We, as usual, are involved in everything. We've only just finished the big gala dinner and we're starting to get ready for the graduation in a couple of weeks' time. Friends are having parties (for birthdays and just-because) that we're going to, and we've still got one set of visitors with us and another set arriving in two weeks!
Earlier in the week we went downtown to met with Gordon G May, the author and adventurer who rode a 1952 BSA Bantam from Stockport to Cairo. Check out his website at http://www.overlandtoegypt.co.uk/ for information on the journey, and to find a link to his blog. It was my dad who told me about the project, and I was following him online when he made his first (failed) attempt in late 2009. I sent him a couple of messages saying we'd be interested in seeing him when he made it to Cairo, he said he'd be in touch when he made it. With his new attempt I again followed his blog, and was really pleased to get an email last week saying he was in Alexandria and would be arriving in Cairo the next day. We arranged to meet the following evening, so headed downtown to the Windsor Hotel (an ex Officer's Club) to meet him and his bike, Peggy:
We initially had a cup of tea at the cafe opposite the hotel, where we spoke about a few things and got to know each other. It turns out Gordon had lived for a while in Finsbury Park so knew Alice's area pretty well; he's since moved to Stockport so that gave me a connection to him as well.
In my email to him, we'd offered to show him around the area since we were quite close to Attaba, Mohamed Ali Street and Islamic Cairo - an area of Cairo we adore. He was keen to give it a go, so we spent a really lovely few hours wandering around and chatting about all things under the sun. He told us about the business he used to own in New Zealand for which he used to buy materials from SE Asia, so was really in his element in tent-makers' market. We said how being in the old city at dusk is magical, and managed to baksheesh the guys in the beautiful Bab Zuwela to let us climb the minaret 2 hours after they should have closed, and view the panorama. We went into Cairo's oldest fez workshop, dealt with the hawkers across the road, and ate at the Khan El Khalili restaurant. Afterwards we took a taxi back to the Windsor, argued with the driver about the price, and got lost in the suit-making workshops off 26th July Street. At least we now know where they are! Throughout the evening we spoke about visiting Stockport, which prompted him to ask where exactly as he lives there. We told him about Eggnog and co, and it turns out his son lives in Romiley where they do. He, he said, lives a few minutes down the road. "Not in Bredbury?" I asked, half jokingly (this being where Stu lives). He laughed - yes! It really is a small world.
While all this was going on, it was the big Cairo football derby between Zamalek and Ahly, so we saw street cafes packed with guys watching the match on badly-tuned TVs. We had a beer in the hotel bar before we headed home, but not before I'd chewed the cud with Gordon over some ways he could cool his poor 2-stroke engine. We discussed the possibility of a solar-powered fan to blow a bit of air over it, or fashioning a kind of funnel to catch the air and channel it over the engine. I can't wait to read the blog and see how he got on, especially as the temperatures here are getting quite high.
It was a truly wonderful evening, and one that happened by complete chance with a man who turned out to be the most fascinating, easy-going, and generally lovely blokes we could have met. We really felt he appreciated us taking the time out to go and visit him and show him a side of Cairo he almost certainly wouldn't had seen if he had been left to his own devices. Our local knowledge helped to point him in the direction of the used car parts market, which he was incredibly grateful for. When he arrived in Egypt the border authorities scratched the paint off his frame number, and it turned out the 9 at the end of the number was actually a 0, meaning the number on his bike doesn't match his carnet. He eventually managed to get across the border, but wanted to get a mechanic with number punches to redo the frame number to ease any future problems. We're sure that somebody in the used car market will be able to help, and we're really pleased we were able to point him in the right direction!
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