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Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002

Thursday night, THE night to go out in this merry land, gift of the Nile…. And nothing’s come up. Duh! Ji and Les are sick, John’s already meeting someone else, Yassir wanted to call, but didn’t…Sod’s law. So I’ll just get changed, chuck something in the frying pan, watch some telly and go to bed early. Did I mention that I need to get a life? I could finally watch Blair Witch, before Steve starts charging me interest for the DVD…. Ok, off to my boudoir and into my jemmies….Chillin’ time! 2 days off, yeah!

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2002

This morning on the way to work we passed one of those horse carts. At the best of times they are drawn by some poor half-starved creature, that gets whipped by some imbecile, that thinks it’s perfectly all right to treat his horse like shit. This morning that got topped by a horse that was injured – the left hind leg was useless, the horse was touching the ground with the tip of the hoof with each step, only to do some awkward hop. It was clearly in pain. And the driver was lashing at it with the whip, to make it go faster. I just thought, Oh my god! Granted, I did not do anything and I feel bad about it. But it all is so futile around here. You just can not move anything or anybody and it makes it all so thoroughly depressing!

I cut my hair yesterday and there were the expected comments this morning. Some said it was too short, some liked it. It creates quite a stir, when I show up with hair that is about 3cm long and spiky, in a country where women are supposed to be modestly covered. Not a word from Osama, he did not even look at it. And when Amr said that it looked great, Osama looked the other way. Hey, the man thinks it’s wrong that women are allowed to drive cars!

After I came home, I rang at John’s door and stayed for a beer. First we watched BBC World, then Deutsche Welle and finally CNN. We saw everything from every possible angle. Palestine/Israel looks like shit from all angles. Arafat should give it up. And I am still hoping that Sharon bites the dust soon. John pretty much thinks the same – both have to go, before there is even the slightest chance of any change for the better. But I don’t have much hope, as long as the Palestinians are not one united people, but just many factions that hate each others guts and all follow their own agendas. How can they expect to solve anything with Israel, if they can not even get along with each other? I know, talk is cheap, it’s not as if we are doing any better in the West, just look at those pricks in Northern Ireland!

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002

Friday, my day off - I actually woke up at 9 this morning. I still feel a bit wobbly and have problems to focus on things, despite having 4 eyes already. Slight headache. Pretty silly, considering I only had 3 beers…. Just had a burst of energy and cleaned my bathroom. I need another coffee…. I don’t think I can cope with breakfast yet, ugh! How can people cope with heavy drinking on a regular basis? I don’t count my 3 beers here….. You just feel like shit the next day and crawl around the place like something that just escaped from a very deep cave.

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002

Thursday night is the night to be out in Egypt. So the guys dropped me off downtown on the way home and I went to the Elite restaurant to meet the others for dinner. Just that nobody showed up. I arrived at 6.10pm, had a tea, read a little, chilled....and at 10 to 7 thought "fuck this" and went to pick up Les at home. Went to the Havana, where we met everybody else. "Sorry, did not make it to Elite". Whatever.

Had some beer, chatted, ate a cheese omelette and some salad, another beer, chatted some more, went on to Far'n'Away, some more beer, chatted some more, got slightly pissed, had a funny ride home with 3 Americans in a little taxi, will go to bed now and sober up. Had a really good night, met lots of nice new people, life is improving in Egypt!

Might even start to take golf lessons....

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002

Nothing worthwhile happened. Besides going to that concert on Sunday. It was shite! Plenty of people left after the first act, including half of my friends. We stayed. We shouldn’t have! It actually got worse in the second act. The music was not that bad. Although a bit repetitive and eventually boring. But there was this nutcase giving recitals between the various pieces and he was just not from this world. Call me a snob that doesn’t know jack about modern art, but please! There were 2 women in front of us, that spent half of the time with their heads between their knees, because they had to laugh so hard! John was asleep half of the time and even Valerie, who looked pretty interested at first, eventually showed signs of distress…. Unreal! The only good thing we could say about it – it was for free!

Otherwise work is as usual. Copied this little ditty from Sadie, who got it from a friend….

A little Office Prayer

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I cannot accept,
And the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people
I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
And also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today
As they may be connected to the arse I might have to kiss tomorrow.

Help me to always give 100% at work…
12% on Monday
23% on Tuesday
40% on Wednesday
20% on Thursday
5% on Friday
and help me to remember….
When I'm having a really bad day
And it seems that people are trying to piss me off,
That it takes 42 muscles to frown
And only 4 to extend my fingers and tell them to fuck off.

Amen

Saturday, Jan. 19, 200

Dropped off the plate at Karin + John’s last night, then walked down to the Corniche and took a taxi over to Stanly, where I meet Ji in front of Domino’s Pizza. She lives in a side street behind a church, together with Les. Small flat, but nice enough. We watched Stargate, ate some chili and then walked over to the Portuguese Club. Packed with expats, half of which I have seen before on one party or another. 6 teams took part and we came 5th. Ok, we did not do too well. But, hey, one set of questions was on film quotes, that were really obscure and the questions on music came from someone that must have been just a bit older than me. Sorry, the Righteous Brothers are not really down my alley! Anyway, it was fun, we all had a good laugh – I’m sure the two Gin-Tonics helped. We went home fairly early, because Ji was supposed to be at the Sporting Club at 8 a.m. today, to play golf with Les and Don. Don’t you just love all those chopped off American names? They seem to be spending most of their time off on the golf course. Should I start to learn golf, too? Seems to be the thing to do for expats. Very colonial… Anyway, will meet up with them again on Sunday night, to go to a concert at the library. Haven’t been there, since they opened it. Should be interesting to se it from the inside, it’s a pretty unusual building.

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002

Ok, I finally uploaded the last pictures of my flat. This time it is actually pictures taken from the outside of my flat....

Just made brownies – cake-mix, not from scratch – still managed to do something not quite right. Tastes ok, but it’s a bit dry. I think I had it in the oven too long. But the daft think wasn’t done when the time was up, so… I guess my oven doesn’t quite bake at the temperatures that the thermostat shows. It’s a bit old and Egyptian, so I’m grateful it works at all. Will test the brownies on Karin and John tomorrow, when I return the plate that I squirreled away from the party loaded with food.

When I started making the brownie, it commenced with calling Karin to ask, how much 350’ F are in centigrade. And how the heck do I know what a Ľ cup is? Can’t these people use proper measurements like ‘100 ml’ or something like that? Bad enough, that I had to struggle with stuff like fluid ounces in England. Give me a break! One of my favourites at work as well, when the American specifications ask for 1/16” or 7/8” and and and… Is that a really inaccurate and complicated system or what? It’s about time that the whole world turns metric!

Anyway, the party last night was nice. Met lots of new people, might go out with some of them again this week. Most of them were Canadian, some from the States, one Philippina and a Korean woman, who had grown up in Germany and Austria, so we chatted away in German, surrounded by an American drawl. Nice food, nice beer and nice conversation. And, really amazing, nobody smoked all night! Not a single person! Totally unheard of on a party with Egyptians or Europeans. Somebody would smoke, without fail.

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002

The heating is still not fixed, but it is a little warmer, I can deal with it.

Monday, Jan. 14, 2002

My New Year’s resolution, if there really has to be one – to go to sleep before midnight. Not working so far.

My contribution to globalisation: While I was home in Germany over Christmas, I went to a Pakistani-owned shop to buy some chopsticks made in China, then took them back to Egypt, so I could eat my Chinese take-away in style…. Had beef last night with fried cabbage in garlic + oyster sauce, made it myself though, not a take-away. After having one of my veg-only weeks it was really nice too. Tonight I tackled the second half of the beef I bought at the shop – this time in a cream sauce with mushrooms and stringy beans. Yum! Food makes me happy, considering how much I eat, I should probably weigh much more than the 64 kilos I actually weigh. Must be all my nervous energy burning off the calories….

Before dinner I’ve been downstairs at Karin + John’s place for a beer and a natter. Haven’t seen them since Christmas. Apparently they’ve had a really nice time, been to Luxor, Aswan, St. Katharine’s and Petra – quite a program! They invited me over for a party on Wednesday night, so I’ll meet some of John’s colleagues. Some Canadians, Americans, a Korean woman, sounds interesting.

The temperatures picked up again, at least a few degrees. It’s not freezing cold anymore, I actually woke up the last two nights, because I was too hot in bed. Hamduli’allah! I’m fed up with being cold. Someone said that some kilometers away they even had snow! In Egypt! Lying bastards…. I hope…..

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002

Sadie + Steve are back. Still really cold, nobody has been to fix the heating, can’t get hold of my landlord, paid for another 3 months internet access. COLD!

Tuesday, Jan. 08, 2002 (German)

Schnatter! Es windet, es regnet, es zieht.... Schon mal jemand in Skijacke und mit Flip-flops an den Fuessen gesehen? Hier gibt es im Moment die wildesten Mode-Konstellationen zu bewundern. Geile Strickkappen, Leute am Computer mit Handschuhen, alles rennt rum mit Schnupfen. Im Buero laeuft meine Klimaanlage auf voller Duese, so richtig schon heiss. Erzaehlen mir natuerlich alle direkt, das ich davon krank werde, da es dann ja so kalt ist, wenn ich rausgehe. Neenee, so laeuft das nicht, wenn ich mir in meinem Buero den ganzen Tag den Arsch abfriere, werde ich krank, nicht anders rum! Habe mir passend zu den Temperaturen direkt Huehnersuppe gekocht. Und ich habe mir endlich eine Dose Sahlab gekauft (sprich Sachlaepp) - total lecker! Ist so ein Puelverchen, das Du mit Milch aufkochst, schmecht wie fluessiger Vanillepudding, da loeffelt man dann noch Rosinen drauf und Mandeln und sonstige Nuesse.... yum! Das ideale Getraenk, wenn man in 3 Lagen Kleidung und eine monstergrosse Decke gehuellt vorm Fernseher sitzt. Wenn er denn funktioniert. So mit 30 Prozent Ausfall muss ich leben, entweder weil die Satellitenschuessel voll Wasser ist oder wegen dem Wind zu sehr wackelt oder sonstwas. Besonders toll waehrend der letzten 10 Minuten von dem Film, fuer den man extra bis 1 Uhr aufgeblieben ist. Arghhhh!!

Habe uebrigens noch nicht angefangen, Herr der Ringe zu lesen......

Saturday, Jan. 05, 2002

No heating, brrrrrrr.........

The heating in the bedroom stopped working last night, the one in the living room the night before. Splendid! I’m now wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt and cardigan, sweatpants and socks. And in front of the telly I’m wrapped up in a blanket. Unreal, how cold even decent temperatures get without heating. With my luck and the normal working speed around here I will be freezing my butt off for the rest of the month.

Books....Wilbur Smith again, “Eye Of The Tiger”, a treasure hunt off the coast of Mozambique. To lift their treasure, they have to dive in a deep pool within a coral reef. It reminded me of my holiday last year in the Sinai – I dived in the infamous Blue Hole near Dahab. Although that is (almost) bottomless and has the plaques of divers mounted on a rock face, that tried to find out, how deep it really is… Spectacular, but too much of a thrill for me. It was really cool to go down 10 feet head first through that tunnel, but all in all I prefer more shallow water with lots to see and sun-rays around me to diving along a rock face over a pitch black nothingness, wondering what on earth might be swimming around underneath and checking my depth gauge every 2 minutes… Too exciting for me.

Thursday, Jan. 03, 2002

2 days off again, cool! I could get used to this, 2 days at work, a day off, 2 days at work, 2 days off.... Nice work, if you can get it! Otherwise major writers block (i.e. too lazy, can't be bothered, I am bad!). I promise improvement....

Tuesday, Jan. 01, 2002

Day off. Not because it’s New Year’s day, they are doing a stock take at the factory. Muchas gracias! Didn’t go out last night – all the others were still at home. I was the only expat stupid enough to show up this week. Didn’t mind though, I’m not much of a party animal anyway. Went out on the balcony and watched people throwing fireworks from their balconies. And water filled plastic bags. What’s all that about? Fireworks for poor people? Some strange Egyptian thing? Called my parents at a quarter to 1. They’re in Germany, so they were still 15 minutes away from the big event. But I was dog-tired and didn’t give a damn. My parents were basically waiting for me to call. I guess they were in bed 5 minutes after midnight…. Although I felt the same, I committed the fatal mistake – channel hopping one last time. All night the programming had been crap. Voila, when I want to go to bed, a good movie starts. So I staid up till 3am to watch it. Stupid!

Anyway, got up late, checked my e-mails, had some tea and an English breakfast in front of the telly and then started to play my new computer game, Zoo Tycoon. Very cute, played it all afternoon. Gonna grab a book now, read for an hour, watch some more telly, have dinner and will try to go to bed at a decent hour. I know, sounds boring. Oh well.