Back in Yemen... finally!
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Sana'a,
Yemen
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Ahlan wa sahlan,
Yes, I'm starting blogs in Arabic again which should mean to you only one thing... yes, I'm back in Yemen (finally) and for the next eleven weeks will be providing you with my free and fool-proof cure for insomnia. So here we go again.
First of all, I should really apologise to the many of you I failed to see while back in England. I'd only intended to be back home until the end of January and thus wouldn't have had much time, but things at the house took a bad turn which held me hostage until just last week. However, because of the nature of the house problem I kept thinking I could be back in Yemen the following week, or the week after that etc, but kept getting delayed further. So, basically I'm saying I didn't know how long I was going to be around so didn't want to make firm arrangements to see people.
So anyway, after three long months on a daily diet of gym-going, Neighbours and six episodes of Frasier on Paramount Comedy, I've finally broken the shackles and flown East. The relief is palpable, particularly given the worrying number of references people (some more than others.. ahem, Bethan) have made to the film 'About a Boy', and my apparantly comparative lifestyle to that of the Hugh Grant character. I can only say in my defence that if I were an island I would not be the chav-heavy island of Ibiza but the Yemeni paradise island of Soqotra, and also that never once did I resort to watching Countdown. Apologies to the (probable) majority of you who have never seen the movie and thus to whom this paragraph makes no sense.
Hokey dokey, well I flew Qatar Air this time which was really very good - copious economy class leg room, really nice food, and interactive backgammon... I couldn't ask for much more. However, I had a six hour stop in Doha airport which was hellish and seemed to last forever - the toilets were disgusting, the available food rank and the boredom factor akin to a Dido CD. Plus, the duty-free was more expensive than Dubai and so I'm officially dry for this spell in Yemen.
Flying this time from London rather than Birmingham had also added five hours to my journey time which, door-to-door, took 26 hours. By the time I arrived at the school it was early evening and I was absolutely shattered. Unfortunately, Aaron the American (and sole remaining friend from my previous time in Yemen) had gotten word of my return and had bought a load of qat for us to chew to celebrate my return. I reluctantly obliged and ended up staying up half the night chewing when what I really needed was to catch up on lost sleep.
Not a great deal to report from my first three or four days here. With bitterness I can inform you that today is the first time the sun has really come out. For the first few days it was cool, intermittently cloudy and rainy which really sucked. Also, having not practiced for three months, my Arabic stinks like a Doha toilet cubicle and I've already found myself embarrassingly short of vocab or stuck for grammar conjugations in several situations with people. Today, however, I had my first lesson (with a new teacher this time) and I hope to get back up to speed reasonably quickly.
Also, having been lumbered with the dark box room last time, I've been rewarded this time with the biggest and brightest bedroom in the school, so I'm very happy about that. I also found excellent quality pirate copies of Seasons 1 and 2 of Lost in one of the copious pirate DVD shops, this one going by the name of 'Blockbuster' (hmm, I think not somehow). So, I felt compelled for now to purchase Season 1 having missed the second half of the series on TV because of my first trip to Yemen.
Yesterday I joined a gym called 'The Officers' Club'. It's really expensive in Yemeni terms at $50 per month, and upon entry I could see why. As soon as I went through the gates it was like stepping out of reality. New buildings glistening in the sunlight, pristine palm trees swaying in the wind and isolating this compound from the filthy streets outside. The gym itself is really good and extensive, and the other facilities available include sauna, spa, steam-room, massage room and olympic-sized outside swimming pool complete with eight diving boards. It's basically great, but I'll need to work on my stamina at this 7000ft altitude - I could only manage 10 lengths in the bone-chillingly cold pool before nearly drowning. I can see many an afternoon spent lying in my swimmies on a deck-chair with a fruit smoothie from the pool-side juice bar, soaking up the rays, casually looking over my homework with an occasional glance up at the surrounding mountain vistas.. yes indeedy!
Anyhoo, self-indulgence has overtaken me momentarily so I shall let you go. Do keep in touch though.
Ma'a salaama,
Tom
