Monday 12 May 2008

Guests Gone Home

Heard from Linda and she arrived home on Saturday afternoon. A very long journey, two days long with long layovers in airports. Friday night Nora and I went to a friend’s party on her balcony. A lovely evening and in Egypt you never have to worry about your event being interrupted by rain. Nora and I went to Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea Saturday morning, about 2 hours south of Cairo. Going to the beach here isn’t like Judique where you just go to the beach. We had to book a spot at the Palmaria Hotel Beach and pay to go the beach. The beach was very nice, very warm and the water is turquoise. We took a short trip out in a boat to snorkel and saw some neat fish, no sharks Linda! Sunday was Nora’s last day here and she surprised me with a large bouquet of flowers for mother’s day. I forgot all about it since the Egyptian Mother’s day was last month. We took a quick Metro ride Downtown (the area is called ‘Downtown’) and bought a carry-on for Nora and one for me. Nora left this morning at 5:00 for her 8:35 flight out of Cairo. Sorry to see her go but I will be home before very long. The school is booking flights home but of course there is a mix up with mine. I am scheduled to return the 20 of June and the last day of school is the 25… so they need to change it, but that’s not so easy here, wouldn’t mind leaving the 20 after all. Today was a scorcher, felt like sandstorm weather, with a hot wind blowing but nothing came of it. The high was 38 C. Thursday is forecast to be another very hot day. Finally I am in a place where I’m not cold all the time and I actually don’t mind the heat very much. My bedroom AC works fine and keeps me cool but the kitchen one is a nursery for a second catch of baby birds. Got to catch the nest when there are no babies and get Mohamed the electrician over. I think every 10th male here is called Mohamed.