MY LEFT FOOT by Christy Brown?

La la la la la! That's a series of la's not "lar's" as in Lala land, more "la" as in lavatory. It's what a good friend of ours often repeats during conversations where she's telling us about her encounters with different Egyptians. e.g. "So he said, 'Will you marry me and give me all of your money?' To which I replied 'La la la la la!' " (Which means, if you haven't guessed; No no no no no! Although in her case it might well have been Yes yes yes yes yes!!!!)

So, La la la la la, means no it's not about Christy Brown's left foot; that's just a ruse to get new readers to my Blog on the pretence of them finding something of interest about Mr Brown's fascinating life story! It's about MY right foot, actually. You'll remember, of course Dear Reader, about my bunion causing my toes to go misaligned, and then about the broken piece of tile slicing through the blood vessel on my right ankle? I'll show you the pictures, just to refresh your dim memory, eh?
 

Misaligned toes

Slashed bool vessel

Last night, we asked Adam's wife to cook kofta for us, with potatoes which were like big fat chips but roasted, and a mountain of spaghetti. We've had this a few times now, and were really looking forward to it.






Seeing as she always cooks enough for a battalion, we invited one of our good friends to dine with us. The food was like the scintillating conversation, hot and tasty! We all thoroughly enjoyed both.

When it was time for her to leave, I thought that it would be a good time for me to go and do some shopping, as I wanted a new pop-up plug assembly for the guest bathroom. (I'd had to cut the other one out as it refused to loosen or tighten when I found that it was leaking!) So, off we popped, down the stairs, one flight of which is currently unlit! As I missed the bottom step of this flight, I managed somehow to stub my big toe really hard. OOOOOhhh, it did not half hurt!!!!

I'd already phoned Samir the caleche man to come and pick me up, so I thought that I'd carry on and the pain would soon subside. By the time we arrived at the front entrance it seemed to be getting worse, and when I looked at it in the light, there was a thin red line (I imagined it was red, as I'm colour-blind!) running away from my nail end across the end of my toe. My first thought was that I had actually burst the end of the toe, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be only a trickle of blood. Thank Heaven! I rang and cancelled the caleche.

Freda had heard the commotion, from the top of the stairs and soon had my foot soaking in a dish of warm water with added TCP. (She HATES the smell of TCP, so she must have really been feeling sorry for me.)

The pain had eased quite a bit by this morning, and it now only hurts when I walk on it. Sore or not, I haven't time to let the grass grow under either of my feet, and we decided that we'd go and get the new plug assembly this morning. I hobbled! Here it is now, quite juicy, eh?

As I always say, "There's nothing like a bit of colour, is there?"

Anyway, the morning went quite well! Firstly we tried Ahmed Hashim's shop on Medina Street, but he said that we'd have to go to his other shop on New TV Street, which is a long walk!!! So I suggested that we first try the bathroom shop which lies farther up Medina Street, beyond the Police Station and the government shop.

On the way, I noticed this:

"So," I hear you ask, "what are we looking at?" It's a spark plug, in the road! I couldn't help but think of a line from an old song; "Where the pavement never grows......." but my old brain won't go any further than that, funny, isn't it? 

What do you know? That shop had just the thing, and at less than half the price that I was expecting too. What do you think of this for the equivalent of £2.17:

I'll bet B&Q pay even less than that!

Obviously, now that we'd managed to save some money, and some walking, I was cock-a-hoop! That pleased with myself, in fact, that we proceeded directly to the Nile Palace for tea and coconut macaroons!

To top off the morning, we sat in the lovely shade on their terrace and watched the boats drifting along the Nile as we sipped. I couldn't help but notice one felucca, as he had a new sail in the colours of the Egyptian flag. 

What a lovely day it's turned out to be!