Top Tips; Live Music Venues

We can't lay claim to this tip - tis Dad trying to win the camera this time!

Makan, Cairo
The Egyptian Centre for Culture and Art has its base in a 1930s corner building and live music performances take place in a smallish room with a balcony. The acoustics are extraordinary and the atmosphere intimate. We saw a vibrant and inspiring performance of "zar" ritual music by the Mazaher ensemble and afterwards shared a refreshing karkadé (hibiscus) drink with the tamboura player, who was 87.
1 Saad Zaghloul St, +202 2792 0878, egyptmusic.org
Jpenntravel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/may/16/best-music-venues-uk-world

Eurovision (sweepstake)

Last year we downloaded a copy of Eurovision and then started to watch it one evening and had a really great night. It was just the two of us and it was such a laugh to see all the acts and we actually got quite pissed in the end as we formed our own drinking game (a drink every time there were dodgy lyrics, funny accents, unneccessary costume changes, a violin etc).
So we vowed that we would try and organise a Eurovision party the next year...and here we are.

A few weeks ago we contact Derek at the BCA about booking a room for the party, but he suggested that we run it as a night there instead of a private party. So this weekend we went down and looked at their TV and sound set up - plan is to download Eurovision show (with BBC Graham Norton commentry) and then play this a few days after the actual contest (so that the party is at a weekend).

As well as organising the party we're organising a sweepstake at work. 20LE in we thought (couldn't ask for more as it's not as popular as football!) and then the winner will get 75% of the takings leaving 25% for the losing country. Although the tables will be turned in the case of "nil point" Ha ha!

We could only draw the 25 countries at the weekend (as we needed to wait until afte the semi's on Thursday night, but before the final on Saturday night). To keep it all above board we videoed the draw:



Somehow it seems that our persistant enthusiasm for this night of dubious talent/entertainment has rubbed off on our friends! They are actually taking part in the sweepstake, coming to the night and even joining in with the "avoiding the result" until Thursday. Brill! A few friends have asked if we're dressing up for the night and to be honest we are tempted. It could be a final oportunity to give the silver suits an outing. Having sneaked a peak at a few of the entries it looks like we're in for a corker of a night (as Ricky would say "We're getting drunk") as there seem to be some classics that live up to "so bad they're good" matra of Eurovision.

So it's Sunday now and Eurovision was shown last night. We're trying to avoid the result and so have not checked any news websites or facebook all day (and probably will avoid news tomorrow too) so that we don't find out. Hopefully it will drop from the British news in a day or so and then we can go back to checking the web.
Got up this morning though and Eurovision wasn't on the tracker! Shocker! Scotty was quite panicked I think that no one had capped it and we wouldn't be able to download it. Luckily though we've got back tonight and it is ready to download - 3 and a half hours of entertainment!

Bring on Thursday night! C'mon Blue! C'mon Azerbaijan! Erm...yes.

Bulaq exploration

We thought there was one place we must take Kevin to, and that was the "used car parts market" just north of downtown Cairo. So after getting up late and grabbing some coffee and breakfast on Saturday morning we head out to pick up a taxi.
Not totally sure how to describe where we want to go we say "mumkin Corniche weh sharia sitta w'ishreen julio" in an attempt to descirbe the junction we want. The taxi driver claims to understand, but keeps asking "corniche?" as we travel north along it. We add "corniche, bardain midan tahrir" to imply that we want to keep going on the corniche. He takes a detour towards the other side of the river and when we're almost ready to just get out and take another taxi; we arrive.

We dive straight in and get walking around the streets. Kevin tries to get his camera out casually but we warn him to put it away - last time we were down here we were told off for taking photos even though we had small cameras and were subtle. Scott manages to later grab a few pics on his phone (as it looks like he is texting but is actually taking a photo) to document the visit.

We wander the streets, walking slowly to take it all in. We get a fair number of "hello's" and "welcomes" which we smile and respond to. As we twist and turn Kevin is pointing out to us the finer points of car mechanics. To be honest he could be speaking arabic to us (!) but he gesticulation draws the attention of the mecahnics there who seem to understand and also start to explain what each greasy piece of metal does. This causes many smiles all round and feels good.

At one point we pass a guy welding a metal gate. As this is Kevin's trade he tries to tell the man "I am the same" I try to add "heyya amel same same" in half arabic / half english. This would have been a more effective way of saying "he job same same" if I'd used the pronoun for "he" rather than "she"!!! Oh well!

We manage to stumble on the motorbike area which gets Kevin excited and I see a stall to rival my favourite (the seat belt stall!). This place sells only the door arm rests that have electric window controls in them - talk about specialist!

As we weave in and out of the streets lined with oil we see some of the fabric and clothing stalls. We try and find the stall where we managed to buy a small rug last year (a doormat really, but it's very cool because it's patterned like a keyboard!) and although we find places selling rugs it seems that the new fashion is for stars rather than the ivories.

When we explored the area with Net and Jim last year it seemed to be mainly kids clothes, horrifically patterned material and naff imitations clothes for adults. This time though we manage to push past those and get to a different area. Here Kevin finds some (very reasonably priced) scarves (10-25LE each) and some casual trousers that he has been on the look out for. This area has more "normal" clothes as I woudl descirbe them but they are all a real mix. Soon we realize; it's a cross between TK Maxx and a charity shop...and it's huge (stretching all the way along two streets that have been pedestrianised). Brilliant!
I buy three shirts and we spy some decent jeans and tops and dresses that also have potential - we'll have to come back to do this all justice we think! The first shirt I got was an H&M and was from a street stall (so no opportunity to try it on) = 25LE, the second two were in a shop which had a more organised feel and changing rooms = 35LE each. Back home they all fit perfectly so we decide were very good buys and that we'll have to dedicate a good afternoon shopping's time in the future. (although later we become concerned that if we buy all our clothes from these charity shop-esque streets then it means the Buxton charity shops will lose a lot of business from us in the summer....a fave activity is doing the "charity shop run" along Spring Gardens for clothes and books and other good buys)

Feeling weary we walk up the street to grab a taxi home. Typically the moment we start looking there are none. The walk doesn't do Scott's lungs any good as we're beside a main road and he's been really affected recently by the horrible pollution and heavy air we've had around. Feeling the bronchitus come on he's started on his tablets again to try and stop it before it starts and fortunatly a few days later he's feeling better.
Before we manage to get a taxi Kevin sets his eyes on a bakery and I get excited because they are selling freshly made "rolitos". I buy a small packet and we get "nos kilo" (250g) of breadsticks to nibble on. 7.5LE all in which is a bargain.

We don't have much time at home before we head out again (!) this time to the BCA for a drink and chewing the cud with Jona. We grab dinner at La Rosa and collapse into the couch (and then bed) after another full day!

Islamic Cairo with Kevin

We started the day by jumping on the Metro and then getting off at Sadat aka Midan Tahrir. Coming out at the Liberation Square exit it was huge to see the change that had happened between our first visit mid-March and now. Gone were the tents and people, and back were the cars and traffic.
We managed to dodge the traffic as we crossed to the eastern side of the square and wandered passed the various t-shirt sellers and re-opened shops on our way towards the museum. We didn't go in to the museum itself, but within the grounds they have a new shop which is done brilliantly and a nice out-door restuarant/cafe so after a little bit of shopping (and taking of photographs of the burnt out NDP building) we treated ourselves to a break and a drink in the cafe.
Before going into the Metro again Kevin managed to get himself a t-shirt from one of the sellers. we had warned him that the price may be 50LE, but could be lower and that we had only managed to negotiate lower because we were buying three at once. We were surprised then when the vendour offered Kevin the t-shirt for 25LE straight out - no need to barter there! We deduced that actually times are getting pretty tough for street sellers and they'd rather a sale with little profit than not making any sale at all. We'd been reading a newspaper article recently where a shop-owner in the Khan said that he'd closed his shop for the time-being as no one was coming to the Khan any more, but he had opened a stall on the road in Tahrir Square. We just continue to hope that the tourists do return.
Onto Midan Attaba now and we come up into the book market as normal, but it's way busier than we've seen it before - maybe because it is a Saturday lunch-time? As we pass along the row of stalls both Scotty and I spy Tintin out of the corner of our eye. This is the stall I have bought from before and so I take a browse through the stack while Scotty and Kevin are bustled into the stall area by the crowds. There aren't all in the best of nic, so I select my top three that I want to buy; The Black Island (Tintin's only UK-based adventure and the subject of a Dom Joly prog we saw recently), in Tibet (the story that we saw twice as a stage show and was just brilliant) and Crab with the Golden Claws (the desert adventure). 'Bikam?' I ask and am surprised that the answer is 'hamsa' 50p a book is a bargain. My eyes meet Scott's and he says - do you want to buy the lot? I am restrained though. Although this is a great price I will never be able to read these stories in arabic and apart from the CwGC they aren't in great condition at all. I check through the books he hands me though - having seen how keen I am he has found half a dozen more Herge creations that are in worse condition at the back of the stall. I leave very pleased with my three new books and my shopping restraint.

Off to Arzak now for some lunch. Again its busy and we only just get a table in the secret air conditioned room. One koshary, a shwerma and a shish kebab later and we're on the street again making our way around the Midan towards Mohamed Ali street. On our way we get side-tracked as Kevin buys a leather belt and I look at some of the glasses (we've recently discovered that this part of town is the 'perscription glasses' district).

This isn't a picture of traffic, but of triple parking!

On Mohamed Ali and we eagerly show Kevin the oud workshops. He claims he just wants to look at them but soon enough the guy is tuning an oud up for him to have a play on. It takes less persuading than I thought before he's the proud owner of a 200LE oud (including travel bag)!

We enjoy our wander up to Bab Zuweyla where we go up to the top of the minaret and get a great view of the city. We think this view is one of the best you can get and stay up there just taking it all in for a good while.
 

Then we make our way along the crowded shopping streets towards Muski. No more purchases are made, but we enjoy looking at all the clothes as they hang above our heads along then narrow street. On meeting the main road we decide that we will get a taxi back home rather than explore the main touristy Khan. We've seen it before and it will be nice to be home and relax - this is a holiday after all!

BCA Garden Party for the Royal Wedding

Well there was no shortage of bunting at the BCA on Friday - every room and tree was covered in it for the Royal Wedding garden party. With the wedding at 11am UK time and coverage starting hours before we were in for an early start. The BCA was welcoming though, even at the dizzy hour of 10am (we'd got up just before 9am and had our Aeropress coffee) and the three of us (Kevin having arrived the previous evening) strode in and quicly grabbed our "welcome drink" of a bucks fizz!
We joined Steve and Anne-Marie and quickly ordered our breakfasts (a full english with real pork was just 55LE). Being there so early (!) we managed to pull two tables together in the middle of the garden and grab ourselves two sun shades too - it was warm and sunny already and things had hardly started.

Our two-table and two-shade set-up!

During the day much merriment was had, with the beers flowing, free ice-cream and yummy (10LE) cupcakes to eat (with marzipan crowns or Union Jacks on them), memorabelia to buy (we bought two "I am not a Royal Wedding Mug" mugs and a tea towel) and lots of good chat.

Kevin was popping in and out of the main BCA building to watch the coverage, but we mainly just sat and chatted away in the middle of the garden - glancing to the TV every now and then. Ours wasn't the best view, but we had come down to enjoy the party rather than be part of the wedding hype.

View from the table of the big screen

After the main event we did go home for a little rest in the afternoon - mainly because we knew we wanted to watch the evening band playing at the BCA and so didn't want to wear ourselves out! Around 6pm we returned to the BCA and had more drinks with other groups of friends that had turned up. Then Glass Onion were playing and we spent most of the time in the main room tapping along and having a few drinks. By their third set though we were all up and dancing! They are such a great band - really tight and they have the sound of the Beatles really down.

All in all a fun day and a great night!

Although we joked when the Archbishop of Cantebury said "in a way, every wedding is a 'royal' wedding" the day and the event did remind us of our own wedding. Both of us say that it was the best day we've ever had, so we loved being reminded of it and being loved up together.

Can there be a postcard that manages to sum up Cairo?

Well if there is, it will be one of these:

We stumbled upon this series of postcards a few weeks ago and managed to buy the full set uncut and ready to frame (hence photo isn't great as it was taken through glass). These cartoons by egyptloverscairo really show Egypt. When we took it in to be framed it was amazing because the framing guys were just pouring over it! He even called a mate over to look too and while we were trying to pick out the frame we wanted they were pointing at the different cartoons and chatting excitedly. I asked them which they liked the most, or they thought was most accurate and they said the candyfloss seller (top row, thrid from right). But they are all brilliant.

When September Ends / Lyin' Eyes - Ukulele Mashup

During the Egyptian Revolution, a curfew meant that we were often stuck inside for hours and hours on end. By coincidence a friend asked me to record a Green Day cover version for his birthday and so, with plenty of time on my hands, I set about recording this. Due to the whole 'country in turmoil' thing it wasn't possible to get together with the rest of the Felukuleles, so this is pretty much a solo effort with a guest appearance from Alice. The video was shot partly during curfew in our apartment in Cairo, and partly at the beach in Dahab when we managed to get a few days away from the city.
The song itself was originally on the excellent Dean Gray album 'American Edit', which is the entire American Idiot album by Green Day done as mashups.