HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
MB’s Online Degree
MB has mentioned in recent posts that he would get ’round to the reason he found himself in Lancaster in the north east of England a few weeks back, mere spitting distance from the Scottish border. If one is blessed with a powerful spit.
Well. The reason was that MB had to do a compulsory residential week at the Lancaster branch of the University of Cumbria, which for MB, was the denouement of an online Master’s Degree that he started 2+ years back.
MB departed hot and humid Doha with its mid-40C temperatures and arrived at Edinburgh on a beautiful balmy Saturday. A few train hours later MB was entering his small but comfy hotel in the Medieval town of Lancaster. As those attending the residential week had been split into teams for project presentation purposes, the plan of MB was to meet his team members later that evening. After grabbing some solid sustenance, MB found a cosy and very historical pub nearby from which he sent out his location to said team members and awaited their arrival. To kill some time, MB composed an awesome post of high prose about a movie he had watched on his plane journey from Doha, and the tasty beers he was now sipping. Read it again dear followers, it’s well worth the indulgence. But enough of MB’s understatements……….
MB’s team, and indeed the entire 22-member class, were a disparate and extremely interesting bunch of individuals from Asia, Africa and Europe, generally speaking, and a few from places further afield. During the course of the week everybody got to know each other pretty well and many formed friendships that will last long into the future. Including MB.
There was a guy from Brazil who had been a soldier in South Africa and in later years became a soldier working directly for the UN, possessing a blue UN Passport. He had acted as a bodyguard to an Iraqi Prime Minister following the fall of Sadam Hussein, amongst many other exploits, and was on his way to another conflict zone when he left us at the end of the week. There was a German girl who lives and works in Malta in the field of company formations and related matters. There was a girl of US/Korean nationality who works in the field of Re-Insurance in Hong Kong. There was a 25-year-old female lawyer from Kenya. There was an Iranian girl who now lives and works in Norway. There was a retired gentleman from Guyana who had worked in the past as a Government auditor and later worked in a similar role for the United Nations. There was a Brit who had just moved to Amsterdam following eleven years living and working in South Africa, and who was the head honcho of a sports manufacturing company (cricket). There was a South African lawyer who works in his homeland in the field of labour disputes. There was an Algerian girl who works for one of the largest Supermarket chains in the world and is based in Dubai. And there was MB. Very disparate indeed, as MB has already stated.
The others, it should be said, came from equally interesting backgrounds. And in the course of the week, shoulders rubbed, meals and beers and stories and life experiences were shared, and bonds were formed. Particularly amongst fellow-team members whom one had to work very closely with during the week.
One of the foremost impressions left on the mind of MB at the end of the week was how much bigger the world is than we actually realise. We are all dwelling in our own relatively limited sphere or cocoon. But when we are in the midst of so many people from so many different countries from so many different walks of life, then one’s eyes are opened so much wider.
So what Masters did you do MB?
Well, lads, it will probably go right over most of your heads, but to answer your straight question with a straight answer – International Business Law, to be precise. So if any of you have any difficulties in that particular field, then MB is available to assist in return for a pretty fat fee. Just place your contact details in the comment box below.
Big thanks are extended from MB to all his Lancaster classmates, particularly to the members of MB’s Team 2 and to the ‘Lank’ group that remain in regular contact. Great fun was had.
Cheers!
The approximately 1,000-year-old Lancaster Priory which sits next to Lancaster Castle, and where MB attended an Anglican Church service on Sunday morning, just to see what Anglicans get up to! Very similar to a Roman Catholic service, MB can report.
HX Report 
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Thanks GD.
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