A few stray thoughts

Logan - first birthday


Logan


Logan


Logan at the beach


Fallon Day 114


Fallon Day 113


Fallon Day 105


Fallon Day 56


Fallon Day 48 with dad


Fallon Day 26

So you were in drought of postings, now you’re in flood!!! Well, would you believe a rainstorm? Maybe a little shower???

It’s cleaning lady day today, Saturday, when Mohamed goes to the office without me and I’ve put Elvis on the CD player. It’s only Elvis because we watched America’s Got Talent last night and there was an Elvis impersonator who was excellent and then I remembered I had Elvis Gold and thought I’d play a little… See how one thing leads to another?

Anyway, it’s cleaning lady day today (and I’m not sure what she and her daughter Yasmeen think of Elvis). Umm Rami is not working for me just now because she had a baby boy in the Eid (Mohamed), her 4th child which she sure wasn’t excited about when she got pregnant. So I haven’t seen Umm Rami for a while and the cleaning lady is her sister Umm Mohamed and she often brings her daughter Yasmeen (2 for the price of 1 so I don’t mind) who is about 14 I guess and has already had a position as a live-in maid but that family went back home to wherever they lived and Yasmeen now works casually. Mohamed sometimes suggests she could come and be our live-in but I don’t want that in essentially what is a 3-bedroom flat. I wouldn’t mind the “all the cooking and cleaning done every day” part of the arrangement but I don’t want the “someone living on top of us and with us all the time” part. If we had a bigger house with a separate area maybe…

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Umm Mohamed. Umm Mohamed wears a niqab which adds another dimension…. I need to tell her every time Mohamed is going to be in her sight so that she can put it on, she needs to wear it to clean the balconies or if someone comes to the door, so things need to be planned a little so that she has time to be appropriately dressed if there’s any chance of a man, including Mohamed, seeing her. That means Mohamed can’t (or doesn’t) move freely about the house while she is here and I have to precede him, announcing his presence. It also means that if he happens to come home early she eats in the kitchen as she wouldn’t eat with him - plus it’s more difficult to eat with a niqab, although I do see women out doing it. I guess that Mohamed could just do as he pleases and she would have to wear it all the time she was working but he understands that it is hot and more difficult so he is happy to be the one to make allowances (if that’s the right was to say it).

Interestingly Umm Rami doesn’t wear one and nor does Yasmeen, both of them just wear a scarf. The other really interesting thing is that once there are just us women in the house Umm Mohamed is quite unfettered and one day in the height of summer even washed the floors in her underwear! She always tucks her abeya up into the bottom of her knickers so that she has free and bare legs. And yet Umm Rami always keeps her abeya down and even usually wears leggings underneath…. One interpretation obviously doesn’t fit every woman.

Forgot to tell you the other day that Logan has started walking – he’s such a cutie – Lahni shares video of him on Facebook for me so I get to see him making progress. Would love to give him a cuddle though. And Fallon is growing like mad and smiling at everything and chewing rattles etc., she’s gorgeous. Ley’s partner Amanda is having a boy – his name is Finn. She’s around 21 weeks, due in February. I doubt I will get back home now until after he is born, can’t see how it will be possible with the business and all.
The business is slow to begin, if anyone knows of any travel agents with whom we could partner to provide tours I’d love to talk to them… give them my email or tell them to talk to me on Facebook under Nile Wave Travel. (Sorry another short ad break there, I think realistically you can expect one in each blog :-))

OK got to go now, I’m sure there was something else I was going to tell you but I can’t think of it right now, I got distracted by Umm Mohamed. I bet as soon as I post it will pop into my head. :-)

Promise to keep writing more regularly,

Lotsa love

Lyndall

PS Recently enjoyed reading “Salmon fishing in the Yemen” – look for it at your local library

Catch up time!

It’s a long time since I wrote and I’m sure you’ve mostly stopped reading and looking by now, so you’ve probably come across this by pure chance! Life has just become so busy with the company (Nile Wave Travel, find us on Facebook and become a fan - sorry, small ad break there) and the net is so slow here that I just never seem to get around to writing. Besides, life is now routine- the same routine you have – get up, go to work, come home from work, have dinner, watch TV or work on the computer, go to bed! There’s not much exotic or interesting about that!

But because it’s been a few months there have been a few bits and pieces.

Mohamed’s sister Shimaa and her husband and 2 kids, Yousef and Hella visited from Kuwait. I have put some photos of the kids on Facebook – they are gorgeous but “full of life” shall we say. Shimaa is adorable and taught me a little more Arabic and a little more cooking. They mostly stayed in their own flat in Maadi, and bought another one while they were here (in our estate). Mohamed adores the kids and it was lovely when they were around.

We bought a new car – Mohamed finally got his way and we now have a new black BMW which is nice but not sure that I would buy another, at least another not 3 series. There’s no storage room in it for anything, only takes a single CD, no cup holders in the front, doesn’t have anything like floor mats (the dealer generously gave us rubber ones), the leather seats and sun roof are unbelievably hot here in summer (maybe I’ll appreciate the sunroof more in winter) – I have a list! I know these are all little things and I’m sure the engineering is superb, still, little things matter. I especially hate the no cupholders and no storage, there’s nowhere to keep any CDs for example when you want to change the one you can have in the player and your bottle of water rolls around on the floor and you can’t have a coffee…. whinge, whinge, whine…

There was a story in the trip when went to collect it – having sold the Honda we took a taxi. Not just any taxi, the most dangerous, decrepit, battered taxi in all of Cairo I am sure. When we got there Mohamed gave him 100 pounds and told me he hoped he’d go home for the day so no one got killed. For most of the 15 or so kms I was sure it would probably be us! At least I was in the back, but I didn’t have a seatbelt and my door didn’t close properly…. Seemed very incongruous arriving at the BMW showrooms in this fashion.

And Mohamed’s sister Hagar got married, a very nice Nubian wedding through the night with much music and dancing – so many different customs. The contract ceremony was on the Saturday, with Mohamed standing in at the mosque for Hagar (men only ceremony) and then the party on Sunday night. They are not together until after the party.

So - Hagar's wedding was different and interesting, about 200 people I'd guess, most from Upper Egypt (Aswan) as both families originate there. So the faces looked African rather than Egyptian and the music was Nubian, like Ethiopian/Sudanese. The dancing was also African rather than Arab, so no belly dancing. More like line dancing of a sort.... really easy to do.

It was all very different from the start - we collected Hagar around 8.30 pm from the "coiffeur"/dress place/photo studio and her Mohamed (yes her husband is also called Mohamed) was already there along with about 40 other people attending the wedding and about a dozen other brides, all with their own crowds - incredibly hot, incredibly crowded, incredibly noisy - we had one family photo taken and then, once the most important people had all arrived, we all loaded into cars and one of our Coasters amid clapping, tambourine banging and music, people blessing the couple etc. Our new car was the couple’s transport, decorated with flowers, Nubian music playing - loudly.

We all went in a sort of procession (as much as you can in Cairo traffic), horns tooting and music blaring, with some cars weaving in and out of the traffic, to the reception place beside the Nile, open air with coloured lights, awnings and heavy satiny curtains - hard to explain. Tables and chairs and a dance area (concrete but with carpets over some of it). A raised stage for the bride and groom with big chairs. Food was a small cardboard box with a small round croissant, a slice of sponge/cream cake and a small juice. Feeding Omar (one of our little nephews) I managed to get the cream all over me. Lots of dancing. Sometimes just men in one group and women in another, sometimes together. Sometimes the bride and groom sometimes not. Stick waving (like walking sticks being waved in the air by the men), finger snapping, clapping, ululating, spraying with Santa snow and air freshener (go figure). SO HOT!!!!

About 1 am the bride and groom danced with Mohamed's parents (his dad on crutches so couldn't get up onto the stage etc.) and another relative of Mohamed's also danced with them holding a tray on which was a velvet box and chocolates. Then back onto the stage and it was revealed that this was the wedding gold for Hagar including her wedding and engagement rings, gold bracelets, another couple of gold and diamond rings and a diamond pendant. So Mohamed put those on her and she in turn transferred his wedding ring from his right hand to his left. Then they threw all the chocolates into the crowd. Lots more noise – tambourines and ululation.

And there ended the only formalities, as such. Lots more dancing. Finally the procession out preceded by the tambourine type drums (big ones) and singing, clapping etc., then up to the car and the men all picked Mohamed up and threw him into the air three times after which he joined us in the car and half a dozen cars made another horn-tooting, music-playing procession to where they were staying. Normally it would be to their house but the carpenter didn't finish the kitchen so they stayed a few days at Shimaa's flat. Then it was goodnight and goodbye.

So there you have it – all very exciting and interesting.

And now I’d better go, get back to work so to speak, designing more tours, talking to more hotels, etc. etc.

I hope you are all well and happy



Lotsa luv

Lyndall


PS - there's some wedding photos on Facebook and photos of the family - look for them in the family in Egypt album but feel free to browse and comment on my other photos as well :-)