Horse riding at Giza pyramids

Every year one of the guys at work organises a trip to go riding horses at Giza for the new staff.  Last year you may recall we chose not to go - instead we went on the tour of Khan El Khalili.  However, due to the madness of the start of the new school year this year's trip was extended to any member of staff who wanted to go along and so, as we hadn't been before, we jumped at the chance.

The video is only a quick overview of the trip - generally plodding along outside the pyramid enclosure - and so doesn't quite get the jumpiness of the horse I was on.  He was clearly spooked by something, and so I was stuck with a small boy leading me all the way.  For somone who used to ride, and despite the last time I was on a horse being about 20 years ago on a trip where I got a suspected fractured collarbone, I felt a bit daft.  My horse was changed when we were near the pyramids for a gorgeous brown stallion, but as the boy leading me was clearly trying to get a good tip, he refused to stop leading and let me take him for the run he was so desperately hoping for.  Hey-ho!

Mattress!

Towards the end of last year we decided to stay in the same apartment for our second year out here. Our landlord is helpful, the location is good and although the decor isn't anything outstanding it's a pleasant place to live. Therefore, as part of continuing to make this "home" we decided that we would buy ourselves a new mattress - as the old one was really only a strip of increasingly deformed foam.

Fridge!

We arrived back to a hot Cairo only to discover that our fridge was on its way out - cool, but not cold...Our landlord responded really quickly to our call and within 15 minutes a technician/engineer was round. In diagnosing the problem, he managed to totally break the fridge. We were without a fridge for two days before the call came...

Scotty was having trouble sleeping that night and so got up about midnight and discovered this going on outside our door...

Like all good voyeristic films - this was filmed through the peep-hole

Neighbours

We're the only expats that we have noticed in our building and everyone seems to keep themselves to themselves we have found - much like living in London! But as we were unpacking our luggage in the early hours of Thursday morning our doorbell went and it was our neighbour from upstairs and her young daughter.
We had bumped into each other at the end of last year, and she had also bumped into Net when she was visiting, so we chatted for a little while. She mentioned that she was having some work done to her apartment and she had a very big favour to ask us. We weren't really sure what this favour could be, but wanted to be helpful if we could. It turns out that she needs to clear her Reception room of furniture for the builders to work and she wondered if she could store some of it in our apartment. We told her that of course this would be no problem, as we had a spare room. We showed her the space we had and she was very grateful - so she then (at about 1.30am) showed us her apartment and the work she was having done.
So yesterday we, and her builder, moved some furniture into our back room. We're not having any visitors for a while, and so we only need access to hang out laundry. It's nice to be able to be helpful, and it's nice to be, and have, good neighbours :)

Torchwood...Scotty and Alice style

Version 1 - Barry Torchwood

Version 2 - using shots from Torchwood

Barry - Location for Gavin and Stacey!

Earlier this week we spent some time visiting places we'd never been to before. In this case, Barry and Cardiff in Wales.

We first became "interested" (if that is the right word) in Barry after seeing regularly on Gavin and Stacey. We wanted to visit the Island and play on the slots, and take a walk around some of the locations. And so we did...

Severn Valley Railway

On our first weekend back in the UK, we went camping with DaddyB at Hampton Loade. We hadn't seen him for a year, and so thought it would be good to visit a place we hadn't been to for a while (in Scotty's case) or ever (in Alice's).