Grumpy, me?

Hi there, just a little rant, if you don't mind?


As many of you know, I'm an avid tea drinker, Freda, on the other hand also enjoys the odd cup of coffee. Obviously, as a devoted husband, I do try my best to accommodate her in this rather perverse pleasure, even to the point of accompanying her to one of these vile 'Starbucks' places.


Today was no exception; when she realised that I was flagging somewhat, while on an extended shopping marathon, my charming wife suggested a cup of tea to revive my spirits. Of course, I couldn't possibly refuse such an offer!


Funnily enough, we were next to a 'Starbucks', so in we trotted. The place looked quite inviting, I admit. There were hard wooden seats either side of a longish table, there were small tables with dining type chairs either side, and there was soft seating along one wall, with small tables in front with another dining type chair as well. 


But I wish I'd had my trusty new camera with me!!!


The cafe / coffeehouse / tearoom was actually inside a larger store, and was separated from part of it by a glass partition. Freda sent me to find a table with soft seating while she went to the counter to order the drinks. The glass screen was behind the soft seats, and this is where I first noticed the streaks, made by a dirty cleaning cloth! There was only one table free in that area, but it was stacked with dirty dishes, so I shifted them to a table nearby, mafeesh mushkelar (no problem). The table itself, however, was rather a problem, it was covered with sticky rings where cups had been. The next table was even worse, with smear marks right from one side to the other, and still with bits of what looked like jam smeared here and there!


Freda eventually landed with a tray, her mug containing coffee, a paper cup containing cream, and three sachets of brown sugar, a two-cup tea pot, an empty mug, another paper cup containing a tea bag (which Freda had made the cashier whip out of the pot, just before he poured in the hot water) and a shaker 'thing' full of white sugar, no milk or spoons. There was also a plate with a lovely piece of lemon drizzle cake sitting on it.


I went to ask the cashier for some milk, and was directed to the 'condiments counter', where I replaced the ridiculous sugar dispensing 'thing', and where I noticed a stained stainless steel Thermos flask, with splashes of  milk around the spout. "Ah, the milk!" it dawned! I collected my mug, itself a thick and unpleasant object, (no wisecracks thank you!) and poured in a little milk. As I turned away, I noticed a lady just next to me, also pouring milk, but from another, identical, flask. As she replaced her flask on the 'condiments counter', I noticed that it had the words 'Skim Milk' on a sticky label. (No, this wasn't an instruction, but it was symptomatic of the lackadaisical and devil-may-care attitude evident in the whole sorry establishment!) When I looked on the flask I had used, I found a similar label, on the other side though, which read 'Full Cream Milk'. Not good enough, not good enough by half!!!!! I would have much rather had the 'Skim Milk', if I had known that it existed! I would also much rather have had sugar where I could have some confidence in the amount which was going into my tea! And, I would much rather have had a spoon with which to stir my tea, instead of an anorexic lolly-pop stick!!!!!


Add to this disgraceful excuse for satisfying customers, that the general cleanliness left a great deal to be desired, and you can imagine that I was not a 'happy bunny'.


Fortunately, Freda hasn't confided in me regarding the amount of the bill for this lot. I just hope that she enjoyed her coffee as much as she said she did. I certainly won't be unhappy if I never have to experience such a place again!


We'll get back to that other place, Marrakech, in a day or two.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Marrakech (2)

Maybe this one should be entitled "The Sequel!"

We've been having a funny time since the revolution, what with a distinct lack of tourists and therefore also a distinct lack of income. The financial crisis in Britain and Europe has been rather cruel to us as well, resulting in our family not being able to visit us in Luxor for two years now!

One thing in our favour has been that we have been able to book our easyJet flights to go back home very early, and very cheaply! Or so we thought! We booked to travel to England in June, for about 50 quid each, and intended to book return journeys in July to come back to Luxor. easyJet, though, had different ideas! They stopped flying to Luxor for July and August, and the beginning of September, what were we to do?

Freda, being as resourceful as ever, trawled through all the Internet flight sites and found that the cheapest direct (or even via Cairo) flights would run us around the £300 mark, with the others being considerably more! What she did find, though, was that by taking the train to Manchester Airport and flying to Marrakech, catching another train to Casablanca and then another plane to Cairo and onto Luxor, we could do it for £316. Why couldn't we find the extra few bob to stay in Marrakech for a couple of nights? If for no other reason but to break an otherwise tiring journey?

Obviously, this plan would need some more attention! So it was that Freda looked into the hundreds of riads available to tourists in Marrakech. Then the memory of our first attempt to get to Morocco reared its ugly head, and we wondered if Susan and Roy would care to complete their aborted journey too. Of course they would came the answer, if Freda could manage the arrangements.

You know how visitors to Egypt can become 'templed out'? Well, believe me, Freda had me 'riaded out' in no time at all! Mind you, there are sooooo many of them, and soooo many of them are stunningly beautiful, it was certainly a daunting task to pick just one. I remember that one looked ideal in every respect, but the people had dogs, or possibly A dog. That put the kibosh on it, and I was quite disappointed! Never mind, Freda kept at it by a process of elimination. Each time she found one that fit the bill, she checked it against those already in the running and eliminated one or the other. Eventually, she plumped for the Riad Les Trois Mages. (The Three Kings.) Just off the centre of the Medina,. but nearby to everything that would be of interest to us. Riads are built around a central courtyard, with the rooms emanating off it. No outside interference at all.

It would all work out spiffingly, after our little sojourn in Marrakech, we would catch the train across to Casablanca, and Susan and Roy would jump back on the plane to Manchester. Easy Peasey!

But...........our name is Jennings. That means that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, ever goes according to plan! What would it be this time? A counter revolution? Could the newly elected Egyptian President decide to expel all the foreigners? Perhaps Barak Obama might decide to invade the whole of North Africa to save the people from themselves, who knows?

In the event, our youngest daughter telephoned to tell us that she was expecting her second child, in early August! Of course, Freda needed to be there (no, not at the actual birth, ugh!) and we couldn't afford to stay in England for all that length of time. So, the £50 flights were changed to Christmas, and Egypt Air flights were booked for the same week that we would fly to Marrakech, and the Marrakech flights were all booked as returns, back to Manchester. Pheeeew! Could it all possibly work out the second time?

easyJet kept us standing on the tarmac at Manchester for about two hours, because one of the engines wouldn't start! Bad omen? When we trundled into Marrakech Manara Airport two hours late, the taxi that the riad had arranged was still waiting for us. Al hamdulillah!

I was actually startled by the grandeur of Marrakech, the wide, and well kept  roads, and the imposing buildings The apparent cleanliness everywhere was really quite a shock after being used to Luxor and the filth! Of course Marrakech is a huge city by comparison, and the French have been there for a long time, stamping so much of their own culture on the civic side of things. Plus, the indigenous population seem to be mainly Berber rather than Arab, so their culture would be different anyway.

The taxi stopped about a hundred yards from the riad, the road just wasn't wide enough for a car to get there! By the time we got to the riad door, the space between the buildings was no more than five feet.

The door is just past the moped.

As we stepped though that door, it soon became apparent that the place was just as nice as the pictures on their adverts and web-site. We'd be OK here! Our room was 'Melchior', on the ground floor, what a treat! Here are a couple of pics:

A touch of romance, don't you think?

En-suite.

Now tell the truth, who wouldn't be happy with that? We certainly were, a bit quaint and traditional, but perfectly functional and very easy on the eye! With lovely staff and beautiful food; it was almost as welcoming as 'Our Luxor'!!!

Time and tide wait for no man, as King Cnut proved! I'm off to bed now, but I haven't finished with this theme yet! Goodnight.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah; Marrakech!

"Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakech Express?" There cannot be many among you who are unable to sing that line, surely? 


We began our adventure to Morocco in August 1975, before we were encumbered with children, or other serious responsibilities, although Freda was expecting our Benjamin in the following February. We had decided to drive there, along with my sister Susan and her husband Roy. Roy was the proud owner of a SWB Series 1 Land Rover, so was I at the time, but mine was all painted and signed up for the garage business. We had a trial run in Roy's 'rag top' and decided against it for the real journey.


I eventually found a LWB (long wheelbase) rolling chassis at Hodgson's of Wearhead, a Land Rover main agent in the North East. It was just lying in their yard, apparently dead, to be used for spares or whatever. It was a 1964 Series 2a, with only a truck cab and open back-end. No engine or gearbox, of course! It cost me the princely sum of £60, I don't think I'd ever paid that much for a car before!


It took a few months to sort it out, but the LWB ended up with a two and a quarter litre petrol engine, which I completely reconditioned, and a brand new carburettor.  We were very keen for the Land Rover to be as fuel efficient as possible, after all petrol was in the region of 75 pence per gallon (that's 4.54 litres to you young'uns) and we had a lot of miles to cover, and even more kilometres! With this goal in mind, I changed the differentials for those out of Rover "90" cars, being a different ratio it took fewer revolutions of the engine to turn the actual road wheels, hence less petrol. To eliminate the drag of the front differential while driving in two wheel drive, I also fitted "Fairy" free-wheeling front hubs. We'd be "cooking on gas", as the popular saying of the time went! (In actual fact, we averaged only 12 mpg over the whole holiday, what a bitter disappointment!)


Other modifications included finding and fitting a genuine LR hard top, putting in side windows, so that the girls could have a better view as they luxuriated in their Austin Westminster seats, which I fitted behind the not so luxurious standard LR front seats. A 'dished' bonnet, complete with spare wheel carrier finished off the necessities, oh, and an "illegal" Michelin map of Morocco! 


As we were bound for Africa, I had my old signwriter paint "African Queen" on both front wings. This vehicle was "the business"! Here it is during a few minutes rest crossing the Pyrenees:

The African Queen

Some sections of the road over the mountains were quite treacherous, with one or two of the tighter bends requiring us to take two 'cuts' to get around them! There were small plaques here and there, marking where other travellers had gone over the edge; quite unnerving, I can tell you!


A short while after getting off the main pass, and onto the more civilised roads of the lower slopes, and while Roy was driving; he calmly informed me that he'd just lost the brakes! We eventually got it stopped in a small village called "La Garriga", right in front of a little metal fabricating shop. On inspection, it transpired that the O/S/F wheelrim had been damaged and the damaged section was consequently catching the flexy rubber brake pipe, with each revolution of the wheel. It had rubbed through, and lost all the fluid.


Being a bit wary of these "Continentals" anyway, I'd brought a few Imperial thread brake pipe nuts, just in case! So, it was quite straightforward; get the blokes in the metalworks to weld up one of the new nuts; replace the flexy pipe with the blanked off nut and bleed the brakes, and 'hey presto' three brakes working to get us on our way! Not quite straightforward though, I hadn't reckoned on the language barrier, or the fact that they didn't think it was a good idea to drive on only three brakes. After about three hours, though, we were on our way again.


Here we all are, me on the left (fag in hand), the Spaniards, and Roy, showing off his muscles!

A right motley crew!

We hadn't travelled more than about a half a mile (you won't believe this, I didn't, at first) when we came across a sign which read "Land Rover Main Agent"! We bought a new flexy and put it on that night, lying on a carpet of sheep droppings at the campsite.


On the sixth day of travelling, we came upon a campsite with "English seatless" toilets, I was so relieved (literally) I couldn't have waited much longer! It must have been about then that we decided that we just weren't going to reach Morocco. We only had two weeks, you see? Valencia was as far as we got, and it was far enough, if the truth be told. We got the last pitch on the campsite, on the beach.


There was a cloudburst, with a fantastic electric storm, and we then found out why the last pitch hadn't been taken before; it was in a hollow!!!!! What a sad time we had of it. (Apart from singing along at the top of our voices to a tape of "Rule Brittania" from the "Last Night of the Proms"!) On venturing into Valencia, I ran slap-bang into the side of a French car, in an underground car park. The car park attendant was insistent that I just drive away, as no-one had seen the deed, but I stopped and left my insurance details stuffed in the side of the car's window. 


On the return journey, we stopped in St Tropez, but the wind was so strong that we couldn't get the tent up, even tying it to the Land Rover was no use, the wind bent most of the poles! We ended up staying in an hotel, with only enough money for two breakfasts. We had a tin of peaches or something between us for our supper, because the hotel restaurant would not entertain English money. At that time, you could only take £25 out of the country in cash, but I'd concealed £50 about my person, just in case, but they weren't interested at all! 


Here are Roy and I, complete with pith helmets. Well, you can't be too careful in these overly hot foreign parts, can you?

We would have liked to have relieved General "Chinese" Gordon in Khartoum!

I should imagine that you are now scratching your head, Dear Reader, and wondering what, if anything, this nonsensical reminiscing has to do with modern-day blogging about our life in Luxor. Well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you? It might even be nothing at all!!!!!


Till another day, tarra.

Bad news/Good news!

You all know the woeful tale of the broken camera, so I won't embarrass my beautiful wife any further by repeating it. You also know that our steam-driven laptop has seen better days, don't you? (My Egyptian computer man says it should be thrown in the Nile!!!)

Well, "Good News" awaited us when we got home! Our son Benjamin gave us his laptop, it's only a couple of years old and has millions of Gigabytes instead of one and a half, or whatever derisory figure our old one had.

Bad news, is that it doesn't put photo's right like our old one, and it won't take the program that does it for us. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I found another camera which seems to be relatively simple to use, with an 18x zoom! Pretty useful, I would have thought, but I had to sell my youngest granddaughter to be able to afford it!

But what use is all this fancy technology if I cannot compress pictures to put on the Blog.

Lo and behold; the other day I found out that the camera actually compresses pictures itself! What was that about every cloud? Or all things working together for good? So now, I'm as happy as a proverbial sandboy, and I expect to be blogging merrily away before too long.

See ya!

Search Keywords during June.

They're the usual queer bunch, one or two which I cannot fathom at all, and one,  presumably from an American lady, whom I hope never ever wants to come and stay at 'Our' Luxor!!!! Is she really planning what it looks as if she is? 

People's spelling doesn't get any better either!
Here they are:

tubing james river trip advisor 29/06/201

how much money should u get if ur raped at the luxor by a security guard 25/06/2012

show me appartment building sign made from wood & braze numbers 24/06/2012

just like me weekend wicked shop 23/06/2012

difference between earthed and unearthed cable 21/06/2012

Find me Mustafa in Luxor 19/06/2012 

cheating in Luxor 19/06/2012

Panackalty 19/06/2012

etyop gabendrm part to 19/06/2012

the birthday boy has awoken 13/06/2012

what are key words when searching for an apartment 13/06/2012

How to solve water problem in apartment 11/06/2012

handrail w flat top 11/06/2012

Vacuum bondage body suit 09/06/2012

Poker room wall 06/06/2012

swim Burundi 06/06/2012

The two ronnies aladdin sketch 05/06/2012

way the anchor monty python 05/06/2012

Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, dear camera !

Yes, the sad truth will out!

Michael the watch man brought back the sad old camera with the news that it cannot be repaired in Luxor, maybe they could do it in Cairo, but at a cost of 150 le. (And you all know how much Freda HATES Cairo)

Gone are the happy carefree days of snapping here and snapping there, willy-nilly. As a memoriam, I thought that I might browse through a few of the pictures I've taken with it. You don't have to come along with me as I roam down Memory Lane, but you may, if you wish.

This first one is of Freda with two dear friends, David and Rosemary, in their beautiful back garden in Derbyshire. We met them at the Winter Palace, years ago, a lovely couple who would dress for dinner (the works, I mean!) and then dance around the foyer of the New Winter Palace to the music provided by Los Amigos, the Russian/Egyptian combo. They used to come every December and stay over the Christmas holiday. (But they were 'living in sin'!!! Shhhhh.) 

I'm sure that some of you also know how much Freda hates to have her picture taken, but she's here in this next one as well! This time with another good friend, only one we met through this Blog! I've cannily caught him with the sun just in the right place to somewhat disguise him. I cannot remember who the boy was.

Our friend was showing us around his latest hotel acquisition in Luxor:

We've met some really kind people here in Luxor over the years, several have become friends whom we really miss when we don't see them for a while. We met two sisters at the old Novotel one year, and we've been fortunate enough to see them every year since, except that we'll miss them this year, as they are coming later than usual, and we will be in England at the time. They comprise half of a family of four sisters, from the 'Black Country', and are known collectively as 'The Wenches'. Here are the original two, on the left; Glen and Mar, two ladies whose company we enjoy enormously! The other two were friends of theirs from the Etap, Freda and I joined them at '7 Days & 7 Ways' a few years ago, where I took this very poor picture. We really hope to see them again next year.

I don't usually take pictures of visitors to 'Our Luxor', but this following little monkey (well!) seemed to be soooooo brazen! Just look at the eyes.

After several squirtings with water, from a 'Baraka' bottle with a hole in the top, the beast finally left us alone. It must have warned its mates, as we haven't had any cat trouble since!

Unlike India, where the cows roam freely everywhere and anywhere, they don't roam around here very much! Here's one which I came across a couple of years ago, two streets away, during the 'Eid el Adha'.

Although I'm not personally convinced, the people who practice this sort of slaughter reckon it's much more humane than the way it's normally done in the West. In this instance, there wasn't enough room for cars to pass the carcase in the street! It gave me quite a turn to come across it, I can tell you.

Talking about celebrations and the like; don't forget that the Moulid is coming up! I'm reliably informed that the stick fighting/dancing will commence in our street tomorrow night, after they've closed the road. Probably around 9 or 10, and the same on Tuesday. For those of you who don't know what on earth I'm on about: It's the Moulid of Abu El Haggag, a famous Sheikh from years gone by, whose Mosque is the one built on top of the Temple. People come from all over Egypt to join the Luxorians in their annual celebrations. The town will be packed with Egyptian tourists; many of whom won't mind sleeping outside, and with some who have very little contact, if any in their normal lives, with foreigners. So you can expect some rather inquisitive looks, they mean no harm though, so don't worry.

When I find out, for sure, on which day the parade ('carnaval', as it's known) is, I'll post it on here. No new pictures though, so I'll have to dig some old ones out.

Have a gander at these, for a taster! 

Yes, that is a fire breather in the second picture. Actually, it's not quite, he's squirting a spray can across a lighter flame, which is probably more dangerous!

I cannot find any stick fighting pictures, they must all be hidden away on a disc somewhere, sorry. You'll just have to toddle on down here and see it for yourself!

Still no new pictures!

Well, young Michael (who has the watch and clock shop on the corner downstairs) has had a look at the camera, taking it as far to bits as he could with his miniature screwdrivers and other watch working tools. But all to no avail, sadly! He's promised to take it to some local camera 'person' today, so keep your fingers crossed for me, please?

I know that doing such things (crossing fingers, or making the sign of the cross) are an anachronism in our modern faithless world. And not only with those who scoff at us Christians, I myself have no real truck with the supposed value of such inanities! However, here in the past (which is where Luxor certainly is) the efficacy of such signmaking is held in high regard, as well as being a sure sign of a living faith!

When I came across Mr Edward (also known as Igor, the surgeon's assistant from the first floor) frantically, and repeatedly, making the sign of the cross at the lock on the surgery door, I was amazed to hear his irritated response to my (probably) patronising and (certainly) quizzical smile, "But I am Christian, Mr Edward; the lock is stuck!" I walked on, feeling quite ashamed. On another occasion, as I passed a paint shop in the souk, I was surprised to see the owner locking up for the night, and making exactly the same repeated cross signs as he placed each bolt in the roller shutters and turned the key in each lock.

Is this what Christianity is actually about? Or would we be exercising our faith more if we didn't bother with locks in the first place; having faith that God would protect our goods and chattels? Or, then again, does God not expect us to take responsibility for looking after whatever is entrusted to us while we are here? Are these musings a worthwhile use of my time?

The answer is a resounding "NO"! I am not a philosopher, nor yet a theologian, and any thoughts that I might have, will already have been thought and recorded and explored and expounded by many more learned and worthy fellows than I. It's not as if I'm like Captain Kirk 'boldly going where no man has gone before', is it?

So, we are always on the lookout for new and exciting places to see or eat, even if we don't make the sign of the cross before we cross their threshold! But in the case of the Elhoot Fish Restaurant, we might have been tempted, just look at the address!

The "House of phosphorus"? Saints preserve us! (No, I'm not Catholic!) Safer to go somewhere where we possibly wouldn't feel quite so near to the 'fires of Hell', maybe. Our latest restaurant outing was on Thursday night, back to the lovely Salahadeen at Mara House. I put the following review on TripAdvisor, so that anyone else might give it a try and find the pleasure and enjoyment which we do every time we go.

The review title is "Stuffed again!"

"I'm sorry about the indelicacy of the title, but that is what happens to me whenever I visit this place!

With the dearth of tourists here at the moment, we were lucky to catch the Salahadeen open last night. It was lovely to again be greeted by the smiling Madam (Mad for short, lol.) Mara. Unlike any 'normal' restaurant, where the food can be prepared quite quickly or re-heated in the microwave, the food at the Salahadeen takes most of the day to prepare freshly, each time the restaurant is open, and therefore Mara won't open unless she has a worthwhile number to cook for. During normal times this isn't really a problem, but customers for any sort of business are very few and far between just now!

Anyway, along with the other diners, we thoroughly enjoyed our Egyptian feast in the beautiful diningroom, with the ornamental fountain gently gurgling away and the barely perceptible background music, after first chatting and sipping our pre-prandial drinks in the comfortable bar.

The lovely and satisfying meal was similar to those we've had here before. Even with the odd variation which Mara makes in some of the mezzes from time to time, it was still all that we were hoping for. The pudding was especially delish; vanilla ice cream and sliced mango, they complimented each other perfectly!

 Freda even took a couple of books across, to swap with some different ones from the Mara House library. (Damn those 'Kindle' things, people just aren't bringing, and leaving, books in hotels any more!)"

Well, I'd better get off now, as Freda wants the computer for something important, she keeps thinking that she'll have an enquiry to deal with, poor deluded girl!

Byeeee.

Butterfingers!

Hello again. It's another lovely day here in Luxor, sunny and quite hot. (And very very quiet, all I can hear is the A/C!)

We were somewhere last night, where I would have liked to have taken a picture or two, but it was not to be! Freda dropped the camera yesterday afternoon (on the tiled floor!) and it's now not very well. But fear not! I've been into my 'Pictures' file, clearing out some of the older ones, and came across one or two which I have taken recently, but not used yet, plus, I've two which came in an email today, which you'll just love.

You know that bloke, I thought he was the richest man in the world, who owns Microsoft? Bill Gates? Well; it transpires that he's not as wealthy as our former President, who is currently clinging to life by the finest of threads, Mr Mubarak. According to Wikipedia, Mr Gates was worth $56,000,000,000 last year, whereas old Hosni topped that with a possible $70,000,000,000.

It seems obvious to me that this is the reason why Bill Gates has expanded his commercial interests into Egypt, I can just see his mind ticking away, and thinking, "This must be where the real money is to be made!" Here's the first sign of Microsoft's burgeoning Egyptian empire:

That's right folks, 'New Windows' potato crisps! No doubt, you'll remember the picture of all the (84 was it?) boxes of crisps outside of the tiny Mohsen Market down on Youseff Hassan Street, which I blogged a while ago? Well, good old Bill is obviously 'on the ball', and not too slow in spotting a potential market. 

Don't forget now; you read it here first! (Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised if our squillionaire friend didn't get this original 'fortune-increasing-idea' from seeing the picture of Ahmed's many boxes of crisps on this blog!!!!! Maybe I should have a go at putting the bite on him? After all, if got the idea from me, I'm sure he wouldn't complain, eh?)

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch:


Our errant son sent us these two pictures of a road junction near to our home in Windy Nook, where we'll be in less than two weeks time. It's almost tempted us to rethink our holidays!

We desert dwellers aren't exactly used to this sort of thing, you know?

A new President!

I've got to say that I think everyone who goes into politics does so with the best of intentions!

Yes, yes! We’ve all heard off the sleazy politicians (especially in local government) who seem to be there purely to feather their own nests! But I’m sure that even they started off with good intentions, only to be persuaded that it wouldn’t hurt to ‘look after’ themselves (and their mates) in the process.

So, here we are in lovely Egypt, with a new President, the candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party:  Mohamed Mursi. Other than that he’s a ‘five doctors’ (as an Egyptian friend described him) and that he’s a leading light in the much talked and written about ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, that’s all I know. I suppose that the fact of him standing on the Brotherhood’s FJP ticket means that he’s serious about his religion and his responsibilities. After all, he’s now the de facto leader of the world’s most populous Muslim country, so he must be.

Whatever your beliefs (or lack of them) are, we must all accept that Mr Mursi must have the welfare of Egypt, and the Egyptians, at heart. Maybe his ideas of effecting the wellbeing of his people are different to ours; about what that actually means when we get down to the nitty gritty, in a similar manner to Labour and the Conservatives, or the Republicans and Democrats. Like in every other country where the government attempts to govern with the will of the people, the leaders and officers must, at least, start off as people of goodwill!

I’ve met with one of the FJP’s elected men here in Luxor on a couple of occasions, Dr Abdulmagoud Dardery. He seems like a perfect gentleman to me! Educated way beyond what most of the people I know will ever be. He’s obviously concerned about, and determined to represent even us foreigners who don’t have a vote!

We’ll see what the local’s reaction is over the coming days; hopefully it will be like the Christian man whom I spoke to last night. He was happy to think that Mr Mursi would win, because he viewed him as a ‘religious’ man, and as such he expected him to keep his word regarding Egypt’s treatment of the ‘other’ religions represented here.

For the likes of us; I would encourage us all to hope and pray that he is indeed a man of his word. And that he sets his face against those who would cause more disruption in this struggling land, from whichever quarter it might arise! And, that he might do all in his power to reinvigorate and protect the tourism sector here in Upper Egypt, that its people might once again have honest work to do, and enjoy its benefits.

I don’t have many pictures that could accompany this post, but try this one for size!

As this particular blog is purely my own thoughts; I will not publish any comments which might be sent, as they would be wholly inappropriate. Thanks for understanding.

   

Entrepreneurial Spirit alive and well in Luxor!

A couple of months ago, I noticed that someone had had a good business idea! On the plaza behind the Temple, opposite McDonald's, there appeared a few electric kids cars and quad-bike-like things. Perhaps one of them was even sponsored by a local company?

There were about a half dozen or so, pink girlie ones, police cars, and of course the Memphis Tours tourist car! I suppose that the person who had this bright idea was beginning to make a decent little living. Well done that man!

Then, I noticed one or two of those 'micro scooter' things, and then a real quad-bike, now there's a real  horse there as well, and four different sets of electric cars and other things to ride upon. There's about 35 to 40 of them, and perfectly predictably, nowhere near enough customers; or space for them all to run !

Now, I know that times are hard in Luxor, as they are all over Egypt, but this copying anything that seems to be making a few bob is just plain daft!


As you all know, we live just at the top of Gold Street (yes, it's really called Mustafa Kamel Street, but never mind!) and someone has opened a new shop selling, wait for it............gold! The coffeeshop which is just on the main road outside of our alley has been closed for about a year or so, through lack of business.

Here's our oldest  neighbour, Mr Mohamed, (he's about 83!) in his usual morning seat which is on the pavement outside the defunct place.














The entrance to it is about 5 paces from Adams small coffeeshop (opposite us,remember?)

and about 40 metres from the next biggish one across the street, which is just a matter of two doors away from the next, quite large, one. In between, is the Mosque and the young man who makes and sells tea, coffee and shisha pipes right outside the entrance, against the Mosque wall. Well, the owners of the aforementioned coffeeshop have been busy, over the last week or so,  redecorating the whole place. New windows and everything! It looks as if it's going to be on a Nubian theme, with rope wrappings around things and 'dom' fruits hanging from bits of wire etc.

I just wonder why they imagine that it's now going to pay, when it wouldn't a twelvemonth ago? Like the kids electric things and the gold shops, and the telephone shops, the list is endless: the market is now saturated, and no-one is going to make a living. I just hope that their initial investment isn't being made with borrowed money!!!!!     

How bad is it in Luxor, really?

Hiya! I'm sure that most of you know that I frequently post on the 'TripAdvisor' Luxor Forum, under the name of 'ourLuxorflat'. Very original, eh? I don't usually get exasperated with other posters, but on the odd occasion, I certainly do! I have been expecting such an odd occasion for a couple of days now; ever since there was yet another question about 'Is Luxor safe?' zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!  (Check it out here.)

I write what I know to be the truth, but there's always some 'clever clogs', who's been here so many times that he or she knows the current circumstances better than those of us who live here, going about our business, as normal, every day! I actually don't mind that aspect of it quite so much as when they start to question the integrity of myself and other people who offer up reports that don't tally with the Foreign Office's warnings or the 'perceived' troubles ( Click on this link and go about half way down the page to "And yet more demonstrations in Luxor" ) which might have impacted on someone's holiday by them being told by their holiday company rep., or their hotel, that they should stay safe by staying in the hotel. (And, of course, spending all their money there too!)

There is always one poster who immediately imagines that 'small business = shady practice', and extrapolates the fact that I have a tourist apartment, ergo; I will falsify the news and thereby put my guests at risk of life and limb in order that I might make a profit (that dirty word!!!). It's peculiar, isn't it? I tend to wonder if that is the way that they would work, and therefore imagine that everyone else is also that greedy, and stupid?

One poster wrote, "being stuck in Egypt during chaos is no fun", while referring to the time of the revolution. I couldn't remember the 'chaos' being all that much different to the usual type that reigns in Luxor on any ordinary day! But, just to remind me, another kind person posted a link to an 'old thread' . He/she needn't have done, it was another 'he said this and she said that', sadly with very little substance. For example, several posters were quoting the 'curfew' as part of the evidence of the dire straits that reigned in Luxor, when in actual fact there was never a curfew in Luxor! I believe that this curfew was suggested by the central government, and they instructed the Governorates to implement it as they saw need. The 'need' never arose in Luxor, there wasn't even one night when the local service buses stopped running earlier than usual!  

I'm often amused by posters who tell us that their Egyptian friends have told them that Luxor isn't safe! Don't these folk realise that the Luxor natives have never experienced even the sort of crime which we wouldn't bat an eyelid at? Their unregulated system of righting wrongs and straightening out 'bad lads' doesn't count with them as being any sort of 'criminal justice'; it's more like a family thing. So this talk of jail-breaks, and real criminals being on the loose, had them all terrified! It was like a national dose of paranoia! But it didn't mean a thing! Our daft neighbours set up road blocks (with rubbish skips) on our main road for a few nights. They stopped everyone, including police and soldiers, and checked their I.D. cards. The children were no longer allowed to play in the streets! (Probably because their dads were actually playing at 'goodies and baddies' and the children would have spoiled their fun!) It didn't last very long, but the blacksmiths made a killing with all the new security doors and window bars etc., lol. We had two lots of guests in February last year, the first  were in Cairo before they came to us on Feb 2nd. I've been re-reading their reviews, and they don't mention any unrest in Luxor at all, funny? You can check them out for yourself, they are from 'The Quad-Bike Queen' and 'Becky' from London.           

But back to today! All the world's press and the various Embassies in Cairo are having a field day; issuing warnings about how Egypt is potentially dangerous, and of course anyone who doesn't know, would figure that Luxor was in the same boat! We've had email warnings from the Embassy, to stay away from crowds, and to be extra vigilant on polling days and stay away from polling stations etc. etc. So, we went out to see for ourselves just how dangerous Luxor was, on this unusually hot polling day evening. Just for you, Dear Reader! (Intrepid, or what?) 

We started off, as usual, by visiting one of our favourite hotels for tea! Of course, this meant travelling on the 'bus; with Egyptians!!! The traffic was diverted away from Salah El Din Square, because of the very large queues of voters which were spreading out over the road. We travelled, instead, along past the Winter Palace to the Iberotel traffic island, where almost everyone got off the bus to go and join the queues of voters. From there we were back on the proper route, and only had two white-uniformed policemen (complete with machine guns) as company till we arrived at the N.P. While we sat and sipped, and watched the newest batch of tourists at the Nile Palace, I rang our little caleche mate Ahmed Badawi. He would come and get us, and ferry us hither and thither.

We used Ahmed because I wanted to cover quite a bit of ground, and get some shopping into the bargain. 'Hotel Row', at Awamaya was pretty dead, including the four currency exchange machines in the vicinity of the N.P. We finally managed to get some changed with the banker in the Sonesta, or else we'd have had to 'tick-on' everywhere! Up to the Isis Hotel to turn around, and then onward to the St Joseph, where we turned right towards Madina Street, and the famous 'burned out' Police Station. (Which was never actually closed, so any fire damage couldn't have been all that serious.) Then along Luxor New Hospital Street to TV Street, turning right onto New TV Street, where there was a..........polling station, right there! Horror of horrors! Luckily, we got past it intact, and carried on up to where Ahmed Hashem has his new plumbers merchant's shop, around the corner on the left. We wanted two new water filters.

Escaping from there, we slowly made our way past the polling station again, and down TV Street to the KZ supermarket, where we filled up with necessities like skimmed milk and Cadbury's chocolate. The traffic was really bad down there as the voters were still all over the road in Salah El Din Square. You cannot turn left at the roundabout, you have to go along to the new Mosque and do a 'u' turn in order to get onto Salah El Din Street, where we passed our fourth polling station.

Even with the current TV campaign here about all foreigners being potential spies, I braved a few clicks at the security forces! This is the best one of the armoured car at Salah El Din Square. I'm sorry it's so dark, but if I use the flash it gets all those spots of dust in the picture.

Here's something that I just love! I snapped it along Salah El Din Street, shortly before the Iberotal traffic island. Now then, we all know what it is, but I'll buy a sugar cane juice for the first person to tell me what's wrong with it.

We trundled along the Corniche, passing the O.W.P.and Freda's temple, without being troubled. When we came upon the Council Offices, we saw these:

     







Again, I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures, but I was caught by surprise and also on a moving caleche! They were partly obscured by the foliage which separates the Governor's car park from the road, but you can see some of the soldiers in their normal state of razor-sharp readiness!

If you remember, we went out looking for trouble (if you click on this link, then go well down the page) actually during the revolution as well. So we followed the same route, out towards the far flung badlands of Karnak, looking for possible sources of danger! By the time we got as far as the airport turning, my poor old stomach was starting to rumble."What an opportunity" I thought! We weren't all that far away from the Hawawshi man! So we timidly ventured into Karnak, past the huge police place there, with all the dead police trucks lying about on the road, in various forlorn states of disrepair, and past the Karnak Charity place, we were really getting into 'no-man's land' now. But, soon enough, there it was; the Hawawshi cafe!

Ahmed just goes and gets them while we wait in the caleche. The bloke always gives us a welcoming wave now, and sometimes comes to shake our hands. I give Ahmed 10le, which gets three, one for him as well. I don't know whether he gives the 1le change as a tip, or pockets it himself, I'm hardly going to ask him for it back! The food is always piping hot, and we usually munch it as we sit on the caleche, burning our fingers and tongues as we go. But tonight we took it home, here it is:

On the left is Freda's 'macarona' with a small pot of tahina. My hawawshi is on the right, it's some sort of lightly spiced and minced meat, sandwiched in some Egyptian flat bread and cooked in a VERY hot oven, in brown greaseproof paper. Absolutely delicious, especially after risking life and limb in getting the facts for you, Dear Reader!

Conclusion:

Even though we currently have no government, other than the Egyptian Army, and our Egyptian friends are half raging against Shafique (as being part of the Mubarak legacy) while the other half rage against Mr Mursi (for being one of the dreaded 'Men with Beards' whom they think might destroy tourism altogether) it is still quite possible to range around the town from one end to the other, during polling for the new President and on an uncommonly warm evening (and get a substantial meal for two for 6le) while remaining relatively safe.

I therefore wholeheartedly recommend that anyone reading this should disregard all the Luxor naysayers, and come and enjoy this town with all it's rubbish people and filthy streets, all of it's everyday chaos, and all of it's antiquities and very 'foreign' charm.            

'New for Old', anyone?

Our little area of central Luxor seems to be undergoing what could be referred to as a bit of 'regeneration'!

We had the road resurfacing the other day, the coffeeshop on the main street is now being entirely remodelled (after being closed for about a year or so) and the Sheikh's Tomb in the back street is being all nicely done up.

The back streets between Mustafa Kamel Street and Cleopatra (or Kelopatra, take your pick) Street consist of mainly slums, that's how you might describe them if you're feeling generous, if you're not; they're hovels! But, hidden away there is this tomb (pronounced toom-b, of course) which I've noticed for years but hadn't looked into, either literally or figuratively speaking, until I recently saw it being renovated. If you click on the picture, you can clearly see where the body is supposed to be. I asked several of my Muslim neighbours, and one or two Christians who have businesses nearer to the actual tomb, but no-one had any info other than the obvious "It's a Sheikh's toom-b"

I eventually sought out the 'Oracle', who is better known as Mr Radwan, our near neighbour who is a tour leader for Viking, and studied all things historical regarding Luxor at university. It is the toom-b of Sheikh Mohamed Yemeni! As his name suggests, Sheikh Mohamed was probably from the Yemen, although he is said to have settled in Luxor a couple of hundred years ago, and has become one of those Sheikhs who are revered by the folk who live hereabouts. Apparently, there is some doubt whether the old boy is actually buried there, perhaps the site has become venerated because someone had a vision there which was inspired  by, or in which the Sheikh appeared? Who knows?

That's one of the troubles with not keeping records, facts become myths or legends which no-one can fathom without a great deal of research and probable excavation or exhumation! Anyway, someone has decided to give the old boy's toom-b the once over, and has been soliciting donations from the neighbours to pay for it. It's looking quite good, as you can see. I think the coffin dressings (they'll have a proper name, I'm sure) are all new, as is certainly the wooden window and door. The painting is almost finished, with just the cupola on the roof to coat up. He's even got a new flag!

The stuff in the foreground is the remains of sugar cane which has had the juice squeezed out of it, I'm not quite sure what they do with this, but it's obviously been collected there for a purpose, don't you think? Maybe the old crone in the picture uses it for food to fatten her goats?

Is it him under there? Will we ever know? Does it make any difference either way?  

New Bumps for Old?

You saw the pics of the Tarmac wagon and the Barbour-Green, didn't you? Well, as you probably know, the Egyptian road gangs don't strip any of the old surface off before tarmacking, so that the entrances to many buildings are actually below the level of the road. Well, neither do they make any allowances for manhole covers and the like; straight over the top! When the manholemen come to see to them they have to hammer and chisel their way through the Tarmac to find their covers, then they leave a nice depression in the road which is as least the thickness of the new Tarmac, and often a good bit deeper!

If the locals are very lucky; they sometimes end up with their nice new, flat, road looking like this:

It's only about an inch or two deep, so it's unlikely to tip any vehicle over! But if they aren't so lucky, they have to put up with their new road being like this:

I mean, really! What is the point of having millions of (Egyptian) pounds worth of machinery and using it to lay new roads when some other joker is going to come along, with his hammer and chisel, and do this? The manhole cover in the second picture is about one and a half inches below the surface, but the Tarmac which has been chiselled out is about two inches high in places, and quite well stuck to the road!

Talk about 'Labour In Vain'? Even friend Bliar couldn't beat these guys!

Yosser Hughes? Are you sure it wasn't 'Yasser'?

Last night neither of us seemed to be able to sleep, so we got up again! That was about 2:15, but the decision was actually made after we had been assaulted by a very loud crashing sound. Wondering what it could possibly have been, I wandered out onto the roof terrace to see if I could hear anything else, or perhaps see something. Nothing, nothing at all! But there was a strong smell. When I told Freda what it was, I was immediately dispatched with camera and tripod to get you all the low-down. (I did drag some clothes on first.)

When I got out of the street door, I wasn't surprised to see little Mustafa (Adam's youngest) in the street, along with almost everyone else! It was very hot, even though there was a nice cool breeze, unusually hot, in fact. I realised why when I rounded the corner, and was confronted with this:  

And this:

Yes, a lovely Mercedes six wheeler tipping red hot asphalt into a Barbour-Green! That's the gaffer on the right, with the stripey shirt.

My first thought was "What will happen to Adam's 'sleeping policeman'?" I did tell you about it, didn't I? Where Adam and one or two of the other neighbours took hammers and chisels and made a small trench across the road, in the middle of the night, to try to slow the traffic down? I'm sure I did, but that's what happened, anyway. When I turned to see, there it was, already filled in before the Barbour-Green even got near! You can see it quite clearly in the first photo. It had been quite successful, actually.

A carnival atmosphere ensued, with different children running back and forth, and getting the black sticky stuff all over their shoes. (I'll bet their mam's were overjoyed to have it tread all over the house when they finally went home.) Everyone was fascinated at the silly khawager (tourist) taking pictures of the workmen in the middle of the night. A seat was soon provided for me (they're very kind, even though they do think I'm a bit touched!) along with offers of tea and 'cigarroes', it was quite the party!

Adam was insistent that his little ones go inside when they got to where we were. The heat was very intense, I braved it though, for you, Dear Reader. Here's the hottest moment, when we were right next to the business end of the tipper truck as it was disgorging some of it's steaming load intothe waiting Barbour-Green:

I took that picture while sitting just outside of the barber shop on one of Adam's seats from the coffeeeshop.

This next one was the last of the load being tipped, where the rake and shovel men would level it out by hand.

I snapped this one just so that you could see where they were up to when I left them to for the night. This morning, I was pleased to see that Adam and the rerst of the boys had persuaded the gaffer of the road gang to make them a proper 'speed hump', before they left.

Now, if you're ever looking for us, you'll just have to look for the hump in Mustafa Kamel Street, and when you find it, all you need to do is ask anybody lying about for Mr Edward!

Goodnight.

Luxor's reaction to Hosni Mubarak's sentence.

We are contemplating a little bit re-styling work for the guest apartment, through which case we ended up in Ahmed Hashem's tile and bathroom shop in Madina Street last night. Of course, it's like 'Casey's Court' in there, and trying to get Hashem's sole attention is very difficult. Plus, when you do manage it; it's a very fleeting experience!

I was torn between trying to regain his attention from a group of raucous Egyptians, while at the same time trying to listen to Freda who was wanting me to look at some innovative bathroom appliance, or whatever, in another part of the shop. All of a sudden, up he sprang with all of the Egyptians following him towards the stairs. "Now that they are leaving; I'll get to speak to him again", or that's what my mind was foolishly telling me.

A thousand curses on my dodgy hearing!!!!! They were dashing across the shop floor in order to view the source of the racket coming from down in the street outside. As I resigned myself to waiting a bit longer, I followed them over to the windows, to see what was transpiring. A relatively large group of men and boys were processing up the street towards the 'Police Hotel' (or perhaps the Police Station further up, who knows?) with placards and banners and much chanting. Cameras and camera phones were merrily clicking away, and one protester even took a picture of the onlookers crowded against the first floor windows of Hashem's 'Ideal Standard' shop!

Both of us being monolingual dummies, we asked Hashem to tell us exactly what they were parading and protesting about. (Of course we knew that it would be connected with the sentencing of the ousted President.) He explained that the Egyptian people saw his sentence as being far too lenient, in that he would be continuing his life of luxury, and having his family around him etc. etc. in the very plush International Hospital, where he's been under guard during his trial. However, that's not what the news reports are telling us! According to various sources; he will be in prison now, albeit the prison hospital, but even there he will wear prison uniform instead of his favoured designer sportswear. Also, his two sons (Alaa and Gamal) have miraculously been acquitted of corruption, even though they have been re-arrested and are to be charged with 'insider dealing'. People are nowhere hear being happy with this outcome of Mubarak's 10 month long 'show' trial.

Never mind, we really aren't allowed to have a 'position' on all this, as we're not Egyptian, and therefore have no way of affecting anything here. So, after Hashem had shocked us to the marrow with his prices, we made our way down to the 'little' baker on Madina Street and then along past the houses of the late Abu Naggar (the famous desert guide) and Hod Hod Soliman (the even more famous hot-air balloon operator) and Mr Bahaa Sherif (owner of the famous 'underground' household goods shop on TV St.), to Khair Zaman, also on TV Street and opposite the aforementioned 'underground' shop.

After trailing around the supermarket (and again spending more than we should have!) we emerged to find an arabiya ('bus) to ferry us home. Lo and behold, we stumbled straight into the demonstration! They had obviously not been going to the 'Police Hotel' or even the Police Station, they'd marched up Madina, along New Hospital Street, and here they were, part way down TV Street and holding up the traffic; big time!

I parked my three shopping bags on the steps to the shop, and my bottom on the step above, we were surely in for quite a wait! All in all, I would estimate the crowd at about 200, mostly on foot but including about 20 or 30 of the ubiquitous motor cycle brigade following on behind. Among the crush of demonstrators, there were two or three of the three-wheeled motor cycle trucks which have become very popular here over the past few years. (I was told that they cost 9000le [less than £1000] and they are used for everything!) On one of these contraptions, there was a small boy standing and screaming a chant into a microphone; to which the crowd were replying with their own chant. It was a very jolly affair, with, again, cameras and camera phones clicking away everywhere you looked. (At this point, I should apologise! After taking a picture of some tiles in Hashem's shop, my camera batteries went dead! I was now sitting there fuming at my re-visited impotence, which was made more infuriating by the fact that two new batteries were lying at home after being bought the previous day when the 'Low Battery' warning had come on the camera. Typical, eh?)

After just a couple of minutes, the motorbikes at the tail end were past us, and the cars and mini-buses were piling up behind, in a mass of maniacal horn sounding and shouting out of windows. We were soon seated in one of the slow-moving arabiyas, having paid our 1le fare. At this point Freda just happened to comment, "They'll be going down our street, so we'll be stuck behind them all the way!" An old woman, sitting behind us, decided that she would be quicker walking, and got off the 'bus as it stopped for the hundredth time in twenty yards! She hadn't reckoned on the driver using his initiative, (he was Egyptian, after all!) though. He turned off TV Street and into the maze of smaller streets which lie north of TV Street, eventually emerging ahead of the demonstrators at the junction of Ahmed Oraby Street and  Manchiya Street, where the new Mosque is, and heading towards the railway station.

The procession must have turned down Station Street (Sharia Mahatta), because they never past the end of our little Haret Osman., and ended up at Abu El Haggag Square, behind the Temple. Although there were certainly one or two angry faces in the crowd, the protesters were mainly (as is usual in these sort of circumstances in Luxor) of good cheer and seemed to be enjoying the gathering and the opportunity to make even more noise than usual!

So, there you have it, Mateys! I'm sorry to keep disappointing you all with these tales of non-violent and non-intimidatory protest here in Luxor, but that's the way it is here in the far-flung reaches of Upper Egypt. It's too hot to get wound up about these things for very long; they're better discussed quietly over a shisha, in the relative coolness of a balmy evening at your favourite coffeeshop!