Storm

After a few hot days, the evening before last Tehran was covered in thick, grey cloud. Eventually an intense electric storm broke out, lasting for hours into the night. It was spectacular: the whole of the sky was torn by lightning, the thunder rolled from the east and in a second echoed from the west.
The storm raged until the small hours of the morning: at about 3.15 am I woke up with the sensation of water being sprayed on my face but it wasn’t a dream. The wind blew so hard on the curtains that they almost touched the ceiling and the rain was driven through the mosquito net on the window inside the room and on my bed! The carpet under the window was soaked.
The morning after the Alborz mountains looked blue and clear, like a picture postcard.

Good News (fingers crossed)

My book Among the Iranians has been under consideration by the North America branch of a British publisher for the last fourteen months. After a change in personnel and my proposal going astray, I now have some good news: two days ago the publishers rang me from Boston. It seems that they are considering it very seriously and indicated that it would make a difference if I could meet the owner of the company in London, so I am trying to arrange a short trip to London in the middle of June in the hope that this should clinch the deal.

At Last!

Three days ago we got an ADSL internet connection, so there goes my excuse for not updating this blog more often! Still, the procrastinator in me will find something else soon.