Mystery Hash – Friday 23 Feb 07
Today’s hash was a little bit different. Today they had Mystery hares. Everyone who has a hare shirt was supposed to wear it, then we had to guess who the actual hares were.
There were loads of people at the Ace club waiting for a ride, so when one woman suggested we get a lift to gate of the wadi we decided to try that. We got there just as a couple of cars were coming in so the women and Jessie (American Uni Cairo girl) got in the car with them. Then Darren drove up and told Chris and I that we could hang off the side of his 4WD – we accepted. It was that or a 3km walk into the RV site!
So we stood on the ledges by the doors and hung onto the roof racks. Darren drove nice and sedately through the bumps and we got safely to the RV site. It was pretty fun actually, we were joking around coz this is how the Egyptians drive all the time – with people aging off the side of their cars. When we got to the RV site Aler was asking how we ended up hanging off the side of Darren’s car – said she’d been behind him earlier and we weren’t there, but then she caught up to us on the road inside the wadi and we were hanging off his car.
The hash was really good, very steep at times, but very good.
When everyone was back, we got into the circle, brought in the virgin hashers, did the usual things. Then Darren asked us to guess the hares. The running hares were guessed (Aler and Useless), but no one guessed the walking hare – it was Dan and his daughter Samantha. It was Samantha’s first hare (she’s about 6) so she got named. We asked Dan if there were any preferences and he said she likes to swim and ballet and something like pink princess would be good. So Leeanne suggested pink princess and I think that won – then she got doused in water and sand. It was funny when they were thinking of names though – someone said Desmond Tutu and Dan said ‘’Can she have something she gets!!’ Someone else suggested Swam Lake, and a few others like that. She looked a little terrified but held up well. When she got back and Dan got her into a clean top we were congratulating her and she started giggling.
It was John’s (Doggie Style) 50th birthday today so he got called into the circle – well technically he was filling in for the Religious Adviser who wasn’t there so Alpha Bitch (his wife) called him into the circle to get awarded his 20 hares mug, his 100 hash’s t-shirt then he was given a t-shirt that said I’m not 50, I’m an 18 year old with 32 years experience. It was quite funny coz he couldn’t finish his down down so had to pour it on his head. For the 20 hares down down they pulled into the circle the other 4 people who’ve done 20 hares and that included Alpha Bitch – she didn’t finish her beer either and poured her dregs on John’s head too.
Then I’m not sure what started it by John started pulling people into the circle from different countries – there was something about English people not hugging and American’s being very touchy feely. I’m not sure why but it ended up being more than just a gentle hug – John started picking the girls up when he hugged them and bringing them into the circle like that. Then the Argentinean women kinda jumped up and ended up being carried in John’s arms… I thought I’d escaped, but then Simon and Sarah said ‘What about the Aussies!’ So John came and picked me up and carried me into the circle.
Leeann was there so I made her be primary Song Frau. We decided to remind people about the ‘We Go Hashing’ song so we got them all singing that a few times. They defiantly need more practice. Leeann’s not going to be here for the next two weeks so I’m going to print off some copies of ‘We Go Hashing’ to make it easier on myself J
Chris and I managed to get seats for the ride back to the Ace club with Kim and Rebecca so then we got Sharif (driver man) to take us to Leeann’s because Chris had an interview to do. The interview was suppose to be at 6pm, then the women was half hour late and it took him an hour and half – so 8pm instead of 7pm we finally made it to the on-on.
The on-on was at Cathy and John’s because it was John’s birthday. They had loads of Thai food and lots of people came. It was really good. Chris and I spent most of the night talking to Darren and Suzanne. They were telling us about the petrified whale bones that are about 2 hours out of Cairo. They sound really interesting.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Work-Life Balance Scales Broken Again – Tuesday 20 Feb 07
Well the honeymoons over… no more 8 hour days for me. Well not many if tonight is any indication :(
We got to work at 7:30am and left at 8:30pm… its like the old R2 days at the ATO.
As with every project everywhere, no matter how well planned, nor how much preparation there are always going to be days where you’re still staring at a screen long after dinner time should have been and gone.
We’ve gotton to crunch time on the project now. Chris sent around the issue and risk log about a week ago and it lit a fire under the client. We had one of the boss clients tell the development team that she didn’t care if they slept in the office they were not to miss our deadline.
Now at home when we say we’re sleeping at the office we’re exaggerating (even if in B’s case she’s only just exaggerating!). But here we actually had one of the guys show up with a bag with a change of clothes in it. The client boss is totally cracking the whip. They needed the fire to get them working, but by 8pm tonight the quality level was seriously dropping. I decided there was no point them staying any longer when it just meant fixing all the mistakes tomorrow. I told them to pack up, turn off their computers and go home. I walked up and down the floor saying, come on, go home; we’ll finish up in the morning.
Most of them packed up but a couple ended up staying til 10:30pm to get the module finished. They said to me because I’d told them to go home, and they’d chose to stay, they felt less time pressure and therefore could relax and do a higher quality job.
They are about 4 million times more productive at the moment, but I don’t like the whip cracking. Especially since this women is the same one who arrives about 11:30am, leaves before 4pm and plays solitaire during the day. Chris has sent her about 12 emails trying to get the tool we’re creating the course in organised and it wasn’t until he escalated the issue log that she’s done anything about it.
Anyway, I think the next few weeks will be like this, late nights and a stressed out team. I guess it’ll make the difference between hitting our dates and missing them but not all that fun. Plus worst of all, I didn’t have any snacks! I was about ready to eat my own arm by the time I got home! There aren’t any shops near where we work, no vending machines, no snack cupboard. Nothing. I had eaten my lunch and then ate my apple by 3pm and still had 5 whole hours to go without anything else to eat – this is practically unheard of for me.
Well the honeymoons over… no more 8 hour days for me. Well not many if tonight is any indication :(
We got to work at 7:30am and left at 8:30pm… its like the old R2 days at the ATO.
As with every project everywhere, no matter how well planned, nor how much preparation there are always going to be days where you’re still staring at a screen long after dinner time should have been and gone.
We’ve gotton to crunch time on the project now. Chris sent around the issue and risk log about a week ago and it lit a fire under the client. We had one of the boss clients tell the development team that she didn’t care if they slept in the office they were not to miss our deadline.
Now at home when we say we’re sleeping at the office we’re exaggerating (even if in B’s case she’s only just exaggerating!). But here we actually had one of the guys show up with a bag with a change of clothes in it. The client boss is totally cracking the whip. They needed the fire to get them working, but by 8pm tonight the quality level was seriously dropping. I decided there was no point them staying any longer when it just meant fixing all the mistakes tomorrow. I told them to pack up, turn off their computers and go home. I walked up and down the floor saying, come on, go home; we’ll finish up in the morning.
Most of them packed up but a couple ended up staying til 10:30pm to get the module finished. They said to me because I’d told them to go home, and they’d chose to stay, they felt less time pressure and therefore could relax and do a higher quality job.
They are about 4 million times more productive at the moment, but I don’t like the whip cracking. Especially since this women is the same one who arrives about 11:30am, leaves before 4pm and plays solitaire during the day. Chris has sent her about 12 emails trying to get the tool we’re creating the course in organised and it wasn’t until he escalated the issue log that she’s done anything about it.
Anyway, I think the next few weeks will be like this, late nights and a stressed out team. I guess it’ll make the difference between hitting our dates and missing them but not all that fun. Plus worst of all, I didn’t have any snacks! I was about ready to eat my own arm by the time I got home! There aren’t any shops near where we work, no vending machines, no snack cupboard. Nothing. I had eaten my lunch and then ate my apple by 3pm and still had 5 whole hours to go without anything else to eat – this is practically unheard of for me.
Valentine Hash – Friday 16 Feb 07
Well it’s Friday again so time to Hash… Today was a fancy Hash – a themed hash for Valentine’s Day.
There were a few ex-Cairo hashers who were home for the weekend who joined us today on the Hash. They were both pretty funny guys who really got into the spirit of the circle… one guy even had beer drunk out of his new shoes http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p175/kj_adventure/
The rule is that if you wear new shoes to the Hash then you deserve to have then drunk from… the quirky thing about the Cairo hash is that it’s always Useless (one of the Hash beers) who drinks from the new shoes… this time it was Useless and General Siemens (the old hasher with the new shoes). The gross part of this story is that they drank out of the sneakers AFTER he’s done the run… so they’d have been all sweaty and sandy… don’t image that made the beer taste its best!
Anyways, this episode over it was back to the normal circle activities. People were being called into the circle to draw out raffle tickets (this weeks prizes were great - wine, champers, chocolates… unfortunately I didn’t win :( ). A newbie was brought into the circle and left her hat on. It was taken off her and just tossed on the sand in front of her.
Just to keep you up to speed – there are some time honoured traditions and rules for the circle:
1. You drink with your left hand (we don’t want to know what you do with your right hand).
2. No hats in the circle.
3. When one hare drinks, all hares drink.
4. New shoes deserve punishment – beer will be drunk from them.
I think most of this is just an excuse to get and give more down downs, but they are the rules nonetheless.
Anyway – this girl’s hat is taken off her and tossed on the sand. The circle moves on. Then out of nowhere all most people hear is “You mother f@$%er. I just told you 2 seconds ago that that was a Christmas present. You arsehole!” as this guy storms into the circle and then storms out again.
Everyone is just kinda looking at each other not really knowing what was going on. I assumed that the guy was yelling at Tom (Gorillas in the Mist) who is our RA – Religious Adviser – the guy who does al the yelling and carrying on in the circle. He just kinda looked confused and looked and the guy then just moved the circle on by bringing someone else into the circle to draw another raffle ticket.
Afterwards at the on-on we discovered some more background to the story.
So the story goes – Yelling guy had been stood on one side of the circle talking to a guy called Tony (an old hasher who’s been hashing since time began). When the hat was thrown on the ground Tony walked through the circle to the other side and on his way kicked sand on the hat and poured beer on it. He did this because it’s the way it has always been. Nothing malicious, just a bit of fun.
Unfortunately it was Yelling guy and his girlfriends first time at the Hash so they had no idea what had happened or why. Plus obviously the guys a bit of a wanker to get so vocal about a hat (I mean seriously - throw it in the washing machine – it’ll come good again!).
So this tantrum over (there have been tantrums the last 3 hash’s in a row – some more public than others though!) the circle moved on and all was quite pleasant.
Because it was a themed hash there were special prizes for best dressed man, best dressed women and hottest hash couple.
The girl winner was a girl wearing pink knickers with hearts all over them and the best dressed bloke was wearing a red galabayia. Hottest Hash Couple was Sarah and Simon. It was funny because the voting is by yelling, but the selection of candidate is just random by the RA. He just wandered round the circle randomly grabbing people to be candidates. Wesley was wearing his red shorts (made especially for many years of valentine hash’s) and his red hash t-shirt so he was one of the contenders. He was pipped at the post by the guy wearing the dress – you’ve got to give it to a bloke who’ll walk through the desert wearing a red galabayia dress.
The on-on was at Dragon House again. Chinese/Thai buffet. Quite nice food but the pots are always mostly empty – they need to fill up quicker J
After dinner we felt like having a few more drinks so went to a pub called Corriana’s. It was Vietnamese New Year and the place is owned by a Vietnamese woman so it was all decorated etc. We were just going for one drink, but we ended up staying there till about 1am because Wesley had to fly to Leeds at 2am so we figured it would be easier to just stay up. It was a really fun night. We caught up with some other hashers who were there and had a few laughs with them.
So another Hash over, lots of fun had by all I think.
Well it’s Friday again so time to Hash… Today was a fancy Hash – a themed hash for Valentine’s Day.
There were a few ex-Cairo hashers who were home for the weekend who joined us today on the Hash. They were both pretty funny guys who really got into the spirit of the circle… one guy even had beer drunk out of his new shoes http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p175/kj_adventure/
The rule is that if you wear new shoes to the Hash then you deserve to have then drunk from… the quirky thing about the Cairo hash is that it’s always Useless (one of the Hash beers) who drinks from the new shoes… this time it was Useless and General Siemens (the old hasher with the new shoes). The gross part of this story is that they drank out of the sneakers AFTER he’s done the run… so they’d have been all sweaty and sandy… don’t image that made the beer taste its best!
Anyways, this episode over it was back to the normal circle activities. People were being called into the circle to draw out raffle tickets (this weeks prizes were great - wine, champers, chocolates… unfortunately I didn’t win :( ). A newbie was brought into the circle and left her hat on. It was taken off her and just tossed on the sand in front of her.
Just to keep you up to speed – there are some time honoured traditions and rules for the circle:
1. You drink with your left hand (we don’t want to know what you do with your right hand).
2. No hats in the circle.
3. When one hare drinks, all hares drink.
4. New shoes deserve punishment – beer will be drunk from them.
I think most of this is just an excuse to get and give more down downs, but they are the rules nonetheless.
Anyway – this girl’s hat is taken off her and tossed on the sand. The circle moves on. Then out of nowhere all most people hear is “You mother f@$%er. I just told you 2 seconds ago that that was a Christmas present. You arsehole!” as this guy storms into the circle and then storms out again.
Everyone is just kinda looking at each other not really knowing what was going on. I assumed that the guy was yelling at Tom (Gorillas in the Mist) who is our RA – Religious Adviser – the guy who does al the yelling and carrying on in the circle. He just kinda looked confused and looked and the guy then just moved the circle on by bringing someone else into the circle to draw another raffle ticket.
Afterwards at the on-on we discovered some more background to the story.
So the story goes – Yelling guy had been stood on one side of the circle talking to a guy called Tony (an old hasher who’s been hashing since time began). When the hat was thrown on the ground Tony walked through the circle to the other side and on his way kicked sand on the hat and poured beer on it. He did this because it’s the way it has always been. Nothing malicious, just a bit of fun.
Unfortunately it was Yelling guy and his girlfriends first time at the Hash so they had no idea what had happened or why. Plus obviously the guys a bit of a wanker to get so vocal about a hat (I mean seriously - throw it in the washing machine – it’ll come good again!).
So this tantrum over (there have been tantrums the last 3 hash’s in a row – some more public than others though!) the circle moved on and all was quite pleasant.
Because it was a themed hash there were special prizes for best dressed man, best dressed women and hottest hash couple.
The girl winner was a girl wearing pink knickers with hearts all over them and the best dressed bloke was wearing a red galabayia. Hottest Hash Couple was Sarah and Simon. It was funny because the voting is by yelling, but the selection of candidate is just random by the RA. He just wandered round the circle randomly grabbing people to be candidates. Wesley was wearing his red shorts (made especially for many years of valentine hash’s) and his red hash t-shirt so he was one of the contenders. He was pipped at the post by the guy wearing the dress – you’ve got to give it to a bloke who’ll walk through the desert wearing a red galabayia dress.
The on-on was at Dragon House again. Chinese/Thai buffet. Quite nice food but the pots are always mostly empty – they need to fill up quicker J
After dinner we felt like having a few more drinks so went to a pub called Corriana’s. It was Vietnamese New Year and the place is owned by a Vietnamese woman so it was all decorated etc. We were just going for one drink, but we ended up staying there till about 1am because Wesley had to fly to Leeds at 2am so we figured it would be easier to just stay up. It was a really fun night. We caught up with some other hashers who were there and had a few laughs with them.
So another Hash over, lots of fun had by all I think.
Be my Valentine – Wednesday 14 Feb 07
Well, it’s Valentine Day – the day when all the flower shops are bursting and people are racing round with car loads of red and pink balloons.
The day started out normally enough, we made it to work in one piece (which on Cairo’s roads is a miracle in itself). All the way to work I kept seeing balloons and flowers filling the back seats of every third car we passed.
I had brought some special biscuits for Maha, the girl on my team, to celebrate her promotion. She took them round to share with the rest of the team and they were asking why she had valentine cookies at work and she had to explain they were for promotion, not valentine.
People were extra crazy this afternoon on the roads. It’s like half of them were rushing to get to their valentine dates and the other half were rushing to the florist or chocolate shop coz they’d forgotten what day it was.
Normally I don’t go much on valentine day, it’s so commercialized, restaurants are too busy, too expensive and its all too much work. The price of everything triples; flowers and chocolates become harder to get your hands on than clean air in Cairo.
Anyways, I was convinced this year that so long as an agreement was reached a small gift would be acceptable. So I received a lovely bunch of flowers :) pink and white carnations – beautiful.
Chris said he normally doesn’t do Valentine’s Day either, but he relented and bought the girl he’s kinda seeing a bunch of roses. I was on the way to Ma’adi for my valentine date and he was coming with me to delver his flowers. We’d been on the road about 10mins and moved about 100 meters down the road when I said for the 100th time that I could deliver them for him. So he bailed out of the car and I took the flowers. I got to the door (she’ was supposed to be out with one of her friends and I was going to leave them in her room) – I rang the bell and so was quite surprised to find her there… All I said was, ’You weren’t suppose to be here, these are for you and now I’m going’. She laughed, said they were lovely and I wandered off. I texted Chris and said he should have come after all!
Anyways, errands done I arrived at Wesley’s and we went for dinner. We had Japanese for dinner – it was really nice. I ate sushi – I didn’t think I liked sushi, but it was really nice. I even tried the wasabi and the ginger. I’d never really thought about it before, but I was totally surprised to find out that ginger was spicy. I sound like a total retard, I guess I knew ginger was a ‘spice’ but it never occurred to me that it was a spicy spice. Quite an interesting flavour by itself.
In retrospect being on the roads on Valentine Day probably wasn’t the smartest idea. On the way to Ma’adi I got stuck in traffic. We’re moving along slowly and there were loads of policemen running around. There were even three police trucks with little tiny chicken wire covered windows. To start with I couldn’t decide if they were prisoner transports or troop transports. Every little chicken-wire window had two faces pressed against it… crazy Egyptian traffic police.
So we’ve been siting in this traffic for a little under 10 minutes when Sharif (driver man) reaches over and winds up the passenger side window and locks the door. I locked both the back doors and he said ‘yes, good. I’m not sure what is going on’. We were right next to a big police station (which was why there were so many around) but Sharif didn’t know why the traffic was so backed up, or why the police were running around so much.
We got a bit further along and noticed a car stopped in the middle of the intersection. As we drove around it I noticed a guy spread-eagled on the road. At this point I’m quietly freaking out saying a little mantra in my head ‘Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.’ Then I saw him move (or at least I tell myself is aw him move) and another guy put a jacket under his head (never mind the likely spinal injuries!!).
This all happened about a third of the way to Ma’adi… Sharif spent the rest of the trip dodging other random crazy drivers and getting me to my destination in one piece. It’s funny, the major skill you want in a driver here is the ability to dodge other cars that move at random into your lane.
So this was the trip to Ma’adi, then on the way back to Mohandiseen I see a motorcyclist smeared over the road… ok, smeared is probably a bit of an exaggeration. There was glass and blood, but no bodies so either he’d already been shipped off to be fixed up, or he was one of the people standing round yelling at each other.
All in all a lovely Valentine evening and a crazy drive.
Well, it’s Valentine Day – the day when all the flower shops are bursting and people are racing round with car loads of red and pink balloons.
The day started out normally enough, we made it to work in one piece (which on Cairo’s roads is a miracle in itself). All the way to work I kept seeing balloons and flowers filling the back seats of every third car we passed.
I had brought some special biscuits for Maha, the girl on my team, to celebrate her promotion. She took them round to share with the rest of the team and they were asking why she had valentine cookies at work and she had to explain they were for promotion, not valentine.
People were extra crazy this afternoon on the roads. It’s like half of them were rushing to get to their valentine dates and the other half were rushing to the florist or chocolate shop coz they’d forgotten what day it was.
Normally I don’t go much on valentine day, it’s so commercialized, restaurants are too busy, too expensive and its all too much work. The price of everything triples; flowers and chocolates become harder to get your hands on than clean air in Cairo.
Anyways, I was convinced this year that so long as an agreement was reached a small gift would be acceptable. So I received a lovely bunch of flowers :) pink and white carnations – beautiful.
Chris said he normally doesn’t do Valentine’s Day either, but he relented and bought the girl he’s kinda seeing a bunch of roses. I was on the way to Ma’adi for my valentine date and he was coming with me to delver his flowers. We’d been on the road about 10mins and moved about 100 meters down the road when I said for the 100th time that I could deliver them for him. So he bailed out of the car and I took the flowers. I got to the door (she’ was supposed to be out with one of her friends and I was going to leave them in her room) – I rang the bell and so was quite surprised to find her there… All I said was, ’You weren’t suppose to be here, these are for you and now I’m going’. She laughed, said they were lovely and I wandered off. I texted Chris and said he should have come after all!
Anyways, errands done I arrived at Wesley’s and we went for dinner. We had Japanese for dinner – it was really nice. I ate sushi – I didn’t think I liked sushi, but it was really nice. I even tried the wasabi and the ginger. I’d never really thought about it before, but I was totally surprised to find out that ginger was spicy. I sound like a total retard, I guess I knew ginger was a ‘spice’ but it never occurred to me that it was a spicy spice. Quite an interesting flavour by itself.
In retrospect being on the roads on Valentine Day probably wasn’t the smartest idea. On the way to Ma’adi I got stuck in traffic. We’re moving along slowly and there were loads of policemen running around. There were even three police trucks with little tiny chicken wire covered windows. To start with I couldn’t decide if they were prisoner transports or troop transports. Every little chicken-wire window had two faces pressed against it… crazy Egyptian traffic police.
So we’ve been siting in this traffic for a little under 10 minutes when Sharif (driver man) reaches over and winds up the passenger side window and locks the door. I locked both the back doors and he said ‘yes, good. I’m not sure what is going on’. We were right next to a big police station (which was why there were so many around) but Sharif didn’t know why the traffic was so backed up, or why the police were running around so much.
We got a bit further along and noticed a car stopped in the middle of the intersection. As we drove around it I noticed a guy spread-eagled on the road. At this point I’m quietly freaking out saying a little mantra in my head ‘Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.’ Then I saw him move (or at least I tell myself is aw him move) and another guy put a jacket under his head (never mind the likely spinal injuries!!).
This all happened about a third of the way to Ma’adi… Sharif spent the rest of the trip dodging other random crazy drivers and getting me to my destination in one piece. It’s funny, the major skill you want in a driver here is the ability to dodge other cars that move at random into your lane.
So this was the trip to Ma’adi, then on the way back to Mohandiseen I see a motorcyclist smeared over the road… ok, smeared is probably a bit of an exaggeration. There was glass and blood, but no bodies so either he’d already been shipped off to be fixed up, or he was one of the people standing round yelling at each other.
All in all a lovely Valentine evening and a crazy drive.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Maids are GREAT – Monday 12 Feb 07
Pretty much everyone here seems to have a maid. Some of them even have their maids come a few times a week and some come every day! I’m not talking family of 6 here, I’m talking single people and couples have maids that come at least a few times a week.
Anyways, last week Chris and I relented and got a maid to come and clean the house – mostly coz we needed someone to vacuum, sweeping the tiles works ok, but sweeping the carpet in our rooms just wasn’t doing the job. She came on Saturday while I was at Ain Sukhna. She did a pretty good job, but they left the vacuum here so we’ve been umming and ahhing about whether we would vacuum ourselves or get her to come back.
Since she only cost £30, which is about AUD$7 we decided it was probably worth it :)
Anyways, we decided that Saturday’s are a bit annoying coz we need to be here while she cleans and we don’t really want to have to be home on a Saturday – what if we get a better offer?!?.
Today Chris needed to leave the office early coz he had to be in Ma’adi by 4pm. Coz we share Sharif the driver, we both had to leave at the same time so I came home to finish my work. Since I was going to be home anyway, we arranged for the maid to come today.
Last week it took her about 2 ½ hours (that included cleaning the balcony etc). Today she brought a helper and was done in about 1 ½ hours. They clean every flat surface, they remake the beds (even if they are already made) and fold the washing. I think the maid is going to become a regular fixture :)
Pretty much everyone here seems to have a maid. Some of them even have their maids come a few times a week and some come every day! I’m not talking family of 6 here, I’m talking single people and couples have maids that come at least a few times a week.
Anyways, last week Chris and I relented and got a maid to come and clean the house – mostly coz we needed someone to vacuum, sweeping the tiles works ok, but sweeping the carpet in our rooms just wasn’t doing the job. She came on Saturday while I was at Ain Sukhna. She did a pretty good job, but they left the vacuum here so we’ve been umming and ahhing about whether we would vacuum ourselves or get her to come back.
Since she only cost £30, which is about AUD$7 we decided it was probably worth it :)
Anyways, we decided that Saturday’s are a bit annoying coz we need to be here while she cleans and we don’t really want to have to be home on a Saturday – what if we get a better offer?!?.
Today Chris needed to leave the office early coz he had to be in Ma’adi by 4pm. Coz we share Sharif the driver, we both had to leave at the same time so I came home to finish my work. Since I was going to be home anyway, we arranged for the maid to come today.
Last week it took her about 2 ½ hours (that included cleaning the balcony etc). Today she brought a helper and was done in about 1 ½ hours. They clean every flat surface, they remake the beds (even if they are already made) and fold the washing. I think the maid is going to become a regular fixture :)
Hash – Domestics and Indian – Friday 9 Feb 07
Today we hashed – we go basically every week. Its good fun, wandering round the desert. This was a particularly good walk, steep at times, but good length and very well marked. In the circle they commented on how well the trails were set. Obviously the hares were very experienced… knew what they were doing :)
There were loads of people there, including about a dozen newbies. I sold the raffle tickets – 101 of them – good prizes, two slabs of beer, gin, red wine, chocolates… and a hard hat. There always seems to be something weird in the raffle these days. The raffle tickets are £10 each, so about AUD$2.20 then during the circle tickets are drawn and you get to choose which of the prizes you want… so you really want to get your ticket drawn early so you get a good prize.. otherwise you end up with the hard hat (or the toilet brush from last week!).
Two of the hares were new… They were both Mexicans, the girl was from Tabasco and she almost got named ‘Hot Sauce’ which would have been cool. But they ended up as ‘Can’t Get Up’ and ‘Wont Go Down’. I’m not sure why – something about neither of them wanting to get out of bed in the morning. I think it might have been because they had to get up early to set the trail, so maybe some thing happened there. The naming can be quite dangerous, but they took it in good spirits. Even when they poured the beer and sand all over them J Luckily it wasn’t as cold as it has been, but it certainly wasn’t hot!
Anyways, so the naming is over and most people have left. The On-On was in Heliopolis (about 30 min drive from Ma’adi) because that’s where most of the Hares were from. There were about a dozen or so people still stood around, everyone just chatting… I was chatting to Alpha Bitch and Tattoo Titty when I saw a girl hurl a beer at the feet of one of the guys. Then she storms off to the cars and rips his keys out of his car and hurls them at him too. He picked up the beer, empties it (the can was half crushed) and threw the can in the bin. Then he picked up his keys and went and re-started his car (his battery had been flat and she’d jumped started it). Then they are both over at the car and she’s yelling at him… kinda quietly… I couldn’t hear what was being said but I was trying not to listen. Then she rips his keys out again and hurls them in the back of his car. He retrieves them yet again and restarts his car. She yells at him some more and then jumps in her car and storms off in a huff.
Meanwhile everyone who was left is trying to pretend they weren’t listening and carrying on their conversations.
Once she’s driven off he comes back to the group who were still chatting and finishes his beer. A few quiet comments were made along the lines of ‘nice row’, but nothing too pointed. I found out later the domestic was between him and his ex girlfriend. She’d ask for a lift to the on-on and he’d said no coz he was going with someone else – so she had a spastic. Apparently for everyone but me and Mexican’s this was not a new scene so no one said much about it. I’d have been horrified for someone to yell at me in front of a dozen of my friends, but he seemed to shrug it off…
Anyways, this drama over everyone left the desert. Most of the people who were still there were part of the hares etc so they all went off to Heliopolis. Not many Ma’adi people go to the On-On when its in Heliopolis coz its too far to go. Normally the Ma’adi crowd has an alternate on-on when the official one is in Heliopolis and the Heli people have their own on-on in Heli when the official one is in Ma’adi.
The on-on in Heliopolis was at an Indian place though and I wanted to go so I convinced Wesley to go as well so I wouldn’t be on my own. Brian hadn’t been able to go to the Hash coz there was an off-shore crisis and he couldn’t go out of mobile coverage. We thought he’d be keen for dinner so we rang him and picked him up on our way.
The beer at the hash, plus the two vodkas in the car nearly had me on my arse by the time we arrived. I didn’t have a drink all through dinner, I was waiting for the naan to soak up the vodka.
Dinner was very yummy, I got Rojan Josh – it was lovely. We also had a range of appetisers first, plus rice and salad type things and of course NAAN – I love NAAN (it’s the only reason I go for Indian J) It only came to £120 each so about $25 and I was so full afterwards J
Once we’d finished dinner we all piled into the available cars and went to the Heliopolis BCA. Its way nicer than the Mohandiseen one, but it’s been recently done up. We played pool and some of the people played foos ball. It was good fun. Sarah (one of the hares) was winning nearly every pool game – she was really good. We had a few beers (well I didn’t even finish one, but everyone else had a few) and then called a car to come take us back to Ma’adi.
I’m really glad we went, the food was good, the people were lovely – it was a really nice night.
Today we hashed – we go basically every week. Its good fun, wandering round the desert. This was a particularly good walk, steep at times, but good length and very well marked. In the circle they commented on how well the trails were set. Obviously the hares were very experienced… knew what they were doing :)
There were loads of people there, including about a dozen newbies. I sold the raffle tickets – 101 of them – good prizes, two slabs of beer, gin, red wine, chocolates… and a hard hat. There always seems to be something weird in the raffle these days. The raffle tickets are £10 each, so about AUD$2.20 then during the circle tickets are drawn and you get to choose which of the prizes you want… so you really want to get your ticket drawn early so you get a good prize.. otherwise you end up with the hard hat (or the toilet brush from last week!).
Two of the hares were new… They were both Mexicans, the girl was from Tabasco and she almost got named ‘Hot Sauce’ which would have been cool. But they ended up as ‘Can’t Get Up’ and ‘Wont Go Down’. I’m not sure why – something about neither of them wanting to get out of bed in the morning. I think it might have been because they had to get up early to set the trail, so maybe some thing happened there. The naming can be quite dangerous, but they took it in good spirits. Even when they poured the beer and sand all over them J Luckily it wasn’t as cold as it has been, but it certainly wasn’t hot!
Anyways, so the naming is over and most people have left. The On-On was in Heliopolis (about 30 min drive from Ma’adi) because that’s where most of the Hares were from. There were about a dozen or so people still stood around, everyone just chatting… I was chatting to Alpha Bitch and Tattoo Titty when I saw a girl hurl a beer at the feet of one of the guys. Then she storms off to the cars and rips his keys out of his car and hurls them at him too. He picked up the beer, empties it (the can was half crushed) and threw the can in the bin. Then he picked up his keys and went and re-started his car (his battery had been flat and she’d jumped started it). Then they are both over at the car and she’s yelling at him… kinda quietly… I couldn’t hear what was being said but I was trying not to listen. Then she rips his keys out again and hurls them in the back of his car. He retrieves them yet again and restarts his car. She yells at him some more and then jumps in her car and storms off in a huff.
Meanwhile everyone who was left is trying to pretend they weren’t listening and carrying on their conversations.
Once she’s driven off he comes back to the group who were still chatting and finishes his beer. A few quiet comments were made along the lines of ‘nice row’, but nothing too pointed. I found out later the domestic was between him and his ex girlfriend. She’d ask for a lift to the on-on and he’d said no coz he was going with someone else – so she had a spastic. Apparently for everyone but me and Mexican’s this was not a new scene so no one said much about it. I’d have been horrified for someone to yell at me in front of a dozen of my friends, but he seemed to shrug it off…
Anyways, this drama over everyone left the desert. Most of the people who were still there were part of the hares etc so they all went off to Heliopolis. Not many Ma’adi people go to the On-On when its in Heliopolis coz its too far to go. Normally the Ma’adi crowd has an alternate on-on when the official one is in Heliopolis and the Heli people have their own on-on in Heli when the official one is in Ma’adi.
The on-on in Heliopolis was at an Indian place though and I wanted to go so I convinced Wesley to go as well so I wouldn’t be on my own. Brian hadn’t been able to go to the Hash coz there was an off-shore crisis and he couldn’t go out of mobile coverage. We thought he’d be keen for dinner so we rang him and picked him up on our way.
The beer at the hash, plus the two vodkas in the car nearly had me on my arse by the time we arrived. I didn’t have a drink all through dinner, I was waiting for the naan to soak up the vodka.
Dinner was very yummy, I got Rojan Josh – it was lovely. We also had a range of appetisers first, plus rice and salad type things and of course NAAN – I love NAAN (it’s the only reason I go for Indian J) It only came to £120 each so about $25 and I was so full afterwards J
Once we’d finished dinner we all piled into the available cars and went to the Heliopolis BCA. Its way nicer than the Mohandiseen one, but it’s been recently done up. We played pool and some of the people played foos ball. It was good fun. Sarah (one of the hares) was winning nearly every pool game – she was really good. We had a few beers (well I didn’t even finish one, but everyone else had a few) and then called a car to come take us back to Ma’adi.
I’m really glad we went, the food was good, the people were lovely – it was a really nice night.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Ain Sukhna – 2 Feb 07
Friends of Wesley and Brian’s have a holiday home down at Ain Sukhna. They are catholic and Coptic and were down there for the weekend. We went down on Saturday to visit them, check out the beach. The plan had been to go for a swim, lay around on the beach… unfortunately it was raining, windy, freezing cold and there was a sand storm.
We couldn’t have picked a worse day for a trip to the beach!
It took about 1 ½ hours to drive down there. Luckily we took Brian’s work car rather than Wesley Land Rover so we got to travel in comfort. The Land Rover is great for desert, but a bit cramped in the back seat for a longer journey.
The whole way there is absolutely nothing to see but sand for miles. I guess it’s no different to driving across the Nullarbor…or up the Hume to Sydney for that matter. Unfortunately the radio cuts out about 20 mins out of the city so we had nothing to entertain us but mile upon mile of sand. Wesley read his book in the back (so jealous that I can’t read in the car!) and Brain drove.
We got down there just before lunch, cracked first beers just after 11am (had to remind myself that it was lunchtime in the world somewhere!). About 25 minutes after we arrived, Nevine got up and Rafik said to her ‘make us some breakfast’. We all said ‘whoo, no, we’re fine’ but she went off and cooked up this massive feast of food – little samousa type things, eggs, sausages, piles of food. We’d had a big breakfast already, but we all managed to squeeze some in.
We were sitting on their veranda, drinking beer and eating but it was freezing. Nevine was classic Egyptian – piling our plates with food, telling us to keep eating. The food was very yummy, but once we’d stuffed in as much as we possibly could we finally convinced her to let us help pack away the left overs. Once we had everything cleared away we went down to the beach to look around – I nearly got blown off the pier it was so windy! I’m sure it would have been lovely on a nicer day.
We staggered back to the house and bundled up inside. Dishes were piled up to the roof – I think they’d used every piece of crockery and cutlery in the house. Brian said he was about to offer to wash up til he saw how much there was and Nevine said ‘no I’ll call the boy’.
So she rings up this cabana boy on his mobile and he comes round and does all the dishes – it was the weirdest experience – we’re sitting round on the couches drinking and paying some crazy board game they had and this little guy in blue overalls is doing all the washing up – got to get me a washing up boy!
We played this crazy board game for a while longer – playing half in Arabic half in English – we kept saying holst (which means done or finished) and some other word that meant ‘enough!’. We were then talking about the Suez Canal – there place is only about an hours drive from the canal. So while Nevine prepared yet another pile of food, Rafik took Brian, Wesley and I to the Suez Canal for a look. We weren’t allowed to take photos, but it was cool to stand on the Egyptian side and be able to see Asia. The boarders between the continents Africa and Asia run through the Suez Canal, so a couple of hundred meters from where we were standing was Asia – pretty cool.
We watched a couple of boats go through – massive big natural gas tankers, then it was too cold so we headed back. Nevine cooked us up another mountain of food – but this time there were vine leaves – soooo yummy.
Nevine and the kids were going to stay one more night and Rafik was going to come back with us, but then she changed her mind and asked if we’d mind waiting while they packed up the house so we could drive back together. Its not safe to drive the desert roads by yourself at night if you can help it. Just in case you break down, that sort of thing. So just after 7:30pm we finally hit the road home. We made it back to Maadi by about 9:30pm and then I cabbed back to Mohandiseen… I was a very tired bunny by the time I got home. It was a huge weekend, we hadn’t expected to stay so long at Ain Sukhna, but it was a lovely day – I imagine it would be even better when the weather warms up.
Friends of Wesley and Brian’s have a holiday home down at Ain Sukhna. They are catholic and Coptic and were down there for the weekend. We went down on Saturday to visit them, check out the beach. The plan had been to go for a swim, lay around on the beach… unfortunately it was raining, windy, freezing cold and there was a sand storm.
We couldn’t have picked a worse day for a trip to the beach!
It took about 1 ½ hours to drive down there. Luckily we took Brian’s work car rather than Wesley Land Rover so we got to travel in comfort. The Land Rover is great for desert, but a bit cramped in the back seat for a longer journey.
The whole way there is absolutely nothing to see but sand for miles. I guess it’s no different to driving across the Nullarbor…or up the Hume to Sydney for that matter. Unfortunately the radio cuts out about 20 mins out of the city so we had nothing to entertain us but mile upon mile of sand. Wesley read his book in the back (so jealous that I can’t read in the car!) and Brain drove.
We got down there just before lunch, cracked first beers just after 11am (had to remind myself that it was lunchtime in the world somewhere!). About 25 minutes after we arrived, Nevine got up and Rafik said to her ‘make us some breakfast’. We all said ‘whoo, no, we’re fine’ but she went off and cooked up this massive feast of food – little samousa type things, eggs, sausages, piles of food. We’d had a big breakfast already, but we all managed to squeeze some in.
We were sitting on their veranda, drinking beer and eating but it was freezing. Nevine was classic Egyptian – piling our plates with food, telling us to keep eating. The food was very yummy, but once we’d stuffed in as much as we possibly could we finally convinced her to let us help pack away the left overs. Once we had everything cleared away we went down to the beach to look around – I nearly got blown off the pier it was so windy! I’m sure it would have been lovely on a nicer day.
We staggered back to the house and bundled up inside. Dishes were piled up to the roof – I think they’d used every piece of crockery and cutlery in the house. Brian said he was about to offer to wash up til he saw how much there was and Nevine said ‘no I’ll call the boy’.
So she rings up this cabana boy on his mobile and he comes round and does all the dishes – it was the weirdest experience – we’re sitting round on the couches drinking and paying some crazy board game they had and this little guy in blue overalls is doing all the washing up – got to get me a washing up boy!
We played this crazy board game for a while longer – playing half in Arabic half in English – we kept saying holst (which means done or finished) and some other word that meant ‘enough!’. We were then talking about the Suez Canal – there place is only about an hours drive from the canal. So while Nevine prepared yet another pile of food, Rafik took Brian, Wesley and I to the Suez Canal for a look. We weren’t allowed to take photos, but it was cool to stand on the Egyptian side and be able to see Asia. The boarders between the continents Africa and Asia run through the Suez Canal, so a couple of hundred meters from where we were standing was Asia – pretty cool.
We watched a couple of boats go through – massive big natural gas tankers, then it was too cold so we headed back. Nevine cooked us up another mountain of food – but this time there were vine leaves – soooo yummy.
Nevine and the kids were going to stay one more night and Rafik was going to come back with us, but then she changed her mind and asked if we’d mind waiting while they packed up the house so we could drive back together. Its not safe to drive the desert roads by yourself at night if you can help it. Just in case you break down, that sort of thing. So just after 7:30pm we finally hit the road home. We made it back to Maadi by about 9:30pm and then I cabbed back to Mohandiseen… I was a very tired bunny by the time I got home. It was a huge weekend, we hadn’t expected to stay so long at Ain Sukhna, but it was a lovely day – I imagine it would be even better when the weather warms up.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Hashing in Wadi Digla – 1 Feb 07
Chris went in the Digla Dash today. It was a 10km race in the desert – up and down hills, on sand and rocks. Crazy stuff, but he was happy with his time. Most people who went in the Digla Dash didn’t do the Hash. Chris came to the RV site, but then changed his mind.
We have a guy in the Hash who’s a really fast runner, but he’s also the Hare Raiser – which means he’s suppose to convince, beg and beat people into haring each week. He couldn’t find enough people to hare today so had to do it himself. This meant he couldn’t go in the Digla Dash which he’d planned to.
There was another guy who’d said he’d hare, but didn’t show up. He said he went to meet them and they weren’t there, but the other three managed to sort themselves out. So not only did the hare raiser have to hare on the day he wanted to race, he also had to set the trail by himself. We’re not suppose to set the trail on our own because it dangerous to wander the desert by yourself. Luckily I think guy has been in Cairo and hashing for a while so he knew what he was doing.
The walk was really good, except for one bit that was on the edge of a cliff. It was a really narrow path and on the edge of a 20 meter drop…bit daunting, especially with the dogs running through our legs.
Leeann had done the Digla Dash so hadn’t come to the hash so I was left to manage the song mistress duties. I was a bit useless, I couldn’t think of the songs or the words (had to go and get reinforcements from a woman who’s been helping me with the words). I’d meant to print out the almost finished book and bring it with me, but forgot on Thursday in my rush to leave work. I hope it’ll be finished soon – I want to make sure its printed and bound before I leave!
One of the hares was a new guy – so he got named. He ended up being called Rombaldy (something to do with a soccer player he looked like, plus the fact that he was losing his hair)
The on-on was at a new place – a French crepe place. It was pretty good. The hares put on the beer and wine because it was a byo which was nice of them.
We had originally planned to go on to a pub somewhere afterwards. But we decided to call it a night because Wesley and I were both tired and Brian was having a catastrophe at work so couldn’t be drunk when they rang him from the oil rig. Chris went out clubbing with Leanne and a bunch of her friends till 4am!
It was a really nice day, the weather was good, the circle was good. All very good.
Chris went in the Digla Dash today. It was a 10km race in the desert – up and down hills, on sand and rocks. Crazy stuff, but he was happy with his time. Most people who went in the Digla Dash didn’t do the Hash. Chris came to the RV site, but then changed his mind.
We have a guy in the Hash who’s a really fast runner, but he’s also the Hare Raiser – which means he’s suppose to convince, beg and beat people into haring each week. He couldn’t find enough people to hare today so had to do it himself. This meant he couldn’t go in the Digla Dash which he’d planned to.
There was another guy who’d said he’d hare, but didn’t show up. He said he went to meet them and they weren’t there, but the other three managed to sort themselves out. So not only did the hare raiser have to hare on the day he wanted to race, he also had to set the trail by himself. We’re not suppose to set the trail on our own because it dangerous to wander the desert by yourself. Luckily I think guy has been in Cairo and hashing for a while so he knew what he was doing.
The walk was really good, except for one bit that was on the edge of a cliff. It was a really narrow path and on the edge of a 20 meter drop…bit daunting, especially with the dogs running through our legs.
Leeann had done the Digla Dash so hadn’t come to the hash so I was left to manage the song mistress duties. I was a bit useless, I couldn’t think of the songs or the words (had to go and get reinforcements from a woman who’s been helping me with the words). I’d meant to print out the almost finished book and bring it with me, but forgot on Thursday in my rush to leave work. I hope it’ll be finished soon – I want to make sure its printed and bound before I leave!
One of the hares was a new guy – so he got named. He ended up being called Rombaldy (something to do with a soccer player he looked like, plus the fact that he was losing his hair)
The on-on was at a new place – a French crepe place. It was pretty good. The hares put on the beer and wine because it was a byo which was nice of them.
We had originally planned to go on to a pub somewhere afterwards. But we decided to call it a night because Wesley and I were both tired and Brian was having a catastrophe at work so couldn’t be drunk when they rang him from the oil rig. Chris went out clubbing with Leanne and a bunch of her friends till 4am!
It was a really nice day, the weather was good, the circle was good. All very good.
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