Nile Cruise 8 - Sailing to Esna Lock

Nile Cruise 7 - Our first thoughts

PART 1

PART 2

Nile Cruise 6 - Queen Hatchepsut's Temple

Continuing Internet Problems

As reported in the world news, Egypt (along with the rest of the Middle East, North Africa, and much of the Indian subcontinent) is experiencing enormous internet problems. It all stems from the severing of 3 of the 4 undersea cables that connect this part of the world to Europe - and is having dramatic consequences on businesses in this area of the world.

It also means that access to YouTube is being limited and so we're struggling to upload and link to the videos we've recorded...although we've just succeeded in uploading our Christmas Update here.

According to the BBC, the cables are in the process of being repaired, but as the severed ends of each of the cables could be many miles away from each other it's proving difficult enough to locate them, let alone reconnect each individual fibre inside the cable. The main cable, SeaMeWe-4, was scheduled to be repaired yesterday but if our internet is anythign to go by then that didn't happen!

It's the second time that internet connection out here has been affected this year, as in January and February exactly the same issue occurred thanks to 2 of the 4 cables being cut.

Anyway, if you have been wondering why our contact with the rest of the world has been so erratic of late, that's why. So, sit tight, and keep checking back for further updates!

Nile Cruise 5 - Valley of the Kings

Nile Cruise 4 - Luxor Temple

Nile Cruise 3 - Karnak Temple

Nile Cruise 2 - Boarding the Boat

Nile Cruise 1 - Arriving in Luxor

For the first week of our break from school we sailed up the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. We've been fascinated by the "majesty" of Egypt for years - I reckon we first spoke about visiting here in 2002 - and this was our first real chance to see the Ancient Egyptian sites we'd dreamt about for so long.

There'll be absolutely LOADS of videos uploaded over the next week as we plough through the stuff we recorded and narrate it, but we hope it shares our experience.

Christmas in Cairo

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Irish music in the basilica

On Wednesday night I had a bit of a late one for a school night. Our Irish band had been asked to play a piece or two at the Christmas Carol Service of a colleague's church. We agreed that accordion, low whistle and guitar would go along, and so without much practice due to other commitments, we took a car from Maadi to the Basilica of Notre Dame in Heliopolis.

"The Basilica is in the historical heart of Heliopolis. Modeled on Istanbul’s Aya Sofya and its Byzantine style, it is affectionately known as the “Jelly Mould”. The interior has its own riches, stained glass windows, a large organ from Belgium towers over the congregation while granite pillars floated from Aswan provide the foundations for the light filled unadorned dome."

It's a beautiful church - very Coptic or Orthodox in its style and iconography inside, but is a Catholic Basilica. The organisers kept apologising for the poor acoustics. We didn't agree - the huge dome directly over where we were playing created a phenomenal reverb, and the low whistle in In The Bleak Midwinter was truly haunting. We segued from that into a slow verse of In Dulce Jubilo before picking up the pace and sprinting through it again before a key change from C to G twice. From there we moved straight into a couple of up-tempo run-throughs of Christmas in Kilarney a couple of times, for which low whistle was switched to bodhran.

We played really well - especially considering we'd barely practised - and lots of people came up to us at the end of the service to ask about gigs. The highlight for me, though, was the Choir of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word who performed some amazing latin choral pieces.

Make your own Christmas tree!

Yesterday we received a very exciting Christmas package, inside which was a "make your own Christmas tree" set. So this afternoon, sitting in the pleasant surroundings of our balcony over the smog-choked and noise-polluted streets of Maadi, we built our little tree.

Christmas begins in Maadi

Today we received a parcel...