good ideas

I thought I would write about some of the good ideas they have in Syria that haven’t reached the UK. I have chosen the UK as this is my home country.

The traffic system is absolutely chaotic but what they do have is a timer to indicate how long the red light has before it changes to green and a timer to indicate how long the green light before it changes to red. This good for cars as they know how long they have to wait and good for pedestrians. Excellent idea - Before you think about doing it, the idea has already been patented in Europe!!

Another one is sending credits from one pay-as-you-go mobile phone to another. I don’t think they have this in the UK but it’s so simple - you text phone number space number of credits to 1233. Easy and simple and extremely useful…

Cripes… I’m trying to think of some more ideas and can’t. I am going offline and will be back soon…….
Got one but I think I’m clutching at straws…. They have sellers going round the streets selling essential items such as tissue paper, gas cylinders, fruit and veg etc so that you don’t have to leave your house. Excellent for the elderly, the lazy and the busy…I like to think of myself as being in the last category.

I love the pay-as-you-go internet cards. They are brilliant and obviously the more credit you buy the cheaper the hour. E.g. 16 hours with the ‘AYA’ company costs about £3 and 70 hours costs about £10. There is virtually no blocking of sites and every site I need to access is accessible - even hotmail. So all this rubbish you read about concerning sites being blocked in China, Iran and Syria etc. is bull! This is for a 56k line. Broadband is available for about £20-£40 permonth depending on speed (256k to about 2Mb)

Another thing I love is the pirated software. I got the full Adobe software project that was released recently. This costs about £800 and I bought it for £5 (my friend told me I was robbed as it should be about £2!!!) Before anyone says that this is a naughty thing to do, please remember that the average wage here is about $7 a day and probably 25% of the customers are tourists.
I’ve been told Office 2007 is out soon so I can’t wait to get hold of that.

Car sharing in taxis is useful. You see what the price is on the meter when you get in and clock up your price from there.


That’s enough for now as I don’t want to waste all of my good points in one posting and need to save them for future ones.

New Horizons training

Training in the many private institutions is quite cheap. The courses are exactly the same as European ones and probably American ones.

I have done a few courses at New Horizons which is one of the best, if not the best, in Damascus. The prices are cheap. An MCSE full track is about $800. I am doing an Adobe course - Photoshop, Illustrator and something else that I can't remember and this will cost me about $200. They even do a PMP course which in England costs about £2000 but here, prices range from £250 to £500 if it's a week intensive. These prices do not include exams and registration if applicable. If you want to spend a good few months in Syria, I thoroughly recommend doing some of these courses. The literature is in English and the training is Arabic/English. There are some courses, the more expensive management ones with UK partnership programs that are exclusively in English

christmas eve

I’ve been trying to sort out papers for my 2 eldest daughters since September. Due to postal problems/delays from England and Syria, I think I have finally done it. I went to the Ministry of Education and this is in Baghdad Street. It comprises of about 4 buildings and each time I went to 1 of these buildings they would direct me to another. I must have spent an hour going up and down stairs like a lost puppy BUT I think I’ve completed it. They asked me to come back after 2 days. So as far as I’m concerned, as I no longer have the papers in my possession then there is nothing left for me to. Once I’ve got these papers, my daughters places can be registered at the Ministry of Education which means that their exam results can be sent to them officially. They have, in effect, been in limbo since September 10th. This is exciting news actually!!


I also went to the Maroor which is the Transport Department. I have been driving without a license for about 3 months which is, for some reason, a prisonable offence. I was caught twice, within 10 minutes, for not having a license but managed to ‘sort’ myself out. I have a UK license but Syria is one of the few countries that doesn’t allow a UK citizen of Syrian descent to drive a car with Syrian number plates. Anyway, I need to register at a driving school for SYP4600 (about £45) and then pay SYP600 (about £6) to get my license, so I will start the process tomorrow.
What fun I will have….

A new building in Arnous

I thought I'd include something about a new building that is being built near to where I live. Why? do you ask. Well, buildings take ages to complete. There is one in Marjeh Square that stopped about 10 years ago and nothing has been done since. It's a huge construction and it's a pity that work has been stopped although I noticed (I think) some movement or something!

Anyway, this building. About 2 weeks ago they started doing something. They demolished, dug a huge hole and something is definitely happening.

It may be interesting to diarise it's progression.....

So 2 weeks ago they did the above...

Today, there is a huge hole...

Not sure what it;s going to be but will post something as soon as....

introduction

Hello to readers wherever you may be...

"I" am in Syria. I moved here with my family after living in the UK for over 40 years. I lived in beautiful Manchester where there was luscious greenery and gorgeous rain to Damascus where there is heat, occasional rain and 2 balconies for my garden!

My family love it here. There are some regrets about moving but they're not enough to make us move back.

This blog will detail some of the experiences we encounter ranging from school to work, driving to micro and food to going out and more.

I hope this blog provides information on something that will interest anyone visiting this site and obviously, I am always open to sugestions.

If it's worth putting pixels to screen I'll try and do it and with God's help, I'll try and do a good job....


Maz