lot easier than struggling up a long and winding staircase in the current Istanbul heat and humidity.

The bridge is the Galata Bridge linking Karakoy with Eminonu. The trams use this bridge as do many fishermen.

Here we are looking up the Golden Horn to the Ataturk Bridge

Andthis is the view over the rooftops of Istanbul looking towards the Bosphorous

As you can see in the photographs the day was very hazy, presumably caused by the high humidity. I shall look forward to going there again when the weather has become considerably cooler to see if I can get clearer pictures.

After the tower we went down the hill to the Golden Horn and caught an ultra-modern tram at Karikoy to the Grand Bazaar.

This is Kalpakcilar Basi Cad looking towards the Beyazit Gate,one of the main thoroughfares aroundthe edge of the Grand Bazaar,

And this is one of the smaller side streets off Kalpakcilar Basi Cad.

Visiting the Grand Bazaar on a Saturday was possibly not the best move, next time we will try for a mid-week visit. After the Bazaar we caught a tram back to the other side and a funicular from Kabitas back up to Taksim.

Once in Taksim we took a walk down Istiklal Caddesi and, in the Balik Pazari, managed to find a butcher who sells pork! So it was pork chops for tea on Sunday.

Back to Taksim for the bus to Sariyer, then the dolmus to Zekeriyakoy and home, hot, sweaty and exhausted. But, all in all, a very pleasant and successful trip.

How long...

2010-08-10T11:58:00.002+04:00

would be considered reasonable for an ISP to provide an internet connection???? Personally I think 7 days is outrageous at the end of the first decade of the 3rd millenium! But that is how long ttnet took. Shame on you ttnet - your work is not up to standard, especially as it only took my next door neighbour 2 days.

The Desolation of Qatar

2010-08-10T11:25:00.002+04:00

On the 1st of August I left Greece on the start of my journey to Istanbul - not a difficult journey you may well think. I had to go via Doha! I had to pick Baggins up from the kennels in Qatar and fly with him to Istanbul. It seems that there is an odd piece of legislation here to the effect that, if Baggins arrives on the same flight as me there is no problem in bringing him into the country. If he arrives on a different flight than me then the red tape for bringing him in becomes horrendous! It was easier to make sure that he arrived with me.

So I flew to Doha and stayed overnight with Amanda and Dave - many many thanks to them. On the way to the airport on the 2nd (ready to fly out) I decided to take a photo of Qatar, just to remind me...

The city of Doha was like other Middle Eastern cities - busy with tall buildings and shopping malls and a nice Corniche. But I didn't live in Doha, I lived 40 kilometres up the road at Al Khor. The picture shows the desolation of Qatar - I saw this view every day. The 2nd of August was a particularly beautiful day, had it been a normal day the sky would have been brown as well!

I am so happy to be out of there!

Freedom!

2010-07-02T13:00:00.001+04:00

Passport Control have very kindly let me out of Qatar. I am at the airport and my flight goes in an hour and a half.

Athens, and then Skopelos, here I come.

I'm free and out of Sandland at last!

A Step Closer

2010-07-01T09:42:00.002+04:00

Baggins went on his holidays this morning. Steve from Pampered Pets came to collect him, he is in kennels until the morning of 2 August. I fly back to Qatar on 1 August, stay overnight and then fly with Baggins to our new life in Istanbul on the 2nd of August.

I always feel guilty when I have to send him to the kennels - and it is always me that has to do it, Mrs Istanbilly gets away with it every time - its the same when he has to go to the vet, I'm always the bad person who has to take him! It's no wonder that he prefers her to me, is it!

Any way, this is my last full day, the last few bits of washing are in the machine, the suitcase is more or less packed and I'm pretty much ready to go. Just a bit more passing of time to put up with.

Oh well, back to the Facebook Scrabble I think.

Comment Moderation

2010-07-01T09:34:00.001+04:00

Unfortunately I have had to put comment moderation on the blog as the last post I put on attracted a comment linking me to a pornography site.

Thanks whoever you are but I'll pass.

Passing Time

2010-06-29T10:11:00.002+04:00

I am sat in my classroom with a cup of tea whilst writing this. In about half an hour the boys have an awards assembly and then we hand out their reports. They finish at lunchtime, I finish at lunchtime. And then, for some reason which totally defeats me I have to come into school tomorrow morning from 7:30 to 12:00 noon to do... what? I have done everything I have to do, my work here is finished and I am just waiting to leave. I've had my final payment, I've cleared from the school, I just have to pass the time.

I think I might spend the morning playing Scrabble on Facebook.

The Whole of the Ball

2010-06-27T19:48:00.004+04:00

The law clearly states that the whole of the ball must cross the whole of the line.

Clearly it didn't!

Not that the non-goal is an excuse - we didn't have a great World Cup, did we. It might have made a difference if we had got it to 2 - 2, but who knows.

Sepp Blatter, now you really will have to bring in goal line technology - your gamble failed.

By the way, I hope ESPN won't mind too much but i nicked the photo from them - this is the url of the original:

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0627/soc_a_nongoal_288.jpg

And yes, OK, I admit it, I might havePhotoshopped it a bit!

Getting Ready to Go

2010-06-18T13:52:00.003+04:00

Mrs. Istanbilly leaves Qatar tomorrow for the last time. She is off to Skopelos for the summer. She has been a busy bee today - she is not only packing her bags, but packing the household effects up ready for shipping to Istanbul. She is doing that because I am so unreliable (her word not mine) that I can't be trusted to do a proper job of it!

Anyway, what I can do is show you a couple of pix of the where we are going to live when we get to Istanbul:

Above is the front view of our house, it is a nice place, brand new, two bedrooms, not overly big, but big enough for us. This is the side of the house:

We have two balconies - one looks over the tennis courts which are in the process of being built and this is the view from the other:

I have to say that this is a view that I can happily live with - at the moment I have a view of the villas on the opposite side of the street about 15 metres away! And if they weren't there I would have a view of Qatar which, for the most part, is brown!

This is the pool which is shared by about 10 or so houses. Provided there aren't too many kids that could be quite pleasant!

I think we have found ourselves quite a nice place to live and it is only a couple of kilometres from the school. In fact, we can see the school from the balcony, but it is difficult to spot in the photo above as the walls of the school are green and it blends in with the scenery.

The next two weeks are going to be pretty drab with Mrs. I not around, but I will be joining her in Skopelos soon. I leave Qatar on the 2nd of July, spend that night in Athens and will arrive in Skopelos at about 2 in the afternoon of the 3rd of July. I am looking forward to the holiday but I am looking forward to getting started in Istanbul as well.

Roll on the 2nd of July!

A World Cup oddity

2010-06-11T22:00:00.003+04:00

Here I am in a country which broadcasts virtually every English Premier League match, complete with English commentary, live and yet I am left in World Cup limboland!

It ain't on the tele! Apparently I can pay 80 USD to Al Jazeera and get the World Cup complete with Arabic commentary but the channel for which I buy the top of the range bouquet (or perhaps bucket) doesn't have it, with commentary in any language!

Ah well, I guess none of the teams from the Gulf managed to get through, eh?! And doesn't it show!

And before you advise me to go to the local pub to watch it, Al Khor doesn't have any local pubs... come to think of it it doesn't have any pubs at all - local or otherwise! The nearest bar is in a 5 star hotel about 60 kilometres away.

Tired of the rat race?

2010-06-09T18:33:00.002+04:00

Why not take a few minutes to visit a newcomer to the blogosphere and take a look at an alternative lifestyle.

Check out Hay Bale Happiness for a different slice of expat life.

Another photo from Istanbul

2010-06-08T19:29:00.002+04:00

The place we were staying in was an apartment that had been rented for someone else who, for one reason or another, felt unable to use the apartment. As apartments go it was pretty impractical and we will certainly not be living there when we get to Istanbul. But the views ...

Istanbul

2010-06-07T19:52:00.003+04:00

So, I promised you some photos of our trip to Istanbul. Now you have to understand that this was not a tourist trip - so no Blue mosque or Haji Sophia or Topkapi Palace. This was strictly business.

We were staying in a little apartment in a suburb called Kirecburnu, which is really more of a village than a suburb. Anyway, this was the view that we had to put up with:

Back in the Sand

2010-06-06T12:39:00.003+04:00

Well, my two week visit to my new school is over and I am now back in Qatar for the remainder of the school year. I have got exams to write and I will have to mark them once my kids have done them, but other than that I have to get ready to leave Qatar for good on the 2nd of July.

First step is getting a police clearance - just so that my new school will have it in writing that I have been a good boy during my time here. Then Mrs I and I have to get our Qatari residence visas cancelled. Our flights are all paid for, so the only other thing to sort out is the bank account - not the easiest of jobs! But I am sure we will manage.

The biggest job is sorting Baggins out (you remember Baggins, the cat who is worth more than I am). We have booked him into kennels for the summer and we hope to be able to take fly him out to Istanbul shortly after the 1st of August.

Mrs I leaves on or about the 19th of June for Skopelos and I will be following her two weeks later on the 2nd of July. We will have just about a month in our island home and then we are off to Istanbul on the 1st of August.

We have rented a lovely little house there and I will put some pix up as soon as I get the time to download them from my camera.

Ready to Go

2010-05-22T10:38:00.002+04:00

It is Friday morning at 9:40.

We are packed!

We are ready to go!

Just got to wait until 11 am and then we are off to Istanbul - I'm going for two weeks to visit my new school, Mrs I is going for one week and she will be house hunting!

Unfortunately Mrs I can't stay for the entire two weeks, she has to have a minor (we hope) eye operation on Monday the 31st of May, so she is going to fly back next Saturday. Now, you may be tempted to say that it is a bit ungallant of me not to come back at the same time as her, but my new employers wanted me to have a two week handover and if I put it off until later it will mean leaving my current school early - which has some pretty large consequences! We both think that it is best for me to stay for the extra week.

Anyway, camera is ready, battery is charged, I shall put some views up when I get back.

A change of name (again)

2010-05-16T13:05:00.000+04:00

So, I was thinking, I am not going to be in Qatar any longer - what is the point of remaining as qatarbilly and what can my new name be???

I thought of ByzantiumBilly or ConstantinopleBilly, but they just didn't have the right ring.

Then I hit on it,

from now on my web personal will be:

Istanbilly

Sounds good to me!

Good News

2010-05-16T12:34:00.003+04:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged. I just haven't been able to drum up the enthusiasm as I waited for some good news to blog about!

As you may (or indeed may not) know, for the last 18 months I have been looking for a job as Head of Secondary (or something similar) at an international school that preferably comes without a desert attached to it.

During my search I have become quite the international jet setter! Since January of last year I have been to:

London (on three separate occasions, the longest trip being 3 days), Bangkok, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Dubai, Munich, Bratislava, Vienna, Qatar (twice) and Istanbul for interviews and I have had telephone interviews with schools in Casablanca, Rio de Janeiro, Addis Ababa, Bahrain and Budapest.

I have come second more times than I like to think about! I have psyched myself up for interviews and then crashed and burned when I got the 'regret to inform you...very strong field' email. I got three in one week back at the end of February/beginning of March - that was not a particularly good time. Lots of encouragement from people like Carol, Dave, Amanda and, especially, Harry Deelman from Search Associates who sent me a very long and very upbeat and encouraging email, has all helped to keep me writing new applications. And, of course, Mrs QB has stood by me and been excited at the prospect of going here or there to live and has hidden her disappointment when it didn't happen - she has even been checking the Times Educational Supplement every week for me saying things like "What about Abuja?", "Ascension Island sounds nice", "Have you thought of this one in Manilla?" etc

Well, I have finally come first!

On Thursday I traveled to Istanbul and on Friday was appointed Director of Secondary at the British International School of Istanbul. BISI is a very happy school which has grown strong following a sometimes turbulent past. It is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the village of Zekeriakoy which is at the northern end of the Bosphoros on the European side and the school has views of the Black Sea. The whole area is a huge forest and you literally cannot see the wood for the trees!!! Having been starved of forest views like this whilst in the Middle East for the last 13 years, the massive amount of greenery makes your eyes ache!! In the spring the whole area is a riot of flowers - Turkey exported tulips to Amsterdam!, in the autumn it must be the golds, reds and browns of New England because all the trees I saw were deciduous and, apparently, in winter the view is white!

Mrs QB and I will be going to Istanbul next Sunday for two weeks so that I can do something of a handover with the current Director prior to me starting properly in the middle of August. We are both looking forward to spending a bit of time there and I will be taking my camera and so will put some photo's on facebook and on my blog (which I will be starting up again now that I have something interesting to put on there!

You cannot believe how many times in the last 18 months I have wanted to write this email. Well, it is finally written and knowing that I do not have to take a Thursday off work to fly to Copenhagen (or wherever) for a weekend, leaving in the early hours of Thursday and getting back in the early hours of Sunday and then being in work on Sunday morning (for those not in the Middle East, our weekend is Friday Saturday) at 7am, is an enormous relief.

By the way, talking of weekends - for the first time for 13 years I will be going back to Saturday and Sunday as the weekend - that is going to be weird!!!

Well, folks, that is the news I have been waiting for so long to tell you. Mrs QB and I shall now sit back and wait for the requests to visit us in Istanbul to come pouring in. Get your dates in quickly 'cos I think there may be a rush!!!

Wide angle photography

2009-09-27T18:40:00.003+04:00

You may remember that my colleagues from my last school very kindly bought me a wide angle lens as a leaving present when I moved on from there. I spent some of my time over the summer playing with it to see what kind of results I got. I told you that I would be showing you some for the bad shots I managed to take along with some of the not quite so bad ones.

I think that some of the indoor shots that I took were quite reasonable, but I have noticed that the lens produces shots which are considerably darker than any other of my lenses and that vignetting (a darkness around the edge of the photograph) is a constant problem with it.

I have come up with a couple more problems as you can see below:

When I took the night shot of a medium sized oleander I thought the wide angle would be perfect because I could be quite close to the plant but still get it completely in the frame. What I hadn't expected was the effect of the flash. I have used the built-in flash on my camera and you can see that this has cast the shadow of the lens on the side of the photograph. Of course I held the camera vertically, had I held it horizontally the shadow would have been on the bottom. Clearly the built-in flash is not going to work with the wide angle lens - but this is perhaps not a bad thing as I have already started dropping hints to Mrs QB about the possibility of a separate flash gun as Christmas present!

This one wasn't a mistake, I knew what I was doing when I took the photo. I wanted to have this amount of distortion. The corner of the pool is actually a right angle and I think this amount of distortion is quite amazing, though my framing is not as good as perhaps it should be. I did take a somewhat unflattering photo of Mrs QB but I would not dare put it on here! It was a photo of some yachts with Mrs QB stood on the harbour wall looking at them. Mrs QB is at the edge of the photograph and is subject to a similar amount of distortion as the swimming pool. I have learned that being close to your subject but putting them at the side of a photograph is a recipe for a disaster!

I don't often take photographs of people and I very rarely put them on here, but the photo of Captain Jack and Sarah (as before, names changed) demonstrates a good use of the wide angle lens - you get shedloads of depth of field, huge amounts of landscape and at the same time can get quite close to your subject without distortation (as long as you put them in the centre of the photograph!).

Are we ever going to do any real work this year?

2009-09-26T21:08:00.002+04:00

This has been a strange year so far. We arrived in Qatar on the night of the 1st of September and have had precious little work to do since then! A decision was made by the school last year (before I joined) that we would not start teaching during the Holy month of Ramadan this year but would instead start after Eid al Fitr. Fair enough, the decision is made and that is fine. To be honest, Eid seems to have dragged on a little longer than it used to in Dubai but the kids are due to start tomorrow. Or to be more exact they were due to start tomorrow.

Then, as reported in today's Gulf Times the start of the school year got postponed! This is due to worries about the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Oh well! I guess I shall just have to do even more lesson planning!

Everything, including the kitchen sink

2009-09-23T20:10:00.003+04:00

When we left Dubai on the 26th of June, we had the opportunity of shipping all our worldly goods to Greece without incurring the wrath of the Greek taxman - so we did. And while we were about it we bought a complete new kitchen including a huge fridge, a dishwasher, a huge gas cooker, a load of units, a new washing machine and a new kitchen sink!

The lot arrived about 2 days before Mrs QB's brother and sister-in-law arrived to stay with us for three weeks. 197 boxes of our personal effects and 2 days to unpack them all, three weeks after we were promised them by the movers who shall remain nameless but whose name rhymes with brown and describes a kings best hat. What a ball's up that was. But, suffice to say. Mrs QB and I did not manage to get all the boxes unpacked and Captain Jack and Sarah (names changed as usual) arrived to find the house an absolute tip!

They spent the first few days of their holiday helping us to unpack... then the hard work started. Captain Jack and I started to build the kitchen. I am so grateful to my brother-in-law! Honestly, I think Mrs QB and I really would have struggled to do the job - and I don't think we would have been able to even lift the sink, much less plumb it in and fit it properly. Captain Jack and I dug in hard and spent 4 solid days (possibly 5, time is beginning to blur) grafting away and these are a couple of photo's of the result:

The second photo gives a better view of the sink which is honestly big enough to bath twin toddlers in simultaneously should you want to do such a thing - Mrs QB and I will not be putting that to the test any time soon.

The funny thing is, although we have more cupboards and drawers, a bigger fridge than before, a bigger cooker than before and a dishwasher which we didn't have before, the kitchen looks bigger than before! The only thing I don't like about it is the strip light - I haven't yet decided what to replace that with yet but I will, eventually.

Anyway, the kitchen is done, so thank you Captain Jack for all the work you put into the kitchen and thank you Sarah for letting him!

Visiting Friends

2009-09-21T23:02:00.002+04:00

We arrived in Qatar twenty-one days ago and this weekend we had some friends from Dubai over to stay with us. What a super weekend! Bob and Carol (no, of course that isn't their real names, but I'm not going to tell you who they really are, am I) arrived on Thursday evening and left today (Monday) - we dropped them at the airport at about 5pm.

Bob and Carol are very good friends of ours and it was absolutely great to see them again. On the Friday evening we had a dinner party - Me and Mrs QB, Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice and Steve and Shirley (no, none of those are real names either) spent the evening eating, drinking, chatting and generally enjoying ourselves and a lovely evening was had by all.

Bob and I are war games fans and spent three days playing a single game of Axis and Allies (the anniversary edition if you are familiar with it). It models the 2nd World War from 1941 and in this particular game Bob resigned after Germany had fallen to an overwhelming Russian assault on the fatherland - a brilliant game and the first time that Bob and I have had a 3 day game! I'm not entirely sure what Mrs QB and Carol did whilst we were war gaming but I know they enjoyed the weekend every bit as much as we did.

We were very sorry to see them go home to Dubai this afternoon but, of course, all good things inevitably come to an end. We are now looking forward to repeating the weekend as soon as possible.

The summer modifications

2009-09-21T10:21:00.002+04:00

Over the summer we did some modifications to our beautiful home in Skopelos which, we think, make it more beautiful than ever. Two of the major modifications were the opening up of the top floor and the fitting of the kitchen.

Our top floor was two separate rooms and a corridor between them leading to one of the balconies. The rooms were bedrooms and each had a huge, homemade cupboard built into them. The rooms were small enough, but the cupboards took up way to much room in both of them and one of them was just too small to be used properly. Mrs QB and I decided to have the walls taken down, have the cupboards removed and turn the space into one open plan lounge with absolutely loads of light in it.

I didn't take and "before" pics because I have already got loads of them - on my computer which now resides in Skopelos. Unfortunately, I'm not in Skopelos so I can't put them up. Way back in September 2008 I started putting some pics up but I only put two and they were pix of what was the lounge at that time (it's now a bedroom). However I do have the "after" pics.

As you can see, the room now has windows on three sides and so catches light all day. It is right at the top of the house so other houses in the area don't take any of the light away from it and the noise from the street is not so obtrusive up there. It really is a beautiful room to sit in and, having put a fridge for our beer and wine up there, Mrs QB and I love it and spend most of our time in it.

Time to start blogging again

2009-09-20T11:35:00.002+04:00

So, apart from the odd entry here and there, it has been quite a while since I did any real blogging. Mrs QB and I have settled into our mansion here in Qatar and are finding our feet. I finally start teaching again next week (and I'm looking forward to it!), we are finding our way around our new country and I think it is time to blog again.

You may recall (assuming that you have read recent posts) that the ever so kind people I used to work with in my last school bought me a wide angle lens when I left (amongst other things I might add). Now, I have often wanted a wide angle lens but until now have never actually used one. I started playing with it over the summer in order to get used to it and find out what it can do and what limitations it might have.

I will show you some of the results - good and bad - over the next few entries. As you know I like to do available light photography and I am going to start by showing you a couple of the pics I took at night. One of them is with my standard lens and the other with the new wide angle one. For those of you who know Skopelos, the pics were taken from Braxos (pronounced Vrakhos) Bar which overlooks the Paraleia (harbour road).

This is taken with my standard lens.

And this one with my wide angle lens.

For the technically minded amongst you, both photo's were taken at f/5.6 and ISO200, the normal lens one had a 22mm focal length and an exposure of 0.8 of a second whilst the wide angle had a 10mm focal length and an exposure of 4 seconds. Both photo's were taken on my Canon EOS 400D and the wide angle was taken approximatley 20 minutes later than the normal.

Dubaibilly is dead. Long live Qatarbilly.

2009-09-11T13:38:00.003+04:00

Many thanks to The Media Junkie who very kindly gave me detailed instructions on how to change my user name and email address from dubaibilly to qatarbilly, now I will start getting emails again when people leave posts on the blog - hmmm, perhaps that wasn't such a great idea after all. Whatever, I am now finally in as qatarbilly and will remain so for as long as I stay in this place.

Great advert

2009-07-10T16:25:00.003+04:00

Mrs QB is sat next to me in the internet cafe as I am doing this blog. She has just shown me an advert for The Garden Restaurant in Skopelos Town. Their tag line...

International Greek Homecooking

I leave it to you, dear reader, to fathom that one out!

More modifications

2009-07-10T16:21:00.002+04:00

So, today we have got Janis the carpenter in!

We are redesigning the entire top storey of the house - it is too big a job for me so we have got a carpenter in who is knocking down walls and taking out cupboards as I type (well, not really as I type 'cos he has just phoned me to tell me that he is knocking off until tomorrow.

It's dead exciting seeing the walls come down and a new bigger open plan room rise pheonix like from the ashes of the old two rooms and a corridor.

Really looking forward to him finishing and to all our furniture arriving from Dubai - it is currently clearing customs in Athens so should be here in the next year or two!

Refurbishments and other stuff

2009-07-09T14:47:00.004+04:00

Well, we have been here for two weeks now and Mrs QB and I have been working... well... not far away from flat out. The front balcony floorboards are now ready to be put down, the balusters have been repainted and a new top rail has been made. The new top rail just needs one more coat of paint before it is ready. We should be in a position to put the boards down and the new top rail on on Saturday. After that I will need to make a cover board for the bottom rail but that is a fairly small job.

This afternoon we are going to paint the balusters on the other balcony, I'm not putting new floorboards down on that one this year, that will be my project for next summer. Similarly, we are going to paint the top rail this afternoon (after the balusters), but I will leave off replacing it until next year.

One of the jobs I have been putting off for the last four years finally got done this year! One of our interior walls was in terrible condition - the previous owners had replastered the wall and, presumably, painted the plaster before it was properly dry! Result - a great chunk of plaster fell off the wall (well over a couple of square metres by the time we had finished getting the loose stuff off). So, this year I finally bit the bullet, went to the hardware shop and bought plaster and the relevant tools. Looked in my DIY manual and found out how to mix plaster and how to put it on the wall. I have to say that I am dead chuffed with the result! Yes, I can afford to be smug about this one - plastering no longer holds any fears for QB!

Mrs QB has also done her share of the DIY - she has been painting window frames that were desperately in need of painting and she also had a go a plastering!

So, today we decided to try to get Mrs QB residency status - not quite as easy as one would hope. Firstly I have to have residency and then Mrs QB can have residency based upon mine. This is because I am European and Mrs QB isn't. The problem is that I have to have some kind of a card which (apparently) all EU citizens have which allows them reciprocal Social Security and Health insurance benefits. Well, I haven't got one of these (I don't think they had them 14 years ago when I left Britain) and I have no idea how to get one. At the moment then, unitl I can find this stuff out we are somewhat screwed, Mrs QB and I cannot have Greek residence. Ho hum. The big problem with all this is that Mrs QB's Shengen Visa runs out on the 10th of August, so she has to leave the country and come back in again. What a pain - fortunately she has a visa for the UK, so I think she is going to go EasyJet from Athens to Luton and back in order to prolong her stay. I guess that we will sort out residency for her some other time.

That's it for now. In a couple of weeks Mrs QB's brother and his wife arrive to stay with us for three weeks and we are going to have a complete rest during the time they are here. In the meantime it is time to get back to the grindstone.

See ya.

Qatarbilly and Blogger

2009-07-03T18:45:00.002+04:00

OK, so I am not in Dubai anymore. I have decided not to be Dubaibilly anymore. My email address (which was billbrad@emirates.net.ae) no longer works. But Blogger won't let me change any of this. I have tried to change my email address which is associated with the blog, but Blogger simply refuses to do it. I still have to sign in as dubaibilly and use a non-existent email address to do so. And I don't understand why.

If you have anything to do with Blogger (rather than just using it) or if you happen to know how to make blogger do this mundane thing, please tell me.

I guess I could set up Waiting for Skopelos 2: The Qatar Years, but I don't want to.

Suggestions?

At Home!

2009-07-03T18:25:00.002+04:00

It is the 2nd of July (I think) and Mrs QB and I are at home in our lovely little house on our beautiful island of Skopelos.

We have been here for a few days and the work has started! We decided that one of our balconies (how about that for a bit of one-upmanship then!) was in need of some fairly urgent repairs - particularly in view of the quote last year of 14000 Euros to replace them both!

So we have decided that we are going to replace the top rail and the floor boards. I have cut the floor boards to length (3.69 metres)and have sanded them, undercoated them, sanded them again and undercoated them again. Tomorrow they will get their final sanding and then I will apply two top coats before I take the old ones up and replace them with the new.

Our house is white with all the exterior woodwork done in that beautiful rich blue that says to eveyone - Greece. You know the one. It is the same colour as the Greek flag. Vathy Ble Arithmos 2 - Greek speakers please excuse me not using the proper Greek characters, and Kat, can you translate the Vathy bit - I think it means Navy Blue number two but I'm not sure. Anyway, that is the colour the balcony floor boards and the top rails will be.

Other jobs on the cards for this holiday:

Mrs QB wants a corner shelf making and putting up in the bathroom.

The other balcony is in better condition than the one which is being refurbished, it just needs a light sanding and repainting.

Three sets of shutters need taking down, sanding, repainting and re-hanging.

We have bought a new kitchen in Dubai and shipped it out (it is due to arrive with lots of other of our possessions on 5 July). It is currently flat-packed so I will have to build that!

We want to take down two stud walls on the top floor - it sounds easy enough, but it isn't. Quite apart from disposing of the detritus, the walls are 4 and a half metres high and I can't get up to the top, plus, in taking them down we have some wiring that needs re-routing. There is a professional coming round to take a look at that job tomorrow afternoon. If we can afford it, and if he can do it quickly, we will be changing the use of the top and middle floors of the house. This involves in the sub-job of taking beds apart, moving them downstairs and rebuilding them.

Other than that, it should be a nice restful holiday!

Last day in Dubai

2009-06-25T09:07:00.002+04:00

Well, it has finally arrived, my final full day in Dubai has dawned - am I ready, packed andwaiting for my flight - not exactly! Still got lots to do before we go. The kennels are due to come round this morning to collect Baggins who will spend the next two months with them prior to his being flown to Qatar in early September. The maintenance people are coming round to do an inspection in a few minutes. I've got to cancel Etisilat and Showtime, Mrs DB has gone to the physio, we haven't finished packing and we are going out tonight with Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice! Oh boy, roll on 10:05 tomorrow morning. DXB terminal 3, Emirates Airlins to Athens! Wish I was there already!

This has to be the best sign I've seen for a long time:

2009-06-23T18:02:00.003+04:00

Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me, but a building near to the Bur Dubai bus station is sporting this wonderful sign:

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE

WWW.DIRE.AE

And the web address is real!

Makes me smile anyway!

Last day at school

2009-06-23T17:12:00.002+04:00

Well, today was my final day! I have now left Emirates International School - Jumeirah. Is it time to dish the dirt? Not a bit of it, I have had ten years there and during that time I have risen from being a Maths Teacher to being a Deputy Principal, learned a hell of a lot along the way, made some wonderful friends who are scattered around the world (with many of them still being at EIS, others being in Dubai and still others in far flung places such as Madrid, Azerbaijan and Australia to name but a few. There is even one who is going to the same school in Qatar as I am!

Anyway, over the last few days friends and colleagues have been showering me with leaving presents - I have had some lovely gifts, but today the whole staff clubbed together and gave me some gift vouchers for the Mall of the Emirates. Mrs DB and I toddled off over there after work and I bought something that I will treasure for many years. I bought a wide angle lens for my camera and so you will soon be seeing my efforts of photography with a wide angle lens - I have wanted one for years but never got around to buying one - now I have finally got one and I will have to start learning how to use it! I have already realised that I now need to buy a proper flash unit, so that can go on the Christmas wish list for Mrs DB!

Anyway, to all my friends at EIS, past and present, and I know there are some who will read this, I just want to say, thank you to all of you, for your wishes, for your kind words, for your thoughts, for your prayers and for being my friend during the time that we have been colleagues together.

Some Good News at Last

2009-06-20T08:53:00.002+04:00

Well, it has been something of a longtime, hasn't it! You may recall that I have been job hunting and I didn't want to tell you anything more until I got a job. Well, I've now got one!

In the last few months I have been all over the place - I've had interviews in Bangkok, London (twice), Bratislava and Munich, I've had references taken up by schools in Vienna, Rio and Quito amongst others, I've had telephone interviews for schools in Egypt, Sao Paulo and Shanghai and I've been totally ignored by schools in Sweden, Beijing, Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, Shangai and Scarborough!

Now, after being at times totally demoralised, I have finally secured a position just a few hundred miles away in Qatar!

I am just totally relieved because we are out of Dubai on the 26th of this month and I was expecting to have to go back to the UK to supply teach. Now, Cher and I are really looking forward to our holiday on our wonderful Greek island of Skopelos. And it is going to be a great holiday! Because of Ramadan, I don't have to start at my new school until sometime between the 4th and 12th of September (not sure of the date yet), but, and I've never heard of this in any other school, I get paid from the 1st of August!!!

Excellent!

What a Waste of a Day

2009-01-10T16:02:00.003+04:00

Mrs DB decided that we were going shopping - she wanted to leave early so that we would get back at a decent time. 6 and a half bloody hours and three different shopping malls and all we got was our usual weekly groceries!

We could have done our grocery shopping in one place in less than an hour. I am now sat here at the computer wondering why I have been dragged all over Dubai for absolutely nothing!

She bought a Nintendo Wii with her accumulated air miles - fair enough I have no problem with that - it may be a source of fun but she wants the fitness suite that can be purchased as an accessory. Again fair enough. Off we go to the Mall of the Emirates (one of my least favourite places on the planet!) Start in Carrefour (another of my least favourite places on the planet) - they only have NTSC versions and the version we need is the PAL version. So we walk the length of the Mall to Virgin - they haven't got the PAL version though it is, allegedly, on order and will be in next week. Now, I don't know about you, but the message I am getting is "There aren't any, give up now, come back next week." What message is Mrs DB getting? "There might be some in Geant in Ibn Battuta Mall about 20 km away!" Where that idea comes from I do not know! Maybe they have some in Abu Dhabi!

Whilst we are in Mall of the Emirates she decides to have a look at coats - to be fair, we are going to London in February and she will need a warm coat - so we went to Debenhams - they didn't have anything neither did somewhere else, but I can't remember where. Next stop - Ibn Battuta Mall.

So we drive to Jebel Ali and go to look in Geant - guess what, they only have NTSC versions of the fitness suite (well, quelle surprise!) We tried several shops for coats - nothing. Mrs DB decided that I needed some new white shirts for work - this involved walking half the length of the mall only to find the shop we went to didn't have quite what I wanted (apparently). But never mind, as we've come this far we may as well try Sharaf to see if they've go the fitness suite. Have they buggery!

And so to Mercato.

Now Mercato was always on the cards 'cos we had a complaint to make to our bank. Which we duly did - only to discover that our bank was doing nothing wrong at all - the fault lay, and still lies with our insurance company's bank. So our bank could do nothing about it. No joy there then.

So we went in to Spinneys and did the shopping and came home.

Six and a half hours after we set out, with nothing to show for it except some groceries!

What a bloody waste of a day!

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T09:11:00.002+04:00

Who ever you may be, whether you are a regular reader, someone who leaves comments, someone who just lurks or even if this is your first visit to my blog, Happy New Year to you. I hope 2009 brings you all that you wish for. Sadly, I don't think it will... but what the heck - enjoy the good bits of it.

Cheers

Dubaibilly

New Year Resolutions? and some new year plans

2008-12-30T08:30:00.004+04:00

I don't actually do New Year resolutions, I never have, I think they are a total waste of time! I gave up smoking a couple of years ago, but not at new year - I did that in February (still going well). I tend to do things when I want to rather than on some society imposed day. I know that a lot of people will have resolutions, but I wonder how many of them will carry them out?

I do, of course have things that I will be doing in the new year (not least of which is looking for a new job!). For instance, in January I have got a week in Paris - three teachers (me and two others) are taking a group of kids on a trip to EuroDisney to study maths! Good eh! It'll be cold, but I am looking forward to that. Then in February I am going to a teacher recruitment fair in London. Mrs DB is coming with me to that so we will have a weekend away (you never know we might win the lottery whilst we are there). Added to that I have an application in for a school in Hong Kong and I will be applying later today to a school in Shangai. Things are really quite exciting!

And what about New Year's Eve, I hear you ask. I'm not really a New Year's Eve type of person - we are going out, we are going to spend NYE with our friends Ted and Alice (and lots of other people), but to be honest I don't care about it and, if we weren't going out I wouldn't be bothered staying up until midnight.

Other than all that, the only thing I want to do is continue with the diet. Mrs DB and I went on the Atkins diet a few weeks ago and the weight was going down quite well. I lapsed a bit over Christmas - had a lot of carbs and the weight went back on. So I shall be cutting the carbs out in order to get rid of a few kilo's - I only want to lose 4 or 5 kilo's and then get my weight steady, it isn't that much but it will make a difference to me and the way I feel so I will be a bit more strict with myself in the new year - but that isn't a resolution!

Christmas Day

2008-12-27T11:14:00.002+04:00

Christmas Day started quite early for Mrs DB and I - we were up and working at about 7:30 or so. We had 7 guests arriving at 3 pm and we were going to feed them. With both a ham and a goose to roast before then (we only have a small oven so there is no way we could do them both together), all the veggies to prepare, a trifle to make, not to mention finding some time to have breakfast in all the preparation.. we rather had our work cut out!

Dinner was planned for 4 pm with our guests arriving at 3. I don't know how we did it, but Mrs DB and I had just about finished everything when our first guests rang the doorbell. To be honest we were knackered! But a glass of champagne soon picked us up.

From then on we had a lovely time eating, drinking and being merry.

About 7 pm saw the arrival of an eighth guest who had been elsewhere for Christmas dinner, she was just in time to sample our Christmas cake.

We all had a wonderful time - the hard work was well worth it, as was the hangover the next morning!

The weekend before Christmas

2008-12-21T07:42:00.003+04:00

Apart from failing to copy Christmas albums, Mrs DB and I did some nice things this weekend.

Way back in September, we made the Christmas cake. We have been adding brandy to it on a regular basis - only a little at a time and just once every two weeks to give it time to mature - that way the alcohol will bring out the best flavour in the cake rather than dominate all the other flavours (which I believe it does if you put loads of brandy in all at one go). So the cake is nicely matured and ready for the table. We put the marzipan on it last weekend and then we did the icing this weekend.

That having been done, we spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon decorating the tree.

As always I just couldn't resist doing an available light photograph of it and as you can see it turned out... well, maybe OK. I never really manage to get a good available light photo of the tree even though I always try, I dunno why I just don't seem to be able to manage it.

So we have now started the countdown to the big day - we have seven friends coming round to join us for Christmas Dinner and we are really looking forward to that. Two years ago we had friends round for Christmas Dinner and we had a great time, so we are hoping to repeat that. We are going to have stilton and broccoli soup to start, followed by roast goose, roast ham, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sprouts with pancetta and shallots, and ginger and orange glazed carrots. Then we will finish with trifle, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, and of course, cheese and biscuits with port! Lush.

Mrs DB and I have been on a bit of a diet for a few weeks - I think that little lot should undo all the good work, don't you!

Bloody Mac's

2008-12-20T23:06:00.002+04:00

There are times when I get totally pissed off with this bloody iMac of ours!

We've had for ages now (at least 2 years) and you would think I would be used to it by now - but no - not a bit of it! Every now amd then it decides to bite me in the ass and really piss me off! Today was one of those days!

It all started three days ago - Mrs DB came home with three Christmas albums... "copy these for me", she asked. "OK", I replied, all the time thinking "oh, shit, why don't you just ask me to make a compilation album from all the Christmas music we already have."

I kept putting it off.

Today arrived... and went - we went shopping, we played crib, I watched Bolton win against Portsmouth and move up to 9th in the Premier league. We got ready for bed... "Have you copied those CD's?" asked Mrs DB. "No, I'll go and do it now."

2 hours later, one of the CD's is lying on the floor where it bounced after it hit the wall - one is copied and the other?... well, it ain't gonna get copied - not tonight and certainly not by me.

You see, with an iMac, copying a music CD is not as easy as it may seem - you can't just open the CD and copy it onto another CD - unfortunately you have to copy it into iTunes first. Now the first CD I somehow managed to copy into iTunes without putting it into my main music catalogue - I don't know how, but I opened a separate folder for it - copying it was then easy, I just copied the folder onto a blank CD.

The second one was not quite as easy - it point blank refused to be copied into its own folder and insisted on being put in my main music catalogue - to the point where I now have 3 versions of the same CD in my main music catalogue and I don't want any of them. It would not go into a folder by itself and I got so angry with it that it is now lying on the floor as I mentioned earlier - but it isn't the CD that is at fault, it is the bloody Mac. Why one should work perfectly and the other be so intransigent I just don't know, what I do know is that it is a bloody site easier with windows - at least with that if it doesn't work you can throw the damned thing out of one!

Camping in Oman - Day 3

2008-12-13T16:10:00.002+04:00

The previous night was a lot quieter because the wind had dropped and everyone had a good night's sleep. Just as well because day 3 was a busy one!

We had breakfast early and set off at about 10 am for Jebel Shams, which is over 3000 metres high. The road is absolutely spectacular - steep gradients and hairpin bends all the way. It was a great drive and at times I didn't think our car would get up some of the gradients! But at last we reached the top and we were treated to a breathtaking site that I hadn't anticipated - the truth is my photograph doesn't do it justice at all.

It is known as "The Grand Canyon of Oman" - I've never been to the one in Arizona but this was a fantastic sight. I believe that it is an example of amphitheatre -ended canyons. I was at 3000 metres here and I have no idea how deep the canyon was but it was truly beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Eventually we dragged ourselves away and headed back down Jebel Shams (which apparently means "The Mountain of the Sun"). Heading for Misfit Al Abreen - about which a little more later - we stopped twice, once for lunch where we were joined by a very friendly goat who seemed to think that our lunch was as much for him as it was for us. This is Alice feeding our adopted goat.

The second place we stopped was between Jebel Shams and Al Hamra. There were houses built into the hillside - they were fascinating and I just had to get a photo.

Eventually we reached our second destination, Misfit Al Abreen and again we had a road full of hairpin bends to climb to get there - but it was well worth it. Misfit Al Abreen is a village high on a hillside with a terraced plantation below it with many date palms, but also with orange and lemon trees, banana spikes and many other plants. The village is a working village but is also a living museum and attracts many tourists - we were luck that it was fairly quiet when we arrived so we were able to walk around without too many other people getting in the way - yes, I know that is selfish of me, but there you go! I took lots of photographs whilst we were there, these are just three of them

It was a long drive back to the campsite and it was completely dark when we got there - everyone's nerves were a little on edge, but a couple of glasses of wine made everything better. It had been a fantastic day and we all enjoyed ourselves. The next morning we broke camp and set off on the 400 km or so journey back to Dubai. Before we knew it we were back in 'civilisation'. But as I took the final photograph of the trip, I couldn't help wondering if this place will last as long as some of the places I had seen in Oman and, indeed, if it was as impressive as some of them. I thought the answer to both was 'NO' - you might well think differently.

Camping in Oman - Day 2

2008-12-11T14:28:00.003+04:00

It had been a very windy night - the wind didn't penetrate the tents at all and everyone was warm enough, but it made for a noisy night, tent fabric flapping all over the place, the morning came and everyone was knackered!

We started late - the sun was well up before we surfaced and then we dossed around for a while drinking tea and trying to get enough energy going to make breakfast - eventually we got there!

We decided not to have a particularly busy day, but we didn't want to just sit around at the campsite all day, wasting the day doing nothing. We decided on a fairly short trip to Wadi Damm. We took a drive to the wadi and drove part of the way up it and then hiked up to the dam.

Before the dam there was just the occasional little pool, but after it, things got considerably better - though it was fairly obvious that it had not rained in quite some time. Nevertheless there were some lovely little waterfalls,

and some reasonably sized pools.

We spent a little while by the water and then hiked back down the wadi and stopped to have lunch in the shade of a lovely big tree where we had parked the cars.

Just behind the tree was a falaj running from the pools and down the whole length of the wadi to an oasis at the bottom. The running water attracted all manner of insect life including some beautiful dragonflies. In addition to the red ones, there were also some that were a beautiful shade of powder blue - but the red ones made the better photograph.

After lunch we drove back to the campsite, getting back round about 4 pm. As the sun dropped behind the mountains the cold set in quite quickly, so we lit the fire early and got on with the dinner. Mrs DB (being a South African) is a remarkable outdoors cook! That night she made beans bredie in the potjie. Beans bredie is a stew made with neck of lamb, runner beans, potatoes and onions and it is delicious! A potjie is pronounced poikee and is a South African three legged cast iron cooking pot which is just like a witches caulron. So the components of the stew were put in the potjie and then it was cooked on the campfire. It was delicious! If you have been a long time reader, you will know how much I enjoy available light photography - this is the potjie bubbling away on the camp fire.

And so we reached the end of the day, but before turning in, just look at those stars - I just can't resist the opportunity of trying to get them - you should be able to see orion and the plough and isn't that cassiopea down near the bottom?

I'll tell you about the next day later.

Camping in Oman

2008-12-10T10:51:00.002+04:00

Mrs Dubaibilly and I and two of our very good friends, Ted and Alice, have just got back from a three night camp in Oman. What a super time we had! (those of you who have been reading this blog since the start will remember that the four of us went camping at this time last year, that time for a two night camp in Liwa).

I am ashamed to say it, but after 12 years in the UAE this is the first time I have ever been to Oman - well apart from passing through Omani enclaves within the UAE. I am well pleased that I went and so is Mrs. DB.

We left at about 5 am to avoid queues at the border (which worked) and we crossed the border at Jebel Hafeet - I didn't even know there was a border post there! I thought the only border in the Al Ain area was at Al Baraimi - clearly not, there is Hafeet and also another one at Hili. We chose Hafeet and went through the border with minimum fuss and delay. Just over the border we stopped at a beautiful Omani fort and had some breakfast.

After breakfast we continued on our journey heading for the Hajar Mountains (which, in Oman, can reach up to 3000 metres). A lot of the scenery was fairly bland, but once we reached the mountains it suddenly became quite spectacular! This mountain was a central feature of the area in which we camped and explored.

On our way to finding our camp site, we stopped at the Beehive tombs at Al Ayn (no, not Al Ain, that is in the UAE). There are two sets of these tombs in this area of Oman, they date back to 3000 years BC!

Eventually we decided to move on and found ourselves a nice little camp site about an hour further on into the mountains. It might look nice a bright - but when the sun went down it was bitterly cold - especially with the wind blowing which it was on the first night!

Keeping well wrapped up was definitely the order of the day (or night), Mrs Dubaibilly here demonstrates camping sartorial elegance!

Right, at this stage I am going to stop for a while. The first day of the camp is over and I'll tell you the rest and put some more pictures up later.

Cheers.

It has been a while...

2008-12-10T10:22:00.002+04:00

since I last blogged - September the 25th to be exact and I have had a few people asking me when I was going to start again and if anything was wrong. Thank you for your concern kind people.

So, where have I been?

Well, pretty much since starting back at school in August I have been working 11 and 12 hour days and seven days a week - not much time in that for blogging. Somewhere in the middle of that lot the school had a holiday for a week and I was in every day of the holidays trying to catch up with the amount of work put on me by my boss. School teachers have an easy life? Being a Deputy Principal at our school seems to mean giving up your life completely and working ludicrous hours to satisfy the demands of a boss who doesn't seem to understand that people have families that they ned to devote some time to!

Anyway, things have eased up a little recently - on December 1st I was called into his office to be told that I do not fit in with the way the school is headed and given the option of either resigning or being 'terminated' at the end of the school year. To be fair, I was looking for a new job anyway, but I would have preferred to leave on my terms rather than his.

The upshot of this is, of course, no more 12 hour days, no more seven days a week and no more working through the holidays.

So I have got time to start blogging again.

And time to start looking at other people's blogs again. I haven't even looked at blogs for a long time now, so I have a lot of catching up to do with friends in the blogosphere.

And I am looking forward to it - as I am also looking forward to the job hunt - anybody know of an international school that could do with a good Head or Deputy?

The Omnivore's 100

2008-09-25T19:12:00.003+04:00

I first came across this on Lulu's blog, but since then it has popped up on several others, so I thought, what the heck and decided to do it myself.

This is what you do and here are the results:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. I don't know how to cross things out - I will make them italic instead and maybe someone can tell me how to do crossed out text
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros - don't fancy this, eggs and peppers - might try it but...
4. Steak tartare once, but never again
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding LUSH! First had this when I was 4 from a stand outside of Gigg Lane, Bury Football Club ground - my first ever football match and my first black pudding - heaven (except Bolton lost)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht Cooked by a lithuanian - delicious!
10. Baba ghanoush - dunno what this is and I am too busy to go to Wiki
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses - dunno about this, I've tried some pretty smelly cheese so I may have - I would given the chance
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Mmmm, some nice stuff too.
19. Steamed pork buns - steamed pork on a bun? or...
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom ?tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese - when I was a child (under duress) -never again
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda - see 10
31. Wasabi peas - dunno what the first bit is.
32. Clam chowder not in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Prefer coke float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O - not yet
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail One of my favourite meals
41. Curried goat and uncurried goat
42. Whole insects only by accident
43. Phaal - And this is?
44. Goat’s milk preferably in the form of Feta cheese
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - close but not that much, but I have drank brandy from a bottle costing 3 time that,
46. Fugu?
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut but I don't like them
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear A pain to handle and peal but delicious cold from the fridge
52. Umeboshi?
53. Abalone
54. Paneer?
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal I will admit to this, but I haven't been in a MacDonalds for years and will never eat this again, what is the point, it only cardboard with the flavouring removed
56. Spaetzle?
57. Dirty gin martini I don't understand the dirty bit, but anyway my ex made wonderful gin martinis
58. Beer above 8% ABV Possibly too many of them
59. Poutine - see 10
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolinassuming that this is the stuff that goes in maalox!
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - dunno about this, there is a bisuit/cake thing that I love that Mrs DB calls pigs ears - would that be the asme stuff?
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho - this is almost italic
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche? absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost?
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu?
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky?
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. FlowersI've had many pints of this and got banned from a pub in York for eating chrysanthemums
89. Horse- once, never again
90. Criollo? chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa?
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Some pics of our home (2)

2008-09-20T08:26:00.006+04:00

OK, as promised, some more pics of our home - this is the bottom floor (assuming that you don't count the cellar.

Now, as you come in at the back door ('cos we always use "the tradesman's entrance"), these stairs are directly in front of you. On the right (out of shot) is the entrance to the cellar. At the top of the first flight there are two doors to the right, one leads into the dining room and one into the kitchen. You can see the main bathroom directly in front - that is next to the kitchen. At the top of the second flight of stairs (and to the left when you get to the top) is the front door which I mentioned in the first set of pics of our house, here. The floors and ceilings are both traditionally Skopolitan.

This is the dining room and it is the most important room in the house to Mrs DB and I. When we are there we spend most of our time in here - apart from eating and drinking, this is where we play cards and backgammon, it is where we watch the world go by, it is where people will look in through the windows and ask directions to the Castro or where Dmitri pauses to say hello on his way to work in the evening (he works a the Vraxos Bar which has a fantastic location giving it stunning views across the harbour and he is late every night!). I can stand upright in the window and I like to stand there in the morning when it is still cool and watch the comings and goings in the little square in front of the house.

This is the view from the window looking into the kitchen, the ceiling is about 2 metres high, but if you are any taller than about 180 cm you need to watch out for that beam - it is pretty solid! Fortunately I am about 172 cm and therefore safe - but the lampshade tends to get me every now and then if I am not careful when I get up from the table.

And finally, this is the picture looking from the kitchen into the dining room - we refer to the window as Uncle Sam's window because when Uncle Sam and Aunty Beeb came to stay with us there a couple of years ago, Uncle Sam would put his chair by the window and spend hours just watching the world go by and chatting to the people who went by, tourist and locals alike without an concern that they couldn't understand each other - that was a lovely time and we are hoping to repeat it in Summer 2009.

The cheapest car repair ever!

2008-09-15T18:08:00.002+04:00

Oh dear!

The Pajero was ill...

I had to take it to the karma mechanic (5 points if you can say where that phrase comes from - no, don't be looking it up, it's an easy one).

This is the story...

I got in the car the other day and drove it to work - 100 kph down SZR and it's fine - takes the slip road and eases off the accelerator to slow down for the up coming roundabout - revs fell to 0, zilch, nada! Car stalled on me. Steering went really heavy.

It's an automatic - to start it again I have to put it in park which entails coming to a complete halt. Car starts, no probs. But, every time I take my foot off the accelerator the same thing happens.

Start getting worried about this.

Friday morning (the quietest day of the week here) I drove it to the main dealers (no, it is not still under warranty, it is about nine years old, but I can't afford to replace it, don't even want to replace it). So I take it to the main dealers with Mrs DB following me to give me a lift home (via the shops where she could relieve me of even more of my wealth! But I digress...) All the way it is fine whilst I keep my foot on the accelerator but take it off and it tries to stall. I had to drive it with my right foot controlling the accelerator and my left controlling the brake (hence the reason that I chose the quietest time of the week to take it in).

Saturday saw me back at the garage booking it in and explaining to this guy what is happening. By now I am thinking "New automatic clutch mechanism, new automatic gearbox, new engine, plenty-several thousand dirhams job).

"We will phone you when we know what is wrong, Mr Dubaibilly". Yeah, right, I'll look forward to it.

Anyway, the next day was Sunday and I was back at work. My phone rang. The Pajero people.

"Mr Dubaibilly, you can collect your car now if you like".

"How much is it"

"85 dirhams".

"I'm sorry I must have misheard you, I thought you said 85 dirhams".

"Yes, that's right, sir".

"What, eight five with no zero's?"

"Yes, sir".

"Thank you, I'll come and get it then, bye".

Now, 85 dirhams is 23.15 US dollars, 12.94 GB pounds or 16.31 Euros, depending where you are.

I am gobsmacked!

Apparently all that was required was the throttle body and the idling control needed cleaning.

Thank you Al Habtoor Motors who could have really ripped me off but didn't. I think that is the cheapest non-warranty car repair I have had in my entire life!

Some pics of our home

2008-09-11T17:46:00.002+04:00

I promised you a little while ago that I would put up some pics of the inside of our house - so these are the first two.

These are photo's of the lounge. Now, the house has a cellar and three floors. so, if we discount the cellar, this would be on the middle floor.

Having said that, in the second picture you can see the "front door". The "front door" is on the back of the house, the "back door" which leads to the kitchen and dining room is on the front of the house and there is a staircase between the two. Given that both doors are at street level, you get some idea of how steep some of the streets in Skopelos Town really are!

The empty bookcase in the first picture is just waiting until we have filled up the other bookcase - Mrs DB makes me carry about a hundredweight of books in one of the suitcases every time we go there! Anyway, as I said, this is the lounge, I'll put some more pics up later.

Greek Night

2008-09-05T17:25:00.002+04:00

It is Friday evening and in about two hours 6 of our friends will descend on us for a dinner party. Mrs DB and I have decided to have a greek night - not that everything will be Greek, but I don't suppose our guests will know. We've done these a couple of times before and they have always been successful (ask Keefieboy). I usually do a menu in an odd mixture of Greek, transliterated Greek and what I can only describe as Greeklish, and I always put a Skopelitan scene on it as a background. This is tonight's menu:

Now I know that I have some native Greeks who come on here (for example Lulu) and people who are fluent Greek speakers (like Kat) so I hope they will be kind enough to forgive my torturing of the Greek language! My menu's are meant to be fun and I have had guests take them home in the past!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a good night - much of which will , no doubt, be totally lost in an alcoholic haze by tomorrow!

Yammas! and that isn't the correct spelling either!

Images of Skopelos

2008-09-01T17:21:00.003+04:00

I promised you some photo's of Skopelos that I took while on holiday. To be honest, blogging has taken a bit of a back seat since coming back to Dubai. The last two and a half weeks have been really busy getting the school set up for the new year. We had a lot of new staff this year and the changes have made things a bit more difficult than a normal start to the school year for yours truly. Never mind, things will settle down soon, the new staff are beginning to find their feet and find their way around the place - soon they will have to cope because the kids come in on Sunday. We are in Ramadan now and our hours are supposed to be shorter - officially we work from 8 until 1, but for me it was start at 7:30 and finish at 4 and no break for lunch - ah well, when Ramadan is over I guess I will be back to normal - in by 7 and leave at about 5 or even later and still no break for lunch - it is just a matter of getting used to it!

And I shouldn't be using it as an excuse for not blogging. Mrs DB and I (her working hours are every bit as bad if not worse than mine) have agreed to not moan about our day at work to each other no matter how bad it has been - I wonder how long we will last!

Anyway, I promised you some pics, so here they are:

This is one of the many beautiful churches on the island - and look at that sky, what a fabulous shade of blue - and yes, it really was that colour!

You just have to love the Greeks - the amount of rusty or battered feta cheese cans or olive oil cans that enjoy a long and serviceable life, standing outside someone's house, doubling as a flower pot is amazing! Me, I prefer terracotta, but I find something really rustic in scenes like these. And, hey, far be it from me to tell people what they can use for their geraniums.

This is the view from the top of the town looking down to the harbour and across to the hills beyond. Are you jealous yet?

Well, as promised, these are some of the pix - I may post a few more in a few days. I have also promised to put up a few pix of the inside of the house which I will, but not today.

Skopelos cats

2008-08-24T17:19:00.003+04:00

Cats abound on Skopelos. They are everywhere! Now if, like me, you are a cat lover then that is a good thing - I have no problem with them cadging food from the tables in the pavement tavernas. I guess some people may not like it, but it doesn't bother me. What does worry me is the huge number of kittens on the island - I guess they keep the mice and rats down, but I wonder what the mortality rate is amongst kittens - I suspect it must be huge. Anyway, no kittens, but here are some of the cat photographs I took whilst wandering round the streets of Skopelos Town in August.

The one in the right hand picture above is coming through my kitchen window, which is at street level.

I am sure you will agree that, although most of them are 'street cats' and pretty feral, they all seem to be reasonably well fed. I wonder though how they will survive a harsh winter, because there can be some pretty nasty weather on Skopelos during the winter.

Sartorial Elegance

2008-08-23T08:40:00.002+04:00

I think sartorially challenged may be more accurate. Anyway, here it is - cold weather gear in South Africa!

OK, maybe, just maybe, I look dreadful! But, two things, 1) it's comfortable and 2) it's warm. Given that I have lived in Dubai for 11 years now, you will, of course, understand that I have very little that can be described as warm weather clothing!

I also have the other tracksuit to this one, the yellow top and orange pants - that one has a hooded top, but I don't have any pix.

Why these colours? That was all they had!

Back in Dubai

2008-08-18T16:55:00.002+04:00

Well, that is it, the holiday is over and we are back, hard at work, in Dubai. We got back on Friday, had Satruday off (What a great time to get back - just in time to watch Bolton thrash Stoke 3 - 1 in the first game of the season!)

This is my first post since getting back and I probably won't do any more until the weekend.

Everybody wanted photo's so I have spent a few hours stitching this panorama of Skopelos Town and Harbour together for you:

I have got a nice set of pics of Greek cats which I shall put up later and I will also be posting some pix of the inside of our little island home - not forgetting the promised picture of me in my dead posh track suit with an orange top and yellow trousers! Watch this space!

Skopelos

2008-08-01T13:16:00.002+04:00

At last! Here we are! For the first time since starting this blog we are back on our beloved island of Skopelos! Wonderful!

It seems so long since we were here last - and it won't be long until we are gone - but it is great to be home!

My God, though, what a journey. We left Aunty Beeb's house in Somerset west at 3pm (CAT)on Monday and opened our front door at 4 pm (CET) on Wednesday. For those who are time zone challenged, CET is 1 hour ahead of CAT so our journey took exactly 48 hours door-to-door, remarkably, to the minute! At least on my watch anyway. And guess what, 24 hours later, the bags arrived! Clearly a 5 hour transfer in Dubai was just a little bit too much for the baggage handlers in DXB to come to terms with! We were smelly when we arrived, but we did have clothes in our Skopelos home to change into. Sadly, since last year when we left them, the Dubaibilly's have put on a kilo or two and an inch or two - fortunately there were a few things that still fit us so we could shower and change! It was a relief when our bags finally did arrive though.

An update on Uncle Sam... he is now sitting up, eating, talking and having physio - great news, he is well on the way to recovery and I am sure he and Aunty Beeb will be with us on Skopelos next year.

Gotta go - Mrs DB is lying by the pool and I have been summonsed! Catch ya later!

Photoshop Talent

2008-07-24T14:30:00.002+04:00

Take a look at the side bar, under "Other places that I like to visit regularly" is an entry for "PST - Photoshop Talent - competitions and lots of Tutorials".

Now, this is how the competitions work, they have three levels "Advanced", "All users" and "Beginners" (Beginners means beginner to PST not necessarily to Photoshop. I sometimes have a go at the comps if a I feel inspired by the competition and b I can find the time.

The last competition I entered was called Tropical Bird and was a photograph of a toucan in a cage - the object was to work with the photograph and Photoshop to produce something different. I have a photo of a log reflected in a river that I took a few years ago in Malaysia. I extracted the toucan from the original photo and put it into my own photo and called the composition Freebird. I am dead chuffed 'cos I came second! The highest I have ever finished in a PST comp.

Please take a moment to visit the competition here.

The first photo on there is the original, the second photo is the one which won the comp and the third photo is mine.

Cape town Update

2008-07-24T14:04:00.002+04:00

Well, I hadn't intended blogging any more from KaapStaad, but here I am - what does this indicate?

A. I'm a sad git who can't stay away from his blog?
or
B. I'm a lucky git 'cos Mrs DB is shopping and I have been given the freedom of not trolling round every shop in Somerset Mall (providing I promise to stay in the internet cafe where she can find me when she has finished!)

So, what has been happening - not a right lot to be honest, Mrs DB and I are having a very well deserved rest!

Uncle Sam, unfortunately is still in hospital - he had his right leg amputated just below the knee yesterday afternoon. God, diabetes is a bastard of a disease. Anyway, he is very weak at the moment and is fairly well zonked on the pain killers that they are feeding him from an intraveinous drip. So, if you are the praying type, please say one for Uncle Sam. The surgeion saw him this morning and pronounced himself satisfied that the op had gone well. He has to go back into theatre on Friday or Saturday to have the wound sewn up and should (hopefully) be on the mend after that.

Saturday is the big day ... Aunty Beeb and Uncle Sam's 50th wedding anniversary, so Me, Mrs DB, Aunty Beeb, Cousins Hinge and Bracket and husbands and offspring are going to go to the hospital en masse and have a quiet celebration in Uncle Sam's room (and who cares what the doctor and nurses think!)

Mrs DB and I are going to take Aunty Beeb out for dinner tonight, we are going to a place called Cattle Baron. Don't follow the link if you are a vegitarian! That is something to look forward to and should take Aunty Beeb's mind of her problems for a few hours.

Right, now last time I was blogging I said I had another entry to write, but then Mrs DB turned up before I could get started, so I will stop this entry now and get on with the other one!

On Holiday in Cape Town

2008-07-22T14:42:00.003+04:00

Well, not exactly Cape Town, we are in a little town just outside of CT - a place called Somerset West which is close to Stellenbosch (yep, where the wine comes from).

God, it is cold down here! Clear blue skies, plenty of sunshine, windy and bloody cold, especially when you are out of the sun. Of course, the locals are wandering around in shorts and T-shirts as if it is the middle of summer - well, it's alright for them, they haven't just flown in from Dubai where the temperature is in the 40's with shedfulls (or should that be shedsful) of humidity.

Anyway, plaudits to Emirates Airline. Brilliant flight down here. Now those who have known me for some time will be aware that I am not shy about criticising Emirates and I am certainly not their biggest fan, but I have to give credit where it is due... the trip down here was probably the best flight I have been on for ages!

Check in at Dubai was dead easy - no hassle whatsoever. Breakfast in the Irish Village at the airport was a bit fraught - the waiters were rushed off their feet 'cos the place was so busy, but I guess I can live with that, at least I got breakfast. The boarding was no problem - we even got to put our baggage in the correct overhead locker (not always that easy, in my experience). The plane was about 5 minutes late taking off... let's face it, boys and girls, 5 minutes late is comparitively early for a flight getting off these days. It arrived in Cape Town a full HOUR early! I watched two movies (couldn't possibly tell you anything about either of them because neither was particularly memorable... one of them had Nic Cage as some kind of a treasure hunter - it was like a low budget Raiders of the Lost Ark - I have not idea what the other was about. Mrs DB and I played each other at backgammon on the inflight entertainment system - that is great that you can play games against somone else on the flight (small things...). The food was reasonable - don't get me wrong, it wasn't lip-smacking great or anything, but it was OK. All in all a pleasant flight - so thank you to Emirates Airlines.

We arrived at Cape Town and went quickly and smoothly through immigration, which was an improvement on my previous experience of South African Immigration officials. The lady was very pleasant. By the time we were through immigration the bags were already going round the carousel - brilliant. I guess it took about 30 mins from landing to exiting the airport. Very impressive. Well done Cape Town International Airport.

So, why are we in Cape Town and not Skopelos?

Well, avid readers will be aware that Mrs DB's aunt and uncle are going to be celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary this coming weekend (the 26th of July), so we came to celebrate with them.

So, names changed to proctect the innocent as usual - Uncle Sam and Aunty Beeb, counsins Hinge and Brackett and their respective husbands and offspring (is offspring one of those words like "sheep" that is both singular and plural, 'cos offsprings doesn't look right... in fact I think I will change it. There, that's better) are the relly's down here, so now you will know who I mean if any of them get a mention.

So, Aunty Beeb and Brackett's husband picked us up at the airport and transported us round to Somerset West, where we found Uncle Sam ill in bed. Very ill. Uncle Sam has had problems for a while now, he had the toes of his right foot amputated in June and has been struggling to recover. I really do think that it has been touch and go since then and I was quite shocked to see how ill he looked. He did manage to get up for a little while, half an hour or so to have a chat with us, but, the effort was way too much for him. The problem is that he isn't eating and his resistance is very low. Everyone is trying to help but nothing seems to be working.

The next morning saw Uncle Sam looking a bit brighter, and once again he got up and came to sit and chat with us - once again this was really too much for him and within half an hour he went back to bed. Later on we went to sit in his room and we all watched the British Open - he seemed to enjoy it.

On Monday he was supposed to go to see the surgeon to see how his foot was healing - sadly he was in a terrible state and there was no way we could take him to the surgeon, we ended up having to get an ambulance and now Uncle Sam is back in hospital. He was looking much better last night when we visited - I think the anti-biotics he had been taking were not working properly and his wound had become infected. They had him on an anti-biotic drip yesterday and that seemed to have kicked in. Today he has to have an op to have the wound cleaned up - I don't think he is looking forward to it. The nurse said this op is "no big deal" - easy for her to say, she isn't the one having it! Anyway, we are all hoping that he recovers, but I don't think he will be out of hospital before Mrs DB and I leave. Poor Aunty Beeb is frantic.

So we went round to the other cousin (Hinge) last night and had a very pleasant evening eating cold take-away pizza and drinking delightful wine by a roaring log fire - what a great night! See, life goes on.

We are out shopping now - or at least Mrs DB is - she has parked me off in the internet cafe while she shops! At least it gives me chance to write this.

I do have another entry to make, which I shall do in a minute and then I think that will probably be it until we get to Skopelos.

I'm just going to read through this before I post it...

I forgot to tell you, (you'll love this) - we went to some cheap clothes shop and bought fleecy tracksuits - I got two, one orange and one yellow, but the yellow top turned out to be a different colour of yellow than the trousers! So, I have split the two and wear either a yellow jacket with orange trousers or an orange jacket with yellow trousers - not haute couture to be sure - but great for lounging round the house with. Once I get back to Dubai (15 August) I promise I will post a picture of me in this ridiculous garb!

Nearly Holiday Time

2008-07-16T09:02:00.002+04:00

Well, it is Wednesday morning, not long to go! Getting excited now!

We are off on Saturday morning - first down to Cape Town for 10 days (we are going to a Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration... Does anyone know what you buy as a gift for a couple who have been married for 50 years? I don't think I have ever known a couple who have reached such a milestone! Well other than the couple whose GWA we are going to CT for!)

Then, after CT we make the big journey:

Cape Town > Dubai >Athens >Skopelos.

This journey starts on the 28th of July and finishes on the 30th of July, Cape Town to Dubai is about 10 hours, Dubai to Athens is about 5 hours, Athens to Skopelos is about 7 hours. How much fun is that going to be?

Please note that the last question was rhetorical!

Sadly, we will only be on our island home for two weeks and then it is back to Dubai to start work again as both of us start on the 17th August!

I don't think I will blog from Cape Town, but I probably will blog from Skopelos - once I have woken up after the journey!

Another coulis

2008-07-11T09:11:00.002+04:00

You may recall that I made a delicious raspberry and blackberry coulis (get the recipe here), well today Mrs DB and I are going to do the same thing, but with peaches. This time though, instead of the vodka we are going to put in just a single measure of whisky. Should be good!

Lurking

2008-07-08T21:29:00.002+04:00

I've been lurking on a blog in the UK for about 6 weeks now and have decided that it is time to put it on my list. This is another one that I found, indirectly, from jin.

So, follow this link and drop in on the regulars at the Merrie Monk Pub somewhere in Leicestershire (I think). Tuesday is a good day to go, 'cos John puts jokes up on a Tuesday and you don't have to know the locals to enjoy the joke.

United?

2008-07-07T08:14:00.003+04:00

11 Years ago - give or take a month - I arrived in the United Arab Emirates. I went to live in Ras Al Khaimah, a little industrial town in the north of the country. A town not entirely unlike Bolton, but with sunshine!

About a year later, I decided that I really ought to stop driving on my British licence and get an Emirati driving licence. So I did. It wasn't a big deal, I had just been too lazy to actually go and get it.

Another year passed and I moved to Dubai, where I have lived and worked ever since.

My driving licence has now expired and I have not got any less lazy... It expired about two weeks ago and, eventually, yesterday I went to the Roads, Trains and Automobiles shop to get a replacement.

So, I walked in, the very helpful young man looked at me (which I took to mean "Good morning, sir, may I help you").

"I'd like to renew my driving licence please".

He held out is hand presumably to take the licence - this guy has definitely not been to charm school.

"This is Ras Al Khaimah licence", he said giving it back to me.

"Yes," said I, "and I'd like to renew it with a Dubai one please".

"You renew this in Ras Al Khaimah."

"But I don't live there, I live here, in Dubai and have done for 9 years."

"You renew this in Ras Al Khaimah."

"?"

"You have Dubai residency?"

"Yes." Ahh, now we are getting somewhere, the guy is going to try and be helpful.

"You need no objections letter to transfer your licence to Dubai."

"OK, no problem, where do I get this no objections letter from?"

"Ras Al Khaimah!"

"Thanks, bye."

I wonder how long I can get away with driving without a licence?

There are times when I think Dis-united should be the first word in this country's name!

A new Skopelos site

2008-07-04T09:33:00.002+04:00

Kat emailed me this morning with a new site all about Skopelos that she had found. It is the University of Florida School of Art and Art History at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts - you may be interested in checking out some artists impressions of the island Mrs DB and I choose to call home. You can find them here

Don't You Just Love It When They Change The Rules!

2008-07-03T10:29:00.002+04:00

So I went to renew my e-gate card this morning. Now, this is not the first time I have done this, this will be my third e-gate card.

So this morning I got my passport and photocopied it - details page and residence visa page and walked to Dnata. I live next door... about 750 metres away, not far except it is around 40 C at the moment.

So in I goes and sits myself down and the lady says, "Do you have your original passport?". Now the temptation to say, "No, I no longer have that one, the one I have is my fourth." was great, but I decided against it and instead said, "Don't you mean a photocopy of my passport?"

"No," she said, "We have changed the rules, now you need your original passport."

So I walked home and now have to walk back again clutching my passport. My 4th passport. I really do hope she doesn't mean original when she says original.

What Was it?

2008-07-03T08:34:00.002+04:00

This wonderful little device is... a garlic peeler.

You place a clove of garlic in it. Roll it a couple of times on a flat surface and it takes the skin off the garlic. And it works brilliantly.

So huge kudos goes to CaliforniaKat who was the first to get it right and not quite so huge kudos goes to Grumpy Goat who got pipped at the post.

At the same rate, there should be another thrilling installment of What Is It? sometime around the beginning of February!

A little joke for you

2008-07-01T13:30:00.003+04:00

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices an attractive woman waving at him. She says hello. He's rather taken aback because he can't place where he knows her from.

So he says, 'Do you know me?'

To which she replies, 'I think you're the the father of one of my kids.'

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, 'Are you the stripper from the bachelor party that I made love to on the pool table with all my buddies watching while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery?

She looks into his eyes and says calmly...

'No. I'm your son's teacher.'

What is it? Number 2 in an occasional series...

2008-06-30T16:32:00.003+04:00

So, this is the second in my occasional series of "What Is It?" The first was at the back end of January, so you get an idea of how occasional this series is. Grumpy Goat won the last one and so has a reputation to keep up! Lots of kudos on offer for the winner.

This one doesn't just come with photo's, it also comes with clues in the form of a description, so I guess it should really be called What is it for?, but it isn't!

So, without further ado, what is it?

It is a blue rubber tube, about 7 to 8 cm long and about 2 to 3 cm in diameter.

The tube is hollow, the rubber is soft and is about 1 to 2 mm thick.

There is a pattern cut into each end.

Mrs DB brought it home and, upon being told what it was for, I just had to try it to see if it worked - it does, very well.

So, What Is It? or to be more exact, What Is It For?

Today's cooking

2008-06-30T14:45:00.002+04:00

I am just going to rustle up a quick Agni Me Fasolakia for dinner.

This is an adaptation of Lulu's recipe Moschari Me Fasolakia which can be found here.

In case you are wondering, by the way and can't be bothered following the links, agni me fasolakia is lamb with green beens and moschari me fasolakia is beef with green beens.

I think that both will be lovely.

Congratulations!

2008-06-30T07:33:00.002+04:00

To the newly crowned Champions of Europe, for so long they have been the perennial under-achievers in European football, but last night they finally came good with a 1 - 0 triumph over Germany.

Viva Espana

A delicious addition to ice cream

2008-06-29T21:38:00.003+04:00

Having a bit more time on my hands, I decided to make a blackberry and raspberry coulis today to pour over ice cream after dinner.

This is how:

150 g raspberries
150 g blackberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 heaped teaspoon cornflour
a little water
1 standard measure vodka

Puree the raspberries and blackberries together and then strain them through a sieve into a pan.
Mix the cornflour with the water to make a runny paste and add it and the sugar to the puree.
Cook on a low heat stirring constantly.
When the mixture starts to bubble and thicken, immediately remove it from the heat.
Add the vodka and stir in well.
Transfer the coulis to something from which it can be poured.

Allow to cool and pour it over good vanilla ice cream. It is delicious.

You can substitute the blackberries with strawberries (indeed you could probably do any combination).

If you have guests round for dinner, it is fun to watch them fighting over the last of it!

The Summer Holidays

2008-06-29T21:17:00.002+04:00

As you know by now, I am a teacher and so I am happy to report that the summer holidays have arrived. We finished on Thursday; Friday and Saturday were the weekend, so today was the first day of that long, long holiday that teachers call summer. You know, the one were we get 4 months sat at home or lazing on a beach somewhere...

So what did I do on the first day of my holidays? Yep, you guessed, i went to work! This is the time of year when I catch up on the mountain of paperwork that has built up over the last year - I made a start on excavating my desk today! I will certainly be in for the next week. The only difference is that instead of starting at 06:45 and finishing at 17:30 and not having a break (as is my normal working day), I can now go in at a leisurely 08:00 and finish at 14:30. Because I can now get on with my work without being interrupted every couple of minutes for the entire day.

So that you don't get confused, although I am a teacher, I am one of the Deputy Principals in the school and so my job is more administrative these days (although I do still teach and will continue to do so).

Anyway, I don't suppose I will finish much before the 8th or 9th of July and I am back in on the 17th August, so my 4 months is cut down a little. Never mind, I am looking forward to getting away for a while.

Mrs DB and I are going to spend a few days in Cape Town and about two weeks on Skopelos, and we just can't wait!

Travels In Xanadu-du by Keef Williamson

2008-06-28T09:06:00.002+04:00

Right then, this morning I finished reading Travels in Xanadu-du by Keef Williamson. Not bad considering the last book took me two and a half months to read - this one only took me a week.

So what can I say about it? Well, when I first started it I was put off because I know the author personally and have done for many years - so whilst I was reading, I could hear Keef's turn of phrase all the time - now I've never known another author so obviously I always put my own interpretation on the linguistic nuances that I am reading and I wasn't able to do that this time. Eventually I got over that and got into the story - I would say that I very much enjoyed middle half of the book, I wanted to know what was going to happen to Abimbola and the rest of the gang next and didn't want to put it down. Towards the end though, I got the impression that Keef just wanted it to end. A pity really because it could have ended a lot more strongly than it did

Great literature this isn't, but then it never has any pretensions to be... it is an easy story that doesn't take any effort on the part of the reader (except for the need to refer to the map now and again when you get lost in the geography). I would recommend it for a read on the plane or on the beach, but if your taste in books is Charles Dickens, forget it!

All in all I think it is a good first effort by Keef and I believe that he is currently writing a follow up. I think this is good because it will give him a chance to work on some much needed character development for some of the leading characters who will be travelling in the future of Xanadu-du.

You can buy the book here and personally I think you could very definitely do worse than give it a go.

The Transfer Market

2008-06-28T08:55:00.002+04:00

Well, I have to say I am impressed with Bolton's summer signings so far, somewhere in the region of 5 million pounds for Fabrice Muamba from Birmingham City was a good start - this England under-21 international will certainly strengthen our midfield and now it has been announced that we have bought Johan Elmander from Toulouse in a deal worth about 10 million pounds! Elmander is a striker (very much needed at Bolton) who is a full international with Sweden.

I think that both these signings show ambition for the club and perhaps we are not going to be quite as involved in next years relegation battle as we were this season.

Apparently there are still going to be more signings before the season starts - it really does look like Phil Gartside (Chairman) is pushing to keep the club in the Premier League - let's face it having relegation as an ambition would be akin to madness. I am looking forward to the start of the season and, whilst I would be happy with mid-table mediocrity for a change, it would be lovely to be challenging for a Uefa cup place at the end of the season.

How Many?

2008-06-27T00:28:00.002+04:00

We were out at dinner tonight and, of course, the subject of what we did for a living came up.

So Joe said, "You're a mathematician then, DB?"

"Yeh."

"Y'know, there are only three kinds of people in the world, those who understand maths and those who don't."

Absolute class.

I wish I'd though of it!

The New Salik Gate

2008-06-22T18:17:00.003+04:00

Interesting location for the new Salik Toll Gate on Shk Zayed Road, then. Just before the entrance to the road from the Business Bay Community! That's right, if you are already on SZR you get charged (quite possibly again), but if you are coming out of Business Bay onto SZR, you don't. Gonna be an awful lot of people living there that the RTA have managed to miss - one wonders who lives there now that has that kind of wasta?

A Change of Books

2008-06-21T13:05:00.002+04:00

I feel like I have been reading Duma Key forever!

It is Stephen King's latest offering and, on the whole, I enjoyed it, but I can't remember it taking me so long to read a book before! Of course, I started it about two days before keefieboy's book arrived in the post and I have been ploughing through Mr King's novel whilst all the time knowing that what I actually wanted to read was Keefs book.

So, Travels In Xanadu-du shall be promoted from it's place on the bedside cabinet and I shall, at last, find out what my mate writes like.

I'll let you know, Keefieboy!

The New Season's Fixtures

2008-06-20T09:25:00.002+04:00

So, the Premier League fixtures for the 2008/09 season are now out and my beloved Bolton Wanderers start off their campaign with a home match against newly promoted Stoke City on the 16th of August (the day after I get back from holiday, so I shall be able to watch that one!)

I've got to say that newly promoted teams worry me. I can remember us getting promoted to the Premier League and thrashing Leicester City 5 - 0 (and I think that was at Leicester). The newly promoted teams often seem to bring some impetus with them from their promotion campaign, usually it disappears after a few matches and the reality of struggling to survive sets in. But there can be some really odd results in the early days of the season.

Bolton managed to survive a relegation battle by the skin of their teeth last season, and whilst it was exciting, it wasn't much fun! I would not be surprised to see us battling again this season (of course, I'd like to be able to say that we will be battling for a place in Europe, but...) so getting three points against the newly promoted teams at home is an absolute necessity.

Time will tell...

Blatant Profiteering?

2008-06-13T15:19:00.003+04:00

Things become clearer...

So, we've just got back from Spinney's with the shopping. Still no ginger ale! But the reason why has become a little more apparent.

There are cans of Schweppes tonic, bitter lemon and soda water; next to them there are bottles of the same products plus bottles of dry ginger, all by the same manufacturer.

6 x 330 ml cans in a shrink-wrapped pack costs AED 5.25 or AED 0.875 per 330 ml.
4 x 330 ml bottles in a shrink-wrapped pack costs AED 18.50 or AED 4.625 per 330 ml.

This represents a difference of AED 3.75 per 330 ml for precisely the same stuff!

To put that another way, the bottles cost 428.57% more per equivalent amount than the cans!

That, to my mind, is blatant profiteering, either by Spinney's, or by Schweppes or by both.

I wonder how long it will be before the cans of tonic, bitter lemon and soda water disappear from the shelves, just like the dry ginger already has.

If you are reading this and you work for either Spinney's or Schweppes, I challenge you to reply!