ABRACADABRA !!!!!

Yes; it's just like blinkin' magic!

We've now got a bit of a 'spell' where we have no guests, so it must be time for some maintenance! Actually, that's fair enough, the work has to be done sometime, and it's better done while the guest apartment is empty, isn't it?

A usual, Freda's 'German boys' left the place in perfect order, they'd even stripped off the bedding and put it all in the washing basket , bless them. But, of course, standard procedure and our planned maintenance schedule must be adhered to! All the curtains have been taken down and washed, and the rest of the usual stuff is carrying on as normal. But for me, bigger and better tasks are crying out!

This morning, I've had my old work gloves on and I've been scraping the remains of the varnish off the top surface of the roof terrace handrail, with pieces of broken glass:

You can imagine the muck, can't you? Of course, I'm working without a safety harness, or a shirt, so my sweaty (protruding) belly was well covered with varnish dust, as was the top of the wall and the roof terrace floor! Although I still need to sand the top of the rail, and thereby produce more dust; I'd had enough by the time I'd scraped it all. Out came the Karcher to vacuum up the muck. It being a little breezy, the whole roof had caught some of it. Never mind, after I'd finished I left the vacuum plugged in, and just outside of our door, to save me walking across the nice clean tiles in my, by  now, filthy slippers; and jumped in the shower.

The shower always comes with a little, built-in, snooze. After that, we finished off the very last jar of 'Sardine and Tomato' spread from Tesco, with the last of our lovely finger rolls from the 'little baker' on Madina St, before realising that the wind had 'got up' a bit!

Just look at the new mess I've got to contend with after it stops blowing: Judging by the pattern, we seem to have had a miniature whirlwind!

Another consequence of a sandstorm is that the heat is kept close to the earth, hence we have temperatures which we shouldn't really be seeing for a few weeks yet!.

I'm sitting here, looking out to where the Western Mountains used to be, and it's growing increasingly obvious that this isn't stopping for a wee while yet. Oh, and I've just remembered that it's Monday; flights due into Luxor Airport! Will they be diverted again? Let's hope not, eh? With everything else against us, we don't need dodgy weather as well! I can just hear the gleeful UK newsreaders, ":Breaking news just in, from revolution torn Egypt, has it that flights into Luxor are being diverted, YET AGAIN, due to high winds and sandstorms making the area even more dangerous than usual! Civilised countries are considering  the withdrawal (or maybe even 'withdrawral' hehe!) of passenger air services to the ravaged and windswept land"

It's that magic that you couldn't make it up, Abracadabra, indeed!