What a Year !!

Hi Bloggers,

It's been a fair while since I last blogged, but certainly not because nothing has been going on in my life.  Rather the opposite, the problem has been not knowing where to begin.  But now that the year's coming to an end, maybe it's a good time to try and make head and tail of things.

They say that time slows down when major events occur and that's certainly seemed true for me.  I can hardly believe it's only 11 months ago that my mother died.  Obviously that was the major event, but equally strong contenders must be getting married and having my first child.  Not to mention being unfairly dismissed by my then employers, the British Council, and eventually moving to Saudi Arabia for work.  In between I also managed to spend two months working in Thailand, and about three and a half living in the Philippines, where I bought a house, another first for me.  Finally, I brought a case against the British Council at the Employment Tribunal, which is still continuing now.

I documented my ever-caring mother's sad passing away in earlier blog.  Bless her soul.  I hope she's now in the kind of heavenly abode that she deserves to be in.  I've also said a fair bit about my marriage in Bahrain to my lovely Filipina wife, Rhoda.  So I'll take up the plot from my amazing dismissal by the British Council, briefly mentioned in my previous blog.  Then in my next post I'll say something about my son and my new job.

Things had gone from bad to worse in my relations with the British Council, first from the absurd suspension I was put on in February (suspected political activity in the classroom), through the Performance Improvement Programme (PIP), which was in no way related to the original problem (Arabic in the classroom), to the damning End of Year Record of Performance (EOYROP), based simply on a series of casual observations, which finally resulted in Malaysia revoking my contract just nine days before I was due to travel.  It was an unbelievable downward spiral, in which it was easier (and more convenient) for the management to treat and assess me as a sub-standard teacher, rather than look at the possibility that there was something badly wrong with their own procedures and way of handling things. 

I won't bore you with details of the above, but suffice it to say that I felt so aggrieved by the way I had been treated that I actually brought a case against them at the Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal.  Unfortunately, legal matters move very slowly and it's still going on.  I'll say more in a later blog about that.

The most significant feature for me, though, was the sheer callousness with which the British Council dealt with me, at almost every stage.  For example, they suspended me just after my mother had died, and I remember the centre manager didn't even offer condolences.  Enacting the suspension was far more important.  Also, just having a chat with me before making that incredible decision might have clarified everything.  But no.  Then during the PIP I was treated like a guilty man.  There was a certain inevitability about the outcome - it was going to be bad.  And, finally, the revocation just nine days before travelling.  I didn't even know what country to go to! 

You have to be pretty heartless to do that to someone, but, then, that's what I now say about British Council managers, they're like androids or automatons, who simply apply procedures in a completely impersonal, unfeeling way, with absolutely no regard for the human impact they're having.  Clearly, the humanity has been lost somewhere along the line.  It's such a pity because there are so many good things about the Council too.  It's the quality of the managers that spoils what could be a fine organisation. I always think the British Council nowadays is rather like a beautifully ornate wine bottle, but filled with rubbishy wine.

Anyway, so much for my worst ever work experience.  Luckily, I have found a good job in Saudi Arabia now, though there is still the problem of holding my family together.  My next blog will be about one the happiest experiences of my life, the birth of my son in October.

What a rollercoaster of a year !!

Cheers,
Rob

Riyadh

Riyadh skyline

Hi Bloggers,

Well, I'm now in the capital of Saudi Arabia after a delightful two month return spell in Thailand.  Riyadh probably isn't a place you'd choose to be if there wasn't a lot of money to be made.  Yet at the same time it's nothing like as bad as I'd expected it to be. I haven't been harrassed by the police or "muttawa" (the religious police) yet, and most people have been pretty friendly.  And the university I'm working in is superbly modern and beautifully designed.

Dita Square

Even the general atmosphere of Riyadh is pretty nice, particularly in the downtown Olaya area.  Generally, there's a feeling of real spaciousness and most places you go there seems to be hardly anyone around.  Before coming I had been worried that you'd have a feeling of always being watched, but actually I haven't felt like this at all.  The absence of women is, of course, a noticeable feature of the place, though you do see a fair few of them in the shopping malls.  Most wear the full head gear with just a slit for their eyes, but I have seen a few with no covering at all, so things can't be that bad.  The only thing I really dislike is that whenever prayer time comes, everything closes down.  By law all shops have to shut.  And there's also the extremely irritating 4.15 am prayer session, which invariably wakes me up.  I've now adopted a strategy of going to bed at 10.00 pm so as to guarantee myself at least 6 hours sleep!

The main positives of Riyadh seem to be the shopping malls.  They're all pretty spacious and stores like Marks & Spencers and Debenhams really make you feel at home. Needless to say, Starbucks and McDonalds have their usual presence.  There are some good supermarkets, like Carrefour, where you can get most of the kind of things westerners like, like your favourite brand of marmalade, etc

Anyway, before coming here I had a great two months back in Thailand.  It was so nice to be back in my favourite country again. In fact, I even stayed in the same condo block, Saranjai Mansion.  I was almost living my old lifestyle again, going jogging in the Queen Sirikit and Lumpini parks, cycling around on a Trek bike, eating in the food courts, watching football in Gulliver's and enjoying the ubiquitous state of the art shopping malls.  In fact, there's a new mall called Terminal 21, which has the theme of a different country on each level.  I was quite impressed.

Al Battha souqs

Of course, the missing factor that has spoiled everything for me has been the fact that I've had to leave my wife in the Philippines, as her pregnancy is too far advanced to travel freely.  This is the main outcome of the BC's decision to revoke my contract, the disruptive effect it's had on my family.  It's such a pity there's almost no work for foreigners in Manila.  Nevertheless I spent the whole of June there.  Eventually, though, I 'm confident we will be living again as a happy family should.  In fact, I'm going back to Manila in October for the birth of  my son.  After that, we will see.

Masmak Fortress

Cheers,

Robert

Leaving Bahrain - and the British Council !!

Hi Bloggers,

Well, I'll finally be moving on from Bahrain, but not to Malaysia as originally planned, but direct to the Philippines where my wife is.  In an incredible turn of events the British Council decided to revoke my contract for Kuala Lumpur exactly nine days before I was due to travel.  Nice one, BC!

It created complete turmoil in my life, as my wife was getting ready to join as soon as I arrived there.  Of course, I appealed against the decision, but the bureaucratic ways of the Council prevailed.  They could get someone of higher calibre than me, so I was sacrificed at the altar.

Fortunately, though, they are going to give me three months pay in compensation, which should work out at about $10,000.  That may seem a nice payout, but when you're getting older and suddenly find yourself homeless and unemployed you'd probably plump for the job security.  I may have more to say about what I think of the BC in a later blog!

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to make a new start in the Philippines.  It'll be quite an adventure for me, because I've never worked there before. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed something comes up.

Update on my next blog!

Cheers,
Rob

Just Got Married

Hi Everyone,

Got married on Monday! We had a great day! The ceremony itself was just a civil wedding at the Notary Office. But then we had lunch at the Gulf Hotel before having an informal get together with friends in the evening at a Thai restaurant.

Rhoda is from the Philippines and we met here in Bahrain, where she works in alternative health therapy. We've known each other for almost two years now and got engaged back in November. We're planning to move to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in June, where I've been offered a job, again with the BC.

I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Cheers,

Robert

My Mother's Wedding Photos

Shortly after my mother's sad passing away earlier this month, I was given some of her possessions, including her wedding photos (either 1949 or 1950). I probably had seen them before, but my mother, being the modest woman she was, had hidden them away for decades. It made me realise just what a beautiful woman she was in her day. Actually, she looks almost like a Hollywood star!

By the way, that guy with her in the two pictures is my father! Lol

The damage done

Hi Bloggers!

Well, as most of you know, I'm a keen guitarist, and now have a fair collection of guitars. They're mostly Yamaha because Yamaha's the only really decent shop here in Bahrain. But I'm very satisfied with them. They represent quality at a reasonable price. They're where top end begins.

Anyway, travesty of travesties, as I was putting down one of my other guitars, it slipped from my hand, and the machine heads crunched into the body of my most expensive guitar, my Yamaha FG730S solid top! Luckily the wood itself wasn't damaged, but the lacquer or varnish has a bad dent. And because it's red sunburst, it really shows (see pic on left).

Anyone got any ideas how to fix it?

Cheers,

Rob

Audrey Phyllis Lowman (1925 - 2012)

Sadly my mother passed away yesterday afternoon after failing to recover fully from a bout of pneumonia. It was also just a mere three months after my father's death in October last year. But at least she wasn't in pain and it was relatively quick.

The quality of her life had deteriorated considerably over the last couple of years anyway, largely as a result of losing her short term memory. In fact, she never really took it in that my father had died and she still often thought he was still around. Unfortunately, I was unable to be by her side at her actual passing away, but I did manage to visit her at Christmas, just over a month before. I will always cherish my last conversations with her, mostly about the past, as her long term memory was still good.

I think her main quality was the completely unconditional love she had for her children. In fact, in almost every way, she was the perfect mother, always willing to sacrifice her own happiness for the benefit of us, always putting us first. She was always there in times of need. And even to her dying day, she still cared and worried about us. Her compassion also extended to needy people and animals as well. She literally wouldn't kill a fly, but would brush it out of the window, such was her love for all living things. She was a true humanist in every sense of the word and showed us an example of humanity at its best.

Coupled to this was her incredible modesty. She was always self-effacing and never pretended to be anything, despite actually being overflowing with good qualities. She was always apologising for being a nuisance even in the most mundane of situations. It was a pity that was surrounded by dominating characters and that my father and her own mother (my grandmother) didn't encourage or support her more, so that she might have developed the kind of self confidence and strength she deserved to have.

But being of the war-time generation she had that typically strong sense of commitment to duty and unswerving loyalty to family. No matter how difficult their relationship became she always stood by my father, such that they were married for over 60 years, and she also tended to her own

mother in her old age with unstinting devotion.

So to sum up, she excelled in every role in life, as a daughter, a wife and a mother. And if there is a heaven, I'm sure that's where she is now, for surely there has rarely existed someone more deserving than her. Her reward will truly be in heaven.

RIP

The top picture was taken in Dorking in 2006, while the bottom one was taken just last Christmas in 2011

Motorbike

Hi Bloggers,

Nothing much going on here at the moment. Just the usual daily plod of going to work and earning a living. Unfortunately, Bahrain isn't the most exciting place to be. Of course, there are the continuing demonstrations from the Shia community, but the police seem to have a cap on the situation and it's difficult to seeing anything major developing, even though the anniversary of last years rising is coming up pretty soon.

I often think about my role as an EFL teacher and I think we must be the most underpaid professionals anywhere in the world. We're still basically treated as a bunch of ex-hippies or backpackers. Ok, that may be where many of us came from, but it's certainly not true now. We all have degrees and professional qualifications. If you meet an ex-pat in banking or oil or law in the pub, you just hope they don't ask you what you do. They must absolutely scoff at our wages, and think we're a bunch of complete dickheads. Most of them earn about 3 or 4 times as much. We just seem to be chucked a few peanuts, not even a full bag!

Anyway, enough whingeing! Last month I finally got around to buying a motorbike, like I always promised I would. It's nothing special, just a Honda 125, but has certainly opened up new possibilities. Mind you, the roads here in Bahrain are dangerous, and crossing lanes is always a scary business. Either way, I'm certainly not going to stop cycling. Cycling must still be one of the best ways of maintaining general aerobic fitness over a long period of time.

Stay cool.

Cheers,

Rob

Publish Post

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's hope it's better than 2011, but realistically it'll probably be more of the same. The global economic depression is likely to continue, rubbishy hip-hop and R&B will continue to dominate the charts, students won't stop being rude to their teachers, and Chelsea will almost certainly sack another manager!

But looking back at last year, I must say it was an incredibly eventful one for me. In fact, I can hardly believe that I packed so much into a year. I visited Africa twice, attended my father's funeral, experienced riots and a dose of tear gas here in Bahrain, met up with an old school friend I hadn't seen for 40 years, started making some serious progress with my singing and guitar playing, and finally got engaged to Rhoda, a Filipina girl I met here in Manama! Not bad for a bloke pressing on 60! In fact, time definitely seemed to slow down for me last year, which is surprising, since generally it seems to accelerate the older you get. No doubt the reality is that it is us who are slowing down rather than time getting faster!

So here's to hopefully an equally eventful 2012!

All the best,

Robert