Seeing for ourselves: 29th - 31st January

In the school bus and it's dusk now. We speed along the airport road towards the ring road. It's quiet, but there definitely cars still about.

Once we're on the ring road we start to see the tanks. They are just parked up in the inside lane with army guys standing near them. They are all looking and watching; alert, but not in an aggressive way. A tank is parked up outside the JW Marriot and another at the entrance to a compound residence. The petrol stations are all closed and have tape around them to stop anyone pulling in.

We turn onto Street 9, the main entrance to Katameya. As we come off the roundabout we join a small queue of cars, buses and trucks where the army tanks and vehicles have blocked the road. They are checking ID and looking inside each vehicle. They look inside at us and Rageb gives him his ID and tells him in Arabic that we are two English teachers. He asks for our passports and looks in them as another guy goes around the bus with a mirror/stick to check underneath. We sit silently not really making eye contact, but trying not to look shifty. We're let through.

Instead of going to school we're taken to Nicki's apartment just a few streets away. She says that no one is staying at school yet and she's about to open a bottle of wine. We reply that we're a little emotional, but if she can cope with that we'd love to join her. The streets here aren't of the greatest quality as it's all essentially a building site. The bus goes a bit slower over the sand, water and pot holes in the dark absence of street lamps. We see fires burning at the side of the road and people huddled around them. At Nicki's she opens the padlocked gate, double locked front door and locked door to her apartment. Inside and we feel safe.

On the TV we see the scenes that have unfolded since we left the hotel in Luxor. It seems that things have continued to descend, with violence, fires, looting and weapons being in Tahrir Square and all over the cities.

Along with the stories of looting and setting fire to places are stories of men walking around with huge sticks, large knives, guns and anything that could be a weapon. It doesn't sound good. It sounds very worrying. What we see around Nicki's though is the fires are small fires started by the bowabs to keep themselves warm as they sit out all night to protect the building from looters. It seems as well that these bowabs and young men are also the ones with the huge sticks and knives, but these are to protect the property, not to attack it.

News comes on that a Vice-President has been appointed for the first time in 30 years. According to Nicki's Egyptian husband this guy is well respected and it seems a good move. He flicks back and forth between the English news channels and the Arabic ones so that he can get both stories. Interestingly the Arabic news channels are showing mainly peaceful images of the protests from the day, in stark contrast to the violent clashes shown on other channels.

We head into school and Flossie is there. She has just managed to bring 40 students through Cairo airport during curfew and the school trip she was on finishes today. What a day to finish on! Most of the kids apparently were picked up at the airport - and some even collected off the plane! A good sign maybe that so many are ignoring curfew, or maybe not? We help them settle in to the night at school; PE mats, blankets and pillows and put out in the Primary classrooms and dinner is chipsey! All the teachers look knackered and drained. I'm glad that we weren't the ones who had to tell the kids what was going on and what to expect when they landed. What do you say?

On the journey back to Nicki's we try one route, but the road has been totally blocked by the bowab army. They've used bits of concrete and bricks that have been laying around and tree branches. They are helpful though and from their fire-side seats they redirect us down a different side street that is clear. Later we come across a pattern of bricks that has been laid out in the road to block traffic. The driver calls across the verge to a group of people who are sat around a fire. They start to walk towards us. Another group is also silhouetted against the fires and we see they are carrying bats in their hands. Ibrahim is very relaxed with them and asks if we can come through. They peer in the car and then move two of the bricks so there is just enough space for us to pass. I guess this control over the road means that movement is slow and limited and therefore they can respond to any unknown visitors or looters more quickly. It's eerie though.

Back at Nicki's we collapse into bed but have a sleepless night.

We get up early and just splash some water on our faces rather than have a full shower. There doesn't feel much point in getting cleaned up with the day planned ahead of us as it is. Over night we have come up with a list of priorities when we get back to our apartment. If we get back to our apartment. We honestly don't know what to expect. There obviously are looters around and if they are at the Grand Mall then the could have very well gone to our place too. We try and reason with ourselves; why would they climb the stairs to a third floor apartment when they are all the spoils of the Mall out in front of them. On the other hand it's well known that westerners live in our building as we are always out on the street and well known. But because we are well known won't people have tried to protect it? We've seen images of buildings being torched. If the Grand Mall has been torched then our building is the closest and it's very possible that it has also caught alight. we've only seen two fire trucks in the two-and-a-half years we lived here so we doubt they will have come to any rescue. Will they have targeted our building because the ground floor apartment is being done up and so is empty? The location that we boast about ("oh we're right next to the Mall - so convenient to the bank and getting taxis") now looks like its the worst possible place to be - why don't we live in an anonymous street in Degla with no landmarks and just residential housing around it? All of this is running through our heads and the moment we reason that the phone calls must just be rumours and it can't be that bad, we then use the other logical side and conclude that we very possibly be going to a shell and only have the two bags we took to Luxor to our name.

In school and we have a sort of board meeting of all the staff who are around i.e. us and the teachers from the trip that arrived last night. Coffee is put on and we drink this and eat the only food available; liquor chocolates that the staff bought in Duty Free on their way back from Switzerland.

The aim is for the five staff who live in Maadi to be taken there in the school bus now curfew has been lifted. OK then, lets go. But no. We now hear that there are no drivers willing to take us. Doesn't sound good. But who would blame them? They've got their own homes and families to think of. As there's nothing we can do we all sit down and have another coffee and open more liquors.

Drivers have turned up now, but school have decided that a minibus isn't the best way to travel into town. Last night they felt the school branded bus was safe because it was clear who we were - now they've decided the opposite. It's suggested that Mrs D will offer her Mercedes to take us in. Not sure that will help us avoid detection! After 30 minutes three cars pull up outside school and so we're ready to go. It's 9.10am and we decide that as this is the last time we'll be near an international phone line for who knows how long we will give the UK a call. Our call wakes Jane up - maybe this wasn't as reassuring as we'd hoped it would be for them!

Our convoy of cars heads off along the ring road. It is busier than last night but still pretty quiet. There are tanks at all the entrances and exits off the road. The army are a presence, but they aren't being active but are letting traffic flow as normal. We're anxious to get back to our place and see what it is like. We just don't know what to expect and so want to get there and see for ourselves. The drivers have decided their route and unfortunately the one they've chosen means we will be dropped off last - doesn't help!

We enter Maadi through the Road 233 / Road 198 entrance. This is the closest to the prison that has been rumoured to have lost its prisoners. There aren't tanks here, or army, but young men. They are stopping the cars and have total control of this junction. There are about two dozen men ranging from young teenagers to mid-30's maybe. They all have a weapon of some description from knives strapped to their arms to bread knives in their hands, from large metal clubs to pieces of 2-by-4. They speak to the driver and look inside. Scott winds down his window and smiles at the nearest guy. He smiles and comes over. "We are sorry about this. We are just trying to protect our neighbourhood. We are sorry that we have to do this" "Oh no, it is fine. Thank you for doing this" we reply " Thank you for looking after our neighbourhood". We're soon on our way and we just hope that there is something similar to this near our building.

After what feels like an age dropping people off we're now travelling to our place. There are people out on the streets - not loads - but at least we can see people around. We can't see any tanks yet. All of the shops we see are closed apart from the small greengrocer shops. They have fresh fruit and veg - a good sign? We just don't know. We get closer to our street and things are quiet, but OK we think. On Road 206 now and there are bits of concrete in the street to slow traffic down. A pipe has also burst we think as there is water across the street - or maybe this is another ploy to slow traffic down as everyone knows that cars in Egypt only slow down for speed bumps and water on the road.

We're outside our building. It looks like it always did. The apartment on the ground floor still has no windows, but it hasn't for about 12 months. We look up and there are people on two of the balconies. One is Samah from upstairs. She waves. A huge weight is taken off our shoulders as things look OK. We walk upstairs and unlock our door. It all looks like we left it. Relief.

How did the impression of the Grand Mall as a war zone get so strong in our minds when this is what it is like here? We received so many calls and so many messages of what was happening, yet what we can see is an empty roundabout. The street isn't littered to indicate that 5,000 people were here only 18 hours ago. The Mall looks in one piece and there's no sign of fire or breakages. Later we find out that people had been carrying away goods from the mall, but these were the shop keepers taking pre-emptive action by removing their stock so that the looters wouldn't get their livelihood. It seems that this is the likley image that people concluded was looting. I'm sure that the mall was a gathering place for protestors, but 5,000? It seems not. We later hear a story that north of the mall there is a burnt out police truck and a tank. OK so there is some truth, but the messages we received were stories that had been retold and retold leading to exaggeration and conclusions being drawn. We're so glad to be on the ground here and see it for ourselves.

In our apartment and we gather a few things together. We've got our list and go through it. We pick up the cash we have left here and our UK sim cards (these will mean, we hope, that we can phone and recieve calls from the UK). I'm a hoarder and it's amazing when you raelly think about it what the important things are. The essentials that you need. We manage to whittle this down to our original teaching/degree certificates, our work contracts, laptop and back-up hard-drive and some jewellery (the earrings I wore for our wedding and the pocketwatch I gave Scotty for christmas). We put our musical instruments out of sight (not so easy to carry them around the street!) and also hide some other electricals (leaving some electricals out on the desk so that if someone was to break in they would see and take these first and hopefully not go looking further). Emergency bag packed it's 10.30am and we take the short walk to Degla to where we will stay with friends Flossie, Caz and D&P the next few nights.

We spend the rest of the day catching up on what is happening around Maadi (not by leaving the flat, but by making phone calls!) and watching the news channels. 192, 21 and 388 become etched in our minds and movements as we swap between Al Jazeera, BBC World and Sky News. We also have lots of cups of tea.

Curfew hits at 3pm, but we haven't ventured out since we arrived. The news is too captivating and at the moment we'd rather be safe indoors. As it gets dark outside we hear scuffling on the street - it is kids playing football in the street under the combination of street light and light from the small fires that have been lit outside most buildings. Flossie's bowab is an old man but he still has a large stick and a fire going. At the top of their cul-de-sac there is a larger road block on all four sides of the cross-roads. This road block includes a police booth that has been moved to the centre of the street. Gun fire rings out on occaision. It's hard to tell where it is coming from, but none of it is sustained and therefore it sounds more like warning shots than exchange of fire.

Dark now and we settle down to watch some TV interspersed with news. Gun fire i still taking place, but it is surprising how quickly you get used to it. Suddenly there is an increase in volume outside. Shouting and running. We all jump up and head to the balcony to see what is going on. People are running up and down the street and women are shouting at each other. What is going on? Suddenly there is a car at the road block at the top of the street. It screetches as it does a U-ey at full pelt and returns to where it came from at the top of 213 / 233. What is going on? We call D&P who are at their place just three doors away but may have more of an idea.

It turns out that the neighbourhood watch have seen a gang of suspected looters trying to get into the area via the wasteland at the end of the cul-de-sac. The car was coming down to warn people and the shouting was to get the teams mobilised. We hear on the other end of the phone P shouting from their balcony to the bowab army on the wasteland. His view up there means he can see where the gang are trying to hide in the bushes.
 A few minutes later we hear a heavy low rumbling sound. It's getting louder and closer and then suddenly into view at the top of the street comes a tank. It's moving in the direction of the wasteland to try and sort things out. We decide now might be the time to head back inside.



Things do eventually quieten down and we head to bed. Our attempts at sleep are interrupted by cracks of gun fire but all things considered we sleep pretty soundly!

Next morning we wake up to hear Caz and Flossie talking on the phone outside our room. There's a knock at the door and they come in. We all sit on the bed as we're told that school has said they will not open again until 20th February.

Alice's birthday mosaic

Click the image to zoom in.

Watching from a distance: 28th - 29th January

After we finished our run we came back to the hotel and rested up for a bit - we deserved it I think! After we showered we decided to head out for some lunch. We switched on the news around noon and saw that crowds were gathering in Tahrir Square.

It was while watching this that we realised something; we'd been feeling a little miffed that none of our folks back in the UK had returned our text messages to say we had finished the run. No "well done" or even "happy birthday" We thought maybe it was a little early in the morning for them to reply, but then started to worry. A little test between our two phones confirmed it - there was no text messaging. We could phone each other, but couldn't phone anyone in Cairo. Also: no internet. Things not looking too good.

Coming back from lunch though we turned the TV on and didn't turn it off for another 5 hours. We were glued to the constantly changing and dramatically descending events that were taking place.

It was horrible to be watching something happening so close to you, but to feel so far away and isolated. We couldn't contact anyone in Cairo to see what was happening where they were and that they were OK. News was focused on downtown, but that didn't mean things wouldn't be happening elsewhere and we just felt useless.

We decided to call the UK using the hotel land line - expense didn't matter with the thought of actually getting to speak to someone. We reassured them that we were OK and safe but had no communications and so couldn't speak to Cairo.

That evening we come up with a plan. It seems that on Saturday there will be a curfew in place starting at 6pm. The late flight we have booked to allow us a longer weekend is now on our minds. Our flight is due to land at 6.05pm so it looks like if we catch that flight we'll end up sleeping in Cairo airport. We could then get school to pick us up from the airport and go direct to work. That's if the flight runs and if school is open of course! We try to call Egypt Air to see if we can get an earlier flight, they say you need to get to an Egypt Air office and we can't so we decide that we'll try and head to the airport in Luxor earlier than planned tomorrow and see if we can just get a seat on an earlier flight. At least then we can get out of the airport and maybe get to Rehab and stay with our friends the Greens.

All of these options are spinning round in our heads as we go for a beer before the Race Gala Dinner. Over dinner we talk with the friends we have made about the events unfolding. The clashes that have taken place have been horrible, just horrible, to watch and to think are taking place at this time. The only positive is that despite the communications blackout these images are getting through and the world can see them. We are alternating between watching Al Jazeera and BBC World (with a glance at Sky and CNN every now and then). If people can see this, then they know what is happening and something can happen, something can change.

After dinner we watch TV again to see what has happened. Scott catches a glimpse of an army vehicle under a road bridge in one shot. For the whole day he has been saying that the role of the army will be key; who will they side with, the people or the president? If the army are on the street things are getting serious and this is a turning point in a revolution.

We go to bed feeling very uneasy about what's happening and what's to come.

We get up and switch on the news. Things seem to have continued yet descended further into terrible chaos overnight. We have breakfast and when we are back in our room suddenly the phone rings. It's Nicki from school and communications are back up!

We're told that there will be no school until Wednesday but until then anyone can go to the school site where there is bedding, food, water and security if they would feel safer there than at home. Apparently there are tanks on the streets of Maadi, lots of unrest at night and many people are growing worried - especially with the communications down.

We tell her that we are in Luxor and due to fly back tonight, but hoping to get an earlier flight. She says we may as well have an extended holiday down here, but for us we don't feel that we can stay. We really feel that we need to get back to Cairo and see for ourselves what is happening. If we were to stay here all we would do is sit glued to the TV to look for developments on what is happening - it wouldn't really be a holiday but a very expensive way to watch TV!

Noon and we check out of the hotel (after giving another call to the UK to update everyone and create our own mini-phone tree there). We pick up a taxi outside and head straight to the airport.

The drive takes us through part of Luxor town. It's quiet. There are a few tourists and locals about, but it's still quiet. We see one police/security guy by a hotel, but that's it. It's strange as we are used to seeing Police on every street corner, especially in tourist locations, and now they have all retreated. Down a side street we see some army vehicles. One building has the road blocked off by it and its windows have been taken out by rocks it seems. The crest on the outside shows it's an official government building. One the edge of town now and there are proper tanks on the street with army guys and their guns just standing by. They look calm, rather than on edge, which is a good thing we think. Driving away from town now and through the fields and we see more army guys in trucks being driven into town and then more with a tank by the bridge. They are here.

We get to the airport and head straight to the check-in desk. It's not as busy as I thought it would be. I thought there would be lots of people trying to get out, but on the other hand it doesn't seem that there are any problems in Luxor, so why would people be trying to get out? They are very safe in their hotels and tourist sites, so why leave? Connecting flights will mean people won't even need to go into Cairo, so can stay out of trouble.

At the desk and there is another guy asking the question we will shortly ask; can we get on an earlier flight. It looks like the clerk has been dealing with him for about 10 minutes and is fed up of saying "no". The clerk looks to the supervisor who gestures for the guy to come around the back of the check-in area. We ask the quick question and are told if we pay 150LE per person admin fee we can change ticket onto a flight leaving in an hour. Bingo. That's what we want to hear.

150LE paid we are back at the check-in desk and putting our hold luggage on the scale. It's only once we get the tickets in our hands that we think this plan might actually work. The flight is due to leave at 1.30pm so that gives us enough time before curfew to get out of the airport. Phew - it'll be such a relief to get home and see things for ourselves. This is our home and we want to be there.

We go through to the departures lounge and suddenly see why it is so quiet at check-in. Everyone is in here. It's packed. There's not a seat left. We look at the board. Our flight isn't listed and all the flights that are listed are delayed. Hhmmm. Not looking too good.

Suddenly we see people we know. It's Amr and Mara who we met at the hotel (we shared a golf buggy from reception to our rooms....the hotel was on an island did we forget to mention?). They greet us warmly and say that they have been waiting here all morning as their flight to Cairo has been delayed. This doesn't sound good. Amr is Egyptian and had been using his charm to find out what was going on. Apparently they weren't flying the larger planes between Cairo and Luxor, but only the smaller shuttles. Their scheduled flight was a big plane and so that's why it had been delayed. Our flight wasn't on the schedule because it was an additional flight that they were just sticking in. They'd got a plane and were flying it back and forth as quickly as possible to ship people to where they wanted to be.

In other news they tell us that the NDP building in Luxor has been set alight. We put two and two together and realise this is the building we passed with its windows smashed out. We must have missed the torching by about 10 minutes.

News about the delays for friends wasn't great, but we were pleased that it seemed our flight might be actually happening. We grabbed some food and sat down to eat when Amr came over and said that they'd just called our flight - he was really looking out for us, what a guy! In the queue to get on the plane we call Nicki to let them know in Cairo what was going on for us. We didn't want to call any earlier in case the earlier flight didn't pull itself off.

We tell Nicki that we're about to fly out and she tells us that she's been told that there's a lot of action taking place in Maadi at the moment. This makes us nervous. Still in the queue we now get a phone call from two friends in Maadi. They say that the action is taking place at the Grand Mall. Lots of people and the army are moving in. Nicki again and it seems that things have escalated as there is looting taking place and fires. She tells us that when we land we should not go to Maadi. We've seen images on the news of fires taking place downtown and heard of looting of stores. The Grand Mall would be a natural focus in Maadi as it's got some high end western shops. We know what it's like when people gather there for the football celebrations, this would be like that, but the opposite. We're not feeling good. We can;t turn back now and stay in Luxor, nor do we want to, but we feel inside very very uneasy about returning to Maadi and what will greet us on our return. On the plane now and we get a phone call from G who is in London recruiting. She tells us that when we land not only should we not go to Maadi, but specifically we should not go to our flat. Words are bandied about like "war zone" and that we might not have a home to go to. Images in our minds of fires, looting, tanks and mayhem. Our phone keeps ringing with these reports until we start to taxi and we have to turn them off. It's a horrible flight.

15 minutes till landing according to the map n the TV screen and we're just about Saqarra. But then the planes hangs a left and we start a loop. Nothing too bad with this. The landing time creeps back 10 minutes. Then we loop again and the landing time creeps back again. On the third loop the landing time is now extended 30 minutes later and we wonder if in fact we will land in Cairo or will be diverted somewhere else. But where else? We can't go to Alex or Suez (next nearest airports), so could it be back to Luxor? We see other planes circling too. Everyone is tyring to land before curfew.

We finally land at exactly 4pm. This is the start of curfew. Great. In our minds though we're hoping that actually things will be OK between the airport and Katameya or Rehab. I've spoken to the Greens and they are happy for us to stay with them, but if we can get out with think we'll head straight for the safety of school. The sooner we get out and find a taxi the better. The luggage claim area is packed. It seems that Cairo airport is able to get the flights in, but not the bags on the belts. It is an hour before our bag turns up. There goes our hope of travelling during curfew.

Our in the main airport now we head to the Information Desk.
"We would like to travel to Rehab or Katameya. It is curfew now, do you think this is possible?"
"Yes. This is possible. Go to the desk there to get a taxi."
Easier than we thought!
Or not. There is no one at the desk and after 10 minutes when the guy does turn up he just looks at us and says "no taxi". So we could get away with travelling during curfew, but there isn't anyone to take us. We look out through the glass walls of the airport to the car park. There are taxis and drivers out there but do we want to risk it? We decide not.

We find two seats together and decide that we will just settle down for the night. It's not going to be comfortable, but we are a step closer to our home. Or what's left of it. And therefore a step closer to seeing for ourselves what is going on in the city where we live. Do we trust these phone calls? Could they be rumour? Who else lives near our house who could say for sure what is happening?

We call Nicki and G to update them. Suddenly though we get a phone call back. It's one of the bus drivers from school telling us that he can drive us. There is a school trip arriving in Cairo tonight and they have secured special passes so that the buses can drive the kids to school. I double and triple check the directions I'm given before we leave the safety of the airport and start to walk through the car park. It's curfew, but we're walking outside. There are lots of people walking outside, so we tell ourselves this is OK. But I cannot see the bus. I call again and check. Then suddenly I see the elephant in the room aka large bus in the car park. At last a familiar site.

Birthday!

I'm doing a separate post to mention a few things about my birthday!

Scotty and I decided that the best way to celebrate would be to do something unique and different...and hence the run that we did. It was really brilliant and so many people commented on what a cool thing to do for my 30th. When we finished the race it was wierd to still have a full day to celebrate.

The first present that I had was the hotel room. Scotty had upgraded our room and it was lovely and huge. We had a large balcony and massive telly (probably had to be that big because the room was so huge).

Scotty gave me the option of opening presents before my birthday, on the morning of my birthday or after the run. I said that I was happy to open them after the run as I didn't want to have to do much more than get dressed at 4.30am! But he said there was one present I did have to open before.

The present was these great running shirts for us both. They are wiki material - which is the bets to run in I think - and they had our names on the back. Best of all on the sleeve he'd got the date of the race, and location, Luxor, sewn on. We've decided that we're going to get the dates and locations of all our future races sewn on too.

When we got back from the run I got onto my other presents! Scotty had bought about half of my presents to Luxor, but other heavier one he had left in Cairo and I'd get them a few days later. The theme of the presents was 1981 / 30 and this also meant that I was getting 30 presents in total :)
Scotty had obviously spent ages finding things as I got not only the 1981 Beano annual, but also the copy of the comic from the week I was born! Luckily we were both Beano kids, not Dandy. A 1981 penny and 1981 Egyptian stamp were real finds. Music is a big thing for us and so he got me a copy of the number one album from the week I was born (Adam and the Ants), number one single (Lennon's Imagine as it had been re-released following his death) and Now 30!
When we were at Caz and Flossie's a few days later I open up a set of 30 colouring pencils all with my name on them and a 30cm ruler :) Scotty bucked the theme, but two brilliant presents were the Trailer Park Boys mug and a book by an author I like, Matt Rees.
Mum was thinking ahead when she bought me some Neal's Yard creme for tired feet (a lot of that was used this weekend!) and a lovely T-shirt hand drawn by Abi (photo soon). From Jane I had a lovely sun necklace which I wore as we travelled back from Luxor. Nerves mean that it was well thumbed by me on that trip and subsequent days, but also by our friends toddler, Zane, who took a liking to it and it's wavy rays. Back in Cairo Ros had perfect timing as her parcel arrived on the Thursday before we went away for the weekend. Although the Egyptian Customs/Post Office did open the parcel the present remained: a glass pint tankard engraved for me :)

Then I opened a small black box. Inside it was a jigsaw, but nothing else. Looking closer I saw that all the pieces had small pictures of me and us on them! Wow! Very cool. Without a picture I set to trying my best to do the jigsaw; find the edges and corners first!

It took a while, but even when I had the boarder and some of the sides done I still couldn't tell what the overall picture was! Scotty kept asking me and then the tell-tale piece went in. The number 30! I remembered how we had our photo taken together this summer by lock 30 along the lock flight at Devizes. Brilliant!

We were getting ourselves ready to go out and grab a spot of lunch, but the images on the TV of downtown Cairo kept distracting us (naturally - more on that in another post). We kept getting knocks on the door from Housekeeping who wanted to tidy the room, but we told them to come back in 30 minutes.

Just as we were leaving a knock from Housekeeping came again. But when we open the door we see it isn't Housekeeping, but a guy with room service. We try and explain we didn't order anything, but then he said "Allsop. Birthday." Erm, yes it is my birthday. I look at Scotty "Not me!" he says. We let the guy bring the tray in and it's a large chocolate mousse cake with a card. I open the card and it's from the hotel. They must have seen my passport on check in and realised! What a great place!

When we came back to our room after lunch Housekeeping had been :)

A brilliant and memorable brithday. Thank you everyone x

Luxor Run - the video!

The Run!

 Well it was an early start with our alarms set for 4.30am and very dark when we emerged from our room. Not only dark, but cold. We'd forgotton that although Luxor would be a fari bit warmer than Cairo, those degrees don't make much difference at these hours. As there would be no place for us to store any belongings during the run we'd have to carry everything with us. We decided against bringing a sweater to wear, so just spent the hour at the start before the race vigorously rubbing our arms and jumping up and down!

 We were wearing our new running shirts that Scotty bought for the occaision. They were brilliant as they were wiki t-shirts (i.e. will take the sweat away from our bodies) which are the best for running in. But Scotty had also managed to arrange for the company to print our names on the back and have the date of the run stiched on the sleve. Cool! As we warm up and stretch we formulate a plan to get all the dates and locations of runs stitched onto the shirt.

We got to the start by taxi, rather than the coach from the official hotel as promised, because although we are staying at the official hotel we didn't book it through the official booking agent. Fussy. We managed to share the taxi with two girls we met at the airport last night who are in the same situation. We told the taxi driver we'd be four hours when we dropped us off. Not paid him yet to make sure that he comes back!

On the start now and we're moving from cold to warm gradually as the sun comes up. We've done our warm up and have both got our music queued up and ready to rock. IndieRunner the Pharonic mix is 1 1/2 hours long and that's our aim to get the 12.5km done in that time.


Just before the starting gun goes Scotty gets a tap on the shoulder. It's a girl who was best friends with Norf's (best man at our wedding) ex-girlfriend, and her boyfriend who now works with Norf. They knew we were going to be here too from our facebook page and are running the full marathon as they are spending a year out in Alexandria learning Arabic. Small world!



Gun goes off! Music is started! Running commences!
We try and get into our pace, not wanting to head off too fast but go steady.
Our race plan is to try and run at pace and then walk only when we get to the water stops. These are evenly placed (according to the map!) every 2.5km. In training we've been running about 1km and then walking 60 seconds, but we're hoping race adrenalin will get us through. If we slow down towards then end, then so be it.

Our pace is good and we make it to the first water stop as planned.
Then on the way to the second we manage to run along with an Egyptian boy and have a conversation in Arabic.
The third stop is just before a small town. Through the town there are some kids on the street that we high five as we pass.
We turn left now and the road is a straight one alongside the canal. This is going to be the tough leg - long and straight and just when you're feeling tired. Scott is feeling it and I keep track of his shadow beside me. I'm feeling it too as I feel myself running flat-footed.
We cross the 10km mark after just over an hour. We feel really good and amazed at ourselves for having kept such a great pace and feeling so good still. But the water stop is still not in sight and we're both needing it, so we both slow to a walk and drink from our bottles. We jog a little then to the water stop which is also the turning point and then walk a while and take on more liquid. This is going to be the last 2.5km and so will be the hardest. We set off again but our legs are feeling tired now, we're flat footed and slowing down. We both know this is the hard bit, but that we must keep going now and that we can keep going.

We take the final turn towards the Temple and away from the course now (those who are doing the half or full marathon will be doing two or four laps of this instead of our one). It's uphill but we make it to the finish line running and at 1 hour 20 minutes.


We're dead pleased to have finished and have completed the run under our estimated time and while feeling good still. There's no question as we warm down that knowing people had sponsored us for the run meant we kept going. There's also no question that despite injury (Scott's ankle has been playing up) we want to run the race again (next year, not another lap right now).

Once we find our taxi driver we set off back to the hotel. We pull up at 10.15am and one thing springs to mind. Second breakfast! We remember that the buffet closes at 10.30am so move as fast as our legs will carry us to the restaurant and indulge a bit. 

Back in our room we shower and change and rest for a while. It's 2pm when we head out again, this time for lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants. As we go out we see the full marathon runners just arriving back.

That night is the Race Gala Dinner which is hosted by the hotel in a set of bedouin tents at the far end of the island (did we not mention the hotel was on its own island?). The food has all been freshly prepared and cooked on open fires and stoves there and is delicious. We eat our full and enjoy an evening with some new friends that we have made over the weekend.

Things start to build: 25th January - 27th January

After things kicked off in Tunisia there were rumours that something might happen in Egypt. Egypt has been under emergency law for 30 years, people our age have only known one President, there were bread riots two years ago about the rising price of food yet so many live below the poverty line and many other factors contribute to the fact that change is due in Egypt. The question was would it ever happen?
About one week before the 25th January people started talking about it being a day of action and that everyone should go out and protest. 25th January is a National Holiday and so this seems to be why it was chosen as a day to focus action on. Some joked about them choosing a day that no one needed to be in work so that no one would lose business and other said that nothing would happen until the afternoon or evening anyway. We just weren't sure what would happen, but we wanted Egyptian voices to be heard if they did come out. Asking Egyptians that we knew at work they said they didn't think many would turn up for the march.
So the 25th January came and we were very happy to be proved wrong. The turn out and gatherings were amazing to watch (we followed using news websites and twitter and facebook) as they grew and grew in strength around the city and converged upon Tahrir Square downtown. It was amazing to see the thousands that had gathered there and to think about how strong they were together.
What was amazing too for us was to think about how this movement started. There wasn't one single leader, but many. The movement was fluid and dynamic; ever changing. By using twitter and facebook communications were allowing people to move quickly and respond to other groups as they gathered. By using these sites too news about what was happening, photos, videos, audio, were getting around the world in seconds. It was just amazing to watch how people movement has moved with the times.
Seeing the reaction of the police over these few days was worrying, upsetting and disturbing. What started as peaceful turned aggressive and violent for no real reason with the people struggling to defend themselves and stay standing. Images of water cannons being put on demonstrators as they prayed and demonstrators picking up and throwing back the tear gas canisters were shocking.
We were excited when the story of what was happening in Cairo hit the top news story on news websites. For us this felt really important that international news networks were giving it top priority and people around the world would see what was happening. This international attention we hoped would help the situation.

When we came into work the next day we were a little surprised that we weren't called to a briefing. We knew that students would want to talk about what was happening and we hoped that we would be given a "line" to follow in terms of what to talk about, and what not. As the day went on though the message came out to staff that there would be no activities after work and everyone would get the early bus home. We had already been told that there would be no off-site after school activities because of the religious tension since new year - now this was something else. We finally had a briefing and were given an update and an updated phone tree that would be used to pass on information if anything did happen. So it seemed things were being taken a little more seriously, but there was no further effect on work beyond getting early buses home.

So with this going on, we left work on Thursday and caught our flight down to Luxor for our run and my 30th birthday!

You know you've made it when....

... you go shopping to your local supermarket and leave with THEM giving you money!

Scotty and I popped out for a little shopping this afternoon - as although I went shopping this morning I forgot to buy potatoes! We went together as, I'm sure we'll fill you in on another post, there are protests today around Cairo. On our way though we drop into the Grand Mall and buy a bumbag for our run this weekend. We figured that we might want to carry a few things with us on the run like energy bars and freeze spray for injuries and as we are the only ones doing the run we're not sure what the set up is with supplies and bags etc.
Bumbag located and purchased we go onto Saveway, but then realise we don't have cash on us to pay the 50LE that water will be. We try the bank, but the machine is not working. Don't worry, I say, we can just ask them to deliver and pay for the water on delivery (I've done this once before).
We browse around and of course buy more than just water and potatoes. Our bill comes to 114LE and I explain in simple English that the bank is closed, can they deliver and we will pay then. He says OK and then asks "you will pay 150?" "umm, yes" "OK here is your change" and he counts out the change for 150LE. I assume that he will give this to the delivery guy to hand over when he delivers our stuff, but no - he gives it to me!
So that's how we end up leaving Saveway with them giving us money. It's great to be trusted!

On another note I can tell my Arabic is improving as I have small exchanges with the people who work at Saveway that Scott doesn't understand and has to ask me about! I asked the nice veg man for "wahed kilo botatas" and he responded "essa tenni?" to which I responded "la-a" (I should have said "la-a, botatas bas" He was asking me if I wanted anything else (we learnt "wahed tenni" in the pub as - one more please i.e. same again!). Just gotta keep using my Arabic and listening and hope to get there!

Very Important Guest

Just after Christmas I received a message that I had won a competition that I entered in an expat magazine. My prize being dinner for two at the restaurant, Peking. Peking has branches over Cairo and in Sharm and Alex and we do actually eat their food a fair amount - but we have take away, rather than ever eating at the restaurant itself.
Because of the post being what it is in Egypt the voucher was delivered by hand to our door. Great!
Not sure what to do for dinner last night, and with only a one-day weekend, I wanted to treat ourselves, so suggested we go and use the voucher as the restaurant in Maadi is near-by on Nasr Street. The instructions on the letter that came with the voucher said that I should call a "Dr Nabil" to arrange my booking. At 7.15pm I give him a call. He sounds a little unsure as to why I might be calling him, but I explain and he turns on the charm to find out where and when I'd like to book. I say that I'd like to book for this evening in Maadi. He is a little surprised, but is accommodating and asks what time I'd like the table; in 30-45 minutes, if that's possible, please? He laughs nervously and says this should be OK and he will call the restaurant and they will be waiting for me.
We've never been inside the restaurant, but know it's location well as we ride by it twice a day on the school bus. It's on a rather busy road with not much else going on around it, so we're just hoping for a free meal instead of paying for delivery! When the door opens though we're wowed by how nice it is inside! Also it looks packed with couples and families, including some Chinese, here for a nice evening dinner. I now feel a little bad about only giving them 30 minutes notice! The head waiter approaches us and I pull out the voucher as a means of explanation. He exclaims "Ms Alice! We are waiting for you. We are very honored you chose our restaurant and congratulations on your win!" and we are shown to one of the tables by the main window.
The food is pretty much as we have eaten by take-away before, but the starter of spring rolls and dumplings are much better, obviously as they are fresher. They serve alcohol which is a bonus and we have a Saqarra (we're back onto drinking Saqarra now sometimes as Stella is giving us heartburn).
At the end of the evening we conclude that the restaurant is very nice indeed, but the food is nothing too exciting. I think I prefer Gaya for Asian food (it's Korean rather than a Chinese restaurant). It does remind us though of when we lived in Raynes Park and spent two years collecting take-away from Mann's Chinese restaurant, but then finally treated ourselves to dinner there. That was a real treat and we loved it! Good food, nice wine and lovely setting.
As we leave they thank us for visiting again and say "hopefully you will win again!" "insha'llah" we reply :)

Egyptian (Quarter) Marathon Prep

Maybe we were on a post-run "high" but soon after we finished the Pharonic Race in November we were looking for our next challenge. We were both so pleased that we had finished our individual sections and finished as a team and really enjoyed all the pain that was involved throughout the long day! So what next?
Well we saw that the next thing on the Egyptian running calendar was the Egyptian Marathon itself in January. I wasn't too keen at first as I knew I wouldn't be able to do a marathon, and doubted very much I could do the half- that was on offer too. I just didn't want to have to think about training over Christmas! Then we saw that in addition to the full- and half-marathons that were on offer there was a "Ramses Run/Walk" that would be 12.5km - sounds do-able!
The Egyptian Marathon in Luxor is run around the sites on the west bank of the Nile, starting and finishing at Hatshepsuts Temple. The basic course is 10km long (excluding a 1km straight from the temple to the main course) and so for the Ramses Run we will complete the basic course, but for the half- and the full-marathon you would run two or four laps of the circuit.
Added to the excitement that we would be running around some of the most famous sites in Egypt was that fact that the run would be on my birthday - my 30th birthday in fact! So just before we headed home for Christmas we booked flights and reserved our places on the Ramses Run.
(A quick aside on reserving our places in the run - I emailed the race organiser to enquire how much the race entry fee would cost and how I could pay it. The reply was that the fee could be paid at the office, or by sending them credit card details. We wanted to pay in cash, as we have more Egyptian money in our accounts than British, but knew we couldn't get to the office downtown because of work. So the race organiser offers to send someone! A day later there is a knock at the door and a suited man produces a piece of paper; a receipt for the cost of the race. We pay up and he then passes us our official entry papers. Job done!)
Onto training and we have a training run before the Christmas break around Maadi. It's so much cooler now compared to just a few weeks ago when we were running the Pharonic. This makes running a lot easier and we both enjoy the run.
We decide not to take our trainers to the UK for Christmas. For one we know that our two week visit is going to be busy enough as it is without trying to fit training sessions in. Another reason is that we can see snow for casted and we really don't have the gear to run on snowy streets! With hindsight there were maybe two days towards the end of the break when we could have run in the nicer weather and we both said that we missed running. Oh well - will just have to get back to it in Cairo when we land!
I have been battling a cold on and off since before the break and for some reason it chooses our return to Cairo to manifest itself fully! This first weekend in Cairo we go for a run both mornings. Unfortunately both runs aren't good for me; although the cold has pretty much gone, the moment I start running all the gunk in my nose and sinus starts to come up! Eurgh! I find myself needing to spit every 100m and this puts me off my stride and my head is feeling dizzy. After the first two intervals I'm really slowing down and have to run through the "walking" sections to keep up with Scotty. I take my leave half-way through and make my way home while Scotty finishes the run. He's feeling strong and enjoying the runs, but I'm wondering if i can really do this!
Another week on in our training and I must be properly over this cold now as I can complete a full IndieRunner without feeling sick! After a few runs this week Scotty is resting his ankle. It hurts him on the outside, running up his leg, so he is icing it and resting it.
I'm keeping training when I can - doing half runs and half resistance training - but Scotty is making sure his ankle is fully rested. A good move as running on it now might make it worse and then he could be out of the run, but if he rests it he will make it round the course.
Meanwhile in non-training activities! We've booked the hotel in Luxor. It's the official race hotel which means we will get transport between the hotel and the run start/finish, we also get a Race Dinner in the evening after the run! The hotel looks like it could be really fun. It's on an island in the middle of the Nile in Luxor and the accommodation is in bungalows around the island. One of the outdoor swimming pools is on the edge of the island, so it looks like you're practically swimming in the Nile! Scotty has bought me a good case for my new small camera, so we're planning on taking this with us when we run. It should just go around my chest and I'll keep it tight so it doesn't get in the way. If we run a bit slower because of it at least we'll have some amazing pictures! We've also set up a fundraising page on Facebook. We're trying to raise money for The Recycling School in Mokattam here in Cairo which provides education and support for boys born into the trash trade. They are an amazing charity that I've had the privilege of working with these last few months and we can't wait to donate the funds we've raised.

The rain in (Cairo), falls mainly on the...

Well mainly on the washing as you will have seen from last weekends angry posts! But during the week it seems that it falls mainly on the Ring Road.
A few nights ago a crack of thunder sounded as we were leaving school and getting on the bus home. 20 minutes later we are in solid traffic on the Ring Road.
The only way to get an Egyptian driver to slow down is making him go over speed bumps, or drive through a puddle. So I wasn't too surprised that traffic was slow because of the rain. People jsut don't know how to drive in it and tyres can be really bald. The other thing I discovered from this episode of rain is that a lot of people's windscreen wipers don't work. I saw about a dozen cars pulled over at the side of the road and their drivers out with a pack of tissues trying to clean their windscreen!
After an hour of crawling along the ring Road we finally get to the problem. Without any drains to speak of all the rain has pooled and formed not a puddle, but a small lake covering all five lanes for about 20m and coming mid-way up the tyres of the cars. No wonder everyone it going slow!
The journy normally takes me around 45 minutes, but today it took an hour and a half. People on the bus leaveing an hour after me said it took them between three and four hours to get home!

Baksheesh

Things are interesting here at the moment considering the situation in Tunisia and the situation here following the sectarian violence.
Saw this article though and thought I'd share!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/06/egypt-tipping-baksheesh-culture

Strawbs anyone?

It seems that strawberries are now in season as they are in all the local mini-markets.
Last week a bought a small punnet from Saveway and they cost me around 4LE I think. Today I was in Metro and they were selling whole punnets, 1kg, for 9.50LE That's less than a quid! I don't think we can eat them all on our own though!!

Other great buys at the moment are fresh aish. Somehow I've managed to time trips into Saveway with their delivery of baladi bread and so I've been buying these almost steaming fresh round breads. They are simply delicious, but I can't eat them quick enough as three rounds of bread is at least two meals but the freshness only lasts a day :(
Last week when we were feeling cold we decided to make ourselves a proper stew, so we bought some stewing beef from Gourmet Egypt and kinda made up a recipe using our very own Sandy Claus beer! (had to buy a brand new stewing pot too, but there you go!) We had it stewing for a few days before we ate it (as we reasoned that things always taste better on the second day) and boy was it yummy!
Food-wise we're set up for a while because we also bought some pies from Gourmet Egypt which apparently are tasty - they're in the freezer right now, but we'll have them with mash and veg at one point (Bistro is on the list for things to bring out next time we visit the UK tho' as we can't find it out here, only chicken and then veggie stock cubes). Also got a last bit of pate that I'll have for lunch today that we snuck in and I did manage to find (after about 12 months of looking) what apparently is Sour Cream in Metro today, so we'll be cooking up a chili next weekend I think!

Tasting Baraka Bama

It turns out that putting the video on YouTube makes it considerably less than HD..!

It's raining!

A facebook update from a friend altered us this morning to the fact that it was raining. Listening hard we could hear the cars driving slower in the streets as the swish of water under their tyres strikes fear into the drivers out on a Friday morning.
About 10 minutes later I have a pang of "oh no!" thinking that our white washing is out to dry. It's OK as the white washing has only just gone in the wash, Scotty reminds me. But I'm still not convinced and so go to the back room to look at the balcony. I was right about something, the dark washing that I did yesterday and hung out to dry last night is out there and being rained on.
What harm can rain do you might wonder? But here where the clouds are dark not from pending rain, but pollution, when the rain does come it must fall through this brown layer in the sky and so by the time it reaches us each drop is a dirty ball of water. I bring the washing in and even though it's hardly had a soaking I'm going to have to put it on a rinse cycle once the whites are done.
That'll teach me for trying to get ahead with the weekend chores!

EDIT: It's Saturday afternoon now and I've had to rush out to bring in the laundry AGAIN! It's chucking it down and to make it worse I dropped a pair of trousers onto the balcony below, so had to spend 10 minutes with a coat hanger and three shoes laces tied together to fish for it! So that load of laundry is on for the THIRD time this weekend. NOT PLEASED!

How many Egyptians does it take to replace a street lamp?

So the street lamps along our street were never great - see video of the street lamp meters away from our balcony on fire when the wires went last year in another blog post - so maybe that's why this week someone decided to replace all of the lamps. Here's the steps they seem to have gone through to do this:
1a) Saw off street lamp at the base. NB. Make sure that this leaves the rugged metallic circular edge where the lamp once stood protruding about an inch or so from the ground. Out of this, of course, will be various cables that may or may not have been tied off at the end.
1b) Leave street lamp lying on what small amount of pavement there is for a few days.
2. Take off lamp and shade.
3. Replace lamp and shade (this seems to be optional)
4. Erect street lamp in new location using a vast amount of concrete to set the base.
5. Leave the rugged metallic circular edge and protruding cables as they were, about 1m from new street lamp position.

Number 3 seems to be optional because out of all of the street lamps that are up again, none of them actually have a lamp reattached.

So now along our street we have these random serrated edges coming out of the ground, but they are easily marked by the large electrical cables that are spilling out of them. Nice!

EDIT: It seems from a walk out this morning that the serrated bases are being removed and large holes being left in their place - brilliant!

Top Tip - Best Spa, Hamam, Thermal Baths

I don't know if I've got this in on time for the competition....or whether they'll let me win again (!) but here goes!

You are spoilt for choice when it comes to visiting a spa in Budapest. On both sides of the river that winds its way through the city you can find yourself in the hot and healing waters.

The Gellert Baths though are revered by many and their grandeur means that they are the most iconic in the city. The image that stands out for me though is not the still blue waters flagged by magnificent pillars, but that of the outdoor pool and it's wave machine.

The turbines that drive this gear up every hour and their force is one unrivaled in any "no bombing, no ducking" swimming pool. A classic example of their power was seen in Micheal Palin's New Europe series when he is standing in the shallows of the pool doing a piece to camera and he is literally floored by the wave that comes his way. You barely have enough time to stand up before the next wave comes crashing in. Great fun!

Where the Gellert Baths rule supreme though is in mid-August when thousands of people descend on Budapest to enjoy the Sziget Festival. This isn't a weekend affair, but a week of camping on Sziget Island in the middle of the Danube and enjoying music and entertainment on twenty stages. Festival-goers might be able to get away with not showering for a few days, but when you're camping for a week and the shower queues as they always are at festivals, the Gellert is the best way to spend your day before the bands start.

Happy New Year - Bellowhedonism