Hashing in a sand storm – Friday 23 March 2007

So the weather has been a bit hit and miss lately. We had some really hot days then last weekend was a bit cold. This week we had a couple of 30 degree days and today the khamsin came in. The khamsin is a dry hot wind that blows across the western desert at up to 150km/hr. The air becomes filled with sand and you can’t see more than 3m in front of you.

Fortunately we didn’t have 150km winds but it was near on gale force at some points.

It was into this joyful weather that Chris and I set out to hare. We’d foolishly signed up a few weeks ago to hare the Hash trail this week. I was haring with Dan (American embassy guy) and Chris was haring the run trail with Damien (Aussie oil guy).

We met in Ma’adi at 11am. It took us 30 minutes to drive out to the RV site at Wadi Hof. Damien was following in his 4wd and Chris and I went with Dan. Damien couldn’t stay for the hash because he had to play rugby in the afternoon but said he’d help set the trail.

We decided on a RV site and set off to lay the trail. It was windy and there was sand all through the air. We couldn’t see more than 5-10m in front of us at times. Even with this crappy weather setting the trail was loads better than last time – I had someone with me who’d laid heaps of trails and when we were deciding where to lay the trail it was joint decisions. Well kinda joint, I didn’t actually know where any good spots might be so Dan would say how about over here? Or over there? And I’d choose between them :) but it was a combined effort.

The trail was pretty basic to start with, then we started climbing this massive ridge. It would have been a sensational view, expect that we couldn’t see anything for the sand! Also it was even more windy on the top of the ridge than anywhere else (obviously). Windy enough to blow me around as I was walking. At one point I had squatted down to re-tie my shoelace and Dan’s got hold of me by my backpack to stop me blowing off the hill. We were even joking that we’d have to warn Mary and Peit that if they had the girls with them they’d want to keep a firm hold of their hands or they’d blow off the ridge!

You are suppose to ‘scout’ the trail one or two times before going to lay it so you know where you’re going to go when you set the trail, but living in Mohandiseen (and with all the work we’ve had on) Chris and I couldn’t get there during daylight hours to scope it out. I now know why scouting is so important. I think Dan and I walked an extra 3kms while we were setting the trail so we could make sure we could get up or down certain bits before we put down the lentils.

I put most of the lentils into large water bottles coz I’d seen another hare do it before, it made it easier to pour them out and the bottles were easy to fill so I’d do that again. I was fairly generous with the lentils coz we were worried that they would blow away.

Dan and I got down downs because you could see the cars from the second check point. Dan thought the rule was just not from the first, but some of the ‘old school’ folk were adamant that it was from all check points.

I was surprised by how many people schlepped all the way out to Wadi Hof in the sand storm. It was impressive to see the number of dedicated hashers. We did set fairly short trails though (walk was about 4km) because we thought people would moan about the weather.

To start with on the actual hash, Dan was going at the front and I was doing the herding but then at our false trail I ended up at the front and he ended up herding. We got stuck in this position for the rest of the way because people didn’t wait at the third check. We got to the third and final check and after about 3 minutes the front people just started walking off… I said to a few people ‘aren’t we suppose to wait for everyone… at least until we can see the other hare?’ It really pissed me off because if we’d done that to them they’d have been hollering and carrying on. They seem to think its one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us. Admittedly after nearly 10 minutes had passed and we still couldn’t’ even see Dan I said to Cathy that I’d just run back and see if anything had happened. There were about 12 people and they were SOOOOOOOO slow. Dan was getting frustrated because they were really plodding along – at one point there were two of them trying to get reception on their mobile in the bottom of a valley – morons!! I told Dan half the people had just gone on and he said he expected that, so I ran back to the nice ones who had waited and said nothing was wrong so just go on. I was worried that someone had hurt themselves and there was only Dan there to try and get them back – that’s the whole point of the figgin checks to make sure everyone is ok and accounted for.

I get so crabby with people bitching about the trail – I didn’t see them out there laying it in the sand storm. Some of them I know definitely do their share of trails, but most of the moaners never lay a trail.

Anyways, we made it back and the wind had dropped a bit so people hung around for the circle. Both Tom (official RA) and John (frequent fill in RA) weren’t there and neither was Wesley so I really wasn’t sure who was going to run the circle… I said to Mary Fran who will run the circle with no Tom, no John and no Wesley? She said her and Cathy would sort something out and then we saw Kim (he used to be RA and GM I think) so Mary Fran asked him to help out. Thankfully he said yes :)

So the circle starts and firstly its hares into the middle. There wasn’t too much whinging about the walk but there was loads about the run. When the boys had laid the trail they’d accidentally come down in the middle right near where they began – so the comment was made that ‘I’m sure it looked great from a plane but a figure 8 trail isn’t recommended!’ Chris laughed it off (Damien had gone already) but then Aler starts singing S-H-I-T-Y-T-R-A-I-L Shitting Trail, Shitting Trail… I can’t remember the rest of the song but it was pretty funny. They were all laughing as they sang it so it wasn’t nasty.

The on-on was at the Rugby Club but only a dozen or so people turned up. We were talking about it saying that when people got home, showered and looked out side to see that not only was it still blowing dust around, now it was raining too they’d have all gone – can’t be bothered!!

My eyes were SOOOOO sore after the Hash, just from being out in the sand for 4 or 5 hours – I was wishing I could take them out and run them under the tap!!

Dan offered to take us back to his place so we could shower but Chris had already arranged with Leeann that her flatmate Heather would leave a key for us so we could go in to shower at her place (Leeann was in Dubai). Dan dropped us off at Leeann’s but when w got to her door there was no key under the mat. I was so pissed, I had a filthy headache and kept saying to Chris – we should have just gone to Dan’s, would have been so much easier. We knocked for a bit and got no answer, so we started going through our phones trying to see who else we knew in Ma’adi who might be able to offer us a shower. I didn’t have my key to Wesley’s with me and everyone’s number that we did have wasn’t in town this weekend. We’d just given up and decided to try and walk to Mary Fran’s in the hope that I could find my way there and that she’d still be home to let us in. I knew she wouldn’t mind us cleaning up there, but it was just a matter of finding the place.

We got about 20m down the road from Leeann’s when Heather rang – she’d been asleep and hadn’t heard us knocking so we went back there and cleaned up. I’m such a moron – I’d packed my bag in a rush this morning making sure I had my hare shirt, the lentil, water, a snack etc and just thrown what I thought was my blue long sleaved top into my bag. Unfortunately it was my blue gym top – completely inappropriate for the Rugby club! So I had to put on the tank top I’d worn setting the trail (after first rinsing the marks out of the bottom of it).

I wouldn’t normally wear a tank top to the Rugby club – in fact I normally only wear them in the desert. I figured I’d probably be ok though coz last time we were at the Rugby club there were some girls in much skankier clothes than my tank top! In fact, last time there were loads of mutton dressed up as lamb :)

Luckily there were only about a dozen hashers (very small on on turn out) and only about 4 other people in the bar so I was ok. We ordered some dinner – thankfully Dan had brought me some tylanol. When he dropped us off I asked if he could bring me some panadol, then I tried paracetamol, then I said ‘headache pill’ and he and Chris were throwing out random drug names that I’d not heard of then he said Tylanol and I’ve gone ok, any headache pill  So when we got to Rugby Club he gave me a little piece of folded paper with two tylanol in it – I downed them both in seconds along with another bottle of water. I was so incredible dehydrated. I knew it would be hot setting and doing the trail but I hadn’t factored in how dehydrating the sandy wind would be.

We ate dinner at the rugby club, it was nice food. I got fish and chips and nearly everyone else got chicken curry. We only stayed till about 9:30pm and by then we were shattered so we packed it in. I’m glad I hared again, means if I do it anywhere else I wont be so useless at it :) but it was a horrible weather to spend the extra 3 hours in the desert!

What an exciting life I lead… – Thursday 22 March 2007

Oh I lead such an exciting life. All week we’ve been up late working – it was so bad one night that at nearly 11pm Chris and I were both sitting at the kitchen table working and Maha (the girl I work with) popped up on messenger saying she’d almost finished the Arabic version of module 2 – so there we were 11pm all sitting at our kitchen tables working.

Thursday is like the Friday of home so when Thursday night rolls around we’re usually going somewhere – even if it’s just out for dinner. But we were so buggered this week from all the late nights that we just came home, went to the gym and cooked ourselves a curry for dinner and vegged out in front of the telly. Even still it was after 11pm before I went to bed – no wonder I’m so tired!!

One potentially exciting thing that’s happening is that Shakira is playing in Cairo – at the pyramids! Chris and I are thinking of going. I’m not a huge Shakira fan – I know about 3 songs – but it’d still be pretty cool to see a concert at the pyramids. Tickets are £400 so nearly $100 aussie, but still it’d be pretty cool. We haven’t decided for sure yet, but its tempting…

Perfume & Indian – Monday 19 March 2007

Today was Alana and Mike’s last day in Cairo. I was still feeling a bit fragile but about 10 million times better than yesterday.

They spent the day at the Museum and Khana-Khalili. They saw Stevie at the Museum just as they were leaving

Stevie is supposed to be on his 28 days off and Brian is here working. The reason Stevie is still here is because last week, just as he was supposed to be getting on the plane to fly home - he lost is passport. As a consequence he’s been bumming round Cairo for the last week waiting for his new passport to be processed. That finally came through today, but too late to sort out his visa so tomorrow he has to fight his way through Egyptian bureaucracy to get his visa to be reinstated – its been very very very time consuming and much harder work than I ever though possible.

I assumed that your local embassy would help get it all sorted out and have yo on your way to your home country in a couple of days – apparently this is some fantasy stemming from my youthful optimism that everyone helps everyone else out. The embassy doesn’t really do much at all, and in fact if Wesley hadn’t arranged for a retired police general to help Stevie out he wouldn’t have even got the police report filed. When he went to the station, even though he had this retired police general with him it took 2 hours to find a police man who spoke enough broken English to do the police report. In the end he gave Stevie a pen and piece of paper and said ‘I was walking through Ma’adi’ – Stevie’s just looking at him going what the?!!? The guy then points at the paper with his finger and says again ‘I was walking through Ma’adi’ – so Stevie cottons on that he’s suppose to write this stuff down. His police report ends up reading: ‘I was walking through Ma’adi and I lost my passport and I blame nobody’.

Police report in hand its then off to the embassy to apply for a passport – only to be told 5-10 working days for it to be processed. He thinks the girl behind the counter took pity on him from the expression on his face coz then she said quietly ‘usually we have it sorted in about 3-4 working days’. Even still, with the weekend in the middle it still took nearly a week to get his passport.

This has been an interesting lesson for me though – I really assumed the embassy’s role was to help its people who were stuck in foreign countries – apparently not so much!

Anyways, after the Museum and Khana Khallil Alana and Mike came out to work and checked their emails while Chris and I finished up. Then we went to a perfume factory so Alana and I could pick up some pretty new scents.

We were going to go to the silver jewellery factory but we ran out of time. I’d made reservations at the Indian restaurant at Mina House. Mina House is a historic old hotel that’s in the ‘1001 Things to see before you die’ and the Indian restaurant is suppose to be the best Indian in Cairo.

It was a really nice meal – full silver service. I didn’t eat much coz I am still a bit fragile, but what I had (mostly naan!!) was lovely.

Woes Me – Sunday 18 March 2007

I’ve been so worried about Alana and Mike getting sick from the food here and having a horrible holiday and instead it’s me who gets sick! Last night when I went to go to bed, I’d been in bed for all of 4 minutes before I had to dash to the bathroom. I then had the joy and excitement of spending most of the evening sitting on the edge of my shower with massive stomach cramps and throwing up. Fun Fun Fun.

I’m not sure what caused me to be sick coz in Alex we all ate the same food and then we had Beno’s for dinner. My noodles at Beno’s was fairly crappy but we’ve eaten there loads and had no problems with the food… the only thing I can think of is that I reacted to the ice-cream in Alex. I’ve had dairy issues since I arrived, but this is the first time I’ve been doubled up with cramps!

This morning Chris asked me how I slept (coz I’m on a dodgy single mattress in the lounge) and I said crap, been sick all night, no sleep – woes me :(

He said not to come into work, but you know how it is, you assume that when you haven’t thrown up for 4 hours that you’re getting over it so I said no, I’d be fine. Apparently I was a little optimistic – I had to have three little lie downs on the couch in our office during the day and I was still in pain when we got home from work. Poor Me :(

Alana and Mike had spent the day at the pyramids. When Chris had gone a week or so ago with Valerie he’d been taken to a carpet school even though he’d said he didn’t want to – in fact he’d ended up yelling at them say No carpet schools, No Papyrus Institutes and NO perfume shops – even after his little tantrum he still ended up at the horse riding place with Sharif saying I thought you wanted to ride horses to the pyramids. He was so angry.

Given this experience I was very explicit with Ahmed. We’d arranged for a guide for the pyramids for Alana and Mike so I sent a text to Ahmed this morning saying please remind the guide - No carpets, No Papyrus, NO perfume shops. Just Giza, Saqqara, Red and Bent pyramids. Seems like it worked, Alana and Mike got back having had a great time with no hassles at all.

The only issue they faced was when Sharif dropped them at home they got out of the car and the key to the house had fallen out of Mike’s pocket – so Sharif came to pick us up and we got home about an hour and half later with the key in my hand (I’d found it on the back seat). They’ve had no mobile while they’ve been here so I had no way to contact them and I had no idea where they’d be when I got home. Luckily I found them sitting on our front steps :)

Anyways, we get home from work and I’m still feeling crappy but we’re going out to dinner. I wasn’t feeling sick anymore, just not right – a little fragile – so I decided I was ok to go out for dinner. We went to Labodaga and we met Wesley, Brian and Stevie there. We ordered a banquet type meal of which I ate about 6 bites. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the food – it was a nice dinner.

After dinner Wesley and the boys went home and Chris and I took Alana and Mike for a quick look around the Marriot. Its very fancy, it used to be a palace so it’s very very ornate – you could just image kings and queens holding audiences in the massive rooms.

Alexandria with guide – Saturday 17 March 2007

So this morning we wake up bright and shiny and we’re in the minibus by 730am. It’s a little over 200km to Alex and because it’s a minibus its only suppose to do 90km/hour so it felt like it took about 4 days to get there… The radio cut out after the first hundred km’s so it was a long long drive.

We met the guide at the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa. She gave us a really great spiel on how the catacombs were built and why. They are pretty impressive just for how many tombs there are – over 300 – it’s totally like a rabbit’s warren. You can’t take photos in the catacombs. I’m not sure why, there isn’t much in the way of graphics on the walls, but I guess they want to preserve what there is. It’s just a spiral staircase down into the earth with caves that are made of a mixture of stone blocks and dirt. They discovered it when a donkey fell through the top of the shaft in the spiral staircase. The donkey was just wandering along and fell through the dirt that had covered up the top of the shaft.

Next we went to Pompey’s Pillar and the Daughter Library. She talked about Pompey’s pillar explaining that a lot of what people thought it was for has been disproved based on timing. For example they thought it was created after Pompey had been killed but it’s older than that. I really liked the Daughter Library. She had two version of why the Daughter Library existed. Firstly it was the place where the public could access copies of the parchment that were in the main library and secondly it was a back up library.

After this we went to the Roman Amphitheatre – Chris and I didn’t go in last time but it was really interesting. There is a spot in the centre of the first amphitheatre that you stand on, say words in a normal voice, and they come back louder (that being the whole point of an amphitheatre – to amplify sound!) but its cool that it still works even though some of the steps are broken etc.

Back in the day they also had hot rooms near the amphitheatre. You can still seem the walls – all varying shades of black – the hotter the room the blacker the walls (from the fire heated pipes that ran underneath the rooms). Plus there were a few examples of the statues they pulled from the sea. The water has worn off all the features of the statues but the pieces that are on display still look fairly cool.

I was starting to get a little starving marvin by this point but we decided to go to Fort of Qaitbay for a look around before heading to lunch. Fort Qaitbay is on the site of the old Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world). Our guide explained what happened to the light house – I can’t remember it all but it was along the lines of some bad dude who wanted to invade Egypt by sea obviously didn’t like the light house. So he sent a guy into Egypt and got him to convince the rulers that there were massive amounts of treasure underneath – that it was the burial site of some old pharaoh or something. So they started demolishing the lighthouse so they could dig up the treasure.

After Fort Qaitbay we went to lunch. We were going to go to Fish Market like Chris and I went to last time, but the tour girl took us to another place. The food was very nice. She ordered for us – two full fish, I forget what sort, plus calamari and prawns (that’s not counting the 57 thousand flat breads we’d eaten with dip when we sat down). We were fairly full when we finished up! The fish was quite nice, but I struggle when they come out with the eyes still in. Not just the gross out factor, but also my skills at dismembering the fish need some work – I struggle to get the fish away from the skin and bones. Even still I had plenty to eat.

After lunch to guide invited us to ice cream – she wanted us to try a special sort of ice cream but the place was out of it so we just had vanilla. It was nice, but not as exciting as she claimed it would be… we assume the special flavour would have been nicer.

After ice cream we stopped at the Mosque of An-Nabi Daniel so Alana could take some pictures. She had her scarf with her so could cover up he hair so our guide took her inside to look around. She said it was pretty cool. Mike and I wandered round outside and a guy was pushing really hard to try and sell us random souvenirs. I’m saying ‘La shukran. La shukran. La shukran. La. La. La.’ Which is basically say no thank you, no thank you, then just no, no, no over and over again. It was totally pissing me off and I was saying to Mike that this is where it gets really annoying. Then this random guy in the full Saudi type head scarf came up and was laughing and seemed to be saying to the guy ‘go away, she’s going to hit you’ coz my hands were clenched when I was saying how annoying it was being pestered.

Our next stop was the Bibliotheca Alexandria – the Library of Alexandria. This was pretty cool. I hadn’t been here before – it’s not everyday you go to a library that has a viewing platform inside it! It cost millions of dollars and Egypt paid for a little over half of it (the rest was donations from other countries and organizations). It can house up to 8 million books but so far only has about 500,000. It was officially opened in Oct 2002 and it looks pretty cool. It also has a massive multi-media area that stores something like 6 terabytes of data. So much stuff!

By now we were starting to fade a bit and we’d seen pretty much everything in town. We decided to skip the museum coz Alana and Mike were going to the Cairo museum tomorrow anyway so we headed to Montaza Palace for a look around the gardens, palace and bridge. We took some photos of the replica lighthouse and some outside the palace. The palace is very pretty and we had the whole gate to ourselves so got some good pics.

Then we dropped the guide off near the middle of Alex and headed home. The return trip was much faster than the way up – it was like because the sun had mostly gone down he thought the speed camera wouldn’t be able to get him. He nearly got caught at one point but we got lucky.

We were fairly shattered by the time we got home, plus still full from lunch so we just went up to Beano and had a snack for dinner. All in all a lovely day – we got some good pics which I’ll put online soon.

My first visitors! – Friday 16 March 2007

Alana and Mike arrive at 2am this morning. I was dead to the world (having only gotten to bed at midnight). They were picked up at the airport about 1am, Mike’s bag never made it – should arrive on Saturday (hopefully!). Chris’s friend who was here last week had her bags delayed a day too. It seems its good practice to pack clean underwear and a top in your hand luggage – especially when you’re changing flights…

So I get two phone calls as they arrive – my driver man saying they got in safe, then saying the bags were not going to make it. I fell back asleep after both calls then next thing I know the doorbell’s rung. I got up and let them in, they stowed their stuff and we had a quick chat. For some crazy reason I fell really nauseous for about 10 minutes… I’ve got no idea why, I’d only had 1 beer at dinner. It was like a hot flush. I sat on the edge of the shower for a few minutes cooled down coz of the tiles and was ok again. Crazy.

By this time it was getting on towards 3am so they settled into my bed (I gave up my queen sized bed and slept on the single mattress in the lounge) and we slept for a few hours.

Today I took them to the hash.

Mike’s gear hadn’t arrived but Chris was kind enough to lend him shorts, top and sneakers so he could go on the run. Alana went on the walk with me. It was a good hash, not the best one I’ve been on. The trails were good, but it was a bit rushed because lots of people were going to the St Paddy’s Day ball so the hash started early (1pm) and by the time we’d walked and the circle had wrapped up we were home in Mohandiseen by 4:30pm.

I got called into the circle for something random, I can’t remember why I was getting a down down – but then I was asked which song we should sing. I said the Hash House Rap, but I’d forgotten to bring my song book so couldn’t remember how it starts. They were laughing at me and I was claiming that I am only the fill-in song frau so shouldn’t get in trouble. Tom who was running the circle was laughing at me and took away my down down. It thought I was going to be sent out of the circle but he came back with what I think they call the ‘piss pot’. The normal down down cups are probably 10oz size (but they only quarter fill them so skulling is easier) but the Piss Pot is about twice the size and they half filled it! They sang the normal down down song and I had to skull a momentous amount of beer. I’ll admit I struggled… I think they got to the second verse of ‘why are we waiting’ before I’d finished it. I did it in nearly one go; only one stop for breath I think. When I finished I heard someone say good effort – so I guess they’d expected me to ‘beer abuse’ by throwing some of it away.

The RV site was only about 500m in from the gate so we’d had Sharif drive us right to the gate of Lower Wadi Digla. We just walked in and back to the car. We were in the car just before 4pm and home by 4:30pm. Because it was St Paddy’s day they had a drink stop with green beer and baileys and Mary-Fran had baked ‘soda bread’ (some sort of special Irish bread). She’d given a loaf of it to me to share with my guest and we scoffed it there and then. We were all starving.

We decided not to go to the on-on. Partly coz most of the usual suspects were going to the ball, partly coz there would have been a big gap between the circle finishing and the on-on starting but mostly coz Alana and Mike had only had a few hours sleep last night so I wasn’t sure they’d be up for a big night out.

So we came home, they had a quick nap then we went to Zamelak hoping to go to Abu Seed for dinner. Abu Seed is a proper Egyptian restaurant serving proper Egyptian food. I had thought we’d be there really early and be able to get a table. I hadn’t booked coz I didn’t know the number and then we were a fair bit later than I expected (didn’t get there til nearly 7:30pm). They were full so we went to the Blue Nile boat and had dinner at a little place in there. It was nice food, but not very authentic :) It was probably a good thing not feeding Alana and Mike local food when we will spend all day in the car going to Alex tomorrow!!

Who’s a Fuul? – 15 March 2007

This morning we arranged for Maha (the girl on our team) to pick up from fuul and tamaya for breakfast for the team.

Fuul is basically pureed refried beans with other random things in it (like onions and olives, or tomato etc). It’s served as a paste in a pita pocket. It’s a traditional breakfast food in Egypt. Tamaya is basically like felafels. The tamaya breakfast sandwich is a massive tamaya (about the size of the palm of my hand) with a splodge of tahini on it, all in a pita pocket.

Lots of Egyptian, especially people like construction workers etc eat fuul or tamaya sandwiches for breakfast everyday. Most of the people on our team would not eat it on a work day, but only because there isn’t a fuul shop/stall near our work. The place Maha got ours from they cost £1 each, but she said that was from a special shop. Most of the locals who eat it on the way to work would get it from a stall and they’d get 3 or 4 sandwiches for £1. The boys each ate at least 2 sandwiches and Maha said most labourers would eat 3 or 4 for breakfast everyday as it keeps you full for ages (Chris and I didn’t eat lunch today and we were still full when we got home from work!)

We decided to arrange this breakfast partly so Chris and I could try fuul and partly to celebrate the work the team has done so far. They’ve busted their butts to get the English version of the course completed, and now we’re in a little lull. We have had so much trouble with the translation that we’re ahead on everything else. We’re just crossing our fingers that the Arabic course comes back next week and is good enough quality.

We also wanted to warn the team that when we get the Arabic version back it’s going to be full on again… even had to warn them that they might have to work one of their ten thousand public holidays. I know Australia has a reputation as the land of the long weekend, but in the 6 months we’ve been here there must have been 10 public holidays all ready! Admittedly the first and second sets of fours days off were for Ramadan (the Eid celebrations are held at the end of Ramadan and again two months later). But now just in April there are 3 public holidays! We asked Yasser (the director) if the team could work on a public holiday and he said yes, they can work 24/7 if we need them to - we said we hoped it wouldn’t get that bad!

So the fuul was interesting… Chris and I each ate one sandwich and it kept us full for ages. It was ok flavour wise but I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy another one or to set up a fuul shop in Oz when I get home.

Fancy Smancy Dinner Party – 14 March 2007

A couple of weeks ago Wesley said I had to remind him that we’d been invited to dinner at the US Naval Attaché’s house on Wednesday 14 March. So he’s spent the last week forgetting and I’ve spent it reminding him of this dinner.

I assumed it was someone he knew, who had invited us and maybe another couple or so around for dinner. I emailed him to check if jeans will be ok and he said yes – reinforcing my assumption this was just a standard dinner.

We arrived at the house, rang the bell and then a man in a while uniform opened the door – I looked around and there were maybe a dozen people stood around eating canapés (served by two waiters in starched white suits) and drinking glasses of random alcoholic substances.

My first thought was ‘oh my god – I am so out of my depth’. The hosts Dale – the US Navel Attaché and his wife Maria introduced us to a few people and we started making small talk. Wesley got introduced to some people in another group so wandered over there…I was left talking to some very nice people – one of whom ended up being the Consular General – the third most important person at the US embassy in Egypt – the biggest US embassy in the world. I’m making conversation, being polite and thinking the whole time ‘what the hell am I talking about’ they had all lived in several countries – half of them had kids nearly my age! I’m sure they were thinking why has this little girl been invited to dinner?

They were lovely, but we were talking about places in Africa that I’ve never heard of – so I couldn’t add much in the way of intelligent comments to the conversation. I got lucky a few times when the conversation ranged onto something I knew about – or could at least ask an intelligent question about :)

So while this is happening Wesley is off talking to another group – turns out he’s talking about Skype (that he only really heard of recently from me) – we totally should have switched conversations :)

It was all very fancy – and here’s me in my jeans and t-shirt! Luckily there was another couple of women in jeans and I’d worn my hair out and had boots on – imagine if I’d rocked up in jeans, t-shirt and my hair in a pony and my flat runners on – all class I tell you, I’m all class.

The people were lovely and very friendly. When the food was served we had to walk around a table serving it to ourselves, then we sat in the lounge/family room area eating it. The food was superb – but ought to be when it was cooked by a professional chef. The Naval Attaché is expected to entertain people all the time so he and his wife actually get sent to ‘entertaining school’ – well it’s probably not called that, but when they are suppose to have loads of important people over for dinner they need to be able to do it properly.

We were there for a couple of hours, being waited on hand and food by the two serving men. I couldn’t put my glass down for 2 seconds before it was whisked away and I was asked if I wanted something else.

I’m not used to these classy shindigs… all a bit fancy for a plain little Aussie girl but good fun :)

Desert Sunbaking & Nibbles by the Nile – 10 March 2007

It was another beautiful day so Wesley and I took Bogey out to the Wadi again. We packed a little picnic and did a bit of 4x4 driving through the desert. The old land rover coped well bounding over the rocky hills. We didn’t get too enthusiastic coz we were out there by ourselves – it’s never a good idea to play too rough in the desert on your own, some of the rocks are quite unforgiving.

We found a nice little area out of the wind and settled in for a few hours. I did a bit of sun baking (working on my Egyptian tan) and then we took Bogey for a walk. She loves it! We didn’t get quite as excited as last week so no mountain climbing, but we walked for quite a ways with Bogey running round like it was Christmas.

We stayed for about 2 hours alternating between the shade from the land rover and sitting in the sun. It was a lovely day. The only downside of going to the wadi is that you have to contend with the crazy Egyptians on the road. On the way there we slowed down because there were a bunch of goats in the middle of the road (just random goats in the road, no where near any sort of farming area, just on the edge of town). The car that came up behind us could easily see the goats but still decided to honk at us. It’s so annoying! We’d slowed down to avoid their crazy animals all over the road and they honk at us. On the way back we were driving back along the same road and a bus pulled out right in front of us. It was just lucky that we were in a 4wd. Wesley swerved around the bus, over the medium strip and backing front. If we’d been in a normal sedan we’d have had to slam on the breaks and even that would have been dicey.

We got back to Wesley’s about 4pm and had a snack so we weren’t really hungry at dinner time. We decided to go down to one of the restaurants by the Nile and just have a couple of beers. It was so nice sitting at this restaurant overlooking the Nile eating baba ghanoug, tahini, tamaia and vine leaves. So yummy :)

Visitor Centre Hash – 9 March 2007

Today’s hash was at the Visitor Centre. Kim and Rebecca were the hares each with some virgin hares. The walk was really good, there were even fancy things that aren’t normally on the walk like back checks and short and long trails. It was a gorgeous day, but I’m glad I put on some sunscreen – the sun was beating down during the walk.

When we were on the walk we went down some stairs that were cut into the rock. They were totally uneven (both in height and depth of the step). As we were negotiating our way down the stairs I heard one of the Hashers say “It’s got to have been Alien’s” I had no idea what he was on about until he said “They can’t even make decent steps there is NO WAY they built the bloody pyramids”. This is a common sentiment when wandering the streets of Egypt – everything is unfinished, messy and generally looks badly constructed. This is partly because loads of the houses aren’t finished. If they aren’t finished, then they don’t have to pay as much (if any) taxes on it. This means loads of houses have unfinished top levels with half built walls, no glass in the windows and rebar (the metal they use to support concrete) poking out of the tops of the walls.

Even the visitor’s centre (the location we stated off from) isn’t finished. Apparently it’s been in the same state of half finished-ness for years and years. It’s just a series of building with no glass in the windows, no fittings inside and random walls cordoning off random sections of sandy ground.

After some normal circle stuff – virgin called in and introduced, sinners harassed and holy relics passed on it was time to name the virgin hares.

The three virgin hares were called into the circle and introduced. There was Lindsey, a kiwi school teacher, Trish, a British school teacher and Jessie and AUC intern who also happens to be a gymnast.

Lindsey got off lightly – Wesley was asking them each question to try and get ideas for names and asked her what she liked most about Cairo and she said the weather, so she ended up as ‘Likes it Hot’.

Trish wasn’t quite so lucky – she mentioned she liked diving (as in scuba and snorkelling) and ended up as ‘Suck my Snorkel’. The Hash is so predictable – anything a little bit rude and they’re all for it.

Jessie was last – they got her to do a hand stand (to prove she really was a gymnast) and then they made her drink a beer while doing a handstand – that was actually quite entertaining. Many names were suggested for Jessie – like ‘Does all four’ because she does all four events in gymnastics and ‘Takes it upside down’ and every variation of that you can think of. Then they moved onto the fact that she can do the splits (I’m not sure if she can or not, but they all decided that a gymnast must be able to). As a consequence she ended up as ‘Spreads Easily’.

I got pulled into the circle to celebrate my promotion. John went around the circle asking who’d been promoted (Wesley had worded him up about me). When he got to Jim and Carol Jim said Carol had been promoted – she’s now allowed to wash the dishes!

It was a lovely afternoon, but the wind started to pick up as the sun went down. Soon the hash will start a bit later in the afternoon. Right now we have to be at the Ace Club at 1pm to get to the RV site by 2pm. Soon they’ll push it back to 3pm, then 4pm as it gets hotter and hotter.

We were a bit shattered from being out so late last night so we decided not to go to the On-On. This is the first On-On I’ve missed in ages! I’m turning into such an old lady – one late night and I’m shattered! We ordered take out and I fell asleep on the couch and it wasn’t even 10pm!


Next week Alana and Mike are visiting me (my first visitors from Oz!!!!) They are going to come to the Hash and it’s a special one J St Paddy’s Day Hash. Only downside is there is a St Paddy’s day Ball on so the On-On wont be attended by most of the usual suspects and the Hash will probably have low attendance too. Alana and Mike will probably be totally shattered (as they arrive at midnight) and wont want to party too late on Friday anyway J

Celebrating with Latin Music – 8 March 2007

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY

I found out today that I got promoted J My Career Counsellor sent me an email saying GOOD NEWS!!!! effective as of March 1 you are a Manager.

We don’t normally have a March promotion round anymore, now days it’s just in September. The September process starts in May – they give themselves four months to get organized. This round seemed to come out of nowhere. February 15 they sent out an email saying there would be March promo round. Luckily my career counsellor, my managers from the ATO and Chris were all very supportive and got their recommendations all in on time for me.

So anyways, I’m now a manager… It’s a little bit exciting J its not like its going to have a major impact on the work I do… at least not for a little bit anyway… but it’s certainly nice to know all that busting my arse I did at the ATO paid off!!

To celebrate my promotion Wesley came round for dinner and then we went to ‘The Place’. It’s a boat on the Nile that has Latin music. The band was five Cuban girls in tight white pants and little red tops singing some Latin songs, some Cuban songs and some covers. They were really good. It didn’t start till late so we rocked up just before midnight. We had reserved a bar table so we sat down, had a few drinks and listed to them sing. We’re not entirely sure that they spoke any English at all, but they did a good job of the songs – even if they were a bit of an eclectic selection. There were a couple of Shakira songs, Alisha’s Attic, some random Latin and Cuban songs and a bunch of other covers. We were there about 2 hours and they sang for most of that time. There was a base guitarist, keyboardist, bongo type drums, the lead signer and a flutist! I don’t think I’ve ever been to see a band at a bar that included a flutist. She was really good though.

It was a really good night. By the time we left, got a cab and got back to Maadi it was about 3am. Then we had to walk Bogey so it was getting onto 4am before I fell into bed. It’s been a while since I’ve been up til 4am – I’m getting out of practice!

Wandering in the Wadi – Saturday 3 Mar 07

Today Wesley and I took Bogey (the dog) out to the Wadi. It was a gorgeous day – probably about 25 degrees, sun streaming in from every angle. It was lovely.

We’d planned to have a picnic and try and encourage Bogey to run around in the sand but by the time we went to the store, did a few errands and got organised it was too late so we just took some Pringles and some beers and sat on the top of one of the littler mountains enjoying the sun.

We spent about 20 minutes walking up one of the sides of the wadi (lungs pumping again!) and then wandered round on the top for a while. There isn’t much to see really – just mile upon mile of sand and rocks with the city on the horizon. The weather was perfect though. Hot enough to wear a tank top (the wadi is out of the way so no danger of being hissed at by the locals) but not so hot that you were begging for a pool to jump into.

I think next week we’ll see if we can round up some of the usual suspects (including some other dogs for Bogey to chase around) and have a proper picnic.

Texan Independence Day Hash – Friday 2 Mar 07

Today Wesley and Martina sent the Hash. It was Texan Independence Day so we had a themed hash. Its very hard to dress Texan when you don’t have any gear here!

A few people dressed up, but it was boiling hot so one guy (Erik the Frog) who’d cut a hole in a blanked and put it on like a poncho only last about an hour in it. It looked really good. Lots of people wore jeans with big belt buckles and there were even a couple of Stetson hats. Wesley had a ‘gun’ belt that was custom made to fit a bottle of tequila in it. He was giving people shots before the circle started… one girl ended up with about 5 shots and then 4 down downs – she was half cut before the circle ended!

It was quite a hard hash – we had to walk up a mountain! Martina was at the front of the group and Dan, Neil and I were quite close behind (we’d decided to bolt the moment we left the check because we didn’t want to be stuck behind 60 sets of labouring lungs). One of the older hashers yelled out to Martina – “What did we ever do to you?!” and then “When I catch you…” to which another Hasher responded “Yeah, good luck” there must have been about 400m between then on a 65 degree angled mountain! She just laughed :) I like it when they are a little challenging – make me feel like I’ve earned the beers at the end… In fact I prefer the steep going up than the steep going down. At least when its steep going up its just my lungs and legs that are under pressure – coming down requires balance and agility, both of which I seem to be lacking in the desert :)

Leeann was in Syria this week so I was solo for Song Frau duties. I was much more comfortable this week than previous weeks. I think it was because last week, or the week before Leeann had done it and she was no better than I am at choosing which song to sing and no one seemed to care. During the walk Dan (embassy guy) and Neil (actual proper Texan) and I were discussing the songs saying we needed a Texan song but I didn’t know any. They couldn’t’ think of any but in the end we decided Rawhide would be good… unfortunately we couldn’t remember the words.

During the circle Tom got all the Texans, plus the dressed up people and anyone who could vaguely be considered to be from anywhere close to Texas into the circle. Then he asked for a song… I said either the standard true blue hasher song or Rawhide if anyone knew the words. Fortunately Tom knew the words and promptly burst into song.

Mary Fran and the two Mexican hashers had made chilli and tex mex appetisers so people were slopping chilli all over themselves during the circle. Unfortunately the Mexicans had gotton sick on Thursday night (thankfully not from the food they cooked!!) so couldn’t make it. Wesley got MaryBell (Columbian) to fill in for Eva (because she could speak Spanish) and Wael (to fill in for Mexican Erik) coz he’s ’tanned’ (oh the reasons we’ll come up with on the spot for people to get a down down!). So all the Hares (and fill in Hares) had a few down downs and were gratefully thanked by applause from the hashers for the snack.

The On-On was at the Red Onion – very nice food. Then most of us went on to the Rugby Club because they had a band playing. I think they were a jazz band, but they did a lot of covers as well (even U2 ‘The streets have no name’ with an interesting jazz beat!). It was a good night. Loads of people were there and we didn’t leave til bout 1am.