| ...to my weblog. There probably won't be something new every day, but keep coming by and have a look what makes my day (or doesn't....). And if you have any comments, drop me a line in my guestbook! |
| Current entries: |
 |
| Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002 Germany. Home, sweet home. I get up in the morning around 9am, sit in the kitchen with my mum, have breakfast, chat with her and read the paper. And then I just chill out. Or help my dad with his jigsaw – really difficult, something with mountains and flowers.....or we go „into town“, which is a ten minute walk. I bought new glasses (my eyes got worse again), a labtop with printer (tired of hauling that huge desktop with me everytime I move), had dinner with Joachim, he always knows all the latest gossip about my hometown and all my old school friends. Went to a wine festival with my parents in the next village. Went to dinner with my brother and some other friends. And so on. I am trying to do as little as possible and I am not succeeding. I dreamt about my new job last night. I was doing exactly the same as in my old one. Doesn’t exactly qualify it as a nightmare, but I hope it won’t come true! 3 more days and I’m coming back. I wish this holiday was a little longer.... Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 Last day at work today. Wrapped everything up, went through several lists of updates with various people, cleared my office, did my rounds and said good-bye to everybody. Lynn brought 2 huge cakes with here from the Hilton. Chocolate. Lots of handshakes and kisses and some hugs. I did not cry – that’s a first. It’s probably also an indication, how glad I am to be out of this place! It does not feel real yet. All I could think about all day long, was that I will be flying to Germany Friday morning at 4am. That kept going round in my head and round and round…Haven’t been home since last Christmas, i.e. haven’t seen my parents for over 8 months now. Tomorrow morning at 11am my dad is going to pick me up in Frankfurt and then we drive home to be greeted by my mum’s cooking. Something with lots of pork in it hopefully! Gawd, I can’t wait to be home! I probably won’t be online until I moved to Cairo and get my new internet connection sorted, so bear with me, I will be back…..Gotta pack my suitcase now, grab a bite, perhaps sleep for an hour, although it’s hardly worth it, being picked up at 2am……Sauerkraut, here I come!!!! If I could yodel, now would be the time….where are my lederhosen……. Talking about packing - I usually never ever pack in advance, who knows, I could pack something I all of a sudden want to wear the evening before the trip. Endless shifting and re-arranging of suitcase contents would follow. No way, Jose. So I start packing the night before. No matter how far the trip or how long the stay. Takes me about an hour on average. Maximum 1 1/2 hours. And it goes something like this: Pull it all your favourite things out of the wardrobe. Pile them up in matching colours, a black pile, a brown pile, first the pants, then matching tops, matching shoes in front of the bed. Look at the tiny suitcase that you are willing to take. How many days was it again? Ok, ok! Sort away at least 2 pants, 4 tops and 2 pairs of shoes. Count out panties in matching colours. Get out some spare ones. Matching bras are a must. Get all the other crap you need, books, manicure set, camera, filofax, bla bla bla. Pile it in the bottom of the case, add shoes. Add pants. Add all tops. Pile panties on top. Try to close the lid. Try harder. Scream in frustration. Open the lid. Unpack, re-schuffle, re-pack. Try to close the lid. Try harder. Deep breathing! Have some coffee and swear extensively. Open the lid. Take out another pair of shoes, 2 more tops, a sweater and those skirts that you never wear anyway. Threaten the suitcase. Close the lid. Yes! Smirk. Lift it, ugh! Weigh it and realize you are 10 kilos over the allowance. More extensive swearing, accompanied by frenzied jumping up and down. Throw a major tantrum. Put down the suitcase, open the lid..... Anyway, it ususally takes me about 90 minutes, believe it or not! One day I will manage to pack the perfect suitcase at the first try, just wait and see! Sunday, Aug. 18, 2002 Spent Friday morning packing my books, CDs, DVDs, PC games and other selected crap into two boxes. Amazing, the pile of rubbish you can amass in a short time! Surfed the internet for ages, had a shower and then went to Zahran to stock up on snack food. Ji is back from her extended summer holiday in the States. She came over to watch some German telly. We chatted for 3 hours, then grabbed a cab and went to the mall – all the cinema had to offer in English was MIIB – Ji had seen that already – and Birthday Girl – which looked like chick flick, nope…. So we went back home, this time to her, ordered in some Chinese food and watched CSI….very creative, ey? Oh, bought a new game at the mall, so when I got home at 11, I installed it and played till 3 am. Needless to say, I felt like shit yesterday at work. And instead of doing the sensible thing, I staid up till 1.30 am last night. And guess why? To watch Rambo II, how demented is that? I am now at the point where I could happily keel over and sleep with my face on the keyboard. I am seriously considering going to bed right now. Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 Took part in this survey about books. And some people answered that they read over 100 books a year. That’s a minimum of 2 books a week. I trust we do not count comic books… How do they do it? Don’t these people have jobs? Perhaps they do not have a TV? I once did not have a telly for 3 months and read like it would go out of fashion… But even with reading an hour in the car in the morning and another one in the evening I rarely read more than 100 to 150 pages a day. Perhaps they read really thin books? Intriguing! 2 books a week, cool! How I wish I would live somewhere with decent bookshops… Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 Got the ticket, but with Olympic Airways, not Lufthansa. Totally stupid times. My transit in Athens will just be at the right time to grab an Egg McMuffin at McDonalds…..perhaps with BACON!!!! Seriously, who wants to take off at 4am, I ask you! Well, my parents should be pleased, a lot more quality time than with Lufthansa. And for a lot less money. Won’t have any spare time for packing though. A little squeeze job. Will have to do a supersonic packing bonanza the morning before the move to Cairo. Just as well that I only start working on the 3rd of September. Gives me time to collapse and have a nervous breakdown all day on the 2nd…. One of the girls at work will sign her marriage contract tomorrow. So today after lunch we had another one of those Egyptian dance and chant things in the sample room, hidden behind some rails, so the men wouldn’t see us belly dancing. I managed to avoid dancing. I’m crap at belly dancing anyway. I just can’t figure out this whole hip-belly swinging thing. Man, I hope I won’t have to do that at the new job. I’ll just be a hard-nosed bitch that doesn’t get involved. Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002 It’s official. I will move on the 1st of September and start to work on the 3rd. Planning to go home for a week before that. On the waiting list for Lufthansa to Frankfurt…..Before starting the new job I should probably just chill out on the beach instead of flying around and about. Well, there’s German bread to look forward too and sausages and my mum’s cooking and decent shops and wine festivals all over the place and – mhhhh, I can already taste it – lots and lots of big glasses of Paulaner wheat beer. Hallelujah! Praise the patron saint of the German beer garden….. Was in a bit of a pickle the other day and in desperate need of some tampons. So I bought the first best packet I could lay my hands on. As I am anal (in general, not with tampons…..), I always read every word on the packaging. So this is what the nice people of femtex had to say….They have a fibre-lock, to prevent fibre shedding….yes, not a bad idea….and a sewn cord the full length of the absorbent…..yep, every woman that ever had the string only in her fingers after a hearty pull can sympathise….boy-oh-boy! And not to forget the posi-lock punch to prevent accidental tube separation!!! Oh, yes, god help us and prevent accidental separation of the applicator tubes, the world as we know it would come to an end! Accidental tube separation, shudder! The drama, the desperation….Oh, no, what do I do, the tubes separated! Argh! I have to hang myself with the fully-sewn cord, thanks for that, at least that will hold! Friday, Aug. 09, 2002 Mein letzter Arbeitstag ist der 22/08. Umziehen kann ich eventuell erst am 01/09. Ich versuche, ob ich das vorziehen kann. Falls nicht, waere da ein "window of opportunity" von circa einer Woche fuer einen “Heimaturlaub”.... Problem: es sieht schlecht aus mit Fluegen. Zumindest im Internet. Ich habe gerade schon 3 Koffer gepackt mit allen Wintersachen und Klamotten, die ich in den naechsten 2 Wochen definitiv nicht mehr tragen werde. Diese Woche bringe ich aus der Firma ein paar Kartons mit, um diversen "Schampel" zu packen. Habe schon circa 50 Taschenbuecher weiter verschenkt.... Ich werde in den naechsten paar Tagen versuchen, die anderen auf einen Umzugstermin fest zu legen. Mein Vermieter hier wird mir helfen, einen Kleinbus fuer den Umzug zu mieten, fuer so etwa 200 LE, mit Fahrer. Ji kommt am 13/08 wieder und hat angeboten, beim Koffer und Kartons tragen zu helfen. Ich bin bereit, es kann losgehen! Friday, Aug. 02, 2002 Weekend. Joy……I now decided to live (and sleep) with the noise of the fan and started sleeping with the a/c on at nights. It is so much nicer to wake up without being totally drenched in sweat. Considered taking a photo of the guys down in the street during Friday prayer and e-mail it to my parents and some friends. But then didn’t. Who knows, it might be forbidden to take pictures of Muslims praying…it might not be… Reminds me of that watch shop at Zahran mall – they had one of those dorky German cuckoo clocks. Atop of the little trap door for the cuckoo was the head of a goat with horns. Now in Islam it is not allowed to depict the devil, god, the prophet Mohamed and so on…There’s a word for that, I just can’t come up with it at the moment. Ten commandments and all that, Thou Shall Not…. Anyway, I’m rambling….goat with horns = devil = not allowed = hence cuckoo clock with hornless goat head. It looked really daft. Ok, ok, not a particularly gripping story….. Thursday, Aug. 01, 2002 Still very hot, but I think I’m starting to get used to it. Oh, have I mentioned it yet, it’s 2-day weekend!!! |
   |
 |
| 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 - he actually left Egypt now, but hey....it's worth a look, although he is actually funnier live! |