I can finally fart again…
Number of posts total: 10
Where have I been the last six days? Lost? Confused? Probably. But, in all seriousness, I had Karachi’s finest delicacy. The art of becoming ill is only made inevitable when you go to Karachi. So, I’ve had it all. The lot. Diarrhoea, fever and now a cold. As you can imagine, I haven’t been in the best states to be writing a daily blog. Neither have I wanted to. Along with all the announcements, I am going to change to a weekly blog post as my life becomes mundane and boring again starting university on Monday. You can expect something similar to this summary of the last few days of my holiday in weeks to come.
Highlights of the last few days: met the Dawn Media Group CEO unknowingly, tried to use shampoo as toothpaste and well I slept a lot and eat very little.
From Monday to Wednesday, it was pretty much a write-off with not much to report except that when I went to go brush my teeth on Wednesday night, I grabbed the shampoo bottle to apply on the toothbrush bristles. The cloudiness of judgement showed the extent to my illness.
Thursday was a fascinating day. It started with a tour round the Dawn Media Group in Karachi (the home of the national newspaper). I spent some time in the Dawn GIS headquarters and discovered some exciting work taking place and what I believed to be revolutionary for the country’s progression. Then I met the CEO of the Dawn Media Group, Hameed Haroon. I had no idea who he was at any point. My uncle sat by my side during part of the encounter. I was so lost. It was like a dream, in reality. Hameed set out my life plan after university and set the sights of the John Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy as the home of my masters programme and the Chennai School as my journalism masters. Quite high standards, but he was adamant that I could aspire to such heights. Don’t know what gave him that idea… I am very tempted to write an article on my meeting with him if I get time. Hmmm….
Later that evening, for my nephew’s birthday we went to the Karachi Boat Club to cut his sumptuous chocolate cake. It was great evening, but it was the last evening I had with my family who I thoroughly enjoyed spending the last 10 days (well the first 6 anyway) with.
Friday wasn’t a breeze as you may expect. Our flight from Karachi to Dubai was 30 mins late and with an 1hr 15 min layover in Dubai planned, you can expect how that disrupted plans. We ran to the gate, landing 30 mins before the plane to London Gatwick was due to take off and made it with the gate still open. Turns out, they had rebooked us onto a later flight. Only problem was that flight was 12 hours later at 2am Saturday morning. Not a happy bunny. We begged and pleaded and finally managed to wriggle our way on board. I never knew how big A380–800 aeroplanes were until I was reassigned a seat number in row 87. Yes 87. That’s the second to last row on the ground floor. What a joke. With a barmy old woman and a delirious Indian next to me, I had a whale of a time conversing with my fellow travellers and 8 hours flew by.
We were told our luggage had not made the trip and would be sent by courier to us on Saturday afternoon (which it was). So, a speedy exit out the airport and home only took around 45 mins from plane to bed. Not bad really. Well… not bad, but had no luggage.
My illness is improving, Wednesday brought the first fart in 3 days and I now have that as my claim to fame. I am proud. Wouldn’t you be?
All is well now, I have decided to pull out of the golf tournament I was due to play tomorrow because I don’t want to strain myself more and become more ill, think I’ll sleep.
Till next week, where I start university and have some fun things planned.
I’m out
DN