![[History]](http://us.yimg.com/i/ligans/cb/smtdih.gif) |
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| ...and Welcome! to my weblog for August 2001. |
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| Ever wondered if I am the only non-Egyptian person living here that thinks this country is strange? Go and have a look at Walters' World, that's the site of my colleague Steve. It's worth a look, although he is actually funnier live! |
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| 25.08.2001 Hi Sadie, sorry for not getting in contact with you earlier – in all the panic to pack in time I forgot to take your new phone number with me! On Thursday I was home at 6.30 – first I called Jan, whose only comment was „Oh my god“ – then I called BA, who told me that we had to be at Nozha airport at 8.30, packed in a frenzy, had a shower, emptied out the fridge and jumped into a taxi at 8pm! Lots of traffic, but I was there 20 minutes later. The bus left at a quarter to 9, we were at the Sheraton in Heliopolis at midnight. Obviously they did not have a booking for a room........after 15 minutes they finally found the fax from BA, we checked in and had dinner. Then a whiskey in Jan‘s room, I watched some telly in my room and went to sleep at 3am. The alarm went of at 5am, bus to the airport at 6am, flight at 8.35. By the time we were in Heathrow, I was knackered. Connecting flight at 3pm, Frankfurt 5.30pm, home an hour later and dinner with my parents at a restaurant..... 23.08.2001 They cancelled my flight to Heathrow, aaaaahhhhhhh! We have to go the the airport tonight, to take a bus to Cairo to fly from there. Total panic! Hectic! Aaaaaahhhhhh! 20.08.2001 I will fly home in 4 days and still don't have a ticket, typical! With Olympic Air I would have the cheapest fare, but I'm still on the waiting list. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I have that confirmed! The next possibility would be Lufthansa, direct flight Alex to Frankfurt - waiting list! The only confirmed flight I have at the moment is BA via London. I miss London, but it's not that bad! More exotic possibilities would be Egypt Air from Cairo or Allitalia from Cairo via Rome...Mille grazie! Let's just hope, Olympic works out. Otherwise, the usual, plenty of work, even worse now that Barbara has gone. Finally re-installed a pc-to-phone service, Net2Phone, and a call of half an hour to Germany costs something silly around $ 2.00. You have to live with some disadvantages though in terms of connection quality. I decided against Yahoo this time, because I had lots of problems with their messenger, after I installed the beta version to make phone calls.... Never mind, now it works! 16.08.2001 Met Jan at the Mercure hotel, after figuring out that there definitely is no Hilton or Holiday Inn in Alex. Only took 2 phone calls, an e-mail and a message on a mobile. The usual hotel lobby, tiles, strange furniture and potted plants. The Chinese was nice though. Plenty of red lampions, a carp pond without carps and funny music in the background. Dim sum as appetizers, oh well! Spicy beef with cabbage and fried noodles, washed down with 2 Stella Local and a Turkish coffee, medium sugar, please! Fried banana with honey and ice cream and a walk home. Had the usual zillion 'hellos' on the way, about 4 x 'Welcome to Egypt' and a 'Fuck-it' by some 10 year old twat running by. I'm gonna get that tatoo on my forehead after all: "Been here over a year, mate, so shut it!" Anyway, the taxi driver actually asked me tonight, if I was French. Must be the new linen dress that I bought in Athens... First time since March, that I wore anything other than flip-flops, got a blister on each heel to prove it. Did I mention that it is hot? I can't even be bothered to go to bed.... 10.08.2001 I just set up a picture page of my holiday to Greece. Still no genuine pictures though, as predicted, that digital camera never made it past the Egyptian mail office.... Will now finally buy one when I am home at the end of the month! Our newest addition to the design room was made redundant beginning of the week. Sadie was off on a business trip to Europe and I had the place to myself. Argh! I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in killing yourself trying to do the job of three people all alone and in a day. Just do your things, one after the other, they won't dissapear - unfortunatley. Am I glad that it's Friday! After this week I needed a day off. Sadie will be back at work on Sunday, halleluhjah! 04.08.2001 It is hot! Went to a new beach yesterday. Very nice! Wide beach, fine sand, turquoise sea at almost bathtub temperature. But I didn't put enough lotion on, so now I look like a lobster and my shoulders are just a bit painful! Ouch. And I'm in the process (nothing in this country is straight forward) of booking a ticket to fly home at the end of the month!!! |
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