As you can see, the view from my window is now rather spectacular with the snow capped mountains encircling the plain that Kabul sits on. Soon the snow will be down on the plain and our demining operations will halt for the duration while the ground is covered in snow and frozen.
We shall be coming back to UK soon for three weeks of hard earned rest and shall begin again in mid-January preparing for the deminers to go back out into the field in mid-February, we hope.
At the moment it is pretty chaotic as we try to struggle with $10m of budget that ends on December 31st and all the budget lines have to be spent accurately over the year to within 10% of the projections. Every day people are coming in for money for new tents, plastic sheet to cover the old tents, more diesel, more gas etc and the carefully planned projections are shattered by 8am every day and we start all over again!!! I am usually hopping mad till I get it back under control about 3pm, but that is Kabul life!!! What we need is an accountant - now where would I find one of those?
However, you have seen pictures of our house. It is not the best maintained property and the windows are akin to the windows you would find in a garden shed on a long ago abandoned allotment. They are a single pane barely hanging in the thin frame and the openers do not close properly. So when the temperature reaches -11C at night, they are not the best protection from the cold.
With the power off there is no electric and without CO alarms we cannot use the gas heaters, so there you have it. A very chilleee trip to the bathroom at 3am when you wake up shivering in bed!!!!
Still we are a lot better off than most residents of Kabul and it seems a bit churlish to moan, but I am looking forward to a hot bath, a warm room and most of all a hot, soft bed with fluffy pillows and a thick quilt. Oh, and a pint of Shepherd Neame. (not in bed)
2 comments:
Hello Quinney Foreigner.
CW here, typing in the chilly spare room which is growing chillier as the heating has been turned off and I am too mean to put it on for an extra hour or so.
Interest rates on mortgages have gone mad, so economies have to be made - but not it would appear by my daughter with whom I share the house - oh no, she cheerfully uses all the hot water - leaves the lights on etc - what it is to be young.
Strangely, I am still enjoying hearing about the minutiae (yes, I know its spelt wrongly) of life in Kabul. If you think thats boring then you should try spending your sundays - well part of them - well only an hour or two atually -stripping wallpaper with a broken stripper - now thats boring.
Have you bought traditional Kabul dress yet and if so will you be returning to the UK wearing it and seeing if you can pass for an Afghan (not the hound variety)?
We havent heard much about the state of your bowels recently - are yur two loyal readers to assume that all is well in the nether regions department?
Can you get soft loo paper in Kabul? Also, do Amazon deliver books, CDs etc there? We shoud be told
Your Foreign Correspondent
Hey PQ, am reading if not commenting...
Glad you're safe and well and look forward to hopefully seeing you over the Christmas break down at The Valley.
Cheers
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