Christmas became a very festive affair. The jollities began with our invitation to the British Consulate's Christmas party up in Alexandria. Penny became very excited over the prospect of free booze, but not just any booze, actual labelled booze. The consulates it turned out get treated like royalty in Egypt and Marie-Ann was no exception. We walked in her house which was not dissimilar to the interior of the White House. ( not that I've experienced the inside of the White House first hand but I can imagine it to be something close) There was free booze and yummy canapes and a fair few old Egypt-loving expats who had probably been in the country since the fall of the Pharaonic Dynasties. It seemed a far cry from our little siwan dust bowl hidden in the middle of the Great Sand Sea.
Part of the booze and canape deal was that we all had to take part in a fun old sing song of carols. Accompanied by a leathery old handbag on a Casio keyboard and a rather over enthusiastic rotund harmony-belter of a man with a uneven moustache, we had just enough alchohol in our systems to manage a fal la la la la.. Many of us found the whole thing hilarious and after a few yummy glasses of wine ( which I've been starved of for 2 months) it was hard not to chuckle behind our freshly printed carol sheets. I did however manage not to embarrass myself in any way shape or form and met a lovely 90 year old woman with whom I had the most pleasant of banters with. She was so small she would have popped her in my pocket. On second thoughts... she might have very well been a small child. Oh well, at least I didn't fall over.
Everyone survived the evening and I met a few nice people. But there always had to be the obligatory sleeze which had to rear his ugly head. This was a "party" after all. So, I got chatting to a nice couple, a man from manchester and his Filipino wife and 12 year old son. The Ridgleys and I were planning to head to a bar after the party as it was ending at 8pm (!!) and so we invited them along. I gave the guy my number so we could find them all later. It was not until the next morning that I found an array of sleazy gross lovey dovey messages on my phone, who I then worked out was from this lovely family guy from the party. I found this totally disgusting ( but not unusual ) but I was reminded of how cheating, creepy and rude some men can be. Anyways, after being grossed out for 5 minutes I got over.
After our little Alexandria expedition and a very exciting Carrefour trip we boarded the cronk tank and started the bum breaking 9 hour bus journey back to Siwa.
The festive cheer didn't end there though. We broke up for A couple of weeks Christmas holiday and my little tearaways were let loose in town to hang out in the Souk or play computer games. Christmas Eve consisted of trying to design 4 Business cards which I was told had to be sent to Cairo for printing in the next 2 days. Unlikely. Angus had apparently misbehaved at a dinner with a bunch of guests and was grounded all day in the house and hence not allowed on his computer. Taking Angus's computer away from him like ripping a bottle of Special brew out of a homeless mans hand. I thought this not a particularly festive method of punishment but then again, he did spend all evening bitching to guests that he had no friends and he hates his life...which I can imagine made a lovely impression on the family which was earger to know what life was like for kids living in the desert being home schooled.
Christmas Day was spent around the Ridgley's with really nice Norwegian couple and their two small children. Penny managed to find someone to source and kill for her the biggest turkey I've ever seen. We had Cranberry sauce and stuffing courtesy of Sasha who shipped it from England along with the kids presents. In the evening more guests arrived for drinks and general merriment around the fire. I had had enough booze by then to happily spend most the evening entertaining Electra, Helene and Henrik's 6 year old little girl who is very sweet. Sweet enough to adorn my right arm with whopping purple bite marks.
I haven't yet had another bout of Gastro Goodness so all if very good on the health front. Claudia and I do yoga at the weekends and according to Penny takes it very seriously, even practicing her Dolphin dives at home.
Mostly at the weekends I try to stay away from the kids but Caludia is always in town and so we do yoga or cycle to Abashoruf which is a cold spring 30km out of town. It is mainly flat as you make your way over these incredible shallow salt lakes for miles. There is literally nothing out there apart from a water factory and this spring which is crystal clear and has small fish swimming around in it. We haven't been recently as it's been a little chilly and sand stormy.
Just before Christmas Eve I realised I had run out of gas so I called my landlord to find out whether I could get any more. I had heard a rumor that Siwa had some sort of gas shortage but I didn't think much of it as the hotels were still operating and chicken was still being cooked out on the streets at night.
Nearly a week later and I'm starting to believe them. I had also forgotten that the chicken spitting away on the side of the road was always cooked on open barrels over fires or in the ground. Whoops. One of the Guys from the souk told me today that he knows one of the men who has gas a little way out of town and will go there under the cover of darkness to buy some off of him for me. Hopefully I will have gas tomorrow. I have however been hoping the same for the last 5 days.
I don't mind cold food much but I like hot food more.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment