At last 'Home'..........to no phones, no water, no Internet, loads of dirt. But thankfully, no non-paying guests of the more than 2 legged type!

Well, the title just about says it all, I suppose.

We got here on Saturday evening, to be welcomed off the GoBus from Hurghada by our long-time mate and almost adopted son, Mr Bahaa. Did I tell you that he was busy being born on the very day we got married, he'll be 50 come January.

We travelled on Mr Thomson's Tui flight from Newcastle to Hurghada on Friday, staying there overnight at the lovely Marriott Hotel. The flight wasn't too bad, considering that it was full of tourists! We decided to try the Tui flight simply because of the reported Bedlam that London Heathrow seems to have become. We're getting too old to put up with all that aggro. We were recommended the GoBus by our (also Egyptian loving) friends Ann and Phil, and it wasn't three bad, thankfully. We'd certainly travel this route again, methinks. No rushing hither and thither, no queueing anywhere; what's not to like?

We had expected the flats to be really dirty after some 20 months of abandonment, but it still came as a shock. It's just as well that I'm known as 'Mr Edward-3-Vacuums'.

Mr Hani, the lovely plumber, came and replaced a capacitor in the motor for the water pump, and Bob's your Uncle; we have water. (Even though it smells really quite unpleasant as yet! I suppose that it'll be fine after a few hours of running through.)

The biggest problem we're currently having is a lack of communication! That wonderful company, Vodafone (in their wisdom) decided to give away our phone numbers, of more than 15 years standing, to someone else, even though we still had money on them! Obviously, we haven't had time to go and shout at them yet, because of our cleaning duties, but their day will come, mark my words!! (I may even set Freda onto them!) The Internet connection (or so I'm unreliably informed) isn't working because of a fault in a box somewhere, and they're trying to find another line for me!  Pigs could well be flying tonight!

But, all things being equal, we are here and all the better for it. It's lovely and warm; 30 odd during the day and 20 odd at night. My new (to me, ex No. 1 Son) telephone even tells me that there's ZERO chance of precipitation. Well blow me, who'd have thought it, and in Egypt too! 

I'll be back with some more ASAP, but don't hold your breath as it won't be until we get some sort of Internet or our own WiFi back again.