In which the good outweighs the bad by quite a margin
Of the bad:
- The left side of my face is all swollen and bruised-feeling. I think it might be some mysterious gland. Mysterious and painful.
- The 30th was the due date to apply for Summer courses, but when I tried online the server was borked, and it was too late to go up to campus and talk to real people. Bah!
Of the good:
- My parents finally got paid! After a damn long time, too. Actually, the last letter my dad sent me before he finally got a check was quite wonderful, so I'll post it under the cut.
(Binky and Fuzzbum, I should point out, are the cats. Tristan is my brother. The various acronyms stand for various universities in various countries.)
Dear [me],
Sorry for being incommunicado. We worried other people, too. Dominic phoned us on Friday night to say that he and Swong Swong were sitting on his verandah having a drink for us and wondering how we were doing.
And the answer is.....not entirely well. We don't have a phone at home. We only have Omantel mobiles which charge a gazillion riyals a minute, so we really can't afford to phone out right now.
The phones at work are only internal (and even then they don't work.)
We don't have internet at home and won't for some time, so I can only use the internet at work.
Mail appears to be nonexistent.
So does money. The dean cheerfully informed me that I wouldn't be paid this month because I hadn't worked a full calendar month, but that he would, in his sublime generosity, write me a cheque on November 3, when I have been here for 30 days. Apparently I will not be paid normally (i.e on the 20th via by bank transfer) until all my paperwork has been processed in Muscat and signed off by the minister - insh'allah.
That means that your mother has had to be really creative in the kitchen, which she has been, thank God.
Your mother has to do a visa run to Sharjah on Wednesday. The flight has been paid for, but we now have to hope that the money Tristan sent turns up before Wednesday morning so she can pay for taxis, visas etc.
Yes indeed. Things are so bad that when Tristan offered help, we said yes.
I'm afraid that the Omanis have stuffed us financially. The delay in getting here and all the other little tricks they have played since then ("What, HR in Muscat told you this kind of photocopy of your marriage certificate is acceptable? No, we want one on pink paper with a different stamp" - hence the visa run) means that we have lost about Dhs60,000 in lost wages, extra costs etc etc.
In short, things are a bit disastrous.
Never mind, you will still get your monthly allowance. It's just going to be a bit erratic. I have discovered, to my cost, that if I do a transfer through the local bank, they will send a fax to their head officed in Muscat and then you have to hope that Muscat does its job. One transfer I sent was delayed for two weeks because the person in Muscat went on holiday.
So, what are our options? Well, I didn't hear back from QUT about my application there, but the outgoing head of journalism, who used to be at CQU and was Jeff's boss after me, said that journalism at QUT had been subsumed into something called "creative industries," which was run by a ballet dancer and an interior decorator. Alan didn't think I would like the arrangement any more than he had.
Northumbria has re-advertised the position for which they interviewed me in April. I have re-applied and am keeping my fingers crossed. And of course I am still hoping that Tim Walters will come through with something at AUS.
Oh, and there's a job in Qatar.
After the way we have been misled, lied to and cheated, our one objective remains escape. We decided last night that we would, if necessary, do a runner.
So is there anything good about this place?
The students are lovely and kind.
The ordinary Omanis are very kind and helpful. Even our landlord has been very nice, dispatching one man to do the needful from time to time. We no longer have to flush the toilet with a bucket and the shower in the en suite doesn't smell nearly as sulphurous as it used to. We have a four bedroom villa. Inside the walls are blue and yellow and white, sometimes at the same time. It has a walled garden, which is mostly concrete, but there are holes where Mummy has been planting things and I have trimmed the trees at the back. Binky thinks it's all wonderful. He loves going outside and has been out the front gate and off to see the neighbours. Fuzzbum has been outside a few times and swished his tail suspiciously at the world.
The house is about 10 minutes walk from work across gibber plain and gullies and camel thorn, so I go home for lunch. When I sit outside at night I can see the stars and there are birds and a mutawa rooster in the house behind us who leads his flock in prayer at 5am.
Oman is an astonishing looking place. We are in a flat plain with mountains on either side. Nizwa is about 10 minutes drive away and it has a long stretch of shops and hotels and then another stretch of scrub and then the old souk and the fort. It takes an hour to walk from the souk to the next part of town, something I tried last week.
Last Thursday our mad Kiwi mate Marilyn drove us to Muscat to shop at Carrefour and Borders, a spectacular journey through mountains and valleys flanked my mud brick villages and palm trees and truck stops and radar posts and power lines until we drove through a narrow cutting that separates Muscat and the coast from the interior.
To summarise, we are living on fresh air and are very, very, angry at the way we've been treated. On the other hand, the country is beautiful, we have made some friends and we have a roof over our head. As your mother pointed out, it's better than being unemployed.
Your mother has started making lemon flavoured iced tea. She was re-stringing her guitar when I left this morning and will write some more of her novel and do the laundry (by hand because we can't connect the washing machine yet) and will actually be fairly busy all day. I wouldn't be getting through this without her.
Anyway, don't worry too much about us. This is not exactly a high point in our lives, but we will get out of here and in a year we will look back and remember the good bits.
I am very glad that you are spending Christmas with Sas. It won't be the same without you, but I think you will understand from the foregoing that things are a little too uncertain at the moment for us to be able to plan a family Christmas. Next year will be different.
Now, tell me about the courses you are thinking of doing over the summer? Will you be finished your honours and everything by the middle of next year?
How is the work going? What are you doing exactly and how long will it last?
Have you thought about signing up as an extra for The Hobbit?
What did you eventually say about Guillermo del Toro?
A thought: Omantel has blocked those naughty Swedish pirates, so I wondered whether we could re-establish an exchange of Pando links? Your mother is suffering from House withdrawal.
Lots of love
Daddy
~
- I got all my essays in. Not just the one on Guillermo Del Toro's contributions to the horror genre, but also a research paper on why it stinks to be a science fiction or fantasy writer if you want literary credibility. Actually, I kind of liked it - remind me to post it later.
- Despite the troubles with applying for my courses (eh, I need to talk to my course adviser on Monday anyway), I got through StudyLink's online application process with a rare minimum of pain. Plus, I applied for course-related costs, which means I'll be able to afford a teeny baby 10" laptop! I already have one picked out. Oh, it'll make things so much easier - especially considering that this junkheap of a desktop is trying valiantly to die on me. I'll be able to actually work in the library, and type up my notes in class, and go on the internet in new and interesting places, and because it's tiny and only weighs a kilo, those things are actually practical rather than just theoretically possible! I can't wait.
- And, saving the best for last: morbane got me a ticket to see a Q&A with Guillermo Del Toro. I'm sorry, I'll repeat that: SHE GOT ME A TICKET TO SEE A Q&A WITH GUILLERMO DEL TORO. THAT IS MORE AWESOME THAN I KNOW HOW TO REPAY. Now all I need is to rope someone into seeing it with me. :D
- The left side of my face is all swollen and bruised-feeling. I think it might be some mysterious gland. Mysterious and painful.
- The 30th was the due date to apply for Summer courses, but when I tried online the server was borked, and it was too late to go up to campus and talk to real people. Bah!
Of the good:
- My parents finally got paid! After a damn long time, too. Actually, the last letter my dad sent me before he finally got a check was quite wonderful, so I'll post it under the cut.
(Binky and Fuzzbum, I should point out, are the cats. Tristan is my brother. The various acronyms stand for various universities in various countries.)
Dear [me],
Sorry for being incommunicado. We worried other people, too. Dominic phoned us on Friday night to say that he and Swong Swong were sitting on his verandah having a drink for us and wondering how we were doing.
And the answer is.....not entirely well. We don't have a phone at home. We only have Omantel mobiles which charge a gazillion riyals a minute, so we really can't afford to phone out right now.
The phones at work are only internal (and even then they don't work.)
We don't have internet at home and won't for some time, so I can only use the internet at work.
Mail appears to be nonexistent.
So does money. The dean cheerfully informed me that I wouldn't be paid this month because I hadn't worked a full calendar month, but that he would, in his sublime generosity, write me a cheque on November 3, when I have been here for 30 days. Apparently I will not be paid normally (i.e on the 20th via by bank transfer) until all my paperwork has been processed in Muscat and signed off by the minister - insh'allah.
That means that your mother has had to be really creative in the kitchen, which she has been, thank God.
Your mother has to do a visa run to Sharjah on Wednesday. The flight has been paid for, but we now have to hope that the money Tristan sent turns up before Wednesday morning so she can pay for taxis, visas etc.
Yes indeed. Things are so bad that when Tristan offered help, we said yes.
I'm afraid that the Omanis have stuffed us financially. The delay in getting here and all the other little tricks they have played since then ("What, HR in Muscat told you this kind of photocopy of your marriage certificate is acceptable? No, we want one on pink paper with a different stamp" - hence the visa run) means that we have lost about Dhs60,000 in lost wages, extra costs etc etc.
In short, things are a bit disastrous.
Never mind, you will still get your monthly allowance. It's just going to be a bit erratic. I have discovered, to my cost, that if I do a transfer through the local bank, they will send a fax to their head officed in Muscat and then you have to hope that Muscat does its job. One transfer I sent was delayed for two weeks because the person in Muscat went on holiday.
So, what are our options? Well, I didn't hear back from QUT about my application there, but the outgoing head of journalism, who used to be at CQU and was Jeff's boss after me, said that journalism at QUT had been subsumed into something called "creative industries," which was run by a ballet dancer and an interior decorator. Alan didn't think I would like the arrangement any more than he had.
Northumbria has re-advertised the position for which they interviewed me in April. I have re-applied and am keeping my fingers crossed. And of course I am still hoping that Tim Walters will come through with something at AUS.
Oh, and there's a job in Qatar.
After the way we have been misled, lied to and cheated, our one objective remains escape. We decided last night that we would, if necessary, do a runner.
So is there anything good about this place?
The students are lovely and kind.
The ordinary Omanis are very kind and helpful. Even our landlord has been very nice, dispatching one man to do the needful from time to time. We no longer have to flush the toilet with a bucket and the shower in the en suite doesn't smell nearly as sulphurous as it used to. We have a four bedroom villa. Inside the walls are blue and yellow and white, sometimes at the same time. It has a walled garden, which is mostly concrete, but there are holes where Mummy has been planting things and I have trimmed the trees at the back. Binky thinks it's all wonderful. He loves going outside and has been out the front gate and off to see the neighbours. Fuzzbum has been outside a few times and swished his tail suspiciously at the world.
The house is about 10 minutes walk from work across gibber plain and gullies and camel thorn, so I go home for lunch. When I sit outside at night I can see the stars and there are birds and a mutawa rooster in the house behind us who leads his flock in prayer at 5am.
Oman is an astonishing looking place. We are in a flat plain with mountains on either side. Nizwa is about 10 minutes drive away and it has a long stretch of shops and hotels and then another stretch of scrub and then the old souk and the fort. It takes an hour to walk from the souk to the next part of town, something I tried last week.
Last Thursday our mad Kiwi mate Marilyn drove us to Muscat to shop at Carrefour and Borders, a spectacular journey through mountains and valleys flanked my mud brick villages and palm trees and truck stops and radar posts and power lines until we drove through a narrow cutting that separates Muscat and the coast from the interior.
To summarise, we are living on fresh air and are very, very, angry at the way we've been treated. On the other hand, the country is beautiful, we have made some friends and we have a roof over our head. As your mother pointed out, it's better than being unemployed.
Your mother has started making lemon flavoured iced tea. She was re-stringing her guitar when I left this morning and will write some more of her novel and do the laundry (by hand because we can't connect the washing machine yet) and will actually be fairly busy all day. I wouldn't be getting through this without her.
Anyway, don't worry too much about us. This is not exactly a high point in our lives, but we will get out of here and in a year we will look back and remember the good bits.
I am very glad that you are spending Christmas with Sas. It won't be the same without you, but I think you will understand from the foregoing that things are a little too uncertain at the moment for us to be able to plan a family Christmas. Next year will be different.
Now, tell me about the courses you are thinking of doing over the summer? Will you be finished your honours and everything by the middle of next year?
How is the work going? What are you doing exactly and how long will it last?
Have you thought about signing up as an extra for The Hobbit?
What did you eventually say about Guillermo del Toro?
A thought: Omantel has blocked those naughty Swedish pirates, so I wondered whether we could re-establish an exchange of Pando links? Your mother is suffering from House withdrawal.
Lots of love
Daddy
~
- I got all my essays in. Not just the one on Guillermo Del Toro's contributions to the horror genre, but also a research paper on why it stinks to be a science fiction or fantasy writer if you want literary credibility. Actually, I kind of liked it - remind me to post it later.
- Despite the troubles with applying for my courses (eh, I need to talk to my course adviser on Monday anyway), I got through StudyLink's online application process with a rare minimum of pain. Plus, I applied for course-related costs, which means I'll be able to afford a teeny baby 10" laptop! I already have one picked out. Oh, it'll make things so much easier - especially considering that this junkheap of a desktop is trying valiantly to die on me. I'll be able to actually work in the library, and type up my notes in class, and go on the internet in new and interesting places, and because it's tiny and only weighs a kilo, those things are actually practical rather than just theoretically possible! I can't wait.
- And, saving the best for last: morbane got me a ticket to see a Q&A with Guillermo Del Toro. I'm sorry, I'll repeat that: SHE GOT ME A TICKET TO SEE A Q&A WITH GUILLERMO DEL TORO. THAT IS MORE AWESOME THAN I KNOW HOW TO REPAY. Now all I need is to rope someone into seeing it with me. :D