The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance..............or maybe not!

Do you remember that picture? It had three of my favourite film actors: James Stewart, John Wayne and the villain of the piece; Lee Marvin. It was great! Well, what we've got here for you today is actually "The Man Who Inked Our Luxor's Mister Edward"!!!! Here he is:

And, here's his shop:

I know that many of you will be astounded that I would allow such mutilation of my fine body and perfect skin, but it just, quite suddenly, took my fancy! Mind you, it's not one of these intricate designs which cover half of my body, nor yet a "sleeve", which is what they call those which the footballers have from shoulder to elbow. I'll let you have a shuftee before I sign off tonight. 

In the meantime, I've been to see and hear some famous folk singing types of late. The other Wednesday Auntie Susan had bought us tickets (for Christmas) to once again see her mate Maddy Prior singing with the Carnival Band in their regular Christmas concert at the Sage Gateshead. It was as enjoyable as ever, with Maddy still having a tremendous range to her voice. 

Next was the turn of the Wilsons, a harmony singing group of brothers from Tees side, they're marvellous, if like me you appreciate that sort of music. They've recently been singing with that other well known North Easterner, Gordon Sumner (otherwise known as "Sting") in his show in New York. (Do you remember that we had another of Sting's mates stay with us a few years ago, the fabulous Darbukka player, Souhail Kaspar?)

Number-One-Son has also been attending concerts. The daft happ'orth (Colloquialism: happ'orth, pronounced hay-porth, = half penny worth = half-wit of very little value.) forgot about going to the Sage with us, and managed to get tickets for him and his friend to see Seasick Steve in London on the same evening! He did enjoy it though. And then; Number-One-Grand-Daughter and her friend from Harrogate went with him (N-O-S, not Seasick Steve) to some young girls' pop concert sort of thing in Newcastle on Sunday, too. Busy Bees, eh?

The Folk Club we go to after Chapel on a Sunday was too cold last night! The guest singer was OK, but not good enough for us to suffer the cold for another 90 minutes, I'm afraid, and we left at the break. A bit shamefacedly, I've got to admit!

That's probably enough boredom for you for one night, so I'll sign off with a glimpse of the Tat:

They wrap them in clingfilm, apparently, to keep any muck out. That came off after a day or two, and I'm getting quite used to it now. It's a Coptic Christian cross, so that if I snuff it in Egypt, then I won't get dumped in a Muslim cemetery. When it eventually gets a scab, and then heals properly, I might show you a pic of the finished article. We'll see.

No Sensational Election or Unrest News, Sorry! But a Fabulous Guest at 'Our Luxor'.

Well, the electioneering on the second day of voting didn't provide any sensational news, what can I say? The Freedom and Justice Party were the biggest winners, apparently. So we'll wait and see what happens next.

In the meantime (or should I say, "Meanwhile, back at the ranch," just for us oldies?) we've been carrying on as normal;. Cleaning, shopping, cooking, eating and of course cleaning! Mr Rashad the cleaner hasn't been too conscientious lately, which has left me to struggle on with the stairs by myself most of the time. Mind you, I'll not complain too much, as we are saving his wages at a time when it all counts! In saying that, I must admit that bookings are coming in, even though they are slower than we would have hoped for at this time of year. We aren't having to turn so many away as usual, so that's also a good thing. I hate to have to disappoint people.

Our current guest is a very famous person! (Although I'd never heard of him before.) When his first enquiry came; Freda 'Googled' him, as his name is quite unusual. 'Souhail Kaspar', ring any bells? He's a darbuka virtuoso! (I've heard the name of the drum pronounced darabuka, in the same way as Karnak is pronounced Karanak by the Egyptians.) Here's one, that I didn't make earlier:

Of course this is probably just a tourist version, I should imagine that it wouldn't stand up to the hammering that Souhail gives them when he gets going!  Have a look at him in action here: Souhail Kaspar solo!

You can see a little wickedness in his eye on the video; it's even more evident in real life! He's a super bloke, and we've been ever so pleased to have him here as our guest these past few days, along with his companion.  She has been visiting a world famous Ghawazee dancer here, only a few streets away, would you believe? Here he is, I did ask him if it was OK to 'Blog' him, and after haggling him down from £300 to $300 to 300LE to a 'thank you'; he agreed!  

They're leaving tomorrow, to further their research in another part of Egypt, but I do hope that they'll be back again on their next visit to the 'New Egypt'.