Let the Madness ensue

This weekend is promising to be full of excitment and trust me, I need some right now - it's been a rollercoaster month!!

Two weeks ago, it started to feel like I was bashing my head against a brick wall.  There was no progress with our RP's and this was (and still is) having a huge impact on what we can and can't do in Qatar at the moment.

In brief, no Residency Permit means:

* shipping cannot be relesased from the port.
* cars cannot be bought so money is being wasted on car rental.
* I cannot leave the country as my company needs my passport to process the RP.
* I cannot realistically buy a flight home for Christmas incase I cannot leave.

I also was under the impression that I was moving from my apartment to a villa.  On top of this, my friends here were going to Dubai to visit IKEA and get furniture.  I gambled on moving and bought enough furniture to fill a house only to find out that there was no chance of me moving. GREAT!!

I have also only been given a one year contract rather than a two year one - this is the case for everyone that is here as new staff, and the staff who were already here were also asked last year to sign a new one year contract. Interesting....

But this weekend is looking great! My furniture - yes ALL my furniture for the Villa is arriving at my apartment.  Lots of it will need to stay flatpacked and be stored in my spare room until I can sell it on to someone.  I have spent the week frantically painting to get rid of the Beige (Beige wall, beige sofa, beige floor, beige curtains and BEIGE desert!!! ARGH!!!) and now my walls are a gorgeous calming teal blue colour in the lounge and a dusky pink in the bedroom as a feature wall.  The furniture can be put up and I can start to feel like my apartment is mine to enjoy rather than like a cheap hotel room.  

And my shipment boxes, that I last saw on 23rd July are now in the Port in Doha.  Yippee!!! They are going to clear customs (Thanks to RasGas pulling their weight with the customs department) and be delivered here by next Thursday.  I CANNOT WAIT!!

And, to top it off, I am getting cats..... 6 of them to be exact.  (I will start earning myself a reputation as a mad cat lady!!)   There was a pregnant cat on the community that was due to have her kittens and one of the other staff trapped her in a cat box and she was brought to another persons house to have her kittens in safety.  This is part of the community charity work we do here. I come into this equation as I said that I was interested in having a couple of the kittens.  But the lady who currently has them is going on a fieldtrip for 5 days and needs someone to look after them, so on Saturday, Mum and 5 kittens are moving house.  Kittens are 3 weeks old and will need to be rehomed in 5 weeks time.  None of them have names yet so I will have to put my thinking cap on - suggestions welcome....

I have put some pics below because they are so cute!  And if anyone wants a kitten, please let me know...

There are actually 5... the other one must be hiding somewhere.  :-)

For the love of....Bureaucracy!!!

I have been in Qatar for just over 2 weeks now and I am thanking my lucky stars that I am a chilled out person!  I had read up before I came and I knew that this is not a country of speed (unless you are driving on the roads)!  As soon as we arrived, our buddies and teachers around the school started talking about the time that it would take to get things done, especially if it involved licences or paperwork that needed to be signed off by whatever Ministry and I am fine with that – they must have made the word ‘Inshala’ for something, right?!

Last week, when we attended our welcome breakfast at the school, we had been given a list of documents that we would need to provide HR in order for them to process certain applications that were, understandably, written in Arabic.  They needed various copies of our passports, drivers’ licences, about 20 passport sized photos with blue backgrounds.  This would allow them to collate the necessary paperwork for our temporary drivers’ licences, residence permits, alcohol licences, etc and when 50+ new members of staff arrive in one go it is bound to take some time to sort out!

Having a drivers licence and being able to drive a car in Qatar has been high up on most people’s priority list.  Public transport here is possible but not amazing and trying to find published bus times is like looking for a needle in a hay-stack (or so I have been told, so I haven’t even bothered looking).  We were buddied up with existing members of staff when we arrived anyway and so we have been managing to get around the place easy enough with people offering lifts into Doha for shopping trips, as well as the school laying on busses to collect people from various compounds to bring them into work, or to the beach club or other events put on to help ease the new staff into the swing of daily life in Al Khor. 

So yesterday, a wave of excitement went around the building when a list of names was sent via email of people who had got all of the relevant documentation and therefore could be taken to the Ministry of Transport in Doha to arrange temporary driving licences.  This was great news because as British Citizens, we have only been allowed to drive on our UK licences, according to the FCO, for 14 days.   After this, a temporary licence is required until you get your RP.  Busses arrived and we all crammed in clutching our bundle of papers and photographs. 

30 or so people walked into the Ministry building and were greeted by an empty room with a long desk that could have seated 10 staff to process applications.  There was no one there.  There were 4 ladies, however, in tiny little rooms next to this, employed to do the eye tests required to get the licence.  One of the Arabic speakers had come with us from school and so he collected up our payments of QR150 and went off to the office to pay for the licences we were all so desperately after.  Eye tests complete, we had to find the next office, where our documents needed to be checked and signed by the Chief of Police, or his representative (I’m guessing).  We also had to collect a ticket to enable us to actually make the payment to the ladies behind another long counter, who were again checking the paperwork and producing the highly cherished temporary licence.  What a palaver!! 

So, I passed my eyesight test with relative ease – the biggest issue I had was keeping up with the speed the slides of numbers and letters were being flashed before me!  The next test was to find the Chief of Police.  Someone was positive that they knew where we were going and so off we trundled to the furthest building only to be told to go back to the place we had come from and the building we needed would be found directly opposite.  Once I was in there and in front of the Chief, he told me that my paperwork was incorrect as I had not photocopied my driver’s licence front and back on the same page.  I initially suggested that he just sign 2 sheets of paper, but this was clearly not possible and would have been too easy a solution, so I had to go and find some portacabin full of African descended men, who could rephotocopy my licence so it was all on one page.  I guess it all goes to help the local economy of workers employed to perform single tasks....

Back I went, eyes following me, across the car park to the Chief.  This time I was signed off with no issues and I could take a ticket for the ladies who would do the final checks and take the payment on the card that had been loaded up with the cash that we had paid some bloke in the first building. 

And then I had it – MY Licence!! WooHoo!!!  Two and a half month of driving freedom awaited me!! Yippee!! 

Oh wait.... 17 days!!! Bugger!!! 

So what had gone wrong?  I had my new visa stating that I was a temporary worker waiting for my RP to come through.  So why the 17 day limit?  Oh that’s right – my passport stamp.  When I arrived, my visa application had not been processed in time and so I had to pay for a tourist visa to enter the country.  This allowed me one month before I would be required to exit Qatar.  And this still remains the stamp in my passport, even though I have a piece of paper stating otherwise with my new visa details.  And so 17 days of driving bliss (or total anarchy awaits me) once I have my hire car.....

Bureaucracy at its best!!

Qatar, Qatar, Qatar!!

Sunday came along very quickly and before I knew it, I was in the car heading for the airport.  Not Heathrow, but Gatwick to collect my parents and sister from their holiday in Greece.  I hadn't seen them for 2 weeks but the time from dropping them off to collecting them had flown by and now it was my time to leave.  They came off the plane all tanned and smiling but there was no time to hang about as I had my own plane to catch - in Heathrow, which could take anywhere between 30 mins upwards to get to depending on how kind the M25 was feeling at the time!  Luckily, it must have known that it was an important day and I didn't have to crawl along the road to the airport, which is one of the busiest stretches of motorway normally.

I had already checked in online the day before, booked my seat and sussed out where I needed to go in the airport.  I couldn't believe how quick it was to check in - there were loads of people waiting to do it at the desk but I went to a dedicated queue and was straight through - yippee!!  I met Gina standing next to me at check in.  She had some interesting news for me - the school had not sorted out our visas.  In my blasé way I didn't feel too worried about this at all and the check in lady said I could buy one at the airport in Doha.  Ok, not ideal but a solution at least.  There were now only 3 hours to my flight left and so my family and I headed to the airport restaurant to grab a bite (and for me a couple of beers!!) before I had to leave.  My Mum, I knew was going to be a bit teary, but I was surprised about how calm I felt - and have felt since I got the job; normally I am much more in tune with my emotions and wear them on my sleeve for the world to see.

Time passed quickly and before long I was on the plane, sat next to Gina, hand luggage stowed in the overhead lockers, belt on and taxiing towards to runway.  Full throttle and the plane was hurtling down the runway and we were climbing.  I wish that I had kept my camera out of my bag because the view of London spread out below me in the darkness with all of the lights twinkling below me was a beautiful sight and took my mind off the fact that we were flying.  Before I knew it, we were crossing the English Channel and were over Europe, the time to destination counting down on the screen in front of me.  We were flying towards the sun, quite literally and as we started flying over the Persian Golf, the sun was creeping over the horizon and I was congratulating myself on choosing a window seat on the left hand side of the plane as the view was spectacular.  My camera was out of my bag now and although I have tried to capture how magical this sight was, I haven't managed it.

By the time that we landed in Doha, the sun was fully up and we could see the desert.  It was not what I expected.  It was beige, Not golden yellow as I had pictured it in my mind.  I started thinking, 'What on earth have I done?!' and judging by the look on Gina's face she was thinking the same thing.  It was already roasting outside, even though it was only 6am, my hand luggage weighed a complete ton and as we were one of the last off the plane.  It was very lucky that one of the other teachers was on the plane and had been living in Qatar for the last 8 years because the bus had taken us to the transfer lounge and not arrivals as we were expecting.  Once we were delivered to the correct terminal, the queue for passport control was pretty long and for some reason not moving.  I have since realised this is the Qatari way.  It was taking them ages to do anything by the looks of it but as I was still following this other teacher around and she had kids with her, they brought us straight to the front of the queue thankfully.  And once we were through, the bags were off the plane and on the carousel quickly and customs paid us no mind at all.  And there was Lyal, the headteacher, standing with a sign to gather all us newbies together.  A bus trip with a sight seeing commentary later and we were in Al Khor, dropping people off in their compounds.  I felt really lucky that I was in an apartment on the actual Al Khor Community because I am within walking distance of the school and clubs on the compound.

My apartment has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, kitchen, lounge and balcony.  All of the floors are tiled and there is air conditioning in all of the rooms thankfully as it is really warm outside at the moment.  We were left alone to unpack for the rest of the day. Not my idea of fun but luckily some of the other teachers who are buddied up to us newbies came to check on me and offered me a trip shopping - Yes Please!!  I needed cleaning stuff as the floor was dusty and I had already spotted a dead cockroach (and I wanted to be prepared in case any others turned up)!!  The next few days were spend shopping in Doha, with buses laid on by the school and lifts being offered (and gratefully received) by teachers who had already returned from their summer breaks.  I discovered that the shopping malls here are just like the ones at home, with many of the same shops (but higher prices) and being Eid, it was very quiet. I could have been anywhere in the world in that shopping centre, save the Qatari's walking around in their dish-dashes.

The apartments that we are in have some furniture in, but we know that this furniture will be removed soon.  We are being given a shopping allowance to buy new furniture with (mine is the equivalent of £2700) and I am not actually sure how far it will stretch.  I need everything from pots and pans, plates, cups, etc to beds and sofas.  I have seen stuff that I would like and now I am just waiting for the goodly allowance to be given to me.  I was worried that I would not be able to get a bank account on my tourist visa but I think this is being overlooked by the bank as they know that we are sponsored by Ras Gas and have a permanent position at the school.  My biggest annoyance at the moment is waiting for a temporary drivers licence.  I am allowed to drive in Qatar (according the the British FCO website) for 14 days on my UK licence and after that I need to have applied for a temporary licence while I wait for my residence permit (RP), wherein I will need to apply for a full Qatari licence.  I also cannot purchase a car in my name until I have my RP and I have no idea how long that will take while I am on a tourist visa.

But, with all this in mind, I have been having an AWESOME time since I got here!  I have met some really great people, who were new to Qatar once themselves and are totally understanding of what it is like for us not having cars.  The lifts have been frequent and offered all of the time which has been a god send.  I have even had a go at driving in the desert for a bit and that was so much fun - I want a 4x4 badly now!!  I have been to a beach BBQ on Fuwairit Beach and had a swim in the sea that was the temperature of a nice warm bath and watched the sun go down.  Life at the moment could not get much better!!  I have spent my first few days at school too, which is good but frustrating too as I feel lost with the job and everything is still being finished with regards to the curriculum and timetabling and we only have 2 days before the kids come in - I feel out of my depth big style!!  But, I am sure that it will all come together eventually......

....and how many people can say that they have finished work at 1:30pm and are sat by the pool in glorious hot sunshine having lunch and it will be like this EVERYDAY of the year?  I am loving it!!
 

In two weeks time I will be.....

Yesterday was a day that I had been looking forward to and dreading all at the same time.  I dropped my parents and my sister at Gatwick so that they could go on holiday (sailing in Greece for two weeks.  I am not jealous at all...yeah right!!)

I was looking forward to it so that I could have a break and some peace and quiet at home.  Yes!!!

No....by lunchtime yesterday I had had my fill of peace and quiet and wanted them back here so that there was something going on.  I spent all day in front of my computer doing school work and keeping myself occupied, so at least it was a productive day.

But my parents going on holiday also marks a date for me - it is two weeks 'til I fly out to Qatar.  In fact, in two weeks time, I will have been in Qatar for nearly 3 hours.  In my new country; my new life.

I will have hopefully got off the plane, found my bags, cleared customs and passport control without any hassle (I hope, although why there should be any issues I am not sure), found the person who is picking us up from the airport (I hope this is obvious as I have not been sent any details of what to expect yet), and we might even be in Al Khor by now.  My new home town for the next two years. Wow.

My bag is already packed - I felt like I needed help (more like moral support) to make sure that I hadn't gone over my weight limit and that I had packed the right stuff.  At one point, we had the whole contents spread out around the lounge!  I have a list of what I need to pack in my hand luggage. All appearances show that I am organised and ready to go.  But in my head I am still not 100%.  Everyone I see asks me if I am excited but I am currently struggling to give an answer.  "I am", I say, "but I've never been to Qatar before.  I have not seen any more than pictures of my new school and only met two of the teachers that work there.  I have no idea what my accommodation looks like or at the moment where it is located.  So I want to feel excited, but it is all a bit up in the air so to speak."

So, in two weeks Sunday, I will have collected my parents from Gatwick but rather than travelling home with them, we will be going straight to Heathrow to drop me off.  I hope that they get to meet Gina, Sarah and Olie who are coming to the school with me and are travelling on the same flight.  It might help everyone to relax a little to know that I am not alone when I am there.

And in two weeks time today, I will be there, beginning to find out all of the things that I am currently unsure of.  I am looking forward to this next big adventure in my life (and coming home at Christmas to see everyone)!!

28 days to go!!

It was pointed out to me by my friend K.d H that I hadn't posted on my blog in a long time - thanks for pointing this out and giving me a nudge!! My excuse is that I have been so busy!!

But 15th June was a long time ago!! 

A lot has happened since then....  I have:

• turned 28
• been round Birmingham on the 11 Route, having drinkies with my friends
• been to a party for my Auntie and Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary
• had a picnic in the park with my friends
• watched my sister complete the swimming leg of a triathlon in Eaton Rowing Lake in a good time
• been going out with my boyfriend (of sorts) for 2 months
• packed all of my belongings into boxes bound for either Qatar or Kent
• finished work at Shireland Collegiate Academy, apparently giving the best and funniest leaving speech in over 5 years
• moved out of my house in Birmingham and moved back in with my parents
• been to 3 different leaving parties in 3 consecutive days (2 of which were mine)
• met another one of my new colleagues for lunch in St Albans
• visited my family in Devon for 4 days
• fixed my motorbike and ridden it from Birmingham to Kent
• sold my motorbike to my friend Ollie

As I said, it's been a busy time!  I thought that I would be more emotional about it all but I have actually so far been pretty calm.  I was expecting my leaving speech to be said through sobs but I held it together remarkable well - probably because I was so entertaining - my most genius lines being 'I never wanted to be a teacher' and 'I always saw teaching as a route into travelling, so when I came back from Mongolia and decided I didn't want to get married, I needed to get away and I travelled....to Birmingham.' - well, it was funny at the time.  Maybe it was by comedy timing and delivery...?!

The leaving parties were lovely - the first one being for Ian at a bar in town called Bodega.  I had never been there before but I really liked the fact that all of the cocktails were £4 before 7pm - I made sure that I took advantage of that!    On the Friday, I had a BBQ at my house for my closest colleagues - it was really nice and relaxed.  It was fab just chilling and messing about in the garden.  Then my sister arrived for the weekend and most of us headed out into town to go to the Jam House.  It was a fab night out, especially seeing as I managed to get a whole load of us in for free - yay!!  Saturday was another BBQ and party at the house with most of my friends coming along. 

I would like to thank...

All of my friends for coming and making the day so special  - Claire, Nicolle, Karin, John, Shaun, Wendy, Tharpinder, Bal, Dave, Sarah, Rosie, Alex, Jess, Param.

Special thanks to -

• Dave for being a star and turning up with two space hoppers!!  Awesome!!
• Thanks also to Shaun and John for making sure that the BBQ was always full of food.
• My sister Claire, the biggest, brightest star - not only for helping me pack my car, but for making a fab 'Auntie Pat's Lemon Desert' as well as sorting out most of the food which really allowed me to enjoy the day without feeling the need to rush around after my friends ensuring everyone was fed and had drinks. 

You were all so awesome and really helped me to leave with a bang!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock...

It has been 2 weeks since I got the email that I had been waiting for.  The one that told me that my flights had been booked, where I was flying from and at what time.  I was just getting up on a Sunday morning, and as normal, I checked my phone and there in my inbox was the flight details.

I went a bit quiet.  And then thought - looks like I am actually going then!

So the countdown is finally on.  It is now 73 days to go and my packing boxes arrived today...all 35 of them!! I am sure that I do not need 35 boxes, but it was a good deal, just £26 and cheaper deals didn't offer a range of sizes.  I now have boxes, packing tape, marker pens, bubble wrap, packing paper, bin liners and a deadline to get it done by!!

I would love to say that I have loads of time to get this done.  Technically I do - the full boxes are not being collected until 2nd July, but I am busy for the next 2 weekends as it is my birthday on Friday and have people coming over.  The weekend after it is my Auntie and Uncle's 60th Wedding anniversary so I will be away in Kent for the weekend.  This only leaves me the weekday evenings.  I have dinner out Friday night, pub with my new housemate tomorrow night, theatre with school tonight, parent's evening one night the following week and I still think that I need to go shopping to buy 'stuff'.  I am not sure what 'stuff' I need to buy but I am certain that I need it, whatever it might be.  It might be more clothes (I don't need any more swim suits as I now have 7 new ones, plus the ones that I already owned - overkill I know but I am planning on being by the pool everyday!).  It might be shampoo and conditioner that I feel that I cannot live without and might not be able to find in Qatar.  It might be Marmite.  I am not sure but I can feel some panic buying coming on - and that is why I have not been to Asda in a week and I have avoided the Bull Ring at all costs!

Time is literally flying past...

I cannot believe that it is only a week until the Summer Half Term break already!

School is a bit manic at the moment as we have had end of year exams to mark and now we have reports to write on a tight schedule (so obviously I am distracting myself from this by blogging!!)

On the Qatar front, not much has happened.  I have had a few quotes from some shipping companies and I have now decided who I am going to be shipping my stuff with which has taken a weight off my mind.  Now all I need to do is liaise with the others who are going to see if we can all ship together as this will reduce all of our costs.  I think we are close to having this arranged.  In my head, having a shipping date feels very final but in a good way - it will make things feel like they are rolling forward again.

Shukri, one of the teachers that I am moving with, had an email from the school the other day asking her to confirm her flight details.  This must have been so exciting for her - I am still waiting for mine so I am going to email the school in a minute to make sure that they don't forget me :-P

In other preparations, I am buying clothes that I think will be suitable, swimming costumes and starting to arrange my leaving party, well I have a date set for it so that is a start.  I am also working out a lot more at the gym - I want to be slimmer for when I move in an attempt to cope with the heat better.  I heard from someone blogging from Doha that yesterday morning it was 42 degrees c at 9am which scared me a little.

Now, I am just waiting to chat to my new boss on Skype to discuss what my new role will be when I get there.  Feeling all dressed up, hair done, make up on at 1pm on a Saturday is an interesting feeling but all for a good cause - I am really looking forward to what she has to say....

To downsize or not to downsize...that it is the question!



The thought of moving used to be quite a daunting thought to me.  I grew up in a very small town in rural Kent and in 18 years of living with my parents, I never moved.  Then university jumped out at me and I had to move.  I used to think that my Clio was like the tardis - I could move my whole life in the back of it.  I was impressed that I could get my worldly possessions into the back of my car.  I was content that I wasn't a hoarder but I also enjoyed owning my things.

Since my university days I have moved around the UK a bit - Ipswich, Kent, and now Birmingham.  My life still feels quite well contained.  I have all of my things in once room of a shared house and I am quietly confident that they would still fit back into my 206 if I needed them to.

But, in my head, moving to Qatar is a bit different.  All of my things, apart from the limited amount of things I can put in a suitcase as my luggage on the plane need to be packed and sent ahead of me by container ship. And it is this that has got me thinking. Do I need to ship everything or just the things that I really need?  All of the shipping companies that I have had quotes from have come back to me with massive quotes and volumes in square feet that I cannot get my head around at all! 

Depending on how much stuff I want to transport, it depends if I need my own container or not - a 20 ft container is 1000 square feet and will easily fit the whole contents of a 3 bedroom house...right....OK, so I will be lost with all of that space!!  I set about working out how much space things really take up.  I made a box 1 foot square and tested out a few things.  60 DVDs in their cases will fit in my specially crafted box, plus something about fist sized.   From this, I have worked out that I will not be needing any more than 100 square feet for all of my things and I still think that I am being generous with my estimation.  I could even opt for air freight at this rate!!

So, back to my original question - to downsize or not.  There are some things in my room, like books that I have read and are unlikely to want to read again.  Do I keep them as they are mine and will make my new place feel like home, or do I sell the ones that I am unlikely to read? 

CD's are an even trickier decision for me.  As I said earlier, I am not a hoarder, but I do like my things.  I do like looking at them and I feel proud of my small collection.  They have memories for me.  I can put a CD on and have a flood of memories of where I bought it, who I might have been with or something that I was doing while listening to it.  I know that I have all of my CD's carefully stored on my iPod and I would be beside myself if I lost that!  So, do I need the physical CD's? No.  Not really.  Do I want to keep them? Yes! The rational part of me says to get rid of them.  I might make a tenner for them and that will help out with my costs of moving.  But the romantic side of me is screaming at me to keep them!  I have spent many evenings discussing music with people, CD's spilled out over the floor.  I always loved looking through the LP's at my parents house and having those out to look at the covers (what amazing covers!!) - things like Elton John's Yellow Brick Road album which to look at was one of my favourites.  Or Led Zeppelin III's cover that span round so you could change the picture.  Amazing and such great memories!  My parents still have these LP's and I am sure that in the future they could be worth some money - could this be the same with my CDs?  They certainly don't feel as iconic.  I wouldn't feel lost without them, like I would if my iPod was lost or broken but I would feel very sad.

I think I shall have to sit on the fence over this decision for a bit longer.

Oooh I love the Holidays!!

The holidays are here!! In fact they arrived on Friday night but in true style, I have been too busy enjoying myself to sit down in fron t of my laptop and blog about them!

I have loads to get done this holiday and a jobs list that is almost an A4 page long already!  Oh dear....

But, the holidays started very well indeed with a few days away in Stratford-upon-Avon.  I was very lucky as the weather was glorious all weekend, so much so that I discovered I was going a little pink sitting in the sunshine with a glass of wine (pinkness caused by sun exposure, not alcohol consumption, trust me!!) Day 2 saw me visiting some glorious places in the Cotswolds, like Bourton-on-the-Water.  What a stunning place, especially when basked in Spring sunshine! 

But, it's not all fun and no work.  It's only just over 4 months until I fly out to Qatar and I have lots to plan and prepare.  The biggest thing in my mind at the moment is making sure that I am packing the right things to take with me.  How much should I be packing?  Do I need all my books?  Do I want all of my books with me?  What stuff should I charity shop/sell on Ebay?  Do I keep or sell my motorbike?  What clothes do I want to pack and what ones do I want to take with me on the flight?  What is the weight limit and how much does that actually equate to?  The questions that are going through my brain are seemingly endless but all need tackling while I am off as trying to get this stuff sorted when I am at school is quite tricky as there are not enough hours in the day. 

Sunday is going to be a fun day though - I am meeting up with some of the people that are also flying out to start at Al Khor with me.  It will be great to put some faces to names and have a chat with everyone as I am sure that we all have lots of the same questions going through our heads.

I have also started to learn Arabic using a Rosetta Stone programme and I really want to try and find the time during the holidays to get some more vocabulary into my head.  Although I realise that English will get me what I want in Qatar, learning a new language for me is a lot of fun and I relish the challenge to be able to speak something that sounds so foreign to me compared to languages such as French and German.

What do you like to do with your holidays?  What challenges are you setting yourself?

Qatar - here I come!!!

It has been an interesting 6 weeks. 

After my interview in London, I felt quite confident that I was being seriously considered for one of the three teaching positions that I had applied for.  The interviewers had been very keen to ask me loads about my current school, teaching ethics that I adhere to, etc, and we chatted for just over an hour.  They seemed very keen on me but a week later I had heard absolutely nothing, not even a no thanks.  It was very frustrating, especially seeing as every day I was being asked if I had heard anything by a continuous stream of people!

Eventually I decided to be proactive.  At 6am UK time, I dialled the number for the school in Qatar and asked to speak to the Headteacher.  I was told that he was in a meeting about staffing for September but was assured that I would hear back very soon.  I received an email from the Deputy Head saying that they were very keen to employ me but they were still looking at staffing and would get back to me as soon as possible.  So the wait continued. And I waited......

Finally, a few days later, I got an email from the Head offering me a teaching position but 2 weeks later I hadn't received my contract.  Again, I started to worry as I needed to hand my notice in at my current school but I was not prepared to do that until I had a contract obviously.

And, joy!! I received the contract!! It came via Fed-ex and I felt a bit like Neo from The Martrix opening the package and realising that this is going to change my life forever (well at least 2 years haha!!).....

Expat Women - Sign Up

Expat Women - Sign Up

Just found this really cool site. I haven't had much of a chance to read though it yet, but I am sure that it will be very useful.

And if you sign up, you get a free e-book of stories. The first one is great and I have another 90 pages to read! Fab! Thanks!!

Flikr

I love this picture!

I have just recently discovered Flikr, and although I am never likely to be the next David Bailey, I am really hooked on 'flicking' through the photos that other people have uploaded with scenes of wildlife and landscapes being my favourites.

However, I saw this and it just reminded me of the kittens I had when I was in my teens and how much fun I had watching them play.  They are now 13yrs old....oh how the sands of time slip past!!

Pre-Interview nightmares!!!

I am still away with the school - I thought Healthy Eating was high up on the agenda of policies when looking after young children!?!?!? 

I have an outfit that I am really hoping to wear on Monday.  I was hoping that a week away with healthy food and lots of activity would really help towards me looking and feeling great when I arrive to meet my potential new colleagues on Monday but alas, the fish fingers, chips and peas (only) option was not what I was hoping for, especially after the food that has already been on offer this week:

Monday

Lunch: Sausage, Mash and Veg followed by Bakewell Tart and Custard.
Tea: Baked Beans on toast followed by chocolate dougnuts.

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Cereal, toast
Lunch: Pasta bolognese with cheese followed by yoghurt
Tea: Chicken nuggets, chips, spaghetti hoops followed by angel delight.

Wednesay:

Breakfast: Bacon baps, cereal, toast
Lunch: Fish fingers, chips, peas followed by arctic roll.
Tea: Ham or cheese toasted sandwiches

Honesty, how is this setting a good example to the kids, who at school eat healthier than this?!?!

And, I am not sure my waistline is going to survive either!  Even though I am being good and making sure that I am not having seconds, with no other option, and no way to get food from off site, I am scuppered!!  Yesterday morning, I went for a run but today has not been the weather for it so far.  I can see that I am going to have to spend most of the weekend in the gym doing sit ups to make sure that this skirt fits! Boo!!

The nervous wait...

On 14th Jan, I had finally put the finishing touches to my first international job application form.  I had received several offers of help from my colleagues.  After deciding this was because they genuinely do like me and it wasn't a cunning ploy to help me ship out, I gratefully accepted their help and we pulled apart every sentence that I had constructed and rewrote the lot, making it much more suitable for the positions that I was applying for. 

On the closing date of the 14th, I bit the bullet and pressed send on the emails.....and waited.

And waited.....and waited some more.

The frustration set in and I have spent the last week wondering what I had written that had not encouraged them to send me an email back inviting me to an interview.  After promising my Mum that I would keep her informed of any interviews, come Saturday I had no news.  I felt hugely deflated after the excitement of making the decision to go which then slowly trickled away and left me feeling a bit hollow. I started to doubt if I was making the right decision and thought that I must have been wasting my time with the hours that I had put into the application form.  I began to look at other jobs on the TES but nothing else was grabbing my attention.  Maybe I had just deluded myself and really I should stay in the UK and see what else came my way...

So Saturday morning, I got up and went to the gym.  When I came out, there was a text from Mum asking me to call her when I was free.  But when I got home, her phone was engaged.  Time to check the emails...

..And there it was!  What I had been waiting for all week - an email from the Head's PA inviting me to come to London to meet some of the staff and interview with them.  I waited for the rush of excitement but it as yet has not arrived.  Neither has the nerves or the thoughts that I am doing the wrong thing.  I guess this is my way of making sure that I stay grounded throughout the process.  I have no idea what to expect from the interview.  Teaching interviews in the UK usually involve teaching a group of kids and being observed and then a formal chat at the end but I am sure that there will be no kids around this time. Also, they want me there for an hour plus 30 mins beforehand to chat about living and working in Qatar, which I think sounds quite positive...who knows!!! ARGH!!!  I have no option but to go along and find out.

So to take my mind off it all, I have spent the day, well at least an hour, trying to get an interview outfit sorted out. Joy of joys!  One skirt is a bit too large, but comfortable.  The other fits but is a teency bit too tight, although I can walk around and sit down in it.  I think I shall live off celery and water all week (yeah, right!!) and decide next weekend!!

In the meantime, I am away with 40 school children for a week, so that should take my mind off things, mainly because I won't have time to think :-)

Excitment and intrepidation!

It is 2011 - a new start for some with New Year's Resolutions being banded about.  Not my thing, but I do feel that this year is going to be a good year.  A year of excitement and new beginnings.

I have been in Birmingham for 3 years now and although I feel quite settled here, it doesn't feel like my permanent home.  I have no ties here - no boyfriend, no mortgage, no family.  Just a few good friends and my job.  I rent in a shared house which I think of as my own but I know that it is not 'mine'.  3 years ago saw me starting a new life for myself in a strange city.  I had never been to Birmingham before and I landed up here after finding a teaching job (and a boyfriend) in the area and thinking that it seemed like as good a place as any to make a fresh start in. 

But now, even though I love my job and I work in a school judged to be 'Outstanding' by OfSted, I feel like it is time for a change.  I am fed up with a run of boyfriends that seem to excite me with possibilities of a future one minute, only to discover that they are not going to stand the test of time.  Life feels like it is stalling a little.  My job is so unique in the set up that I teach in - a Competency based total curriculum where I only teach Year 7 - that I am not getting the GCSE teaching experience I need to become a Head of Geography/Humanities and my current line managers, the Directors of Key Stage 3, seem very settled in their current roles so I cannot see that I could be promoted into one of their roles.

So I allowed the thought of working abroad to take hold in the back of my brain and like a weed it has started to grow stronger and stronger in the darkness at the back there and before I knew it, the thought of leaving the country to go and work in a foreign country had taken hold with deep roots. 

There have been several big mental hurdles for me already - and I haven't even posted off my first job application yet!! The biggest hurdles have been talking to someone who works for International British Schools to start finding out about how to deal with finances, National Insurance contributions, Pensions abroad (as well as my UK Teacher's Pension), tax free earnings, bank accounts, schools and knowing which ones have good reputations and which ones to avoid. It feels like a teaching minefield to me at the moment!

The second hurdle was telling my boss and close friend, Charlotte, that I was considering leaving the department to travel and work abroad.  She was very sad to hear my news but could understand why I was considering it.

And the biggest hurdle so far..... telling my parents!  My friends keep asking me how old I am in a sarcastic manner - I am 27, but totally worried about telling my parents that I am thinking of leaving the country!  For them, it is bad enough that I live in Birmingham and that it takes me between 3-4hrs to get home in the car, let alone being in a different country and being at minimum, a 7hr flight away, plus airport time and transport too and from the airport at both ends of the journey.  My mum still cries now when I leave them to come back up to Birmingham and the emotional guilt I am currently feeling about putting her through this is quite bad.  But I do keep reminding myself that it is my life and that if I don't do this now, then I am less and less likely to do it in the future.  And while I have no ties, I think that it is the perfect opportunity to make my move.   And you never know who I will meet while I am away or what I will see.

I love travelling - I have driven to Mongolia from London in a Fiat Panda 3 years ago, and last Christmas I did a very similar thing, driving from Dakar in Senegal to Cameroon. Foreign countries don't scare me and I love being emersed in another culture away from all the tourism. I am really hoping that I can be brave enough to do this, to move away on a 2 year contract to a foreign country.   At the moment, I am thinking that Qatar is my best option with the other options being Hong Kong and Thailand.

So, this evening, along with beginning to write my first international application form, I have also ordered a book from Amazon - Qatar: the complete resident's guide. Bring it on!  I am going to be an expat!