Three weeks ago I got a note in the post to say I had a letter to collect but as we didn't have a car and I didn't know exactly the post office is we couldnt go to collect it.   I spoke to the people at work to see if anyone knew where it was but they pretended they didn't understand or refer me to someone else who always said tomorrow (I have the feeling that they say tomorrow when they cant think of another word:)).  On Monday I received another note saying I had a parcel to collect, I knew my friend in the UK was sending me something.  Another of the expats here said he had seen it not far from our apartment so yesterday I went for a wander and found it.  It was closed and opened at 14.30 until 18.30.  So at 16.00 I went back only to find it still closed, there was a guard there who told me it would be open at 8.30 the next day.  I have just got back parcel-less.  I walked up there and yes it was open, I went to the reception desk to check that I could get my parcel here and was told that I could and needed a ticket.  The machine is in Arabic and you have to press a button depending on which service you want.  Not that taking a ticket made much difference, I got served 2 hours later only to be told that that my parcel wasn't here and I needed to go to the main post office in Rabat unfortunately he wasn't quite sure where it was.  I give up, Andy says he will ask at work on Monday we'll see if he has better luck than me.

Teaching here is very difficult I seem to bump into problems every day.  First the room I was given was a training room and I needed to move out of it every time there was M & S training.  So I was moved to the canteen, there was more room here for the students to move about but people are coming in and out to get drinks and food which is off putting for the students and they lose concentration.  Also there are two breaks in the morning and afternoon so I had to rearrange the lessons around the breaks.  Secondly as they are coming to lessons during their working day if they have a problem they need to sort out they cannot make it to a lesson so sometimes I have no students and sometimes I only have one.  I also use my PC attached to a projector in order to show realia and that it is how I write my lessons but both my PC and the projector get hot and so I asked for a fan in order to keep them cool, I have been asking for 3 weeks and then my PC kept shutting down because it was overheating eventually it shut down and would not start up again.  When I told the Personnel manager he provided me with a fan but talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, it was too late.  I am now not prepared to compromise my PC as its still sick even though Andy has tried his best to sort it out.  On top of this I was told that would get paid on the 21st of each month it is now the 28th and still I have not been paid.  I spoke to the accounts manager about this and was told it will definitely be there by Monday (ha ha ha I believe him) I asked him is this going to be like the water and was told that I was big enough and old enough to have sorted the water out myself.  I actually would have done this if they had told me that but as you can imagine that would have been a struggle considering my limited french and the fact that English is the 3rd language here.

Last weekend we went to Marrakesh with a few people from Andy's work.  We all met up at the train station in Agdal ready to start the 4 hour journey.  Fouzia is Moroccan and she went with Andy to get the tickets.  First class was booked up so he bought normal class and when we got on the train we went into 1st class with the rest of the guys to see if we could upgrade.  We actually didn't spend much time in 1st class anyway as we were too busy looking at the scenery which was beautiful.  After about 2 hours the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and at first we thought there was something wrong but apparently there was only one track into the next town and so we had to wait for the train coming the other way to pass before we could go any further.   While we were waiting a few Moroccans got off the train and disappeared into a field only to come back laden with sweetcorn:)  When we arrived in Marrakesh we had to get to the Hotel, apparently it wasn't far so we decided to walk.  However "not far" was taking a long time so we decided to get taxis there was 9 of us and we stopped one taxi (which was a bit like a fiat) and were told we could get 6 in one taxi, you can as long as you have a shoehorn to get you all out again, 4 in the back and 2 in the front it was epic.   The Hotel was basic and cost 100 dirhams per night.  Once we had sorted ourselves out we went to the Medina, I have to say it is huge you could wander round for 2 days and not see everything, we wandered round for about 3 hours before needing a break.  We went to a cafe for a coffee and sat watching the crowd for a couple of hours.  As we sat there and the sun went down the stall holders set up their wares for the evening which was basically food absolutely anything you can imagine, as you can imagine Andy loved it eating anything that he had never eaten before, brains etc.  I stuck to things I knew like calamari and chicken.  All in all we had a lovely day and cant wait to return.

 

As it was our mock anniversary last Saturday (we didn’t have time to celebrate the week before). We went to the Tex Mex on Michlifen Avenue, Agdal.  It is very spacious inside and has a separate bar as well as a restaurant.  When we arrived we found that the waiters spoke English which is a rarity over here.  They showed us to a table and gave us a menu.  As things are a lot more expensive here as oppose to Sri Lanka we went for beer rather than wine (or champagne that we had last year) and ordered beef fajitas.  The beers arrived quickly and 10 mins later the food arrived on a sizzling platter with little pots of Salsa sauce, guacamole and sour cream.  It was lovely.  As the deserts looked so tempting we decided to have one each, normally Andy doesn’t like desert but he went for a lemon sorbet and I went for a double chocolate brownie.  The deserts here are as fantastic as they sound I have to say better than anywhere we went in Sri Lanka but I shouldn’t really compare.  All in all it was a lovely meal and a nice restaurant.  However it is rather expensive, it cost about £50 for the meal and 2 beers, so I think we will stick with the Tapas for now.

Last night we had a wander round Agdal to check that I could actually find the place where I have my interveiw later today.  Once we had found it Andy wanted to go and see where he could watch the football on Saturday.  So we went to the Las Tapas which is about 10 mins walking distance from the apartment.  When you look at the place it looks closed and you have to push the door hard to get in.  The place is quite small and smoky, its also full of men (there was only me and another woman in the place).  We sat at the bar and ordered a couple of small beers which cost 26d each larger ones cost 48d.  As it was happy hour we got 2 free drinks as well.  We decided to have some food there and chose 4 different tapas'  (there are about a dozen to choose from all around 30d each).  We had anchiovies, calamari, chicken and mushroom and some meatballs in a lightly spiced sauce.  It was all delicious.  The waiter there realised we were english we I ordered the food in my pidgeon french and was extremely helpful although he spoke less english than I spoke french.  He did however present us the bill in english which came to 215d for 6 beers an 4 tapas.  All in all an excellent place to eat and drink.   BTW they are showing the football there on Saturday so guess where we'll be spending our weekend:)

Andy and I decided that him living in Morocco and me living in the UK just wasnt working.  So last Sunday I took a flight and came to Rabat to live with him.  I have had to leave the house but its only for 3 months and my friends son is staying there as he goes to college in the next village so it should be fine.  My friend is also looking after Widget (the cat) who seems to be settling in quite well.  Although she did dissapear for 48 hours and turned up in a drawer.

Anyway on Monday I unpacked and pottered around the apartment, it is in the centre of Agdal inm Rabat and the shops are within walkig distance.  I went and had a wander in the afternoon and bought some essentials the prices are very similar to the UK (except conditioner for the washing macihine is very expensive about £1.70 as oppose to 60p in the UK I'm going to have to use it sparing ie on my clothes only).  I also bought some cheese and a fresh baguette from the local bread man which was georgeous.  However later on that evening I was rather ill I think I must have got food poisoning.  Great start to living here:)

I did get a phone call yesterday from someone asking me if I was looking for a job teaching so I may as well put my skills to some use and have a meeting with him later today.  It will give me something to do if nothing else.

Well I went to buy my suit yesterday.  Its now really weird being able to shop all in one place.  When I first moved to Sri Lanka it was frustrating not to be able to walk from one place to another to get everything I wanted.  I cant believe how much choice we have in this country.  I went to 4 different shops before I found a suit I liked and there were plenty of clothes shops I missed.  I ended up getting a green suede 3 piece suit for £75.00 which I suppose is reasonable as long as it lasts.  I probably could have got one in Sri Lanka though for a quarter of the price apart from the fact that the people are tiny there and a lot of the clothes don't fit me.  I had a wander around Sainsburys while I was there and another thing I cant get over is the fact that what ever they sell there are at least 5 different brands.  Do we need so much choice or is it just me?

 

I decided to go to the Smithfield for lunch as it used to be our favourite pub when we lived here.  They usually have a choice of 8 or 9 different beers and they didn't disappoint.  Among them were Hartington IPA, JHB (Jeffery Hudson Beer), Bass and Crop Circle (I cant remember the brewery) I tried the first two which were excellent (Sorry if I'm making you jealous Andy) but I think I'm still on Sri Lankan time as I was tired by 4pm.  I caught the bus which happened to be at the bus stop when I got there and headed back to Ripley and home stopping off to buy a Chinese take away.  Once home I had my tea and promptly fell asleep on the sofa.  Consequently I was wide awake by 5am and now its 1pm and I need a sleep again.  Maybe I'm just getting old>

Tonight we decided, as it was the last night of the caviar evening at the Hilton, we would eat out.  I have never had caviar before and I know it is expensive but we thought we would try it anyway.  We got a Bajaj there and didn't even have to quibble over the price, I offered 200/. and off we went.  Galle road was chaotic, I think there must've been something going on at the Galle Face Hotel as it took us a good 20 minutes to get there.  As we went through the gates to the Hilton there were quite a few Sri Lankans hanging around a couple of fire eaters, men on stilts and someone selling food from a cart.  When we walked into the lobby we wandered over to where the advertisement was for the Caviar just to find out how much, when we noticed that Spices had a Vietnamese promotion on, 1500/. for the buffet, so we decided we would go to Spoons (caviar evening) see how much and either go back to Spices or pay them a visit on Sunday.  Needless to say when we looked at the menu in Spoons it was rather expensive, I think the cheapest thing was 6500/. and that was just a starter.  There was also a duck dish which was 24000/. I don't know if you know but that's about £100 so we decided not to bother and discreetly left.  We thought it safer on our pockets to go to Spices.  We were seated fairly promptly and offered a drink, we both went for the 3 coins and when it arrived we wandered over to inspect the buffet.  There was plenty to choose from including Pork in a fish an roasted coconut sauce, beef with chilli and lemongrass, chicken with lemon leaves, tofu in tomato sauce, fish in another sauce and the famous baked crab (which Andy didn't have 'til last), there was also chicken and crab-meat soup and chicken noodle soup (if you go and you don't like chillies make sure you tell them as they put everything in separately) and fried rice and vegetable noodles.  I think we managed to try everything, I didn't have the crab or fish, Andy didn't have the soups and neither of us had the tofu.  After 3 platefuls we decided to look at the sweets, they were plenty to choose from again but I homed in on the chocolate pudding with cherries (my favourite I had 4 and I think there was only 6 in the bowl:)) and Andy had a gateaux and some other type of sponge cake.  We were then offered coffee or tea which we declined (to say they grow tea here they have no idea how to make a decent cup of tea) and asked for the bill.  It came to 4180/. including 10% service charge and 15% government tax and as it was over a certain amount we got a raffle ticket to win a flight with Arabia Air (no idea where to).  All in all ti was  an excellent meal and we would definitely recommend it, I believe its on fro another week.

I finally got on my hobby horse today after reading through the Skywards leaflet and finding that we could have gone through the business class check in at Katunayake and not had all the hassle with people pushing in.  I have been writing to Srilankan airlines for nearly a year now with no response, so I thought I would go and see the man himself but unfortunately he was on holiday.  I said I would like to see a manager at which point the lady tried to fob me off with someone in customer services.  I said I wanted to speak to someone in charge and wasn't leaving until I did.  She disappeared and came back a few minutes later to say I could speak to the manager in customers services.  So off I toddled to find another office.  They have at least 4 offices in the world trade centre, god only knows why, cant they put them all together so you don't have to wander all over the building.  There are at least 30 floors in that building.  Anyway I saw her (the manager of customer services) and efficiently she had my emails in front of her (well 2 of them anyway) I had come prepared and brought all the emails I had sent and received including the ones that had been deleted without being read and began explaining the whole thing again including the most recent flight.  She was quite nice and I couldn't really be as strong as I was prepared to be but I did tell her that for a company representing Sri Lanka the service was appalling and she told me that all the departments involved would be informed.  I told her informing them wasn't good enough and the service needs to improve drastically, I was told that it would  (I have my doubts) so I told her I needed an update of everything that was happening including correspondence otherwise I would continue to believe that it was sitting in someones in tray (the bin).  She did tell me that if we were planning to take a flight in the near future to get in contact with her but I did tell her we are not confident to use this airline.  Anyway all in all she said she would be in touch as soon as possible and thanked me for coming down personally and bringing this to her attention.  I live in hope.

And now another moan.  After an enjoyable if not hectic holiday we travelled down to Heathrow to return to Sri Lanka.  We arrived at the airport about an hour earlier than expected so proceeded to Wetherspoons for a well earned beer Andy got up a couple of times to check the status on the second occasion I spotted him by one of those machines where you have a crane thing and have to guide it in order to pick up a teddy but he didn't win.  I told him it was a nice thought when he got back because he complains about how many bears I have. (I have about 20 bears here in Sri Lanka and probably treble that back in the loft in the UK so I guess I can see his point) Anyway the next time he got up to check he returned with a bear (his name's Jack as he has the Union Jack on him) and said we could check in.  We went to the business counter with no hassle at all, I asked if we could have a window and an aisle seat as Andy likes to look out of the window and I get claustrophobic and need the loo several times, that was no problem, I asked if they would not put us near the rear of the plane and that was no problem, I then asked if there was a business class lounge as we are silver members and was told there was and we could use it it was near gate 1.  So off we go to the business lounge, we couldn't find it, so I went to ask and was told that it was the one for BA when we got there we were told that now only gold members can use the business lounge, par for the course, so we went back to wetherspoons.  I left Andy there with his pint and wandered off to Boots to get some essentials.  As we had bad experiences with Srilankan airlines before we decided to get a sandwich before we got on the plane.  I have to say that the flight is nearly 11 hours long and you are supposed to get 2 meals but past experience has told us that they often run out of food and we were not disappointed.  Although we weren't completely at the back we were very close despite having asked not to and by the time the meal came round they had run out of the food that we wanted and all that was left was beef which I had but Andy wasn't keen so they said they would see what they could do and arrived miraculously found a vegetarian meal.  (As skyward members we always preorder our meal but were not surprised when it hadn't been arranged) Both meals were cold and Andy's had a hair in it but never mind there was still breakfast to look forward to.  Because there is AC on the plane our throats tend to get rather dry so I asked if we could have a drink, the stewardess sighed and asked what I wanted but never came back so I asked again and got the same response I gave up.  We had been on the flight for about 4 hours and got to the airport at 12.30 with only a sandwich and a couple of beers for sustenance, so by this time we were starving and thirsty.  About 9 hours into the flight they came round with breakfast guess what they had run out of food!!!! and could only offer omelette with tinned mushrooms in which neither of us can stand.  I asked for a drink, 2 orange juices and was presented with one.  Srilankan airline's slogan is "You Are our World" all I can say is HA.  We have travelled with them several times and every time something goes wrong. I wont go into it all but they often run out of food put us in the wrong seats and change our flight without adjusting our membership number......

I did write to them in September last year several times and emailed them but never got a response until recently when I got a returned email saying that it had been deleted without being read.  I immediately responded to this with the subject as Why have you deleted my email and got a response within a few minutes.  The guy who wrote back to me was very helpful and promised things would be sorted as soon as possible.  Needless to say my first thing this morning was to inform him of our epic journey back to Sri Lanka but before I could do that I checked my email only to see that he had in fact passed it on to someone else who was emailing me to request the following details:-

 

 

 

 

Last week we went to the UK, unfortunately Andy's grandad had died suddenly so we returned for the funeral.  Upon arriving at Katunayake airport we went to the business class check in counter, as we are silver members we are supposedly able to do this, but despite asking a srilankan airlines person if we could do this we were turned after queuing apparently because we booked with Emirates even though they are partnered with srilankan airlines.  (No surprise there)  So off we went to queue cattle class (and I mean cattle class).  My pet hate in Sri Lanka is queueing, they just cant get the hang of it, if you are a woman then a man has the right to push in in front of you, if you are white then anyone has the right to push in, including the Germans and the french, anyway there we were queueing up when along come 2 Germans or french (I wasn't sure) and walk straight in front of us to queue, being British I didn't say anything also Andy would say I was making a fuss but then they turned to me to check they were in the right queue and did they need to pay tax, I wish I'd told them they did.  Then they asked me if they needed to fill in anything else I told them they needed to fill in an embarkation form, which they didn't  have so toddled off to get.  We moved a little further up the queue when the people behind us tried to push in front so I moved in front of them and told them they couldn't push in which was when they conveniently didn't speak English.  A few minutes later a porter came along with a trolley with about 6 suitcases on and mindlessly walked passed everyone and went to the head of the queue, the people in front told them they couldn't push in but again the porter conveniently couldn't speak English and didn't move.  Suddenly another porter appeared with a family of 7 and moved straight to the front of a queue, not ours fortunately. We moved further down the queue and the first porter tried to get in but couldn't.  Well I wasn't having this as we had been waiting half an hour as it was and why should porters be able to push in just because they are carrying someones luggage, I assume they need to get to the check in counter quickly so that they can get another load.  I was fuming so off I went to find security, I told them what was happening and he went over to the porter and said something in Sinhalese and disappeared, this made absolutely no difference at all I was on my high horse by then I cant understand why people think they can go to the front of the queue otherwise what would be the point of queueing in the first place.  During all this Andy was fuming to himself and not saying anything (he is a very placid and tolerant person and I've been married to him for 5 years and never seen him angry) but when the porter tried to move in front of us he let off steam and shouted at them that they better not try that again or else, then he turned to the people behind us who were gradually trying to edge in front of us and told him where to go.  Anyway they didn't manage to get in front of us but the porter with his 6 suitcases managed to get in behind us.  Why oh why can these people not queue!!!  Anyway I have no idea how this happened but when we started queueing yet again for immigration I noticed that the french/German couple were at the front of the queue and there was about 20 people in front of us I can only assume that I am the only one that makes a fuss of people pushing in.  After all that I needed a drink so we proceeded straight to the lounge where a rather large glass of wine was in order.  I'm so glad I've got that off my chest.  Having now had my moan I must say that Emirites are an excellent airline.  Mainly because on arriving at the gate we had our seat numbers changed at first I thought they had moved us to middle seats but no we had been upgraded to 1st class which was fantastic.  More leg room, DVD & CD galore, champagne before take off, excellent service, lobster for starters and cheese & Port for desert.  It made an 8 hour flight feel like half an hour, banana bear enjoyed it too

When we got back from the Cricket Club last night, Andy was straight on the PC to listen to the cricket and found out about the bombings in London.  As we get BBC24 on terestrial TV I put it on to see what had happened but the picture wasnt good.  I tried to adjust it and found that we had Star Movies (cable TV) so then I flicked through the rest and made Andys night by finding the cricket on ESPN.  Suffice to say he immediately went to bed and fell asleep to the cricket (What more can I say).  So we now have cable in the apartment, although nobody has mentioned the fact.  We did have a letter a couple of weeks ago sayng that we were getting it and would we pay for it which we declined as it was quite expensive and not something we could take with when we left.  Nobody has asked us for any money since, so it'll be interesting to find out what happens next.

Well I thought I'd get this one in before Shandy.  Last night we decided to go to Bistro Latino  which is on Duplication Road just past the Rhythum and Blues Club.  I had been wanting to go for ages and finally managed to persuade Andy to go.  After all I have been going to all these vegiterian Indians with him.  The restaurant is advertised as a mexican restaurant although I had my doubts, as there is another restaurant that advertised as a Salsa and Merangue restaurant (Waves on Galle Road) which it wasn't, unless you class Chinese as Salsa!! Anway, this was definately Mexican.  The inside is very nicely decorated with a red ceiling and suns with faces and sun shaped lights.  We were seated promptly and given a menu, as we had been tio the cricket earlier and had beer, Andy decided to carry on his beer fest with a Lion larger but I had a Rock Shandy which is non alcoholic.  While we were waiting for the drinks we browsed the menu, which was quite impressived and all Mexican.  The drinks arrived pretty quickly and we ordered, Andy had Beef Fahitas with a side order of Olives and I had Chicken Chimichangas with a side order of Guacomole.  The Olives actually arrived as a starter but were delicious especially considering that I don't really like olives.  We didnt wait long for the main course but I have to say it was pretty dissapointing.  Andy said his Fahitas tasted like they had been microwaved and the ingredients in mine wasnt fresh, you could tell the tomatoes were tinned.  One thing I always think about Mexican food is that you need to make it with fresh ingredients.  Having said this Andy did go for a desert which isn't like him at all, he ordered banana fritters.  Again this was served fairly quickly and came with ice cream and a chocolate wafer.  I usually loved chocolate wafers but when I tasted it was enough to put me off for life.  It obviously had not been kept in a sealed container in the fridge and they must have put it next to the chillies as that what it tasted of.  We got the bill after asking only twice and it came to just under 2,000/. and included service charges and tax.  This not a place I would go back to in a hurry but its worth going in for a drink just to see the deco.