Back to Tehran (20 September 2008)

We got back to Tehran around midnight on Saturday, September 20th. Although we had made sure all the windows were shut fast, the house was full of dust. Drama Queen just had to do the dusting at the time and would not be persuaded to leave it until the morning. Hossein went out in search of essentials, like milk (you’ve got to hand this to Tehran: you can find shops open at this time of night) and came back with a roast chicken for the pre-dawn meal, this being the 20th of Ramadan.

Schools started two days later, on Tuesday 23rd September, which barely gave us time to pick up schools things and uniforms, shorten trousers, label and cover school books. Since then, it’s been non-stop work clearing a huge ironing backlog, clearing out wardrobes and cupboards, shopping and doing myriad other things around the house.

Then there was some work checking against copy waiting for me from the publishers I work for and the final check of the chapter I’ve written for a collection of essays (Face, Language and Social Processes, forthcoming in 2009, Equinox Press).

Oh, and a huge chunk of my time and energy goes into comforting frantic Drama Queen, who on the first day back from her Art High School decided that everything is too difficult for her and she won’t make it and everybody is better than her, and she’ll fail the year and people will laugh at her… Two weeks on, she is admittedly better, but still needs practical help and psychological support. Thank God that at least Yussi absolutely loves his new school and has made a very good start.

And I thought I was meant to be writing.