A little bit more, at random.




Firstly, I have to ask, "Don't you think that the vegan housewife should have waited in, when she knew that the Waitrose delivery was due?"


You'll recall, of course, that we spent our first couple of nights at the Winter Palace Pavilion while we rectified the desertification of our Luxor home? Well, here's a shot of the exquisite Winter Palace gardens (taken at night obviously!) from our 3rd floor balcony. I love to see the palms, wherever I am in Egypt.


Being a bit pushed for time when we eventually got home, we had Mr Adam's lovely wife cook for us. We thought that a change might be in order, so asked for Chicken Tawook. here's a shot taken after we'd had our fist meal from it, the rest lasted for a further two meals!


Of course, it was delicious, as her food always is. Mind you, it was the first time she'd attempted this dish, which surprised me. No doubt it will be on our future menu.

I was pleased to notice that the site of the collapsed building was being cleared of rubbish; becoming  a rubbish tip is always the fate of any newly created space on the ground in Luxor, wherever it might be!

Oh, perhaps I should mention here that any rubbish dump which has been cleared of rubbish then quickly becomes a carpark! That'll be the next picture of the place.

Our trip up the Nile was as enchanting as ever! How could it not be?



As many of you will be aware, that last pic is of part of the ancient quarries from whence the stones which make up the magnificent tombs and temples were hewn. This next little video is from the same area of the Nile's banks. 


                                   

The scene which slides by as the ships slowly (only comparatively, mind!) navigate up and down stream is a constantly changing, but utterly charming, one of historic rural living frozen in time! Except, that is for the two industrial sites, one on either bank, of the ship repair facility, where they are taken completely out of the water, and the steel works. 

Our ship owner spends his days on the Nile too. Although his mobile phone is seldom away from his ear, he obviously relishes travelling this main thoroughfare of his lovely country. I envy him this opportunity, but not his responsibilities in such a fluctuating economic climate which currently rules in Egyptian tourism!    

The most picturesque temple view from a Nile cruise ship must surely be that of Kom Ombo Temple:


The bloke in the picture was one of the Germans, he kept trying to engage me in conversation, even though it was obvious, by my English replies, that I was English! (I'm sure he was wearing a pair of his wife's sandals in this picture.)

Our cruises seem to approach Aswan in the evening, well, after dark anyway. I'm always struck by the brilliantly lit Mosque on the east bank as we near the town. Of course, it's too difficult to get a snap of it in the dark whilst sailing, but here it is on our outbound journey:


One of the other changes we've seen in Aswan, is the style of the children's little boats, from which they sing to tourists in the feluccas. When we first came to Egypt (in pre-historic times, or so it seems now!) they had little metal built boats, just big enough to squeeze a child into, which they paddled with their hands. Now, they're perched on top of, what look like, surfboards! And they use squares of plastic for paddles; ingenuity and innovation, eh?


                             Mind you, they seems to be able to move a lot quicker nowadays.

Walking back from a bit of shopping the other night, I noticed that the Sheikh's tomb had been recently painted. The group of women seemed to be on guard duty, and I have to admit to being 
reluctant to get any closer to take the pic!


Lastly (for the moment) here's a shot of the renewed soil pipe down the front of Mr Adam's building:

                                                         We're breathing easy again!

                                         Goodnight, Dear Reader, wherever you may be.

Just one more thing; seeing as we've a lot of pics in this Blog. If you click on any picture, you can view them all together, only bigger. In case you'd forgotten.

The Times They Are A'Changing!

Yes Playmates, they certainly are! In our experience, both Luxor and Aswan are, as Bob Dylan's words truly foretold; a'changing, and quite a bit too.

You know, of course, that we're lucky people, don't you? Well, we've just done a little cruise up the Nile on one our friend's Nile Cruisers, again. The Royal Viking isn't the best ship (although I prefer to call them boats because of their more diminutive size) navigating the reaches of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, but it is eminently suitable for our needs, i.e. it's relatively clean, hygienic, comfortable, reliable and with decent food which is well cooked. (But mainly because we are family friends of the owner and get a reasonable discount, to be perfectly honest!)

Never mind, we had a great few days spending our time either lazing around the sundeck, eating more than we should and "people-watching", which, as you know, is one of our main pleasures, hehe! Our fellow travellers were mainly British (50) and German (40) and then a mix of American and "others". Which made watching the differing manners and general behaviour etc of the different groups very interesting, especially at mealtimes.

Mind you, we didn't waste our time in Aswan, either. How could taking two or three hours over tea etc, two days running, at the Old Cataract ever be considered as a waste of time, I ask you? We spent an afternoon and the following morning there. The hotel is still as beautiful as ever, if not even more so! Happily, having a friend or two there was also very useful, I'll say no more on that subject, though. (Wink,wink!!!) Us invalids really need to be looked after in some style, you know.

Invalids? That reminds me of the book which I've just finished and am embarking on reading again, it was so good! It's a facsimile of a book, actually written in 1895, entitled "Wintering in Egypt, Hints for Invalids and Travellers" and was a Christmas present from my darling sister. (Written by A J McDonald Bentley and C G Griffinhoof and published by Wentworth Press.) It's a great book and I'd recommend it for anyone who knows modern-day Egypt, or for anyone who wants to come here for a holiday. It's full of (what are, with modern hindsight) amusing advices and explanatory background on why and how the modern Egyptian sometimes seems so strange to us foreign visitors.

Back, now, in the thriving hubbub which is Luxor.............you'll remember that building which so tragically collapsed last year? Well, it prompted the Governor to send out his minions to check the other, old and unloved (more to the point unmaintained!) mud-brick multi-story buildings for safety! Old Uncle Mohamed's house is such a building. You must remember him, surely? The old guide who lived his entire life at the closed end of our "haret" (alley). Part of it was two floors and part was three floors. Well, when we returned we found this:

In true Luxorian fashion, it's been knocked down and left! You can see the concrete framework of the building in the rear of the picture, which is how all domestic buildings seem to be constructed now. I've berated the family for leaving the place like a bomb site, and have been reassured that the rubble will be cleared away, but no actual date was given!!! We'll see (again!).

Just across our street, if you can give it such a grand name, the waste pipe opposite, from the toilets etc., has developed a leak; obviously it's not very pleasant. The workmen are there now putting up wooden scaffolding to replace all the old iron pipework with modern plastic stuff. Hurrah! It looks as if we'll eventually be a "twee" little alley! (A mews, even?) Even the old hardened earth footpath has been tiled over. Mind you, the only time the tiles become apparent is when our "cleaner" (that's what he's supposed to be, anyway) has swept and washed them!

Here's a couple of shots of the scaffolders at work, it's actually terrifying to watch them.



I braved walking beneath this lot to do a bit of shopping, as we were almost out of both milks, full cream and skimmed, and Mandolin biscuits (Cadbury's Egyptian equivalent to Twix). I took this snap just for those of you who haven't seen Egyptian cabbages, they're often huge! These are babies in comparison:


Anyway, I'd better let you get off and do something useful, for a change, as my editor says that I shouldn't make these posts too long, or you, Dear Reader, will get even more bored and click on something else!
So it's goodbye from her, and it's goodbye from him, goodbye.

Let's see what I can remember about the changes that have occurred whilst we've been away.

Firstly, I was surprised to be asked for my passport when I went to change some cash at the Egyptian Exchange on Sharia Karnak. Luckily I had Freda's little red European thing in my pocket (no idea why????) and he knew we were married, so
accepted that.

There's a new supermarket on Station Street, about a third of the way up from the Temple. It's a branch of Kheir Zaman (otherwise known to foreigners as Kaiserman). The stock is possibly not quite so extensive as the main local branch, but near enough to save us trailing up to TV street every other day! I've decided to shop more at KZ than the Forty Market, simply because of the difference in prices. The former standard of friendly service at Forty clinched the deal, but not any more, I'm sorry to say.

I was disappointed to see a new metal fence had been constructed around the Temple entrance and the whole of the plaza (the former park with shade trees) outside of the Abu Haggag Mosque. It's probably a good idea to stop the quad-bike boys operating their dangerous hire business, plus the one's who hire out horses to trot around the same pleasant area frequented by families with small children in tow. However, to erect the fence right on the kerb, means that pedestrians have to walk on the busy road or run the gauntlet of the shopkeepers (including little Mahmoud the mad T shirt seller) on the other side. Perhaps that's the whole reason, who knows?

The new pedestrian area paving and all-round decoration along the Nile Corniche looks very good, but until the unpleasant felucca touts and caleche men are discouraged from hassling tourists, the foreign money still won't hang out along there. We've yet to travel Ibn Khaled Walid Street up to the Nile Palace, so cannot yet give any news about the "Little England" area, but that should be remedied on Sunday, as we're meeting a good friend there for tea in the afternoon. I'll keep you posted, no doubt!

Ooh! Another change is that the Egyptian market (running on from the Tourist Market and all the way to Abu Jude) is now a main thoroughfare! All the southbound local buses come down there (it seems to be one-way) instead of  along Sharia Karnak. They then turn right onto Youseff Hassan Street and pass the front of the Emilio Hotel before turn left and joining Sharia Karnak along to the Temple and towards Station Street. Obviously, this change has devastated the traders in the market,  changing the character of the place altogether, irrevocably! No more can the sellers sit on the road with their wares spread for everyone to see and haggle over, those folk have all gone. All that's left are the proper shops, and even they have no ladies underwear or galabeyas brushing the hair of passers by as the garments were draped across the street on bits of string. What will become of the poor souls who've been moved away is anyone's guess. There were three ladies selling tools and general hardware, in the first 100 yards or so, as you enter from Youseff Hassan street. I used to buy from them quite regularly, but where have they gone, from where is their income now derived? Who knows, or should the question more rightly be, "Who cares?"

For all it seems as if more and more tourists are returning to Luxor, my friends in the tourism business aren't seeing any more cash in their pockets. In fact, one excellent English and Japanese speaking tour guide of my acquaintance tells me that he is finding less work than at this time last year! I was quite shocked by this revelation.

My beloved (whom I'm thinking of renaming "Hatshepsut", because she thinks I'm her slave and beast of burden) bought some lovely new curtains for the guest apartment livingroom. I wouldn't dare tell you how much they cost, except that they would have funded my melodeon habit for a couple of years, I'm sure! Anway, I've been tasked with taking down the old curtains and rails and providing and fitting new rails and mounting brackets. Not as straightforward and easy as you might imagine, as the concrete beam is extremely difficult to drill with my super-duper Chinese machine. I got one side done, only to realise that it had been too much for my operation region. I ended up having to get a caleche to bring me back fro the shop last night, as I just couldn't walk any further due to the pain.
Maybe this scar picture could be more than you want to see. Don't look if you're squeamish!


As you can see, there are six of them, top to bottom is abut 13 inches, and they've healed well. I thought that 9 or 10 weeks (or whatever it is now) would have been sufficient time to be able to act normally, but it transpires that I was mistaken!!!! I'm sick of it, I can tell you!

So, now I'm just about laid up again, shoving Paracetamol down my neck and getting bad-tempered. Perhaps Hatshepsut will have to get rid of me, no shirkers wanted around here! Only problem there, is that she'd be lost without me, as I would be without her; 48 years is a long time to grow together!
Goodnight all.
(I'll try to include some more pleasant piccies next time, promise!)

Here we are again, as happy as can be!

Well now, that was a long silent spell, wasn't it? Perhaps I should give my excuses along with my apologies?

We left Egypt in the March of last year (2019) with heavy hearts, as we knew, even then, that we might not get back for quite some time. My mother's physical abilities were waning with the passing of every week, and we knew that she would need more and more help to live independently. Who else could help her but her own family? The vast majority of us only ever get one mother!

Added to that were my own health problems; the four year cough being uppermost in my mind. After eventually getting to see a doctor and persuading her that it needed some proper investigation, I had another chest x-ray. Nothing untoward was seen, except that the sharp-eyed chest consultant noticed something, on the very edge of the picture, which he wasn't happy about! He referred me to someone else who, after scans of one sort and another, told me that it was "inconceivable" that the growth on my left kidney was not cancerous. That sort of announcement makes you sit up, I can tell you!

Cutting a long story short, and after at least 1000 more visits to various clinics at several hospitals, I was given a "Partial Nephrectomy" (some of my kidney chopped out) at the wonderful Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in November. (Four days after my mother's funeral, so I wasn't at my best!)

Mam had been ready to go, and was confined to bed for eight days before she finally did. Between us, we managed to be with her all the time until she slipped into unconsciousness in her own bed, and took her final breath at 11.45 at night. Our two girls were on their way to let Freda and I get some sleep when mam drifted away, and missed her by about ten minutes. Mind you, they brushed her hair and made her look presentable after the emergency nurses had been and done what they needed to do. Of course everyone was in a state of deep sadness at her dying, but we all knew it was inevitable. God blessed her in many ways in those last few days.

Back to my own problems again; I've been under four consultants at three hospitals all through the summer! Some things have been interconnected, like the four year cough and the over production of calcium which was found and retrospectively blamed for the kidney stone which I had in Aswan the year before, and possibly (if I remember correctly) for the onset of the cancer in the other kidney, too. Anyway, we've eventually managed to escape to Luxor for a few weeks in between hospital appointments, and are here now at "Our Luxor" (cleaning, as usual!!!).

Mind you, the journey here wasn't without problems either! After late boarding at London's Heathrow Terminal 2, we had to sit on the plane on the Tarmac for two hours, whilst a "technical fault" was supposedly being seen to. Eventually, we were told that a replacement part had to be sent from Cairo and that we would spend the night in the Heathrow Holiday Inn before finally departing the next day. Oh joy! It's not so bad for us (even though we had to forfeit our first night at the Winter Palace) as we are here for quite some time, but there were other passengers who only had a week in Egypt and were losing a day of their holiday. Obviously, they weren't very happy!

But it's nearing bedtime here in the Land of the Pharaohs, so I'll get back to you in the next few days with more news about our Egyptian problems, and some of the many changes here since we left. Ten months is a long time in Paradise! TTFN.