Mohamed bought me all this cake for my birthday and even candles. This was a big deal as birthdays are not important in Egypt.
Well hi, sorry that I haven’t posted for a while, life has been just in the house but without anything very exciting happening. Yesterday we went for a drive and visited City Stars looking for clothes for Mohamed and so I thought I’d better send you something at least, and this is what you get.
I was amazed at how many changes there were to be seen in just over a couple of weeks. At the end of the street, only a couple of hundred metres tops, there’s a new building going up, on the corner of First Street (our street) and the main road into the estate from the second gate (Khefre Gate). There are 3 main gates leading into our estate from the Faiyoum Road and they are named after the 3 pyramids.
As we head into the city we must go through Ramiya Square (well, it’s a huge roundabout really). This is a total bottleneck and almost always busy – for example last night (about 6.30 pm) we were at crawling pace for around a kilometer or more. The roundabout is controlled by police, usually there’s about a dozen on duty. There are 4 divided roads that feed into the square, the Cairo-Alexandria Road in one direction and the Faiyoum Road and the street that leads down to Faisal Street (one of the biggest and busiest in the pyramids area) in the other. It seems that the powers that be have finally decided there must be a better answer and the roundabout has road works happening, which at this early stage look like they are making it into an intersection. All I can say is - I hope not, I think that will make it even worse unless there’s an overpass that goes in. I guess time will tell.
I notice that the police are now in their winter uniform. Egyptian police wear a white cotton uniform in winter and a black uniform in winter. When I last went out they were all in white, now they are in winter uniform. And it is getting much cooler, especially at night, so the timing is good.
As we head into El Haram (Pyramids) Road (yes, it is the main road that leads from Cairo through Giza and up to the pyramids) I also notice there are new traffic and tourist signs looking SO clean and spanking new. Most street signs in Cairo are pretty battered so these really stand out.
The trip on the Round Road is fairly smooth and we have time for a stop at On the Run for a coffee. One thing that's new is the price of coffee there - and the coffee is very good I might add - but when I came a year ago it was 7.50 pounds, now it is 13 pounds for a cappuchino. Inflation in Egypt is running at around 23% at the moment but this still seems a huge price rise. Off the Round Road and into Ourouba Road and down into Heliopolis and finally we arrive at City Stars after about an hour’s trip. City Stars is on the north east of the city, while we are on the south west. It’s not so busy tonight and we jag a park on the first sub-level near one of the doors. To get into the car park we must open our boot and have it swept for explosive traces, a sniffer dog goes around the car and another guy with one of those mirror devices to see under the car also goes round the vehicle. Once we’ve parked and want to enter the shopping centre we must also go through a metal detector and my handbag goes through an X-ray machine. This sort of security also applies at the big hotels and some other shopping areas we’ve been to. It’s a world away from Oz.
So we shop, it’s a big shopping centre, about 6 floors and I never know where I am particularly but I reckon we walked it all, ending up getting one jumper for Mohamed at the Levi’s store. He is a particular shopper but always looks great in his clothes so I guess it pays off. We just shop differently – I always want to go in to take a look but Mohamed just looks from the outside unless something sort of attracts him, I’m not quite sure what, and then he goes in to have a little look. We also visited the Virgin Megastore which stocks all sorts of good things. We can get movies there with Arabic subtitles although they are around 200 pounds which is pretty expensive. They have just started to stock what they call DCDs and these are movies on CDs, which only cost 25 pounds (about $6 at current exchange rates) and are good quality. So we got some movies and also some X-Box games (reduced from 550 pounds to 50 pounds – crazy) and I also got to get a new book at the bookstore. For which I am grateful as I’m reading a book for the 4th time right now. I’ve told the kids I need books to be on my Christmas list.
City Stars is full of designer label shops, big chain food outlets (Pizza Hut, McDonalds etc.), coffee shops like Costas and Starbucks and a cinema complex, with more big name shops opening soon, I notice for example, that Versace is opening next month. They have just opened a new section of 250 shops so there’s plenty to see. Prices are high though - to go with the big rents etc. I guess. Just like lots of shopping centres in Australia. There’s also a section called the Khan El Khalili (named after the big bazaar in Old Cairo) which has all sorts of traditional clothing, perfume and souvenirs.
Monday 17th
Sorry I got to take a break, longer than I intended, yesterday was the usual routine but we went out to the Dendy Mall last night and after looking again for clothes for Mohamed (without success) we sat and had coffee in one of the outdoor coffee shops which wa very pleasant. Today I’ve just been busy washing all the floors etc. Mohamed is out at the moment meeting with one of the companies we work for and I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy, a few seasons ago. I’ve got some bookwork to do yet so I’m going to finish off; sorry it’s a bit abruptly. I’m beginning to get excited about getting home – I fly out on the 1st December and arrive early on the 3rd in Brisbane. I’ve got just about a month and hope to get to Melbourne as well as staying in Brisbane and on the Sunny Coast. As far as I know Christmas is with Lahni and Ian and Logan for as many of us as can get there.
So I’ll go now and certainly hope to see some of you when I’m home. Take care, I’ll write again I’m sure before I get home,
Lots of love
Lyndall
