Forum Overview :: Tales of the Sword Coast :: A difficult time of year

[quote name="Quétinbec"]The stretch leading up to Ramadan is the hardest time of year. Temperatures go past 50*C (although the government never reports this because legally everyone's supposed to get the day off when temp > 50*C), but there's also a very long stretch of no holidays, and work slows down so you have NOTHING to do but think about how you're wasting your life here. This period is full of resignations, firings, and fights. Two weekends ago, I was punched in the face by a co-worker and I'd like to make a note of it here. My state of mind hasn't been great. I've stopped fucking whores to stay faithful to a girl with serious emotional problems in a country 7000km away. My family's being forced to sell property to survive. I hear nothing but bad news from NZ. It gets sadder every week. My Dad has become very demoralized. It's very hard for me to see because he used to be so proud. I've been sending home money. My best friend here's cheating on his wife with whores and Asians he lies to by pretending he doesn't have a family. I used to put up with that quite easily but now that I'm a 'faithful man' I find it difficult. I still keep his secrets, even though I don't keep my own. A couple of good friends who are also good people are leaving too, and it's hard to find good people here so that's sad. I've also been getting a hard time about being a pussy. Maybe I was always getting shit about it, but it only started hurting after Claire considered me 'too much of a pussy', so that's when I really started noticing it. Two weekends ago, I was at a party. I was being a cunt for most of the night for various reasons. I was also very drunk. Apparently I threatened to throw a Scottish guy I work with in the pool but he said there was no way I could throw him in the pool and if I tried, he'd kick my ass. I saw this as my opportunity to make a statement about me not being a pussy :( . While trying to wrestle him into the pool, I slipped. He must have got on top of me. My friend says I was trying to strangle him from beneath him, but I don't remember that. I remember yelling out, "Is your cellphone in your pocket?!" a couple of times while he was on top of me. He punched me in the face. The back of my head hit the concrete and I blacked out for half a second. After that, I didn't give a fuck about his cellphone and I must have managed to get out from under him and somehow throw him in the pool. When he climbed out of the pool, he threw his cellphone against the wall and was restrained by a bunch of our friends. I was sitting on a bench by the pool watching him try to break free and throw punches at me. I wasn't really sure what had happened but a friend came up and yelled at me that I'd acted like a total cunt. This friend is a good guy, so with nothing else to go on, I beleived him and felt sad. Arabs came to restrain me, but I didn't need restraining. It's a bad sign when Arabs come to your side and white guys go to the other. I remember asking them, "Why didn't he take his cellphone out of his pocket?" and they said, "Calm down! Just calm down!" even though I was very calm; I was just confused and sad. Then a white girl came up and said I shouldn't worry and that the other guy was a psycho. Thanks mystery white girl! Then an asshole told me to go home, so I went home. I work with the guy who punched me and he's best friends with my flatmate, so I agreed to pay for a new cellphone and told everyone at work my eye was black because a squash ball hit it. Since then, Claire and my best friend have stopped talking to me for their own crappy reasons. Quite lonely. Going to be another 6 months before I can go home and see my family.[/quote]