2009 Abu Dhabi 3 Interlude in Ireland back to Madinat Zayed

Madinat Zayed Part 4.

“C______”, I said at Belfast airport

“N_______” said C

“This is a tough one”

I got in his car and while driving to Lurgan I told him all about it.

at a sligh ttangent: The Australian Psychological Association recommends that a counsellor charge me 200 dollars per hour for a counselling service to help me deal with my family’s adjustment problems . My wife gets paid 16 dollars an hour . She has a degree and a Post Graduate degree from an Australian University. Although she is a teacher she is working as a child care worker at present at a Montessori school.

John Howard’s Australia…

I called one of these counselling Sheilas before I went into hospital. She was ok and when the hour was up she dutifully extended her hand for the 150 dollars.

“Will you be coming back next time?”

“ Yes, I think so. If I get re-registered with medicare.”

“Well, you’ll get 115 back then next time”

I was due to meet with her the day after I was taken into hospital. From my hospital bed I summoned the Doctor and asked him to postpone the appointment.

When I got out of hospital I phoned to make another appointment with her. The receptionist said she would call back to me. That was a week ago.

Now that is what gets me. I could be dead for all that Sheila counselor for the Australian Psycological Assocation knows or cares!

Is it any wonder people are shooting each other randomly? I could shoot a few myself.

I phoned a few others today-names given to me by my G.P. Not one of them spoke to me or called me back. Probably all having a ball with the recession exploiting everyone’s extra stress.

Two hundred dollars an hour? Medicare pays only 115. So that would be 85 a week. The dole is about 230 a week.

Actually, John Hunt did ring me back a couple of days later-twice in fact.

I explained what I was looking for.

“ Well I may be able to help but I don’t have anything until May.” said John amiably.

It was the beginning of April.

“Oh” , I said, “I might be dead by then”..

‘What?’ He said

“Well, I said, things seem to me to be a bit laid back in counselling in South Australia”

“I’m not laid back- I’m busy!”

Oh! lucky you, I thought to myself.

Ok , ‘No worries’ he said, and put the phone down

“Yeah, no worries for you mate’ I thought.

You’d think it was a barbecue we were organising.


Later that afternoon he called again. “Actually , Don we do have a practice in Gawler place which might be able to help you”

“Thanks for that” I said.

“Don’t worry, John” I thought to myself. “I’m not going to top myself.”

Cover that ass, John!

I’ll ask Centrelink for a counsellor when I claim the dole next week.


Ireland was good. I had a chance to re-establish relationships with my brothers and Mum. Mum was very healthy. My brothers and I had not seen each other for very many years and we had drifted far apart. P had had a health scare and had re-established contact recently. I was keen to reciprocate the interest.

I could talk to DC. He never judged me. Just listened.

A plan began to form in my mind. It went something like this..

I had to keep earning money so I had have to go back to Abu Dhabi.

M and the teenagers would get a bigger house.

M would come and visit me in MZ within a few weeks in order to prevent me from going nuts. This plan also would also encourage the kids to be more independent. While she was away they would have to fend for themselves.

We would all live happily ever after.

But I had an attack of phlebitis on the penultimate day of my week in Ireland. I was hobbling around Hillsborough looking for drugs at a Chemist. I decided to call up an old friend from my school days in Belfast.

She had married a top Ulster Surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital and that was that. Just as well for her I think.

We blarneyed for a while on the phone.

“What about the legs D__-’, I said. I’m supposed to be flying tomorrow back to Abu Dhabi.

“You shouldn’t fly, D____” she said.

Maybe my wife is right. She says I don’t listen to anybody’s advice.

Meanwhile I visited Mum and the conversation was good. She gets really confused but she enjoys conversation . DC came with me on two occasions.

And where are you living now?

“In Abu Dhabi Mum”.

And you are P___?

No, I’m D____, Mum.

“And P___ is in Adelaide?”

“No, Mum, I___ live in Adelaide.”

‘Are you married yet?”

The brothers N___ went on a pilgrimage to Enniskillen. This was where my Dad’s sister-Aunt Marjorie used to live.

Marjorie was a stalwart Methodist and sacrificed her life to look after her mother. She never married and died at the age of 65.she wsthe happist Nixon I have known.

The brothers N____ went to her grave to remember the good old days at Easter when we used to visit Marjorie and Granma N____.

P___ was ill but he thought he was beating it and he was in pretty good form.

I was very pleased at the rapprochement. It was worth the trip for that alone.

I flew back to Abu Dhabi and stayed the night with my CEO. Next day I returned to MZ.

After one week I had come back to the United Arab Emirates refreshed, but it took me some time to get on top of things again.

Apparently M_____ had chucked a spasm on being asked to deputise in my absence for the week. I don’t blame him. He refused and Mr. E____ had had to do the job. I think this pissed him off. I don’t blame him. His head looked even more oblong than usual. Mr. E____ was a yuppy with a head that reminded me of a horse.

Within a week I had forgotten many things I had learned in the first two weeks. A couple of days were spent in Abu Dhabi doing management training courses.

Anyway, I resettled in as best I could and tried to get on with things. Meanwhile , things back in Adelaide seemed to be wobbly again. I got the impression M____ didn’t really want to come to the desert for a month to settle me down and have a holiday.

I could feel the panic rising and I became depressed.

At school, Mr. E____ started to put on the pressure. In my absence a ‘restructuring’ had been announced which meant my whole team were having to basically re-apply for their jobs. One or possibly two might not be offered a new contract.

I was asked by Mr.E____ to do their performance reviews and interview for the new positions.

I wasn’t enthusiastic because I didn’t know them. I told this to Mr. E____. Mr. E___ didn’t like my lack of enthusiasm.

I counted the days I had been at school-thirteen in all since my arrival. How could I do a performance review over six months –let alone interview my team for a new restructured job after such a short space of time?

It seemed like the restructuring idea was designed to buy time. All it did was create uncertainty and anxiety. Typical mad scheme coming out of HR.

HR was full of yuppies half my age who had never lived overseas. It was ridiculous.

If Mr. E____ and his buddies didn’t want to renew the contracts of a couple of my team why not simply tell them their contract was not going to be renewed.?

Making everyone reapply for new jobs with me carrying the can seemed like a neat trick of Mr’ E to get rid of M__ and N___ whom he disliked. But I knew who would cop the responsibility for it if I did the interviews!

I could feel the panic rising.

I liked my team. I thought they were doing a good job. R_____ was an asshole but if he was kicked into line now and again he was salvageable.

M___ was a pain but was very strong in some areas and potentially a very useful team member.

The others were excellent. Why were they being asked to reapply for their jobs? I didn’t see the problem.


The next day was another training day in Abu Dhabi. This time it was for Principals only.

I was travelling from MZ with one of the other Principals and on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi my phone rang.

“Hello D___, this is Y_________ here from MZ.

“PENTA have arrived!”

PENTA were the monitoring agency employed by the Government to assess our progress in the schools.

Yikes!

“They want to know where the files are:”

The files were the ringbinders M_____ had thrown at me on day one.

“Oh!... eh… well they are on the floor beside my desk” I said

“No problem D____” said Yahaya, “Everything is under control”

I was proud of Y____ . I was proud of the team.

But Mr. E____ had a different reaction..

I arrived in Abu Dhabi and detected a certain chill in the atmosphere around Mr. E____.

I could see him walking around the hallways with his phone stuck to his ear, speaking in an unnecessarily loud voice in that self-important way which annoyed me.

He was wearing his usual pea soup coloured suit. I didn’t like it.

Aussies are uncomfortable about receiving gifts .At least from me anyway. I’ve just tried to give my two lesbian friends some chocolates and almost had to force them down their throats.

Why are they like this? Is it just me?



Mr. E_____ was a star performer in the Principals training day program. He was busy and came over to me.

“PENTA have arrived. I think we’d better meet over lunch.”

I gulped.

What was Mr. E_____ worried about? He seemed tense. Things were ok in MZ. with PENTA.

We met at lunch and Mr. E_____ went through a series of documents which he felt PENTA would want to see and interrogate in the next twenty four hours.

Mostly it was CONMFK.

It was restating the bleeding obvious in CONMFK.

There were several documents and plans and I had of course only a rudimentary grasp of them at that stage

One of them had silly things like

“By the end of June 2009, (after 12 months of the project) 50 percent of all classes will be taught through English”

By Palestinians and Syrians!

Duuh!

Maybe by the end of 2050!

Mr E_____ was going through these documents and wanting to know where we ‘were’ in relation to the ‘Key performance indicators’.

I thought to myself. Well you should know –you were the Principal last year before I came?

But I didn’t say that.

He wanted to know what had I done since the last visit in November? The answer was very little because of exams and the short time I had been on site –thirteen days..

“Well what have you been doing for the past two months D____?,” he said

I could feel the panic rising…

Well I said, first of all I have been organizing a place to live for at least half of my time since my arrival…...

“Same for all of us” , he interrupted..

No, it wasn’t. He was put up in the Liwa hotel for six months.

‘Second I have only been on site for thirteen working days. How can you expect me to be familiar with these things in such a short time? My task has been to get to know ‘Jihad” my local Principal, my team of CFBT teachers, and my local teachers. I have not had nearly enough time to familiarize myself with all of this paperwork. ”

M______ had told me that he and Mr. E_______ had spent about six months doing nothing else except getting to know staff when they had first arrived in MZ arrived eighteen months ago.

The bare facts were:

Mr. E____________ was the Principal of my school before being promoted to Cluster Director. I was his successor.

He was worried about the school and PENTA

I was worried about him.

I wasn’t eating much of my lunch. He was eating like a horse.

I could feel the panic rise. I made a decision.

“Well. I think I should go back to MZ and prepare some stuff for PENTA tomorrow.” I lied.

“Yes , I think that is a good idea.” It also meant I would miss Mr. E______’s afternoon presentation in Abu Dhabi which suited me just fine.

I got a taxi and went back to MZ quicksharp. My mind was racing the whole time.

When I got back I visited M_______ in his pigeon loft across he road. I had never been in it before.

He was opening up. The PENTA visit had gone well. We went through some stuff.

I told him Mr; E-____ was up my ass about PENTA

“I feel like going to the airport”

“I’ll take you” –he joked-half seriously.

I left him and crossed back to my own pigeon loft and started to pack.

It was four O’clock. I had time to get a taxi to Abu Dhabi and fly to Australia that evening.

I called the CEO

“Look, it seems Mr. E______ is not satisfied with the way I’m doing things?”

“I think he just wants you to produce a weekly plan of what you are doing.”

The ‘M’ word had finally reared it’s ugly head. ‘Micromanagement’.

I started packing.

“Calm down” I said to myself.

I had three Amstel beers.

But the panic was still there.

I got on my orange bicycle and headed for the taxi rank in town.

“You go Abu Dhabi airport now how much?’

“400 dirham”

“OK.”

We drove to my house and I finished the packing I had started earlier in the afternoon.

I never saw my orange bicycle again.

It was left at the taxi stand.

My legs were hurting again with the phlebitis.

But I didn’t care. I was going home to Adelaide.

I was relieved .

I think.