A trilogy in seven parts.....hypno's latest efforts

Karmacat

Ooh.... what do I remember of Portugal? The army captain who took a shine to me.... Los Geronimos monastery .... Henry the Navigator.... a trio of us taking a train from Lisbon to Oporto on our own (at 14? I can't believe they'd let kids get away with that these days). And we had 48 hours in Morocco too ..... To touch a country where white and English is not the norm ..... oh yeah. Big time.

hypno06

My trips to Saudi - my Dad having to do some quick talking with a policeman with a big gun who disliked the fact that I was in the local town wearing jeans.......drinking the appropriate amount of black tea in the company of locals in order not to offend, even though I have never drunk tea through choice (you only hear of coffee on my thread!), cutting out the labels in my marks and spencers underwear so they didn't get confiscated by customs on the way through.........being grateful to the restaurant owner for letting us quietly continue to eat our meal, despite the fact it was "prayer time" and he wanted to close up and go and pray - a mutual respect for both religions, and being able to work so that everyone was happy......talking to the new mother, who had to take her baby into a basic segregated area at a service station, while her husband got to watch television in luxury.........only being able to go into town if accompanied by my father......my mother not being able to go and do grocery shopping on her own and not being allowed to work, or drive.......not being able to hold hands with my boyfriend in public.......seeing the difference in wages that the locals were paid compared with the expats, working for an American oil company.....

We still had the bunfights, and we certainly misbehaved......but boy did I learn a lot.

skint_spice

my dad used to work over there hypno and I remember him buying Charlie perfume to take back as some of the saudi blokes wore it themselves - rebellious or what! sorry but needed some light relief in among the politics!

hypno06

SS - Charlie :eek: They could have gone for something a little more sophisticated :rolleyes:

skint_spice

hypno06 wrote: »

SS - Charlie :eek: They could have gone for something a little more sophisticated :rolleyes:

do/or did Revlon do sophisticated?:rotfl:

hypno06

skint_spice wrote: »

do/or did Revlon do sophisticated?:rotfl:

.........not as far as I am aware..........:rotfl:

Ches

Karmacat wrote: »

Ooh.... what do I remember of Portugal? The army captain who took a shine to me.... Los Geronimos monastery .... Henry the Navigator.... a trio of us taking a train from Lisbon to Oporto on our own (at 14? I can't believe they'd let kids get away with that these days). And we had 48 hours in Morocco too ..... To touch a country where white and English is not the norm ..... oh yeah. Big time.

I am guessing you went on the Uganda then Karmacat?

Keeping_Motivated

Hi Hypno, not going to join in the whole China debate only to say its sounds like an opportunity for your daughter to learn many lessons that education alone cannot provide and if she is willing to bust a gut to help to pay for it then even more lessons will be learnt. That is somthing I would want for my child.

I take it you have more or less decided to pass on having a student this year and given all your reasons I so don't blame you, you have certainly given your home up for more years than I think I could have done.

I just read on another thread that you have only 11 paydays to being debt free that is amazing!!

hypno06

Hi KM, yes I have decided (unless one of us loses our job in the next few weeks or something unforeseen like that) that we won't be having a student.

We have loved having this latest girl here - and if she were able to stay, then we would be more than happy for her to do so. But we won't be asking for another. It is time for us to start just being us - looking forward to the things that we want to do as "us" not as just people who got into a financial pickle......

11 paydays - starts seeming to be very real :T

gallygirl

Anyway, talking of other cultures, who's watching Eurovision - yikes to tinfoil trouser man