NM-ftv invites applications from interested individuals or professionals with experience of creative writing, multimedia, film making, direction, sound, camera, set design, story telling journalism, anthropology or any other art form who are interested in living and working in Pakistan for a short period: from 2 weeks to six months.

We invite any filmmaker, multimedia designer/artist, script writer, anthropologist, musician, poet, cameraman, sound expert etc to travel to Pakistan with a specific idea in his/her mind to produce a film /multimedia project on culture, environment and social development. NM-ftv will provide the basic facility of living, and equipment for filming (pre-production and post-production) and machines for multimedia productions.

In return NM-ftv will expect from the guest professional or participant to contribute the same amount of time to NM-ftv students that he spent on filming or other creative project. NM-ftv will also be the partner in that proposed project.

This is a good opportunity to experience a different culture and to explore the mystery land of Pakistan where we have variety of weathers, large deserts to highest peaks of the world like K-2. (Pakistan has 42 highest peaks of the world out of 50 in Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges.)

Please see www.nmftv.edu.pk for the film school details. NM-ftv is the first film school based at Lahore-Pakistan and it is a project of Gandhara Foundation Pakistan (a non-governmental organisation, visit www.gandhara.org)

Submitted by Frank from the US.

Actual comments from US travel agents:

I had someone ask for an aisle seat so their hair wouldn't get messed up from being near the window.

A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, “Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?”

I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with “I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts. “Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, “Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in Africa.” Her response?… click.

A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, “Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state.”

I got a call from a man who asked, “Is it possible to see England from Canada?” I said, “No.” He said, “But they look so close on the map.”

Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, “I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time.”

A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!

U. S. Soldiers Home Mac: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why!) So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

Here at the soldier’s home, we have just had some visitors from London’s Royal Chelsea Hospital. Wonderful people: an officer and his wife and four residents in their signature bright red coats. One time when I was in England I went out on my own to the Royal Chelsea Hospital and spent a few hours.

One of the members told me that Nell Gwynn, the mistress of King Charles II saw some war veterans searching for food so she proposed to king Charles that he build a shelter for them. He jokingly said he would build one the size of her handkerchief. She then proceeded to unravel her handkerchief by pulling out the threads from it to make a big circle for the size of first home for the soldiers.

Maybe a tall tale but I think we here at our retired military home should toast Nell anyway as we got ideas for our home from England. The person that told me this said that he thought they should have a statue on their grounds of Nell in gratitude. Maybe we should have one here too as our retired military home was copied after England’s.

When I visited the London soldier’s home, it seemed to me that the iron fence around the grounds even looked like ours or ours theirs. The top position in our home was Governor (like England) until a few years ago when it was changed to title of Director. We have garden plots just like the ones in the UK.

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer any questions even if some of his information may be a little out of date. Mac can be e-mailed at: macsan400@yahoo.com