Easily Burnt

Tomorrow is the day. Sort of. Since 23rd March I have not been in a classroom and delivered a proper lesson. The same is true of many teachers around the world. That will not change tomorrow but it's the first step towards a return to normality. Of course we are still in quarantine, it is more a return to the new normal that we left behind at the end of July. This week is CPD week. In the UK we would have spent a day or two right at the end of August or more likely the begining of September topping up our training and preparing our classrooms. Here in the UAE things finished a little earlier so they start back up a little earlier. Students will return on the 30th but we still have this week to get our heads in the game. Tomorrow we will start with the first of many online CPD and induction sessions. We should be doing this in person, all be it socially distanced but because of our late arrival changes have got to made. Freedom comes on Thursday which will give us one whole d...

So we have been here a while now. It feels strange to even think that as our only opportunity to see anything was the drive from the airport to our apartment and I fell asleep! Anyway we arrived last Thursday and its now the following Saturday. I am starting to think of myself like Mark Watney in the Martian only with reduced access to Pork products. For anyone who knows me well or perhaps has been on any of the Ten Tors training walks, you will know that I love a coffee in the morning. However, many years after discovering this black gold, I still go to bed each evening looking forward this syrupy wake up juice. My efforts to mix such a potion are rarely limited. I have collected an array of paraphernalia, of differing sizes and styles. On packing for our one way trip to the UAE I went with the tried and tested Aeropress. Simple, light, confusing for Sarah to use. It is everything I need in a morning brewing contraption. On our first morning here I encountered a significant and ir...

A quick look on the internet and you will find that yes there is local cuisine but mainly the internet likes to shout that you can get anything that you can think of. Our nearest restaurant is Lebanese and the take away about 10 yards further on is an Indian. How can I tell from quarantine? The signs are neon, you can read them from space. When we first arrived some kind person had been out and purchased some basic groceries for us. The thought was very much appreciated. The execution was equal parts hiliarious and disappointing. Firstly why does anyone need six cucumbers? Secondly with a distinct lack of gin what are we going to do with 7 lemons? Finally how badly thought of are the British as consumers of food that we might actually want these frozen burgers. Frozen burgers doesn't sound that bad but these are the ones from Iceland that come in the party sized bag of miscellaneous meat products. However, I cannot stress this enough, without those burgers we would have been ea...

Last time I sort of glossed over a few details. In this installment of moving to the United Arab Emirates during a global pandemic I will try and fill one or two of those in. Again I am writing this in the interest of sainity so take it for what it is Previously I implied a more seat of the pants expidition than was perhaps true. In reality we had been given some rather specific steps to take both in the airport and immediately afterwards. Some of these worked out and others not so much. The most obvious thing to go wrong was meeting HR representatives at the Covid test centre. Several days before leaving the UK we had a Skype meeting with some of our new colleagues, our new HR representatives and the head of secondary at our new school. We got lots of information from this meeting again there were issues with some of it but for a moment I want to look at the Covid test centre and the process that we were supposed to follow. We were told that on leaving the airport in Dubai we shou...

So we are here. We made it. All the stress and paperwork of the previous weeks has now come to fruition and we are stepping out the airport door in Dubai. The heat is intense but the humidity is on a completely different level. The humidity is so much that condensation is forming on the outside of the neatly waiting air conditioned taxis. In the taxi "Al Ain please" and we are off. All we really knew was that we would have to stop for a Covid test on route. We didn't know the address or who would meet us. As it turns out neither does anyone. Drawing a map for a delivery driver is apparently a common navigational solution to cities that are growing so quickly that the roads go unnamed. 5 minutes later, my head is nodding and I am asleep. It's been a long night on the plane. Next stop is the covid testing centre at the side of the motorway as you cross from the Emirate of Dubai to Abu Ahabi. We were supposed to meet some of the staff from our new jobs at the centre ...