The security lockdown is worse than we thought.
This morning MD and I jumped in his car to go down to the Cantonment shops just outside the Staff College grounds. Simple yeah? Not so… it turns out the security lockdown has them restricted to the Staff College! So we are not even allowed to go out on the Cantonment! Bloody hell. The Western Allies are totally pissed about this. I mean – take a bunch of roughty toughty soldier types and fairly high ranking ones at that, and then lock them in and watch them twitch. They’re all going mad – there’s nothing to do… except plot their various escapes. 🙂
And so we did… sneak out that is. Went out past a different guard post, told them we were going to the swimming pool… stupid little fella didnt even question the fact that we were a man and a woman going off to the pool together… and drove around the Staff College area to get down to the Cantonment shops. Glad we did … MD took me to the most amazing fabric shop with dirt cheap prices and the most incredible assortment of stuff. Brocade furnishing fabrics at $2/metre, gorgeous dress fabrics from about the same, wool at about $10/metre and fabulous saris and shawls. I spent about $120 but amassed nearly my own body weight in fabric! 🙂 I picked up some gorgeous brocades, a sari, some shawls and headscarves. Was a great fun! Will definitely have to try and go back there before I go home… And so the Great Swimming Pool Escape was a success!!!
Tonight we went to the Queen’s Birthday Party that was being held by the English. Embassy people from all over Pakistan have flown in for it… the Brits have staff in Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi so there was quite a few diplomats there. UK Mark also seems to have rounded up every natural English speaker in Quetta to come along as well, so at least I wasnt the only filthy western whore in the place. The party was great fun.. I had kinda forgotten how we normally socialize back home, having been in Turkey for a month and then coming here, I think I have gotten used to the way things are done here. Still, most of the arab women went and sat together in a corner, but compared to other parties here where they get partitioned off into a different room, that is a pretty big effort for them in the mingling department.
There must have been about 150 guests I think, and about 30 of them foreigners. Most of the early part of the evening was spent in meeting people and then they did the food thing. The rest of the early evening was spent waiting for the Pakistanis to go home so we could all get stuck into the grog. Once the cake bit was done, every single Pakistani filed out of the place in a mass exodus. Speaking of the cake – it was hilarious… UK Mark had ordered it with two flags on it for the UK and for Australia as we celebrate the Queen’s birthday back home too. But they mustn’t have given the little Pakistani baker enough instruction as the cake turned up with the Australian flag on it upside down! God bless their cotton socks!
For our listening pleasure… the Pakistani Army bagpipe band were out and they were a sight to behold… little Pakistani guys all decked out in tartan and then positively murdering what ever they played! I mean bagpipes can be fantastic… but not this time. Apparently they are much better than they were at the beginning of the year…. at the flag raising ceremony they had upon the opening of the study year and to welcome all the foreign students, they had two bagpipe bands there each being conducted by their own band master… and they belted out the same songs, off key and out of sync! I shudder to think!
We partied on until about 2am… many G&Ts were had, the conversations got less and less savoury as the night went on… started out all genteel and suitable for mixed company, but by the end of the evening you knew you were hanging with soldiers – officers or no!!!. And Dr Nick…. I managed to avoid being purchased by Saudis!!! It was a really good fun night out., and I am a little seedy this morning actually 🙂
“The Boys”
Uk Mark, MD, Canada Randy and US Dave.
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