A third of my way through. [Sigh].

More than 2 months in and this is only my second entry…

I’ve been reading through my first entry and, apart from a rather cynical chuckle on the initial “lack of work” impression I had, I’ve been struck by how little I have to add to it: completely my own fault here – complete pure laziness. Of course, I have a better (although still criminally low) understanding of local history and politics, and know my way round Beirut at least. But I’ve haven’t ventured out of Beirut or tried to meet locals outside my work.

Hence my kick-start to my blog: I’m hoping that if I force myself to write something say, every other day (let's go for complete fantasy to start with), I’d be so depressed by my lack of interesting things to say that I’d be forced to get off my arse to correct this sad state of affairs. What I’m trying to say is that my blog here is more for personal reasons than anything else and is likely to be incredibly rambly with rather random and abrupt changes in subject matter. Not to mention being mind-numbingly self-indulgent. If it all gets too much, you have my permission to completely ignore it and consign it to the legions of unread blogs on the internet. However, I do promise to try to keep my flights of fancy to a minimum and make it as amusing as I can. And I’ll randomly sprinkle in surprising and completely useless tidbits here and there.

For example, just heard a theory that a huge influence on old “negro spirituals” sung by plantation slaves in the Southern states was Islamic music – you know, that “bluesy” slide that, come to think of it, I hear every day during the call to prayer. It makes a great deal of sense thinking about it as many slaves were from Islamic West Africa and it’s very probable that, while working the fields, they would sing the call to prayer and those hearing them, whether Muslim or no, would appropriate the style into their music. Isn’t that just the coolest idea!!! Well, it got me excited and I then proceeded to tell the whole office about it with the usual response of “Yeah sure, Caroline. How’s the report getting on?” Philistines...

Anyway, back to this century/continent: I’ve got a flat just 10 mins walk from my work which I’m very fond of: it’s got all the usual amenities and I spend far too much time vegging out in my living room or my large balcony/patio reading, day-dreaming or watching the huge no of DVDs I shipped over. As I’ve lived practically all my life in one flat, it’s actually quite fun having a completely different place with its own quirks to get used to and to decorate – not that I’ve done much of the latter apart from two gorgeous rugs that I bought from Syria. I could go on about these rugs at exhaustive detail but don’t want to alienate you all at this early stage – will save it to later. Suffice to say that I spent far too much time in the evenings staring at and gloating over my purchases. Yep, the excitement of aid work in the field...

Talking about work, my initial impression was a mite incorrect – there’s actually quite a lot of work to do but not particularly challenging work unfortunately. I do tend to work fairly long hours but the work is not particularly varied and there isn’t the same buzz that my previous job had with its ludicrous amount of things to do and the daily unexpected panic to sort out. On the plus side, it’s a pretty easy introduction to all the things to think about while being in charge of an office and of line-management. And I still love my colleagues. If I stay at this career, and I probably will, it can only get “more challenging”.

Anyway, will keep this short and sweet for the mo – will save my story on my one (and only) date I’ve had since I got here for next time. Comedy is the word.