Mango farms and Seafood in Ismailia – Friday 24 Nov 2006
Yasser and Ayman picked up Chris and I at about 1:30pm today and we went out to Yasser’s farm. He grows Mango’s on a small plot of land about an hour out of Cairo. So we drove out there and looked around, had a cup of tea and then drove into Ismailia for dinner.
On the drive into Ismailia, Ayman asked Yasser if Ismailia was a big place. Yasser said ‘no, its just a small town. Only about 1 million people live there’. We were cracking up that a ‘small town’ means only a million people!
We got to Ismailia and went to a seafood restaurant right on the edge of the Suez Canal. It was right on the street, called The Conch - it had conch shells hung all over it. Yasser and Ayman ordered the food – again enough to feed a small Norwegian army.
First of all we had Conch. It didn’t really taste of anything, but it was like chewing rubber. I chewed and chewed and it just wouldn’t mush up. In the end I decided if I can eat oysters I can swallow this. I gagged on it, just coz it was so big, but got it down. It was kind of like really tough calamari with a bit of scallop roe on it. Not particularly tasty.
Then we had a seafood soup with calamari, clams crab etc in it. I struggled a bit to get the crab meat out of the crab legs, my fingers weren’t tough enough! On top of this, we had fried calamari (beautiful) and tiny shrimps with rice, plus flat bread and tahini – and that was all for entrée.
For main we had fried Sole (but they were fairly small), plus another whole fish each. I forget what this one was called but it was baked with butter and garlic and delicious.
Then we drove around Ismailia some more – looking at random things relating to the Suez Canal.
As we headed back to Cairo after dinner, Yasser said his suspension was playing up and would we mind if he just called into a mechanic to get it checked. Of course we said that was fine.
So at 830pm on a Friday night, we called into ‘Mechanic town’. Chris and I couldn’t believe it… there’d have easily been 1000 shops there. Each one specialises in different makes and models and in different mechanical areas. So we pulled into the Jeep suspension place and a guy who looked just like mechanics do everywhere (pants falling down… beer gut… bondsy type tank top – the works) spent 15 minutes fixing the suspension and we were good to go.
I’m sure that nowhere else in the world could you get your suspension fixed at 830pm on a Friday night!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Thanksgiving Dinner, BCA, Heliopolis – Thursday 25 Nov 2006
Today was thanksgiving so given that Chris is American we decided to roast a chicken for dinner. We bought a toaster oven a week or so ago, its pretty big so I thought we’d be able to do a small roast.
We don’t have much in the way of basic ingredients so we just put lemon juice and fresh rosemary on the chicken, put it in a little foil boat and put it in the oven. Then we had roast potatoes and sweet potato (which over here is white not orange) and steamed broccoli and beans. It wasn’t quite a proper thanksgiving, but it was very yummy.
Then we walked up to the BCA (British Community Association). It’s an expat’s club only about a 6 or 7 minute walk up the road from our apartment. It’s got pool tables (one American, one British) and a book and dvd library (books are free, DVD’s are only £8 for a weeks hire). It’s also got a big screen that they play movies on, or to play the sports channel. There is also a big outside area with a bbq and a restaurant that has ‘British’ food and most importantly ‘the best stocked bar in Cairo!’. That’s its claim anyway, and I must say it’s got more types of spirits than the couple of other bars we’ve been to. One of the guys there explained that most members bring something back when they go overseas, something a little off the wall so that there is always a good selection in the bar. Then they get all the basics off the ‘black market’ :)
So we joined up - £120 for the rest of this year – all 6 weeks of it, and then it’ll be another £250 on January 1 for 2007 (even though we’ll only be here for 4 months). They only do memberships annually and start discounting it from July.
At least this way we have a bar within walking distance and some place to go that is foreigners only (they are not allowed to have Egyptian members). It’s like being in a different world in there, a very ‘English pub’ right in the heart of Cairo.
About 10pm Yasser rang to see what we were doing and said he was in Mohandiseen and if wanted to do something. So he and Ayman picked us up and took us touring around. We drove around old Cario and saw the wall that was originally built as a fortification around the city. Then he took us past the Citadel and up a mountain where they are building a new residential area. The views were great, the lights of the city went for miles, but we didn’t have cameras with us so we’ll have to go back.
Then we drove to Heliopolis and drove around looking at a few of the sites. I was so tired at this point I could have fallen asleep in the car. Also, given the insane driving over here I also could have thrown up – it was almost an either/or situation! Finally, just when I was getting to the point of stopping Yasser to tell him I needed to throw up, we pulled over. I thought we were going to look at some building coz we seemed to be in the middle of a residential area. Then Yasser said only locals know about this place – no one else would be able to find it! The bottom floor of one of the apartment buildings had been converted into a restaurant, café type thing. They bake the bread right on the premises, very yummy. So here we were, at midnight, eating toasted sandwiches in Heliopolis.
This is part of the culture that Chris and I are both struggling with… they eat ‘lunch’ about 4-5pm, then have ‘dinner’ about 10-11pm then go to bed about 1am… this is a normal night even on a school night. I’d be dead from sheer exhaustion after a week!
Today was thanksgiving so given that Chris is American we decided to roast a chicken for dinner. We bought a toaster oven a week or so ago, its pretty big so I thought we’d be able to do a small roast.
We don’t have much in the way of basic ingredients so we just put lemon juice and fresh rosemary on the chicken, put it in a little foil boat and put it in the oven. Then we had roast potatoes and sweet potato (which over here is white not orange) and steamed broccoli and beans. It wasn’t quite a proper thanksgiving, but it was very yummy.
Then we walked up to the BCA (British Community Association). It’s an expat’s club only about a 6 or 7 minute walk up the road from our apartment. It’s got pool tables (one American, one British) and a book and dvd library (books are free, DVD’s are only £8 for a weeks hire). It’s also got a big screen that they play movies on, or to play the sports channel. There is also a big outside area with a bbq and a restaurant that has ‘British’ food and most importantly ‘the best stocked bar in Cairo!’. That’s its claim anyway, and I must say it’s got more types of spirits than the couple of other bars we’ve been to. One of the guys there explained that most members bring something back when they go overseas, something a little off the wall so that there is always a good selection in the bar. Then they get all the basics off the ‘black market’ :)
So we joined up - £120 for the rest of this year – all 6 weeks of it, and then it’ll be another £250 on January 1 for 2007 (even though we’ll only be here for 4 months). They only do memberships annually and start discounting it from July.
At least this way we have a bar within walking distance and some place to go that is foreigners only (they are not allowed to have Egyptian members). It’s like being in a different world in there, a very ‘English pub’ right in the heart of Cairo.
About 10pm Yasser rang to see what we were doing and said he was in Mohandiseen and if wanted to do something. So he and Ayman picked us up and took us touring around. We drove around old Cario and saw the wall that was originally built as a fortification around the city. Then he took us past the Citadel and up a mountain where they are building a new residential area. The views were great, the lights of the city went for miles, but we didn’t have cameras with us so we’ll have to go back.
Then we drove to Heliopolis and drove around looking at a few of the sites. I was so tired at this point I could have fallen asleep in the car. Also, given the insane driving over here I also could have thrown up – it was almost an either/or situation! Finally, just when I was getting to the point of stopping Yasser to tell him I needed to throw up, we pulled over. I thought we were going to look at some building coz we seemed to be in the middle of a residential area. Then Yasser said only locals know about this place – no one else would be able to find it! The bottom floor of one of the apartment buildings had been converted into a restaurant, café type thing. They bake the bread right on the premises, very yummy. So here we were, at midnight, eating toasted sandwiches in Heliopolis.
This is part of the culture that Chris and I are both struggling with… they eat ‘lunch’ about 4-5pm, then have ‘dinner’ about 10-11pm then go to bed about 1am… this is a normal night even on a school night. I’d be dead from sheer exhaustion after a week!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Bond in Cairo – Wednesday 22 Nov 2006
Well tonight we went to the cinema to see the new Bond movie with one of the girls from work. She picked us up in her BMW (seems like government employees do ok!) and took us to a cinema about 20 mins away.
Not a bad cinema, but not exactly the height of technology. The screen was fairly small…big enough to appreciate the explosions and construction yard chases, but small for a cinema. Chris wasn’t coping with the fact that the ‘projectionist’ had to change reels between the shorts and the film. When they slipped off the shorts reel and changed to the feature he’s all ‘What the?!’ and I said ‘They’re just changing the reel…’ thinking he thought it was broken and then he goes ‘Reels?!?’ it seems Egypt hasn’t moved to the digital era that the States so enjoys…
I liked the new Bond… a sexy blue eyed Bond, but a bit gritty… not as polished. But then he’s suppose to be just starting out as a 00, he’s not suppose to be all shiny and smooth. I liked the movie… you just have to suspend the rules of time and space and disregard how much damage a kick to the abdomen can do – same as any good Bond movie. It was a bit slow at times, but they were setting up the character I guess… given I’d never seen the original it answered some questions. But then I’m easily pleased at the movies :)
Also, it was an interesting insight into the Egyptian culture. Firstly, smoking in the foyer - but then over here they smoke everywhere (including in the toilets at work – so gross. I go to the bathroom and come out reeking like I’ve spent 4 hours partying in Spurs). Secondly, they have a 5 minute intermission in the middle of the movie – again so people can go have a smoke. Can you imagine the carry on if c-max or Village tried to stop a movie half way through just so the ashtrays could be filled up again? There’d be an outcry from all the people who like their lungs pink and not black and clogged. Although, I was interested to discover they weren’t allowed to smoke actually IN the cinema – I thought there was a distinct possibility that we’d have to watch the film through a carcinogenic haze.
The other thing was the general rudeness of the people. The people behind us talked through the whole movie – the girl from work who was with us told them to shut up twice. The cinema was loud (at times REALLY loud), but you could still here this bubble of chatter going on - friggin annoying.
Anyways, I love the movies so I can cope with intermissions and chatter (particularly when the popcorn is only £5 LE so about $1.20!! – yumo)
Well tonight we went to the cinema to see the new Bond movie with one of the girls from work. She picked us up in her BMW (seems like government employees do ok!) and took us to a cinema about 20 mins away.
Not a bad cinema, but not exactly the height of technology. The screen was fairly small…big enough to appreciate the explosions and construction yard chases, but small for a cinema. Chris wasn’t coping with the fact that the ‘projectionist’ had to change reels between the shorts and the film. When they slipped off the shorts reel and changed to the feature he’s all ‘What the?!’ and I said ‘They’re just changing the reel…’ thinking he thought it was broken and then he goes ‘Reels?!?’ it seems Egypt hasn’t moved to the digital era that the States so enjoys…
I liked the new Bond… a sexy blue eyed Bond, but a bit gritty… not as polished. But then he’s suppose to be just starting out as a 00, he’s not suppose to be all shiny and smooth. I liked the movie… you just have to suspend the rules of time and space and disregard how much damage a kick to the abdomen can do – same as any good Bond movie. It was a bit slow at times, but they were setting up the character I guess… given I’d never seen the original it answered some questions. But then I’m easily pleased at the movies :)
Also, it was an interesting insight into the Egyptian culture. Firstly, smoking in the foyer - but then over here they smoke everywhere (including in the toilets at work – so gross. I go to the bathroom and come out reeking like I’ve spent 4 hours partying in Spurs). Secondly, they have a 5 minute intermission in the middle of the movie – again so people can go have a smoke. Can you imagine the carry on if c-max or Village tried to stop a movie half way through just so the ashtrays could be filled up again? There’d be an outcry from all the people who like their lungs pink and not black and clogged. Although, I was interested to discover they weren’t allowed to smoke actually IN the cinema – I thought there was a distinct possibility that we’d have to watch the film through a carcinogenic haze.
The other thing was the general rudeness of the people. The people behind us talked through the whole movie – the girl from work who was with us told them to shut up twice. The cinema was loud (at times REALLY loud), but you could still here this bubble of chatter going on - friggin annoying.
Anyways, I love the movies so I can cope with intermissions and chatter (particularly when the popcorn is only £5 LE so about $1.20!! – yumo)
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Crazy Workshop – Tuesday 14 Nov 2006
Well I’ve finally experienced a workshop worse than the Deployment workshop in Canberra.
For those of you who suffered through the trials of the deployment workshops at Erindale you will know I was scared by the one in December – a whole day of being yelled at will do that to a girl :)
Up until today I thought that was as rude as people could get to presenters… now I know better.
Today Chris and I attended a presentation put on by one of the partners to our client. It was suppose to be a 5 hour workshop presenting to the people who will benefit from our project. A little bit of propaganda, but still interesting for the participants.
They invited 230 people and 485 turned up… as you can expect this had a serious impact on the set up of the room. Primarily there weren’t enough chairs for all participants. So these 485 people walk into the room, not quite half of them get seats and then the rest are quite distressed…So distressed in fact that when the presenter is trying to tell them that she’s asked for more chairs to be brought up and asking if she can begin the welcome, one of them came up, took the microphone and said that on behalf of all the headmasters here that they were crabby they still didn’t have seats.
Of course we couldn’t understand what any of them were saying coz they were speaking Arabic - one of the girls from our team did some rapid translation so we could follow along.
So the first 4 presenters all start by apologising for the seats (or more precisely the lack there of). Admittedly it took ages for the chairs to be brought up by the reception centre but these people just wouldn’t get over it.
The whole event hadn’t got off to the most auspicious start and by lunchtime we were running nearly 45 minutes late. One of the CISCO presenters was up doing her little piece of propaganda and this guy yelled out that she was suppose to only go for 45 minutes, that 45 minutes was up and that she should finish.
I was appalled. She still had about 10 slides to go. If I had been presenting I’d have been mortified. There was nearly 500 people in the room and she got totally roasted by this guy.
I asked the girl who was translating for us if this was normal behaviour and she said no. She said it was very rude and that it would not normally happen. But the whole day was like that, people talking over presenters (really loudly) and generally just being rude bastards. At lunch time people were taking whole trays of sandwiches and going into corners to eat them all… trays that were suppose to be shared between everyone!
Anyways – this experience hasn’t scared me (coz I wasn’t the one being yelled at!) but it has shown me that it doesn’t mater what country you’re in, people can still be rude bastards!
Well I’ve finally experienced a workshop worse than the Deployment workshop in Canberra.
For those of you who suffered through the trials of the deployment workshops at Erindale you will know I was scared by the one in December – a whole day of being yelled at will do that to a girl :)
Up until today I thought that was as rude as people could get to presenters… now I know better.
Today Chris and I attended a presentation put on by one of the partners to our client. It was suppose to be a 5 hour workshop presenting to the people who will benefit from our project. A little bit of propaganda, but still interesting for the participants.
They invited 230 people and 485 turned up… as you can expect this had a serious impact on the set up of the room. Primarily there weren’t enough chairs for all participants. So these 485 people walk into the room, not quite half of them get seats and then the rest are quite distressed…So distressed in fact that when the presenter is trying to tell them that she’s asked for more chairs to be brought up and asking if she can begin the welcome, one of them came up, took the microphone and said that on behalf of all the headmasters here that they were crabby they still didn’t have seats.
Of course we couldn’t understand what any of them were saying coz they were speaking Arabic - one of the girls from our team did some rapid translation so we could follow along.
So the first 4 presenters all start by apologising for the seats (or more precisely the lack there of). Admittedly it took ages for the chairs to be brought up by the reception centre but these people just wouldn’t get over it.
The whole event hadn’t got off to the most auspicious start and by lunchtime we were running nearly 45 minutes late. One of the CISCO presenters was up doing her little piece of propaganda and this guy yelled out that she was suppose to only go for 45 minutes, that 45 minutes was up and that she should finish.
I was appalled. She still had about 10 slides to go. If I had been presenting I’d have been mortified. There was nearly 500 people in the room and she got totally roasted by this guy.
I asked the girl who was translating for us if this was normal behaviour and she said no. She said it was very rude and that it would not normally happen. But the whole day was like that, people talking over presenters (really loudly) and generally just being rude bastards. At lunch time people were taking whole trays of sandwiches and going into corners to eat them all… trays that were suppose to be shared between everyone!
Anyways – this experience hasn’t scared me (coz I wasn’t the one being yelled at!) but it has shown me that it doesn’t mater what country you’re in, people can still be rude bastards!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Aussie Girl Can Hold Her Liquor – Saturday & Sunday 11 & 12 Nov 2006
Well today was such a wasted day (followed by a different sort of wasted night!).
Due to last nights waterlogged adventure I had to spend today waiting for the hot water man to come and fix the cylinder. He was suppose to come at 1pm, but over here things run on ‘Egyptian time’ so he didn’t actually get here until about 2:45pm.
I was so cranky having to wait all day for them to come. Both the owner’s son and the hot water man came to fix it. Neither of them speak English so it was a challenging encounter (used my phrasebook – pointing at the words works well!).
With that finally under control Chris and I walked down to the bakery to get some wi-fi access. On Thursday Yasser (the project sponsor) asked what we were up to this weekend. I said we didn’t have much planned so he suggested we do something Saturday night (remembering that we work Sunday to Thursday). We said sure, good idea so at 5:30pm Yasser picked us up.
We went to a restaurant in Zamalek called ‘Abu e-Sid’ - it serves traditional Egyptian food. Yasser ordered enough food to feed a small Norwegian army and we tried lots of local food. I even tried kibda - chicken liver (EEEWWWWW I guess it didn’t taste too bad, but I couldn’t get past the texture or the thought that I was eating an organ GROSS). We also had Kisch (dip), ta-miya (some kind of mashed up bean mixture rolled into balls and deep fried, like falafels and quite nice). For mains we had rabbit Mulukhiyya (a green broth thing), chicken in a walnut sauce, a fish in tomato type sauce, and a veal tagen (stew type thing, very tender). All very yummy, although I’m glad we got a variety I don’t think I could have eaten a whole plateful of any of them...except maybe the Mulukhiyya, that was nice (even with rabbit).
Anyways, we were about two-thirds of the way through dinner when another friend of Yasser’s turned up. He was an Egyptian-American. He has lived in the States most of his life and is just moving back to Egypt.
After dinner we went to The Marriot Hotel. First we looked around at the ball rooms etc – everything is SO ornate. It used to be a palace (and you can tell!). Then we went to Harry’s Pub in the Marriot.
When we sat down they were ordering drinks and of course they all got beers. Yasser asked what I wanted and I figured if I could survive the beers yesterday I should give it another go. The beer they were ordering was a Meister Max. I figured what the hell. Actually it wasn’t too bad. It’s very light in colour/flavour (if not in alcohol content – it’s an 8% alcohol beer). I was slow drinking mine, so they all had 2 to my one (but I was still doing a good job of upholding the Aussie stereotype!). Then we moved onto spirits… 3 Bacardi’s later Ayman (Yasser’s friend) decided shots were in order. Now as most of you know I don’t do shot… I don’t like them, they make me too drunk and I generally find them a bad idea. However – as they say – when in Rome…
Several tequila shots and more Bacardi later things were looking decidedly grim for my poor liver. From about midnight onwards I kept pointing out that it was a school night and that we all had to work tomorrow etc etc etc. My suggestions that we might not be fit for work if we stayed much longer were not taken seriously until about 1:30am.
By this time (4 beers and 3 tequila shots later) Chris had already spewed and I was well and truly over my limit. We got home about 2am to find more water on the kitchen floor. Not too much, nothing like yesterday – maybe 10 litres… we decided it wasn’t growing and we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from so we’d leave it till tomorrow to sort out.
After much head spinning I finally convinced my body that sleep would be the best solution to my internal ills. When my alarm went off at 7am I swear I’d only been asleep for 3 minutes…I managed to make it through the shower, got dressed and ready for work. At 8am (our normal leaving time) I yelled out to Chris to see if he was ready and he informs me that he’d texted our driver to say 8:30am instead of 8am. I called him a bastard! said I could have had another 30minutes sleep and promptly laid down on the couch.
It had been touch and go for my belly all morning so I decided to bite the bullet and made myself throw up. I felt much better and at about 9am we finally staggered down to the car. Now as you all know I can get car sick driving around the block so you can all image just how excited I was by the prospect of over half an hour in peak hour traffic to get to work. I sat in the front seat and as to be expected there were some close calls. By the time we got to work Ahmed the driver man was quite concerned for my wellbeing… I bailed out of the car and went to the edge of the grass sure it was about to be all over… after 5 minutes of feeling seedy I decided I could brave the lift. We got to the first floor and I walked straight past our office door to the bathrooms and threw up.
Even though I was throwing up nothing I still felt much better and managed to settle down at my desk and start some work. There is nothing quite like throwing up in the toilets at work because you spent the night drinking beer and doing tequila shot when you’re living in a muslin country…
Under normal circumstances I would admit to an hangover, not proudly, but prepared to take my self inflicted punishment. However, living in a country where they are not suppose to drink getting so drunk you throw up is not a good impression to make so I just said I felt a bit off… failed to mention why…
I must have been white as a ghost coz even one of the guys from work asked if I was ok! How embarrassing. I was doing some work but the progress was very slow. Lucky for me Chris was actually in worse shape than me. So much so that at one point he actually spewed in our office! Lucky for both of us I am a prepared girl and had two plastic bags (originally intended to support me through the drive to work!) so I quickly passed him a bag.
Once he’d cleaned up and returned to our office he said ‘at some point we’ll look back on this day and laugh, but not today’
Our saving grace was that we’d been out with our project sponsor, he was the one ordering tequila shots and it was about 11am and he still hadn’t showed up at work yet.
By 11:30am Chris decided that he wasn’t going to be productive today so should just go home. I was starting to recover, but knew I was still on the edge – and lets be honest there is no point being a martyr :) so at 12noon we had the driver come back and get us to take us home.
The drive home was again touch and go for me but we made it home by about 12:30pm and crawled back into bed.
Unfortunately for me at 1:30pm Ahmed (driver man) rang to make sure I was ok (I had been, coz I was asleep!). He was really sweet though, he offered to have his wife come around and look after me!! I politely declined, said I’d just sleep and I’d be fine…
Then at 2:30pm I was woken up by the door bell – it rang 10 times before I finally gave up and answered the door. Before I could answer the door though I had to retrieve my dressing gown (couldn’t go answering the door in pjs!). It was the bloody gas man – he wanted to read the meter. Once he finally communicated that to my foggy brain I let him in, then he wanted money to pay for the gas. Our gas is being paid for by the apartment owner. The gas man wasn’t coping with my explanation (and I was well and truly over trying to explain myself) so I’ve just put my hand up, said Wait! and called Ahmed and got him to explain it in Arabic. Much simpler…
With this interruption over I crawled back into bed… 20 minutes later there is another ring of the doorbell. I was a little ticked by this point… my answer at the door with basically ‘What?!?’ and its another gas man. I’m saying no, the gas man’s already been… same language barrier issues so I give up and ring Ahmed again. Turns out this guy is a gas fixer man and was I having any problems, if so he’d fix them for free. I got him to fix the auto-ignition on the plates (now only 1 is broken instead of 5!). I spent the 20 minutes he was fixing them leaning again the wall in my pj’s, hair everywhere, drinking my water and watching him try to fix the ignitions. This combined with trying to communicate in a mix of broken Arabic and English and failing to get anywhere did not make for a pleasant experience. Finally he left and I went back to bed. By now its nearly 3pm and I can’t get back to sleep… so I decided bugger it and gave up.
I got up, spent 20 minutes cleaning up the water than we found on the floor last night and were in no condition to deal with. I wonder what the gas people thought having to splash through this big puddle in the middle of the kitchen – bugger it, they interrupted my recuperative sleep, serves them right (although they probably thought crazy foreigners)
Then I spent the afternoon curled up on the couch watching the first 3 episode of Firefly and telling myself that I’ll do some work in a minute, just when this episode finishes…
Meanwhile Chris slept through all of this commotion, in fact he didn’t surface until about 6pm and was still seedy.
Anyways, that was our adventure out drinking with the client on a school night. I figure I’ve again supported the Aussie stereotype but that’s my alcohol quota done for the year! I hate to think the conversation we’ll have with Yasser when we go back to work tomorrow… Never ever ever ever again (especially not on a school night!!!!!)
Well today was such a wasted day (followed by a different sort of wasted night!).
Due to last nights waterlogged adventure I had to spend today waiting for the hot water man to come and fix the cylinder. He was suppose to come at 1pm, but over here things run on ‘Egyptian time’ so he didn’t actually get here until about 2:45pm.
I was so cranky having to wait all day for them to come. Both the owner’s son and the hot water man came to fix it. Neither of them speak English so it was a challenging encounter (used my phrasebook – pointing at the words works well!).
With that finally under control Chris and I walked down to the bakery to get some wi-fi access. On Thursday Yasser (the project sponsor) asked what we were up to this weekend. I said we didn’t have much planned so he suggested we do something Saturday night (remembering that we work Sunday to Thursday). We said sure, good idea so at 5:30pm Yasser picked us up.
We went to a restaurant in Zamalek called ‘Abu e-Sid’ - it serves traditional Egyptian food. Yasser ordered enough food to feed a small Norwegian army and we tried lots of local food. I even tried kibda - chicken liver (EEEWWWWW I guess it didn’t taste too bad, but I couldn’t get past the texture or the thought that I was eating an organ GROSS). We also had Kisch (dip), ta-miya (some kind of mashed up bean mixture rolled into balls and deep fried, like falafels and quite nice). For mains we had rabbit Mulukhiyya (a green broth thing), chicken in a walnut sauce, a fish in tomato type sauce, and a veal tagen (stew type thing, very tender). All very yummy, although I’m glad we got a variety I don’t think I could have eaten a whole plateful of any of them...except maybe the Mulukhiyya, that was nice (even with rabbit).
Anyways, we were about two-thirds of the way through dinner when another friend of Yasser’s turned up. He was an Egyptian-American. He has lived in the States most of his life and is just moving back to Egypt.
After dinner we went to The Marriot Hotel. First we looked around at the ball rooms etc – everything is SO ornate. It used to be a palace (and you can tell!). Then we went to Harry’s Pub in the Marriot.
When we sat down they were ordering drinks and of course they all got beers. Yasser asked what I wanted and I figured if I could survive the beers yesterday I should give it another go. The beer they were ordering was a Meister Max. I figured what the hell. Actually it wasn’t too bad. It’s very light in colour/flavour (if not in alcohol content – it’s an 8% alcohol beer). I was slow drinking mine, so they all had 2 to my one (but I was still doing a good job of upholding the Aussie stereotype!). Then we moved onto spirits… 3 Bacardi’s later Ayman (Yasser’s friend) decided shots were in order. Now as most of you know I don’t do shot… I don’t like them, they make me too drunk and I generally find them a bad idea. However – as they say – when in Rome…
Several tequila shots and more Bacardi later things were looking decidedly grim for my poor liver. From about midnight onwards I kept pointing out that it was a school night and that we all had to work tomorrow etc etc etc. My suggestions that we might not be fit for work if we stayed much longer were not taken seriously until about 1:30am.
By this time (4 beers and 3 tequila shots later) Chris had already spewed and I was well and truly over my limit. We got home about 2am to find more water on the kitchen floor. Not too much, nothing like yesterday – maybe 10 litres… we decided it wasn’t growing and we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from so we’d leave it till tomorrow to sort out.
After much head spinning I finally convinced my body that sleep would be the best solution to my internal ills. When my alarm went off at 7am I swear I’d only been asleep for 3 minutes…I managed to make it through the shower, got dressed and ready for work. At 8am (our normal leaving time) I yelled out to Chris to see if he was ready and he informs me that he’d texted our driver to say 8:30am instead of 8am. I called him a bastard! said I could have had another 30minutes sleep and promptly laid down on the couch.
It had been touch and go for my belly all morning so I decided to bite the bullet and made myself throw up. I felt much better and at about 9am we finally staggered down to the car. Now as you all know I can get car sick driving around the block so you can all image just how excited I was by the prospect of over half an hour in peak hour traffic to get to work. I sat in the front seat and as to be expected there were some close calls. By the time we got to work Ahmed the driver man was quite concerned for my wellbeing… I bailed out of the car and went to the edge of the grass sure it was about to be all over… after 5 minutes of feeling seedy I decided I could brave the lift. We got to the first floor and I walked straight past our office door to the bathrooms and threw up.
Even though I was throwing up nothing I still felt much better and managed to settle down at my desk and start some work. There is nothing quite like throwing up in the toilets at work because you spent the night drinking beer and doing tequila shot when you’re living in a muslin country…
Under normal circumstances I would admit to an hangover, not proudly, but prepared to take my self inflicted punishment. However, living in a country where they are not suppose to drink getting so drunk you throw up is not a good impression to make so I just said I felt a bit off… failed to mention why…
I must have been white as a ghost coz even one of the guys from work asked if I was ok! How embarrassing. I was doing some work but the progress was very slow. Lucky for me Chris was actually in worse shape than me. So much so that at one point he actually spewed in our office! Lucky for both of us I am a prepared girl and had two plastic bags (originally intended to support me through the drive to work!) so I quickly passed him a bag.
Once he’d cleaned up and returned to our office he said ‘at some point we’ll look back on this day and laugh, but not today’
Our saving grace was that we’d been out with our project sponsor, he was the one ordering tequila shots and it was about 11am and he still hadn’t showed up at work yet.
By 11:30am Chris decided that he wasn’t going to be productive today so should just go home. I was starting to recover, but knew I was still on the edge – and lets be honest there is no point being a martyr :) so at 12noon we had the driver come back and get us to take us home.
The drive home was again touch and go for me but we made it home by about 12:30pm and crawled back into bed.
Unfortunately for me at 1:30pm Ahmed (driver man) rang to make sure I was ok (I had been, coz I was asleep!). He was really sweet though, he offered to have his wife come around and look after me!! I politely declined, said I’d just sleep and I’d be fine…
Then at 2:30pm I was woken up by the door bell – it rang 10 times before I finally gave up and answered the door. Before I could answer the door though I had to retrieve my dressing gown (couldn’t go answering the door in pjs!). It was the bloody gas man – he wanted to read the meter. Once he finally communicated that to my foggy brain I let him in, then he wanted money to pay for the gas. Our gas is being paid for by the apartment owner. The gas man wasn’t coping with my explanation (and I was well and truly over trying to explain myself) so I’ve just put my hand up, said Wait! and called Ahmed and got him to explain it in Arabic. Much simpler…
With this interruption over I crawled back into bed… 20 minutes later there is another ring of the doorbell. I was a little ticked by this point… my answer at the door with basically ‘What?!?’ and its another gas man. I’m saying no, the gas man’s already been… same language barrier issues so I give up and ring Ahmed again. Turns out this guy is a gas fixer man and was I having any problems, if so he’d fix them for free. I got him to fix the auto-ignition on the plates (now only 1 is broken instead of 5!). I spent the 20 minutes he was fixing them leaning again the wall in my pj’s, hair everywhere, drinking my water and watching him try to fix the ignitions. This combined with trying to communicate in a mix of broken Arabic and English and failing to get anywhere did not make for a pleasant experience. Finally he left and I went back to bed. By now its nearly 3pm and I can’t get back to sleep… so I decided bugger it and gave up.
I got up, spent 20 minutes cleaning up the water than we found on the floor last night and were in no condition to deal with. I wonder what the gas people thought having to splash through this big puddle in the middle of the kitchen – bugger it, they interrupted my recuperative sleep, serves them right (although they probably thought crazy foreigners)
Then I spent the afternoon curled up on the couch watching the first 3 episode of Firefly and telling myself that I’ll do some work in a minute, just when this episode finishes…
Meanwhile Chris slept through all of this commotion, in fact he didn’t surface until about 6pm and was still seedy.
Anyways, that was our adventure out drinking with the client on a school night. I figure I’ve again supported the Aussie stereotype but that’s my alcohol quota done for the year! I hate to think the conversation we’ll have with Yasser when we go back to work tomorrow… Never ever ever ever again (especially not on a school night!!!!!)
Waterlogged – Friday 10 Nov 2006
After the Hash Chris and I came home, got changed and went to grab some dinner. We just went down to a little café near the apartment. On the way back we were deciding if we should go investigate a place we thought might be a bar up the road, but in the end we decided we were a bit buggered from the Hash so we’d just go home and try and find something on the 1000 channels of the TV (1000 channels and they’re all crap!).
Anyways, we’d been gone a little over an hour and when we opened the front door I could hear a tap running flat out. I thought maybe the bathroom tap was running, that I hadn’t turned it off properly when it was spluttering at me earlier… Then I looked inside and the floor was COVERED in water.
The kitchen, dinning and lounge room floors are all tiled (big stone slabs that look like marble) with ‘oriental’ rugs and mats and the whole main area of the apartment was about 3cm under water. The hot water cylinder had broken. We quickly turned off the tap (all the water was cold by this point) and I grabbed by laptop which lucky for me was sitting in its bag on the floor, but on a mat so the water hadn’t had a chance to soak through yet.
Then we started to try and find a way to clean it up. I also went down to get the security guys, so they could help us. In the end it took one the security guys and the owners son 45 minutes to push all the water into my bathroom and down the drain in the floor.
It’s just lucky that over here when they ‘mop’ the floors what they actually do is pour on loads of water and use a squeegee type thing to push the water to the drain. So they had these squeegee things and between the two of them they pushed all the water down the drain and laid the mats over the balcony rail. Actually it was REVOLUTING how dirty the mats were – black water was pouring off them.
All the chairs were soaked (water had soaked up the sides of all the couches), we have some little material footstools and two of them were drenched… I was also concerned about the sheer volume of water that was on the floor given the TV cables, the lamp cables etc…
They are coming back tomorrow to fix the hot water cylinder. Luckily Chris’s bathroom runs off a different cylinder so I’ll use his bathroom for a shower tomorrow.
The good thing to come from this waterlogged adventure is that the floors all through the main area are sparkling clean now!
After the Hash Chris and I came home, got changed and went to grab some dinner. We just went down to a little café near the apartment. On the way back we were deciding if we should go investigate a place we thought might be a bar up the road, but in the end we decided we were a bit buggered from the Hash so we’d just go home and try and find something on the 1000 channels of the TV (1000 channels and they’re all crap!).
Anyways, we’d been gone a little over an hour and when we opened the front door I could hear a tap running flat out. I thought maybe the bathroom tap was running, that I hadn’t turned it off properly when it was spluttering at me earlier… Then I looked inside and the floor was COVERED in water.
The kitchen, dinning and lounge room floors are all tiled (big stone slabs that look like marble) with ‘oriental’ rugs and mats and the whole main area of the apartment was about 3cm under water. The hot water cylinder had broken. We quickly turned off the tap (all the water was cold by this point) and I grabbed by laptop which lucky for me was sitting in its bag on the floor, but on a mat so the water hadn’t had a chance to soak through yet.
Then we started to try and find a way to clean it up. I also went down to get the security guys, so they could help us. In the end it took one the security guys and the owners son 45 minutes to push all the water into my bathroom and down the drain in the floor.
It’s just lucky that over here when they ‘mop’ the floors what they actually do is pour on loads of water and use a squeegee type thing to push the water to the drain. So they had these squeegee things and between the two of them they pushed all the water down the drain and laid the mats over the balcony rail. Actually it was REVOLUTING how dirty the mats were – black water was pouring off them.
All the chairs were soaked (water had soaked up the sides of all the couches), we have some little material footstools and two of them were drenched… I was also concerned about the sheer volume of water that was on the floor given the TV cables, the lamp cables etc…
They are coming back tomorrow to fix the hot water cylinder. Luckily Chris’s bathroom runs off a different cylinder so I’ll use his bathroom for a shower tomorrow.
The good thing to come from this waterlogged adventure is that the floors all through the main area are sparkling clean now!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Hash – Friday 10 Nov 2006
Well today was a bit of an adventure… When we were on training some of the guys there were telling us about The Hash House Harriers. It’s an expat running group… well actually that’s a bit of stretch – on the website it describes itself as ‘a drinking club with a running problem’.
It was started in the 30’s by some Brit’s in Hong Kong. Basically a trail is left by a ‘Hare’ and then all the ‘Hounds’ have to follow the trail. When the guys on training first started talking about it I thought it would be too hard core running for me, but then one of the girls said ‘some people run, some jog, some walk… some stumble’. It’s not so much about being the first one back, it’s more about a group of expats getting together for some exercise and a lot of carry on.
Anyways today Chris and I decided to give it a go… we got Ahmed (driver man) to take us to Maadi (ritzy expat section of town about 20 min drive from us on a Friday afternoon, loads longer any other time of day). After some driving round we finally found the meeting point. We had no idea what to expect, no idea what we were getting ourselves in for…
When we got there we met a kiwi teacher and she gave us a quick 2 minute chat about what is going on. Then another guy showed up and we followed two other cars for about 40 minutes into the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to see for miles and miles but sand – we were seriously in the middle of the desert.
Once we got there we had to sign in under ‘Virgin Hashers’ then we got introduced to the group. The kiwi girl we met at the meeting point (Lindsey) was giving us a run down on what happens. We were warned that as newbies there would be significant effort put into taking the piss out of us, drinks would need to be skulled and other general carry on.
Everyone stood around for a bit and then at 2pm the main guy (Wes) called everyone to attention. He gave a little run down on what the walk and the run involved. Both were in different directions, the walk was about 6km and the run about 8 or 9km – though the desert (I walked, Chris ran).
Then he called Chris and I into the middle of the circle. Of course everyone assumed we were married so Wes was taking the piss out of us.
Then we all set off on the walk and run. There weren’t many runners. Chris, two ‘Hares’ and another couple of guys. Most people did the walk. We walked through the dessert, up and down massive sand dunes following little piles of orange lentils. The rules are pretty basic – you walk along following the trail (little blobs of lentils for walkers and flour for runners) and when you get to a blob that’s within a larger circle you have to wait for all the other stragglers to catch up. That’s so none if left really on their own at the end. There are definite advantages to being towards the front of the group… you get a little rest, then when the last straggler wanders in everyone sets off again.
It took about 1 hour and 20minutes to do the work. I had sand all through mu shoes, in my hair, in my teeth… The runners were already back by the time we got back. There’s an Egyptian guy who brings a truck out to the site and sells beer, soft drink and chips. So everyone bought beers and then the real carry on began.
Now all of you back home in the ‘Lucky Country’ will be oh so very proud of me!!. When we’d all got back Chris and I were called back into the circle. We were told that to commemorate our first Hash we had to participate in a ‘Down Down’. The comment was made that being an Aussie I’d have no problems skulling the drink… I looked in the mug (a ‘Down Down’ mug) and it was beer. I seriously thought I was more likely to throw up than succeed in skulling it. But I did our Aussie culture proud. They sing a song... I can’t quite remember what it was, something that ends with ‘down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down…’ then ‘why are we waiting, why are we waiting…’ etc During the ‘Down Down’ bit you’re suppose to skull your beer. I skulled it down like a professional and wasn’t the last to finish! I was very proud of myself for upholding our fine Aussie traditions. When you finish skulling you have turn the cup upside down on your head (wearing any beer left in the mug if you haven’t drunk it – I didn’t wear any!).
For the next hour or so loads of people were called into the circle for a variety of reasons. Things like, having a birthday, having done something noteworthy at the last hash or whatever – I think half the reasons were just random! I had to re-enter the circle when in celebration of Remembrance Day they had all the ’Allies’ drink to their success (then they had people represent the Axis to commiserate their downfall – including nominating the kiwi girl to represent the Japanese simply because she had black hair!). Again I did us proud and skulled another beer. I think I’ve drunk more been in the last 2 hours than I’ve drunk in my life!
When Wes called Chris and I up for our first Hash drink he was making cracks about us again and asked something to which Chris replied he was my boss. Wes looked confused and I said, yes he’s my boss. So then Wes apologised for some of his earlier comments. Not that I was ever offended. Man, Aussies have tougher skins than that!
Then they had a raffle – there were a bunch of prizes to choose from including 2 slabs of beer and bags of lollies. One of the kids won and when she went up to collect her prize everyone assumed she’d choose the lollies and she chose the slab of beer. It was hilarious. She was only about 12 and had to carry the slab all the way back to her mum at the edge of the circle.
It was really good fun. Everyone was really nice and after the Hash they have an ‘On and On’ which is just a party at someone’s house or going out for dinner or something like that.
Because we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves in for we’d had Ahmed drive us to Maadii then out into the desert. So he’d been sitting in the car in the desert for nearly 3 hours (the walk itself took about 1hr 20min, then there was all the carry on). So Chris and I decided we’d just go home tonight. We might go to an ‘On and On’ next time. The only problem is that nearly everything is in Maadi (coz that’s where most of the expats live) so it’s a fair ways from our place. Apparently there are some others from Mohandiseen so maybe once we met them it’ll be a bit easier.
Also while we were there they told us about a BCA… British Club Association (I think that’s what it stands for). There is a branch in Heliopolis but also one here in Mohandiseen. Apparently it’s near the shooting club (everything seems to be – including our apartment) and its got a pool table, a bar… stuff like that. So that’ll be cool (once we find it!!).
Most expats clubs here in Egypt can’t have Egyptian members (Hash can, but they’re the only one). Because of this the other expat clubs don’t advertise their presence coz they don’t want to have to be constantly turning away Egyptians who come to the door. So we were told roughly where the club was, but that description included ‘walk down a little corridor and it’s the wooden door’. Tucked away it seems. It’ll be good though if we can find a bar walking distance from our place.
Its funny – all of you back home know I’m not the biggest drinker amongst us – not by a long shot! But here, just because it’s hard to get drinks, I feel like I haven’t had a drink in MONTHS... well I have now of course– I’ve drunk beers in quick succession… but still I’m talking normal drinking. It just doesn’t happen here. So I look like the biggest alcoholic gagging for a drink!
Anyways, if we can find the BCA we’ll meet some more expats enjoying the Egyptian lifestyle and might be able to get a drink into the bargain.
Well today was a bit of an adventure… When we were on training some of the guys there were telling us about The Hash House Harriers. It’s an expat running group… well actually that’s a bit of stretch – on the website it describes itself as ‘a drinking club with a running problem’.
It was started in the 30’s by some Brit’s in Hong Kong. Basically a trail is left by a ‘Hare’ and then all the ‘Hounds’ have to follow the trail. When the guys on training first started talking about it I thought it would be too hard core running for me, but then one of the girls said ‘some people run, some jog, some walk… some stumble’. It’s not so much about being the first one back, it’s more about a group of expats getting together for some exercise and a lot of carry on.
Anyways today Chris and I decided to give it a go… we got Ahmed (driver man) to take us to Maadi (ritzy expat section of town about 20 min drive from us on a Friday afternoon, loads longer any other time of day). After some driving round we finally found the meeting point. We had no idea what to expect, no idea what we were getting ourselves in for…
When we got there we met a kiwi teacher and she gave us a quick 2 minute chat about what is going on. Then another guy showed up and we followed two other cars for about 40 minutes into the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to see for miles and miles but sand – we were seriously in the middle of the desert.
Once we got there we had to sign in under ‘Virgin Hashers’ then we got introduced to the group. The kiwi girl we met at the meeting point (Lindsey) was giving us a run down on what happens. We were warned that as newbies there would be significant effort put into taking the piss out of us, drinks would need to be skulled and other general carry on.
Everyone stood around for a bit and then at 2pm the main guy (Wes) called everyone to attention. He gave a little run down on what the walk and the run involved. Both were in different directions, the walk was about 6km and the run about 8 or 9km – though the desert (I walked, Chris ran).
Then he called Chris and I into the middle of the circle. Of course everyone assumed we were married so Wes was taking the piss out of us.
Then we all set off on the walk and run. There weren’t many runners. Chris, two ‘Hares’ and another couple of guys. Most people did the walk. We walked through the dessert, up and down massive sand dunes following little piles of orange lentils. The rules are pretty basic – you walk along following the trail (little blobs of lentils for walkers and flour for runners) and when you get to a blob that’s within a larger circle you have to wait for all the other stragglers to catch up. That’s so none if left really on their own at the end. There are definite advantages to being towards the front of the group… you get a little rest, then when the last straggler wanders in everyone sets off again.
It took about 1 hour and 20minutes to do the work. I had sand all through mu shoes, in my hair, in my teeth… The runners were already back by the time we got back. There’s an Egyptian guy who brings a truck out to the site and sells beer, soft drink and chips. So everyone bought beers and then the real carry on began.
Now all of you back home in the ‘Lucky Country’ will be oh so very proud of me!!. When we’d all got back Chris and I were called back into the circle. We were told that to commemorate our first Hash we had to participate in a ‘Down Down’. The comment was made that being an Aussie I’d have no problems skulling the drink… I looked in the mug (a ‘Down Down’ mug) and it was beer. I seriously thought I was more likely to throw up than succeed in skulling it. But I did our Aussie culture proud. They sing a song... I can’t quite remember what it was, something that ends with ‘down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down…’ then ‘why are we waiting, why are we waiting…’ etc During the ‘Down Down’ bit you’re suppose to skull your beer. I skulled it down like a professional and wasn’t the last to finish! I was very proud of myself for upholding our fine Aussie traditions. When you finish skulling you have turn the cup upside down on your head (wearing any beer left in the mug if you haven’t drunk it – I didn’t wear any!).
For the next hour or so loads of people were called into the circle for a variety of reasons. Things like, having a birthday, having done something noteworthy at the last hash or whatever – I think half the reasons were just random! I had to re-enter the circle when in celebration of Remembrance Day they had all the ’Allies’ drink to their success (then they had people represent the Axis to commiserate their downfall – including nominating the kiwi girl to represent the Japanese simply because she had black hair!). Again I did us proud and skulled another beer. I think I’ve drunk more been in the last 2 hours than I’ve drunk in my life!
When Wes called Chris and I up for our first Hash drink he was making cracks about us again and asked something to which Chris replied he was my boss. Wes looked confused and I said, yes he’s my boss. So then Wes apologised for some of his earlier comments. Not that I was ever offended. Man, Aussies have tougher skins than that!
Then they had a raffle – there were a bunch of prizes to choose from including 2 slabs of beer and bags of lollies. One of the kids won and when she went up to collect her prize everyone assumed she’d choose the lollies and she chose the slab of beer. It was hilarious. She was only about 12 and had to carry the slab all the way back to her mum at the edge of the circle.
It was really good fun. Everyone was really nice and after the Hash they have an ‘On and On’ which is just a party at someone’s house or going out for dinner or something like that.
Because we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves in for we’d had Ahmed drive us to Maadii then out into the desert. So he’d been sitting in the car in the desert for nearly 3 hours (the walk itself took about 1hr 20min, then there was all the carry on). So Chris and I decided we’d just go home tonight. We might go to an ‘On and On’ next time. The only problem is that nearly everything is in Maadi (coz that’s where most of the expats live) so it’s a fair ways from our place. Apparently there are some others from Mohandiseen so maybe once we met them it’ll be a bit easier.
Also while we were there they told us about a BCA… British Club Association (I think that’s what it stands for). There is a branch in Heliopolis but also one here in Mohandiseen. Apparently it’s near the shooting club (everything seems to be – including our apartment) and its got a pool table, a bar… stuff like that. So that’ll be cool (once we find it!!).
Most expats clubs here in Egypt can’t have Egyptian members (Hash can, but they’re the only one). Because of this the other expat clubs don’t advertise their presence coz they don’t want to have to be constantly turning away Egyptians who come to the door. So we were told roughly where the club was, but that description included ‘walk down a little corridor and it’s the wooden door’. Tucked away it seems. It’ll be good though if we can find a bar walking distance from our place.
Its funny – all of you back home know I’m not the biggest drinker amongst us – not by a long shot! But here, just because it’s hard to get drinks, I feel like I haven’t had a drink in MONTHS... well I have now of course– I’ve drunk beers in quick succession… but still I’m talking normal drinking. It just doesn’t happen here. So I look like the biggest alcoholic gagging for a drink!
Anyways, if we can find the BCA we’ll meet some more expats enjoying the Egyptian lifestyle and might be able to get a drink into the bargain.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The Apartment – Wednesday 8 Nov 2006
Well we’ve been in the apartment for a week or so now… it’s ok… We keep looking around and thinking to our selves ‘so this was the best one we saw…’ unfortunately it was the best one by a LONG way!
Its ok, its got big rooms – plenty of space. It’s just that everything has about 30 years of in ground dirt and grim. I used about half a bottle of disinfectant spray to clean the bathrooms on the night we moved in (even though the real estate man had sent cleaners there during the day – I don’t think they did anything!)
We hadn’t thought ahead, so we didn’t have fresh sheets and I didn’t have a towel – I had to use another sheet for a towel! We went to the Carrefour (supermarket – some French chain kind of a combination of coles and k-mart) and bought some basic food and towels etc…
The kitchen just has a gas stove top – no oven, no microwave, no toaster – in fact there aren’t really any appliances at all – not even an iron or a kettle!. It’s like there the previous tenet took everything that wasn’t nailed down! We’re thinking about buying either a toaster oven (about $180) or a convection microwave (about $350)… so we can have more than stir-fries and one pot meals..
Actually we have cooked a meal – chicken stir-fry. It was really yummy. At least that’s a start.
I had to get a new mattress – Chris’s room had a double bed, but mine just had two singles pushed together! The mattresses here are just cotton – so they are hard as a rock – but that’s better than saggy springs so the new mattress is pretty good.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Work Life Balance – Tuesday 7 Nov 2006
Well any of you still slaving away on R2 or trying to get a kick start on R3 will want to skin me alive... My new manager is committed to an 8-hour day – this means that on Sunday we arrived at work at 8:40am and we were out the door by 5:15pm, then yesterday 8:40am to 4:15pm… admittedly we ate lunch at our desks, but there aren’t really any other options for lunch anyway (and lets be honest most of us are used to scoffing some lunch between meetings or while typing anyway…)
Its funny, he’s not consulting and it’s a different mind set in the development centres. The centre that he comes from enforces an 8 hour day. I’m not sure how long this luxury will last, but while it does I’m lapping it up :)
Yesterday we got home from work just a little after 5pm, had a snack, wandered around the neighbourhood trying to set what we have nearby, cooked tea and cleaned up by 8pm… I know some of you will just be getting home from work at 8pm!
I keep telling myself that millions of people work just an 8 hour day everyday, but its just not what we’re used it - even counting travel time its only a 9 ½ hour day.
I’m not convinced it can stay this good forever, but while we’re setting up and getting into it it’s lovely not to be dragging myself home each day.
Anyways… best knuckle down and do some work seen as how I’m trying to fit 10 hours of work into 8 hours! Focus, focus focus :)
Well any of you still slaving away on R2 or trying to get a kick start on R3 will want to skin me alive... My new manager is committed to an 8-hour day – this means that on Sunday we arrived at work at 8:40am and we were out the door by 5:15pm, then yesterday 8:40am to 4:15pm… admittedly we ate lunch at our desks, but there aren’t really any other options for lunch anyway (and lets be honest most of us are used to scoffing some lunch between meetings or while typing anyway…)
Its funny, he’s not consulting and it’s a different mind set in the development centres. The centre that he comes from enforces an 8 hour day. I’m not sure how long this luxury will last, but while it does I’m lapping it up :)
Yesterday we got home from work just a little after 5pm, had a snack, wandered around the neighbourhood trying to set what we have nearby, cooked tea and cleaned up by 8pm… I know some of you will just be getting home from work at 8pm!
I keep telling myself that millions of people work just an 8 hour day everyday, but its just not what we’re used it - even counting travel time its only a 9 ½ hour day.
I’m not convinced it can stay this good forever, but while we’re setting up and getting into it it’s lovely not to be dragging myself home each day.
Anyways… best knuckle down and do some work seen as how I’m trying to fit 10 hours of work into 8 hours! Focus, focus focus :)
Monday, November 06, 2006
Training in South Africa – Wednesday 1 to Saturday 4 Nov 2006
Well this adventure started off early and sleep deprivation seemed to be on order for the rest of the trip.
We got up about 4am on Wednesday and headed off to the airport. We spent an hour lining up to check in and get through passport control then climbed aboard the Air France plane for a 5 hour flight to Paris. Air France is a pretty good airline, even with the French staff!
The flight was uneventful (which is always good!). We both got a bit of sleep which was lucky because we arrived a bit late into Paris and spent forever walking around the airport trying to find a place to store our bags while we went into the city. Finally we found where we needed to go, but it was very expensive so Chris just left his laptop there ($15 euro just to leave a single bag!) and we just carried our little backpacks.
Once we got all of that organised we caught the training to the city ($16.20 euro each return) and spent the afternoon wandering around. We went to the modern art museum – Pompidou. There were some freaky exhibitions… one of them had some cool work – kind of like collages, all sorts of weird medium stuck to the canvas – doilies, newspaper etc. I liked them until I saw some of his later stuff that was just plain weird. A prime example being an angora goat, stuffed, with paint on its face standing with a tyre around its middle all stood on a canvass that looked like he thrown the pain can at it. I don’t care how much it was suppose to ‘represent the joining of the past and present’ or how it was suppose to ‘reflect the narcissistic nature of life today’ or whatever other bullshit explanation the critics gave it – it was dumb. That’s not art, it’s not something you can hang on the wall, or would even want in your house. Its just plain wired!
The next major exhibition was a guy obsessed with the colour blue. Admittedly it was a very cool shade of blue – cerulean blue I think. In one part of the gallery it was just white walls with about 6 canvasses of different shapes and sizes (most really big) all painted to a perfect finish with this bright startling blue. It actually looked quite impressive.
We spent a bit of time wandering around these exhibitions then went downstairs to the next freaky section. Some of these used TV screens to show the art, like lots of picture of different flowers flicking by at an epileptic seizure rate. One even showed the building of a car back in the old days, the first days of assembly line construction, but sped up to a minute for the whole process. That was fairly interesting to watch. Others were just weird… either weird ideas, weird medium or just plain freaky. Ok art critic I’m not!
Then we stopped at a café and had panni’s and crepes for dinner - very yummy J and then trained back to the airport. Funny thing was the train back was supposed to be the easy bit, but first we got on the wrong train (right platform, wrong train). Then on the right train, but going the wrong way. Then on the right train, but not going to the stop we needed. Then finally on the right train and it even expressed most of the way to the airport. I was getting a little stressed coz we were suppose to pick up Chris’s laptop by 6:30 and the place closed at 7pm… we got there about 6:50pm so it was fine. Then I rushed us all the way to the gate (we were suppose to start boarding at 6:40pm) only to discover the plane delayed (didn’t leave until nearly 8pm). I don’t think we caught a flight that left on time all week.
We finally made it to South Africa – arrived bright and shiny… well we arrived at least. We got in about 8am and got changed into work clothes in the airport bathroom. Then we got a cab to the Accenture office. We were so disorganised. Normally I’m a little control freak and need everything planned to the finest details, but this time I just got on the plane… We didn’t have the addresses written down, didn’t know them, didn’t know how much a cab should cost… absolutely zero planning. In fact we weren’t even 100% sure our accommodation had been booked!
We arrived safely at the office, but cabs in South Africa are weird. In fact they aren’t really cabs… not official looking in any way… they just some dude in his car.
The Johannesburg office is flash. Its huge too, its been built in a business park that’s fairly new I think. Everything is very shiny anyway! It’s very strict though – everything is cost code driven. I needed a phone so Phoebe (UK girl) could call Chris and I and they wanted a cost centre for it. I said but they are calling me, I just need to know what number to dial!
Considering Chris and I had been in transit for 24 hours we coped pretty well with the first day of the course. In fact the course was much better than I was expecting. We thought it was a ‘cultural diversity’ type course but it was so much more than that. We went through how the development sector works (very interesting), how certain treaties, wars and decisions impacted the developing nations. Evelyn (the facilitator) even went through how decision made with the best intentions, like those made by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN etc have long ranging impacts. The decisions like the loans given to developing nations (with string attached of course) helped them develop, but also had negative implications when interest rates rose. All in all a very interesting day. Almost unheard of at an Accenture function there wasn’t any presentations! Just lots of discussions and activities. We even played this game called the ‘Trading Game’ where we were split into countries – Tanzania, India and the US then we had to manufacture ‘shapes’ and sell them to the bank. It was a managed game – so the outcome was set from the beginning and we were manipulated towards that outcome (US ending up with all the money) but it let us experience what it would be like to operate from a position if disadvantage. Very funny to play because we were all carrying on, but good experience.
There were 5 of us at the course. Chris and I of course for our Egypt project, plus Amy (San Francisco – now in India), Bart (Chicago – now working in Atlanta and all over Africa working with CARE) and James (Manchester – now in Uganda). It was really good getting the advice, stories etc of everyone else. Most people had travelled to different places before and everyone had examples and stories that did and will help us deal with challenges here in Egypt. Even little tips like always carry your torch and pen knife with you are things I should know but hadn’t really thought about (I brought them to Egypt, but they’ve never been out of my bag!). Plus it was reassuring to have other people with the same challenges as us. People to reinforce that what we were doing was the right way to handle it. I even got a little pep talk from one of the guys saying that I wasn’t ripping off our driver man. That we were paying him loads and that he wouldn’t be driving us round and being so helpful if we weren’t paying him more than he could get for his normal job.
We went out for dinner at an African restaurant which was really good. The food was delicious – we got a bunch of entrees to share (including ostrich spring rolls which were delicious!!) then each got a main, but everyone tasted everyone else’s stuff. I got a rack of springbok for my main J it was yummy. Although I was a bit concerned about eating the national animal!
The hotel we stayed at was lovely – opulent luxury after the apartment in Cairo!! I’ve never been so happy to see a hot forceful shower and bed with crisp clean sheets in my life!
The second day of the course was really good too. We focused more on health and safety (again lots of tips and advice from both the facilitator and the other guys on the course). Then we talked about the AIDS pandemic and what the different types of organisations that work in the development sector do, what role they play. It was really good.
With the course over the only thing left was another 20 or so hours in transit back to Cairo. The return trip was pretty easy. We both slept most of the way between Jo-berg and Paris – guess we were exhausted.
The only thing to happen out of the ordinary was when we were boarding the Paris to Cairo flight. As we were getting on we could hear this guy moaning “No. No. No. No” over and over again. We assumed he was having a panic attack, but then the police took him off the plane. The airline staff then broadcast (in French which luckily Chris could understand) that he was being deported back to his home country and didn’t want to go. So I guess they’ll have to find some other way to get him home.
We arrive safe and sound back in Cairo ready to go back to work on Sunday. Spending the weekend in airport lounges is not ideal!
Well this adventure started off early and sleep deprivation seemed to be on order for the rest of the trip.
We got up about 4am on Wednesday and headed off to the airport. We spent an hour lining up to check in and get through passport control then climbed aboard the Air France plane for a 5 hour flight to Paris. Air France is a pretty good airline, even with the French staff!
The flight was uneventful (which is always good!). We both got a bit of sleep which was lucky because we arrived a bit late into Paris and spent forever walking around the airport trying to find a place to store our bags while we went into the city. Finally we found where we needed to go, but it was very expensive so Chris just left his laptop there ($15 euro just to leave a single bag!) and we just carried our little backpacks.
Once we got all of that organised we caught the training to the city ($16.20 euro each return) and spent the afternoon wandering around. We went to the modern art museum – Pompidou. There were some freaky exhibitions… one of them had some cool work – kind of like collages, all sorts of weird medium stuck to the canvas – doilies, newspaper etc. I liked them until I saw some of his later stuff that was just plain weird. A prime example being an angora goat, stuffed, with paint on its face standing with a tyre around its middle all stood on a canvass that looked like he thrown the pain can at it. I don’t care how much it was suppose to ‘represent the joining of the past and present’ or how it was suppose to ‘reflect the narcissistic nature of life today’ or whatever other bullshit explanation the critics gave it – it was dumb. That’s not art, it’s not something you can hang on the wall, or would even want in your house. Its just plain wired!
The next major exhibition was a guy obsessed with the colour blue. Admittedly it was a very cool shade of blue – cerulean blue I think. In one part of the gallery it was just white walls with about 6 canvasses of different shapes and sizes (most really big) all painted to a perfect finish with this bright startling blue. It actually looked quite impressive.
We spent a bit of time wandering around these exhibitions then went downstairs to the next freaky section. Some of these used TV screens to show the art, like lots of picture of different flowers flicking by at an epileptic seizure rate. One even showed the building of a car back in the old days, the first days of assembly line construction, but sped up to a minute for the whole process. That was fairly interesting to watch. Others were just weird… either weird ideas, weird medium or just plain freaky. Ok art critic I’m not!
Then we stopped at a café and had panni’s and crepes for dinner - very yummy J and then trained back to the airport. Funny thing was the train back was supposed to be the easy bit, but first we got on the wrong train (right platform, wrong train). Then on the right train, but going the wrong way. Then on the right train, but not going to the stop we needed. Then finally on the right train and it even expressed most of the way to the airport. I was getting a little stressed coz we were suppose to pick up Chris’s laptop by 6:30 and the place closed at 7pm… we got there about 6:50pm so it was fine. Then I rushed us all the way to the gate (we were suppose to start boarding at 6:40pm) only to discover the plane delayed (didn’t leave until nearly 8pm). I don’t think we caught a flight that left on time all week.
We finally made it to South Africa – arrived bright and shiny… well we arrived at least. We got in about 8am and got changed into work clothes in the airport bathroom. Then we got a cab to the Accenture office. We were so disorganised. Normally I’m a little control freak and need everything planned to the finest details, but this time I just got on the plane… We didn’t have the addresses written down, didn’t know them, didn’t know how much a cab should cost… absolutely zero planning. In fact we weren’t even 100% sure our accommodation had been booked!
We arrived safely at the office, but cabs in South Africa are weird. In fact they aren’t really cabs… not official looking in any way… they just some dude in his car.
The Johannesburg office is flash. Its huge too, its been built in a business park that’s fairly new I think. Everything is very shiny anyway! It’s very strict though – everything is cost code driven. I needed a phone so Phoebe (UK girl) could call Chris and I and they wanted a cost centre for it. I said but they are calling me, I just need to know what number to dial!
Considering Chris and I had been in transit for 24 hours we coped pretty well with the first day of the course. In fact the course was much better than I was expecting. We thought it was a ‘cultural diversity’ type course but it was so much more than that. We went through how the development sector works (very interesting), how certain treaties, wars and decisions impacted the developing nations. Evelyn (the facilitator) even went through how decision made with the best intentions, like those made by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN etc have long ranging impacts. The decisions like the loans given to developing nations (with string attached of course) helped them develop, but also had negative implications when interest rates rose. All in all a very interesting day. Almost unheard of at an Accenture function there wasn’t any presentations! Just lots of discussions and activities. We even played this game called the ‘Trading Game’ where we were split into countries – Tanzania, India and the US then we had to manufacture ‘shapes’ and sell them to the bank. It was a managed game – so the outcome was set from the beginning and we were manipulated towards that outcome (US ending up with all the money) but it let us experience what it would be like to operate from a position if disadvantage. Very funny to play because we were all carrying on, but good experience.
There were 5 of us at the course. Chris and I of course for our Egypt project, plus Amy (San Francisco – now in India), Bart (Chicago – now working in Atlanta and all over Africa working with CARE) and James (Manchester – now in Uganda). It was really good getting the advice, stories etc of everyone else. Most people had travelled to different places before and everyone had examples and stories that did and will help us deal with challenges here in Egypt. Even little tips like always carry your torch and pen knife with you are things I should know but hadn’t really thought about (I brought them to Egypt, but they’ve never been out of my bag!). Plus it was reassuring to have other people with the same challenges as us. People to reinforce that what we were doing was the right way to handle it. I even got a little pep talk from one of the guys saying that I wasn’t ripping off our driver man. That we were paying him loads and that he wouldn’t be driving us round and being so helpful if we weren’t paying him more than he could get for his normal job.
We went out for dinner at an African restaurant which was really good. The food was delicious – we got a bunch of entrees to share (including ostrich spring rolls which were delicious!!) then each got a main, but everyone tasted everyone else’s stuff. I got a rack of springbok for my main J it was yummy. Although I was a bit concerned about eating the national animal!
The hotel we stayed at was lovely – opulent luxury after the apartment in Cairo!! I’ve never been so happy to see a hot forceful shower and bed with crisp clean sheets in my life!
The second day of the course was really good too. We focused more on health and safety (again lots of tips and advice from both the facilitator and the other guys on the course). Then we talked about the AIDS pandemic and what the different types of organisations that work in the development sector do, what role they play. It was really good.
With the course over the only thing left was another 20 or so hours in transit back to Cairo. The return trip was pretty easy. We both slept most of the way between Jo-berg and Paris – guess we were exhausted.
The only thing to happen out of the ordinary was when we were boarding the Paris to Cairo flight. As we were getting on we could hear this guy moaning “No. No. No. No” over and over again. We assumed he was having a panic attack, but then the police took him off the plane. The airline staff then broadcast (in French which luckily Chris could understand) that he was being deported back to his home country and didn’t want to go. So I guess they’ll have to find some other way to get him home.
We arrive safe and sound back in Cairo ready to go back to work on Sunday. Spending the weekend in airport lounges is not ideal!
Egyptian Museum – Friday 27 October 2006
We spent a few hours today at the Egyptian museum. It cost 40LE to get into the Museum, which is cheaper than back home, but then it cost us another 100LE to get into see the mummies.
Although like everything else here just getting in the door was challenging… First we had to line up to get in (with the crazy security man pointing us the wrong way) and then again to buy tickets. Once we had our tickets we had to negotiate the obstacle course of ‘guides’ who wanted to help us find our way (for a small fee of course). We made it to the ticket collection gate at which point my hand was stroked and the security man said he loved me… (ahh the trials of being a blue eyed foreigner!). So at this point we’ve spent 20 minutes inside the complex and we can see the door of the museum, but first we have to go through yet another metal detector… I realise that the safety is a good thing, its just a little tiresome. Finally we’re inside the Museum and unlike home there are no maps to show us around (that’s because we’re suppose to pay some dodgy bloke to show us around instead). Lucky for us I brought The Book – the Egypt Lonely Planet has a lovely little tour laid out in it so we followed that… It doesn’t have all the room covered, but enough to get the gist of what is there and why they are important.
The museum has changed a bit since I was there last I think. I can’t remember if we had to buy extra tickets and go through funky glass doors last time to get to the mummies. It took us 3 goes to figure out what was going on and get to the right door. Then we had to scrounge together every last pound we had to raise the 200LE it cost us both to go into see the mummies.
The room the mummies are in are kept at a constant temperature of about 20°c which is lovely after the heat of the rest of the place. Its funny, the mummies don’t look all that impressive until you remind yourself that they are between 3000 and 4000 years old! They just look like skeletons with skin stretched over them… same as you see in the movies. It when you read the little biographies on the bodies that you get kind of awed at the work of people thousands of years ago. They had some seriously clever people back then!
The rest of the museum is really good. The whole place looks like a cross between a warehouse and a gallery. There are sections of stone tablets covered in hieroglyphics positioned as they would have looked back in the day, but held together with boxes and mortar because they are all cracked. Then across from that is a statue in perfect mint condition, as if it was carved yesterday using laser tools, not 3500 years ago using chisels. There are even piece you can touch – run your fingers over the hand of a pharaoh carved 4000 years ago…
Tutankhamun Galleries are impressive mostly because he was pharaoh for such a short time yet everything in the tomb was coated in gold or silver. Kind of makes you wonder what Ramses stuff would have been like... I bet the grave robbers who got that stuff were about to set themselves up.
Anyways, we wandered around for a few hours and checked out all the stuff. They are actually building a new museum out near the pyramids (wont be ready until about 2008). They’ve already moved a statue of Ramses II out there because all the lung chocking pollution is ruining the statues etc. When they are done there will be two museums (they aren’t closing the city one). I think they are going to just split up all the mountains of artefacts that they have accumulated over the last 5000 years!
We spent a few hours today at the Egyptian museum. It cost 40LE to get into the Museum, which is cheaper than back home, but then it cost us another 100LE to get into see the mummies.
Although like everything else here just getting in the door was challenging… First we had to line up to get in (with the crazy security man pointing us the wrong way) and then again to buy tickets. Once we had our tickets we had to negotiate the obstacle course of ‘guides’ who wanted to help us find our way (for a small fee of course). We made it to the ticket collection gate at which point my hand was stroked and the security man said he loved me… (ahh the trials of being a blue eyed foreigner!). So at this point we’ve spent 20 minutes inside the complex and we can see the door of the museum, but first we have to go through yet another metal detector… I realise that the safety is a good thing, its just a little tiresome. Finally we’re inside the Museum and unlike home there are no maps to show us around (that’s because we’re suppose to pay some dodgy bloke to show us around instead). Lucky for us I brought The Book – the Egypt Lonely Planet has a lovely little tour laid out in it so we followed that… It doesn’t have all the room covered, but enough to get the gist of what is there and why they are important.
The museum has changed a bit since I was there last I think. I can’t remember if we had to buy extra tickets and go through funky glass doors last time to get to the mummies. It took us 3 goes to figure out what was going on and get to the right door. Then we had to scrounge together every last pound we had to raise the 200LE it cost us both to go into see the mummies.
The room the mummies are in are kept at a constant temperature of about 20°c which is lovely after the heat of the rest of the place. Its funny, the mummies don’t look all that impressive until you remind yourself that they are between 3000 and 4000 years old! They just look like skeletons with skin stretched over them… same as you see in the movies. It when you read the little biographies on the bodies that you get kind of awed at the work of people thousands of years ago. They had some seriously clever people back then!
The rest of the museum is really good. The whole place looks like a cross between a warehouse and a gallery. There are sections of stone tablets covered in hieroglyphics positioned as they would have looked back in the day, but held together with boxes and mortar because they are all cracked. Then across from that is a statue in perfect mint condition, as if it was carved yesterday using laser tools, not 3500 years ago using chisels. There are even piece you can touch – run your fingers over the hand of a pharaoh carved 4000 years ago…
Tutankhamun Galleries are impressive mostly because he was pharaoh for such a short time yet everything in the tomb was coated in gold or silver. Kind of makes you wonder what Ramses stuff would have been like... I bet the grave robbers who got that stuff were about to set themselves up.
Anyways, we wandered around for a few hours and checked out all the stuff. They are actually building a new museum out near the pyramids (wont be ready until about 2008). They’ve already moved a statue of Ramses II out there because all the lung chocking pollution is ruining the statues etc. When they are done there will be two museums (they aren’t closing the city one). I think they are going to just split up all the mountains of artefacts that they have accumulated over the last 5000 years!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)