Taba Liberation Day - 19th AprilSunday, 15 March 2009
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Tailor
The Grand Mall isn't very grand, but has clusters of certain shops, such as bakeries (yum!), sports shops (which don't actually sell sports shorts) and unfashionable women's fashion. One of the clusters though that appears at the very back of the Basement Floor and in the hidden corners on the Top Floor are The Tailors.
All they are are a small glass shop front which reveals a few sewing machines and a few blokes sitting there with material and cotton all around them. We haven't had a need to go there before, but I bought some new trousers for Scott that I saw on sale one day and they were un-hemmed (which is the way most trousers are sold here - un-hemmed and they hem them for you in about five minutes when you have bought them).
So I took down Scott's trousers with a few pins in to show the length they needed to be. I added a pair of pin strip trousers from Primark that I love, but the hems were going on. I also had a pair of trousers that I bought a few years ago in the Next sale (anyone who has been to the Next sale knows you can never try anything on - just buy then and regret later) that were too long and too baggy at the waist and thigh. I had stuck a few pins in these to show where they needed to be taken in, but the Tailor wasn't convinced so he asked me to put them on. They had a minuscule changing room, but that was all that was needed and he pinned them along the thigh and back.
I asked him when I should come back and he looked toward the wall behind me. I looked back expecting to see a calendar, but found only a clock. "Two hours" he said.
Three hours later (I didn't want him to feel rushed), I pop back and all three pairs are ready. My Arabic numbers greater than ten aren't great and so he showed me on the tape measure the amount he was charging me; 35LE
Just tried the trousers on and the hems are great on the first two pairs and the alteration on my Next trousers mean I can finally wear them again!
All they are are a small glass shop front which reveals a few sewing machines and a few blokes sitting there with material and cotton all around them. We haven't had a need to go there before, but I bought some new trousers for Scott that I saw on sale one day and they were un-hemmed (which is the way most trousers are sold here - un-hemmed and they hem them for you in about five minutes when you have bought them).
So I took down Scott's trousers with a few pins in to show the length they needed to be. I added a pair of pin strip trousers from Primark that I love, but the hems were going on. I also had a pair of trousers that I bought a few years ago in the Next sale (anyone who has been to the Next sale knows you can never try anything on - just buy then and regret later) that were too long and too baggy at the waist and thigh. I had stuck a few pins in these to show where they needed to be taken in, but the Tailor wasn't convinced so he asked me to put them on. They had a minuscule changing room, but that was all that was needed and he pinned them along the thigh and back.
I asked him when I should come back and he looked toward the wall behind me. I looked back expecting to see a calendar, but found only a clock. "Two hours" he said.
Three hours later (I didn't want him to feel rushed), I pop back and all three pairs are ready. My Arabic numbers greater than ten aren't great and so he showed me on the tape measure the amount he was charging me; 35LE
Just tried the trousers on and the hems are great on the first two pairs and the alteration on my Next trousers mean I can finally wear them again!
Air Con
I'm not sure if we have mentioned it much here, but our friends here definitely have heard enough of our whining about our noisy Air Con in the living room. We blogged about it back in August here, and not long after then, the fan unit started making a horrific noise, as if a Spitfire was taking off from our balcony (which as fans of Gormsby will know, does not just put-put around).
When it first made the noise we took the lid off and had a look around to see if there was anything obviously wrong with it that we could fix. Our technical abilities didn't really stretch to AC at that point, so we tucked a piece of paper between the unit and the lid, so that they didn't hit each other when the fan went around.
This "piece of paper" trick worked well, but had to be modified about once a fortnight. At one point though, the Spitfire was taking off when our Bowab, Abdul, was round and he got stuck in too. He got out a tool kit and proceeded to kick the side of the unit so that it stayed in place away from the lid. Again, this worked for a while, but once we hit November there was no need to use it anymore, so we forgot about the problem.
Since the end of January though, things have started warming up, and so we knew we had to do something about the unit. Last month when Tamir came to collect the rent we mentioned the problem and turned the unit on to show him. Tamir said he would contact the people who installed it to come around and take a look - and hence our post today.
We were a bit worried before he came around to look at the AC, because of all the kicking and bashing of the unit that has taken place over the last six months by us amateurs. But it was somewhat reassuring then, when the AC man proceeded to get out a large chisel and hammer and hit the side of the unit to bend it out of shape!!
After this technical bashing, he did then clean our filters and check the unit over. We've tried it just now and it seems that thankfully, finally, all planes have been grounded (we have got his number though just in case!) All for 50LE
When it first made the noise we took the lid off and had a look around to see if there was anything obviously wrong with it that we could fix. Our technical abilities didn't really stretch to AC at that point, so we tucked a piece of paper between the unit and the lid, so that they didn't hit each other when the fan went around.
This "piece of paper" trick worked well, but had to be modified about once a fortnight. At one point though, the Spitfire was taking off when our Bowab, Abdul, was round and he got stuck in too. He got out a tool kit and proceeded to kick the side of the unit so that it stayed in place away from the lid. Again, this worked for a while, but once we hit November there was no need to use it anymore, so we forgot about the problem.
Since the end of January though, things have started warming up, and so we knew we had to do something about the unit. Last month when Tamir came to collect the rent we mentioned the problem and turned the unit on to show him. Tamir said he would contact the people who installed it to come around and take a look - and hence our post today.
We were a bit worried before he came around to look at the AC, because of all the kicking and bashing of the unit that has taken place over the last six months by us amateurs. But it was somewhat reassuring then, when the AC man proceeded to get out a large chisel and hammer and hit the side of the unit to bend it out of shape!!
After this technical bashing, he did then clean our filters and check the unit over. We've tried it just now and it seems that thankfully, finally, all planes have been grounded (we have got his number though just in case!) All for 50LE
Oman - Mid-term Break
This term is a bit of a killer, as we had a nine-week stretch followed by another 6 weeks. The middle had a long weekend (rather than a full week) break...but we definitely packed it full by flying off to Muscat in Oman with our good friends Caz and Dave who used to work there and were going back to visit friends.
We were picked up from school by the wonderful driver, Said, and headed straight off to the airport for our flight out. We left Cairo at 5.30 for a transfer in Doha, Qatar, but had a gruelling 8-hour layover that we spent in a supposedly-5-star airport lounge. Dave and Scotty took advantage of the endless piles of free food and drink while chatting with people they've not been in touch with for ages on Facebook chat, and Alice and Caz both tried to get some sleep on chairs that appear to have been designed to make catching forty winks as difficult and uncomfortable as possible.
We stayed in the Qurum Beach Hotel when we got to Muscat - the cheapest there was as all others seemed to be 5* resorts! Caz was an absolute star as she hired a car and gave us lifts all over the place. Dave was staying with his friends Ted and Janine - a fabulously generous couple who lent us their guest mobile phone to use while we were out, provided us with camping equipment, and who were about to become parents for the second time at any given moment.
We spent lots of time on the beaches, including a fantastic night camping on the deserted Seefa Beach which is about as close to paradise as it's possible to get. Ted also arranged for a taxi driver to take us for half a day's worth of sightseeing round some forts and natural springs.
Film and photo highlights are below...
We were picked up from school by the wonderful driver, Said, and headed straight off to the airport for our flight out. We left Cairo at 5.30 for a transfer in Doha, Qatar, but had a gruelling 8-hour layover that we spent in a supposedly-5-star airport lounge. Dave and Scotty took advantage of the endless piles of free food and drink while chatting with people they've not been in touch with for ages on Facebook chat, and Alice and Caz both tried to get some sleep on chairs that appear to have been designed to make catching forty winks as difficult and uncomfortable as possible.
We stayed in the Qurum Beach Hotel when we got to Muscat - the cheapest there was as all others seemed to be 5* resorts! Caz was an absolute star as she hired a car and gave us lifts all over the place. Dave was staying with his friends Ted and Janine - a fabulously generous couple who lent us their guest mobile phone to use while we were out, provided us with camping equipment, and who were about to become parents for the second time at any given moment.
We spent lots of time on the beaches, including a fantastic night camping on the deserted Seefa Beach which is about as close to paradise as it's possible to get. Ted also arranged for a taxi driver to take us for half a day's worth of sightseeing round some forts and natural springs.
Film and photo highlights are below...
PART 1
PART 2
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Airport transfers...
Oh deary, deary, deary me.
It's 2.15am (local time) and I'm sitting in an airport lounge - having paid $40 for the privilege - unable to sleep thanks to terribly uncomfortable seats, clattering cutlery, and BBC News on too loud.
We're two-thirds of the way to Muscat, but have a 7-hour stopover in Doha before our flight at 7.30. And, boy, am I going to tired tomorrow.
It's 2.15am (local time) and I'm sitting in an airport lounge - having paid $40 for the privilege - unable to sleep thanks to terribly uncomfortable seats, clattering cutlery, and BBC News on too loud.
We're two-thirds of the way to Muscat, but have a 7-hour stopover in Doha before our flight at 7.30. And, boy, am I going to tired tomorrow.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Dry Cleaning
I finally got myself around to taking something to the Dry Cleaners a few days ago, and I now realise why everyone raves about getting everything dry cleaned or ironed by one of the million shops around Maadi - it cost me 5.50LE for one skirt that's 70p!!! And he seemed very surprised that I'd actually come in person to collect it - he was very instistant that net time I should phone him and he would send "the boy" to collect and deliver my dry cleaning or any ironing that I had!
Now I just need to wear all my nice clothes so they need dry cleaning again!!
Now I just need to wear all my nice clothes so they need dry cleaning again!!
Monday, 2 March 2009
Drinkies!
We've not been feeling too well this past week or so :( There is definitly a cold going around and both of us have been under the weather - although the weather too has been a bit rotton to be honest (it rained once and drizzled once in the space of two days!). So we've been eating in every night, sometimes having chilli that we cooked up at the weekend, or the wonders of www.Otlob.com
But we were feeling a little more perky on Saturday and so decided to have a drink with our dinner. I'd been out shopping but didn't have enough hands to carry back a few cans of beer from Metro on Rd 9 so we decided to go for a new experience and use "Drinkies".
Drinkies is the main (maybe, only) chain across the whole of Egypt that sells, as the name would suggest, alcohol. But in addition to this title, they, like every other business in Egypt, delivers! They have a central, free-phone number which then routes your order to your local store who then deliver it by moped.
Scotty phoned them up to order a crate of 24 cans of Saqarra (our Egyptian beer of choice). The funniest thing about this whole experience wasn't the novelty of getting booze delivered to our door, but was that when Scotty phoned up - they already knew our address! Before he could place our order they said "Building this, Road that?" and were right!
Now there are a few possibilities for how this advanced Caller ID system works; either, the person who lived here before us used to order from Drinkies, or "they" know where we live!
But we were feeling a little more perky on Saturday and so decided to have a drink with our dinner. I'd been out shopping but didn't have enough hands to carry back a few cans of beer from Metro on Rd 9 so we decided to go for a new experience and use "Drinkies".
Drinkies is the main (maybe, only) chain across the whole of Egypt that sells, as the name would suggest, alcohol. But in addition to this title, they, like every other business in Egypt, delivers! They have a central, free-phone number which then routes your order to your local store who then deliver it by moped.
Scotty phoned them up to order a crate of 24 cans of Saqarra (our Egyptian beer of choice). The funniest thing about this whole experience wasn't the novelty of getting booze delivered to our door, but was that when Scotty phoned up - they already knew our address! Before he could place our order they said "Building this, Road that?" and were right!
Now there are a few possibilities for how this advanced Caller ID system works; either, the person who lived here before us used to order from Drinkies, or "they" know where we live!
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