Catching Up

I see from my blog that my last activity was on May 14^th but I haven’t written anything since April 26^th. Life has been very full for me in the last two months. April was packed and in the midst of it all, my husband and I left for a short holiday in the Tuscany region of Italy.  En route to Rome, we stopped at Doha, Qatar, to visit the Doha Museum of Islamic Art, another iconic building by IM Pei. We also visited the Museum of Modern Arabic Art (Mathaf). In all, we spent 20 hours in Doha; we managed some rest and a visit to the the Souk Waqif before continuing to Rome and Florence.

 Museum of Islamic Art (on the right)

Mathaf -Museum of Modern Arabic Art.

In Florence, we took the train out to towns like Lucca and Siena on the first two days and after that went south to Montepulciano where we spend another couple of days driving around the country roads, gawking at the views and eating Italian food. Tuscany is very much like the Provence, full of pretty little towns, rolling countryside and rich food. During this time, we were also glued to the Internet checking on the latest in the election rallies. We managed to come home on cooling day, in time to vote. 

 Pienza

 Siena

Montepulciano

After all the excitement of the elections, there was work as always and although I made a list of all the things I needed to write about, I simply did not find time to write anything longer than a line or two (on Facebook), beyond compiling course notes and vetting manuscripts. Some days, I think it’s a bad commentary of my life but on clearer days, I also realised that I have many other family and life obligations and duties to fulfil that fill up my time but these never reach the pages of this blog or Facebook.

So I am now in the second day of my short break from work and I have a stack of 10 books to devour but there’s always the fridge to clean, the cupboards to tidy and work to prepare for. Is this a female thing to have countless tasks to do? I imagine teachers on holiday during this so called “protected period” but they are never protected from the housework and the familial duties, are they?

But, I’ve resolved to work on my blog again during this break. And I will.

Have a good holiday everyone.