No Problem

The mark of a stable life is an empty blog.

The mark of a happy life is a boring blog.

So, sorry to be empty and boring. There'll be a crisis along soon, I'm sure. My problems at the moment are:

* The shower in the hotel room is a bit rubbish.

* My job involves trying to explain complicated ideas about grammar to people raised with different complicated ideas about a different grammar...while disguising it as games and puzzles about vocabulary.

* The printer has broken down - and for some reason, a lack of printed handouts make students feel like it's not a proper lesson.

* My urine has turned orange. Too much pepsi-cola?

* Everything stops five times a day, every day, for half an hour. Including one at 5am. Except for Fridays, when the afternoon hiatus lasts four hours.

The shops shut, businesses go on hold, and the mosque across the road starts playing acapella singing over the tannoy.

When the wind is just right, I get two different tannoys at five in the morning.

Not that people spend the whole time praying. Most do a one minute prayer, then sit in their homes watching TV, find a place outside with some shade and chat, have a rest at work...or drive around.

It doesn't mean they're less devout, just less inclined to make a public show of it.

Anyway, for three periods of my working day, I get locked in - or out - of the building.

* There's no time for blogging.