You will all be extremely pleased to know that as a conscientious, law-abiding Qatar University employee, I have selected one of the five officially approved “Happy Ramadan” E-cards to send to you (above) – all others being banned.
I, on the other hand, was extremely pleased to discover that university employees had used their time so fruitfully over the summer designing such rules and policies, particularly since I was told today that our textbooks have not arrived but are approaching the Saudi border…
“We will definitely get them by the middle of next week,” said the Curriculum Coordinator jauntily, “they just have to go through inspection.”
I was unaware until this point that Myanmar nationals were so optimistic. Two years ago when we started ordering our books from Saudi (overturning a previous system in which our textbooks actually arrived on time) they were stuck on the border ‘being inspected’ for 12 weeks.
And this was the second time I had heard tell of Saudi inspection procedures: Some poor bugger moving from Qatar to the Emirates had all her luggage stopped at the border and was finally asked to report to a police station to explain her ‘man thing.’ The embarrassing sexual aid turned out to be one of those test tube-shaped single-stem rose vases which had metamorphosed in the imaginations of Saudi officials attuned to only seeing foreign women in hard porn films freely available in that barbaric society.
I will ship my stuff across to the Emirates when I move back there, in case you’re wondering. Not that I own any single-stem vases.
So yes, I’m back, hating it, and plotting my leave taking. Just after I get through the next academic year.
But all is good. I was to be teaching men early in the morning with a thug of a co-teacher, but have been shifted back to the Women’s Campus, in the afternoon teaching with fab people. I am teaching a level I haven’t taught before (good for boredom avoidance), and some students I was teaching a year ago have re-enrolled in my class (good for an ego-boost).
These are the photos and news from Australia. God I miss you guys.
There are also some recipes I cooked while in Oz, and some stuff about my brother, friends, and other people's cats. Sorry - this is a really long blog.
Sydney. Bloody Beautiful.
Tor with Hot Chocolate
Parakeets & Pidgeon at the NSW Art Gallery
Cath, Jude & Helen do the Mahjong thing. Helen has migrated to Oz at the right time... Mahjong is the new big thing...
Helen, Cath & I take a short break from jewellery & shoe shopping in King St, Newtown.
Cooking in Katie & Eric's kitchen
Katie's Painting Studio in the backyard. Kookaburras not present at this stage.
Eric standing in front of his boat, down the road.
Brian & Sally, all grown up. In front of Katie's paintings.
The whole land-family. Sally with Jess and Brian with Hao - yeah, and she still looks the same as she did at 14...
Anna, Pearl & their temporary view of Sydney Harbour.
Shopping for books with Annie
Dinners with the wonderful 52 Burra Roadeans: John, Pavla, Chris, Siohban, Simona and guests...
These are the 2 recipes I cooked most in Oz - and they are THE easiest to make. Take note 2 minute noodlers!!!
Simone's Bog-Standard Chicken CasseroleChicken pieces (skinless)
Bacon (or beef bacon) rashers
8 cloves garlic
1-2 onions
one bunch fresh oregano (crushed/bruised) or 2 tsp dried oregano
2 tins tomatoes and/or 1 litre tomato passata sauce/juice (anything with no additives)
1-2 cups of red wine
Optional: mushrooms, black Kalamata olives, basil
Wrap bacon around individual chicken dishes and place (upright) in a casserole dish.
Add all other ingredients.
Cook very very slowly (oven 180C/350F) for 1.5 - 2.5 hours until chicken is soft and falling off bones.
Serve this with chopped up roast potatoes (toss in olive oil, pepper and salt and roast for 45 minutes in same oven) and with a plate of green leaves (toss with olive oil and red wine vinegar).
Bananas in Caramel Rum Sauce2 cups very dark soft brown sugar
Half a block (4? 1cm thick slices) UNSALTED butter
a splash of dark rum (to taste!)
ripe but firm bananas - sliced
Vanilla icecream
Melt sugar and butter very slowly.
Add rum.
Add bananas and warm through. (Don't let stand or butter separates - then you need to add more sugar...)
Serve over vanilla icecream.
Rebecca's Brisbane suburb: Lota
Brisbane & My BrotherThe main reason I came back to Australia this year was that I had told my brother I would when he returned home last year after being in hospital where everyone (except for my Mum and my brother himself) had predicted he would finally die.
I wanted to say goodbye to him. I had tried to do this a number of times, but it's harder to do than you'd think. Easier to say "I love you" or "I wish this wasn't happening to you" or really anything less final than "goodbye".
I wanted to tell him that I wouldn't come back for some years - to allow him, perhaps, to stop holding on. To give him permission to die.
My mother told me while I was there that he was afraid to die and asked me to tell him that I believed in some kind of existence after death (which she knew to be true). And I did this. And it helped in so far as anything could be helpful.
My brother cannot move, or see. He has very little muscular control so it's a long slow painful task for him to eat or speak. And because his muscles no longer control half his face, it seemed somehow blank and unlike Gareth to me.
That was the hardest thing when I finally hugged him and kissed him and told him goodbye. Looking at his blank face when I left the room.
So painful.
Thank you to those of you who sent text messages and emails of support, to Trish's family with whom I was staying as I took the train in each day from the Gold Coast, and to Rebekah who picked me up after the last goodbye, armed with chocolate and scented candles and took me to a Thai restaurant to get absolutely blind.
Rebekah and the gorgeous Kelly. Yeah, you HAVE shown me the pool, Rebekah.
Doha Trish and her gorgeous family (plus girlfriends!) at Gary's 50th.
The beautiful Cairns Highlands seen from cable car, tourist train, and the bottom of my mate Lisa's garden.
Melbourne, Maude, Max, & the Mega-Beanbag
Maude & Massive Beanbag. I want one!
In Melbourne I stayed in the extended household of Maude, husband John, son Dean (loved the mosque call wake up call, Dean - not), overseas students Chinese Bowen, Turkish Deniz, and Thai Kitichai, and cats, Maxie and Minnie.
Maude’s cat Max, in a daily activity to show gratitude to his humans (and an attitude from which Ant could learn much in my opinion) retrieves a camellia flower from the next-door neighbour’s garden, carries it over the fence, through the cat-flap and into the entrance hall of Maude’s house where he deposits it in the entrance hall. At this, he gives a single miaow. This he does up to 12 times an evening, but was averaging 3 during my visit.
Max and freshly deposited camellia.
My brother's best friend, Dave with his new, work-in-progress tattoo. Dave's from Melbourne like all my family, but flew up to see him in January 2007. "The hardest thing is knowing Gareth is still there inside and you can't do anything about it."
Liz & Adam (two & a half years old) at Thanh Thanh, my favourite local Vietnamese restaurant..
Adam wanders off to make friends with a stranger.
Me with Mai, Thanh Thanh's owner. She bought the restaurant after walking out on her unfaithful husband who owns a (much less successful) restaurant 3 doors down. She and her good mate, Kim, (who owned the grocery/liquor store further down the street) have decided to sell up and move to Camberwell where they will open a coffee shop and grow old together. Now there is a plan!
The sarcastic Eri in front of the Yarra River: Melbourne City & at Abbotsford
Three years ago when I was about to move to the Middle East, Eri and I went shopping in my favourite Salvo's Op Shop where I bought, no doubt amongst numerous other things, a large wrought iron candelabra. At this point, Eri, who is one of the least judgemental people I know burst out, "Simone! You're moving overseas in TWO WEEKS!!!"
When we revisited the same op shop this time (another brilliant idea of mine which always seem to follow a liquid lunch at Thanh Thanh) I was explaining to Eri a) how WRONG she had been about the aforementioned candelabra which looks gorgeous in my otherwise quite bland Qatar living room, and b) how worried I was about excess baggage when I spotted a large, beautiful pink glass vase.
Eri turns to me and said, "Simone! Excess baggage!"
You know Japanese are not supposed to 'get' sarcasm. Most unfair that she does.
So we bought a couple of cheap glasses (washed for us by a lovely Salvo's lady) and went off to my favourite picnic spot beside the Yarra to finish Kim's wine.
And for those wondering: I didn't get charged ONCE for excess baggage, despite my worry and whingeing, either in Australia or coming home. Pink vase also remained intact!
Me and my favourite picnic spot on earth. The Yarra River, Abbotsford, Melbourne. Get the wattle in flower. The most sustaining part of an Australian winter.
Finally, some statements made to me while I was in Oz.
"I want you to meet my girlfriend. You knew I was queer, right?"
"It's not lust, Simone, it's love. Such a silly thing to do."
"I had a revelation. I decided I wanted to live for a very long time and be happy with what I have."
Sounds good to me.
Much love,
Simone
Comments
Post a Comment