Weblog

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003

The 3rd day of Ramadan. We work till 2.30, I am home shortly after three, which is great. It actually feels like having a life. Last night went over to Lucy’s place, drank her beer, ate her chilli, got scratched by the cat and watched “While you were sleeping”… At some point someone from work called, asking Lucy for contact numbers at home for one of our colleagues. He had gone home early, feeling sick, and they were trying to get hold of him, to hear how he was doing. We tried all the numbers we had and left a message on his mobile.

To cut a long story short, he is dead. Lucy went over to his apartment today and after a couple of hours of shenanigans the police managed to enter his apartment. They found him face down on his bed. We are all pretty stunned.

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2003

Ramadan starts tomorrow. The girls were all really excited today. First thing in the morning the noise level on the shop floor was just unreal. Talking, giggling, standing on the machine tables to hang up decorations…. By lunch time the whole place was in a proper festive mood. Garlands and baloons on the ceiling, those little Ramadan lamps everywhere, “chulu sana w’enti tayyiba” all around…. Tonight until about three they can still eat and drink, but from then until tomorrow evening they will be high and dry. We stop work at 3 pm during Ramadan, so they can all get home before Iftar starts. The muezzin will call around a quarter past five in the afternoon and by that time they need to be home, all set and ready for the only big meal of the day, with the whole family. After that it’s playing, going out, praying, time with the family until the early hours of the morning. I think they average 3 to 4 hours of sleep during Ramdan. The first week is usually not too bad, they are all very excited and pretty fresh. But by the end of the second week there are usually a lot of red eyes, everybody is really tired and gets more listless as time goes on. Nonethless from the second week onwards we will work overtime, which will mean that the girls bring food with them and have Iftar with their friends somewhere in a quite corner on the factory floor.

Many of them have been fasting one day a week for the last month or so already, in preparation. I will spend my lunches in the next month tucked in a corner, so they won’t see me chewing. Although they tend to be pretty relaxed about it. They tell me it’s “haram” to drink tea, but they don’t really mind. The pregnant girls don’t need to fast, but I think most of them will anyway, to fit in. Today all the girls that normally don’t wear “hijab”, were donning head scarfs. From tomorrow it will be sleeves all the way down to the wrists, no trousers, absolutely no hair showing, that last button up there closed, so no skin shows…

And the best thing is, they have so much fun, the excitement is infectious….

But if you think I will join the fasting or start wearing long sleeves (still over 30 degrees…), you have something else coming….

Ramadan Karim!

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003

Another ecxiting week in the life of C. is coming to an end… been to the Ethiopian restaurant again, with eight people this time, so it was pretty lively. Decided that it’s nice food, but not ground breakingly good. Nice enough. Also went to TGI’s a couple of nights ago and will go for Thai food tomorrow night. Sounds as if I’m spending all my free time going out for dinner. Well, I’ve never been into clubbing much. And the crowd I am going out with at the moment lacks a dedicated home-maker and/or cook. Otlob rules at home.

The flu is gone. In theory. My nose is still not totally free, I keep struggling with nasty things creeping around in there. Work is still insanely busy. So I either go out straight after work or I come home, watch some telly and go to bed early. This is the first time in 6 days I actually switched on my computer. I had over 200 junkmails in my Yahoo account…. So I don’t really have anything inspirational to say. I am just too knackered. Kaputt. Fertig. Fix und Foxi. Tired. Exhausted. Wasted. Finito. And, my crowning achievement of the week, I am too bloody lazy to order in a case of beer before Ramadan starts. To bloody lazy to ORDER IN. This is serious, I can’t even be asked to pick up the phone. Sod it.

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003

So the dinner at Hana was very nice… again…. Converted two more people into Korean food followers. Had Barbecue pork for a change and it was really good. Have to have that more often. Went to the Mariott afterwards for desert and some coffee. They had an “Oktober Fest” week on. German folklore can be so embarassing, bloody hell. And my friends always take delight in taking the piss out of me. Who can keep a straight face, looking at guys jumping around in knee-long Lederhosen and playing accordions…. They actually flew them in from Bavaria. Argh! We decided to have our deserts at the other end of the terrace…

Some supreme being then decided I was having too much fun and struck me down with a nasty flu. I even stopped eating for a day. Red alert! Nice side effect, I got a day off to rest. Granted, not much of a bonus when you feel like crap and sleep all day. It did the trick though, I feel a lot better today. My nose is still itchy and every now and then I erupt into a vulcanic sneeze. But, hey, she’s all better, she’s not refusing her food anymore…. Went ahead and did some nourishment related weekend planning. Let’s see if they like Ethiopian food as much… Tomorrow night, after work, off again to Maadi. Friday, don’t know yet. Likelyhood of couch potato event high.

Thursday, Oct. 09, 2003

Man, am I glad that it is weekend! Ehem. Can you call one day a weekend? I don’t think it qualifies. One day. Fuck. I am basically saving a lot of money, because I’ve got no chance to spend it. I should develop that thought further, I might be on to something. What do I want the most in the world? How about 4 weeks of holidays. With no mobile phones. Be vary of Israelis coming into your office and saying “Mazeltov”! I am talking from experience here!

Finally went to that Ethiopian restaurant in Maadi with Sheri. It’s called Axum. Very good! We were the only ones, which is a shame, as the food was very good. Served in a basket, the various dishes sitting atop a huge piece of bread. Kind of like a humunguous Pita or Crepe, about 60cm across. You rip off a piece of bread and then scoop up the food on top of it with said bread. Had a spicy beef stew and then several veggie dishes. Lentils, pumpkin, potatos…. Definitely a “go again”! Tomorrow night to the Korean again in Zamalek....

Monday, Oct. 06, 2003

Busy weekend. Had breakfast with Ji, then we got a cab and went down to Maadi to meet with Sheri. The plan was to try out the Ethiopian and/or Indonesian restaurant. Instead we went to a Korean for lunch and had Indian take-away for dinner. So much for planning ahead. The day after we wanted to go to the cinema here in Nasr City, instead I went down to Maadi again to help the other finish off all the left-overs…. We behaved like nerds and watched Animal Planet all night… Tomorrow night I’ll go down to Maadi again… I know I should have moved there when I had the chance! Blue Cab are going to make a lot of money with me this winter… Discovered a new bookshop as well. And ended up bying a book. Actually managed to only buy ONE book, I resisted the urge…. Spent most of last night and most of today reading, it’s pretty good.

Today is a national holiday in Egypt. On the 6th of October they celebrate the day they kicked the Israelis out of the Sinai. My guess is that the Israeli army got frustrated and fed up having to deal with the Egyptians and figured that the Sinai wasn’t worth all the aggravation and they rather go home…

Thursday, Oct. 02, 2003

Ji takes the 7 o’clock train from Alex tomorrow morning, which means she will be at my doorstep around half past 9….groan! Why does the woman have to get up so early in the morning! And I’m feeling so knackered….well, I probably shouldn’t be online at this time of night then, ey?

Work very hectic today. We got some of those urgent samples printed, but they managed to print on the wrong sleeve on one of the styles. Great.

On the upside we will either go to an Ethiopian or an Indonesian restaurant tomorrow…..did I mention that I like living in Cairo? It’s not too bad…..give me nice food and I’m ok…..

Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2003

Work, work, work…..Jeez, I evolved into one of those boring people, that only ever work, have no free time and moan about their workload. Crap.

I should really call Liz and find out how things are going. Everybody keeps asking when she will be back.

Anne – one of those annoying people with free time and a social life – is off to Beirut for the holiday weekend. What holiday weekend you might ask? Exactly.

...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: