Apartment Success

After the hassle and frustration of the past few days, today we feel much calmer.  We've secured a new apartment for next year.

It must be said that the apartment was not our 'first choice'.  That first choice - the one I waffled on about in the previous post - had already been taken by somebody else.  Our agent went to visit the landlady to discuss terms, but she said she wanted to 'honour her word' and meet the other person.  In a strange way that made us feel okay as we would have felt really bad if we knew we were usurping somebody else.  We wouldn't have wanted somebody to 'steal' an apartment we had expressed interest in, so we're glad we weren't the ones doing it to someone else.  It does, of course, mean that we had to go for our second-choice, but it's a bit cheaper and still really great.  When we walked into the apartment to sign the contract we quickly remembered just how much we liked it, and how long it had taken us to decide between the two.

Full Passport left a comment on our last post saying that she'd heard of agents using the 'landlord seeing somebody else' story as a way to extract more money, and it's unclear if that's what was happening here.  Certainly our agent knew our absolute top price and would have needed to negotiate down.  Perhaps he knew he wouldn't be able to get it any cheaper and so was seeing if we would pay more...which we wouldn't.  However, we feel everything has turned out okay in the end as we have ended up getting a great apartment that is within our budget (although still right at the top limit!)

As well as the agent who came with copies of the contracts, we were met by two members of the family who own the apartment.  We think that the owner was the older lady, although it was her daughter who did most of the discussions and signed the contract.  They all spoke English, which will be helpful if we have any questions or issues. Their cousin lives in the same building, and their driver has a room downstairs...so it might seem a bit Truman Show compared to what we have at the moment, but we’re sure it will be great.

We signed the contract to run from the 15th of the June for 13 months (so that it extends beyond the end of the next school year).  It's also good to have some overlap with our current place, so that we can move our things across at a leisurely pace.  It may mean paying for two apartments over the summer if our current landlord doesn't get another tenant in the meantime, but I'd rather pay for that situation than the stress of rushing to move - especially as we're on the first plane out at the end of term!  We do feel a bit bad for our current landlord about leaving our current place, as he's a really nice guy and we've got a good relationship with him.  However, 'needs must' as they say, and the fact remains that our current place would be unworkable with a baby.

The new apartment is a 7 or 8 minute walk from where we live at the moment, on a road that is about as busy as 206 at times. It does feel like the road can be a bit of a rat run, but there's a nice patch of green in the central reservation with a path that can get you across to a much quieter road.  The apartment itself is on the second floor, but has a lift that’s big enough for four adults so will definitely fit a pram.  Having a lift was our number one request - anywhere without one was immediately discarded.  That's why we're moving.  Additionally, the new place has good light during the day, but it won’t get as hot as our current place since the sun is filtered through the trees and is less south-facing than our current place (we think the new one is SW or WSW.  Although the balcony space is very limited (we could probably just about fit 2 chairs on the balcony accessed from the living room) it's good to have a bit of outdoor space if we want it, and know that we can get air into the apartment by opening the door.

There's 3 bedrooms and the master is en-suite.  The second bedroom, next to the master, will make an excellent nursery.  Guests will have their own bathroom with shower, plus there's a separate toilet right by the living area.  The living area itself is really nice with two distinct seating areas (which we may reduce) and plenty of floor space to be covered with baby toys.  There's also a separate dining area off to one side which makes the area feel more 'classy' than our current arrangement.  Although the kitchen isn't as large and airy as in our 'first choice' apartment it's still much bigger than our current kitchen and has an oven door that appears to close properly!  (To see why this is a novelty for us, check out our very early blog post here).  The utility balcony off from the kitchen is accessible and has a door that closes properly - again something that can't be said for our current place (we currently wedge it shut with a box of floor tiles!).

The general feel of the new apartment is that it's been very well cared for.  It's got neutral decoration and the furniture isn't too gaudy.  The floors in the living areas and bedrooms are wood laminate, and they look like they've been recently laid.  Although ceramic floors are nice and cool they're also really tough on the knees so since we think we'll be spending a lot of our time playing on the floor with the baby the laminate seems a good thing to have.  The floors in the bathrooms, kitchen and corridor are ceramic, though, which makes sense.

When we moved into our current place four years ago, there was dust everywhere.  The apartment had been repainted but there were paint splotches all over the floor.  We spent ages cleaning it to get it to a condition we liked, and the wonderful Fatma has kept it that way for as long as we've been here.  The new apartment appears to have been kept in immaculate condition while it's been empty, so at least we won't have too much cleaning to do after the summer.  However, we'd like to keep Fatma and hope that she'll be happy to take on the new apartment!

All in all, we're exhausted but happy but back to work tomorrow!

Apartment Hunting

We've lived in our current apartment since we first arrived in Cairo back in August 2008.  It's a good apartment - not the smartest or best furnished we know - but it has everything we need, the location is great and the rent is reasonable.  However, the apartment is up 4 flights of stairs and there is no lift in the building.  We'd happily stay here next year if our circumstances were staying the same, but having the baby will make this current apartment completely impractical due to the 'no lift' issue.  Consequently we're looking to move.

Over the past couple of years a pattern has emerged which sees people having a baby move out of Maadi to a place called Rehab.  Rehab is lovely.  It's a gated community where everything is clean and tidy.  It's quiet.  There are gardens and wide paths linking the apartments and it's only 15 minutes away from school.  However, we really like living in Maadi and don't know if we want to leave.  We know plenty of people in Maadi with young children and they are very happy being here.  The reality is that it's impossible to compare the two places as they are just so different.  Where one might score highly on a feature, the other will be at the opposite end of the scale...and vice versa.

Consequently we've been looking at apartments in Maadi since that's easy for us to do while trying to line up viewings in Rehab.  Over the past week we've seen fifteen apartments.  It's fair to say that within a few seconds we can sense whether it's made it to the shortlist or not.  Our key 'wishlist' features an apartment on the ground or first floor, OR an apartment higher than that but with a lift.  We'd ideally like a 3-bedroom apartment, but if not then a 2-bedroom with good sized rooms that will adapt well for visitors.  The living space needs to be big.  Outside space (garden or balcony) is a bonus.  Reasonable rent.

Obviously the location matters as well - both in terms of noise/traffic but also in terms of proximity to places.  This latter issue led me to hack together a map of Maadi.  I drew two circles - the red one centred on the BCA, and the green one centred on the CSA (both places where we'd spend a lot of free time) - and drew the radius coming out to our current apartment shown by the black dot where both circles meet.

Guess what?  That's right - nothing really fits.  All the apartments fall short on at least one of the criteria.  If it's a nice apartment then the location isn't good, or it lacks outside space, or it's too expensive.  If the location is good then the apartment isn't.  And so on.

Last Wednesday we met an estate agent who showed us 6 apartments.  Things didn't begin well when he took us into a building, we went upstairs in the lift, and then he looked around and said, "I'm sorry, this is the wrong building."

Things got back on track after that, but everything we saw was right at the top of our price range, and although nothing really grabbed us as ‘the one’, there were a couple we might consider.  They each had a small balcony, big enough for a couple of chairs but nothing else.  However, they did have large windows that would throw a lot of light and fresh air into the apartment. They were also three-bedroom and fitted with air-con throughout, so we wouldn’t need us to spend any money on anything new to make it what we want (which therefore makes the price a bit more manageable).

One we did see – a duplex (i.e. spread over two floors) – was mind-blowing. It’s on the 2nd floor (if you count ground, 1st, 2nd...) and is enormous. It’s basically two 2-bedrooms apartments in one. Both upstairs and downstairs have 2 bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen! The upstairs is enormous – the living/dining/kitchen room is about the size of our entire current apartment. The kitchen has a bar that comes into the main room; it feels like the lobby to a hotel. There’s also a roof terrace about the size of our living room. Seriously, it was amazing. We had to strike it off the list before we even finished climbing the stairs, but it is going to make an amazing apartment for someone.

There is another apartment we struck off the list because of the circumstances surrounding it.  It's a great location - virtually next door to the BCA - and was quite a nice apartment next door to the landlord. Normally I wouldn’t be too bothered about that (the first one we saw, which is one of the ones we’re interested in, had the landlord directly downstairs), but this landlord struck me as a bit ‘whoa!’ He came to the door and his crazy little dog burst out; it had a hacking cough and cataracts. Then the landlord came out in his pyjamas to show us the apartment. It was hard to take him seriously as he shuffled around in his slippers without his teeth in. I had to rush-look at some of the apartment because he stopped me and regaled me with stories.

"Where are you two from?"

"We're from England."

"England, good.  I have lots of my money there.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Well, some of it.  The rest is in apartments in Cairo.  And some in France and some in Germany.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  Oh, here's a nice big kitchen for your wife to do the cooking."

Hmmmm.

We agreed that although the apartment was nice, there’s no way we could live next door to him.  However, we were shown another apartment he owns which is the 2nd of the 2 we put on our list. With a bit of distance from him it could work, but I think we’d go mad if we lived next door to him!

Throughout our visits we were constantly comparing to a 2-bed with a large terrace that a friend is moving out of, and to be honest it was hard to compare properly since although his is smaller internally, the roof terrace makes a massive difference.  Also, there is a huge difference in the rent which would have a large impact on us and which we can't really ignore.  We felt a bit let down by the agent as we told him our budget and he pitched everything right at the very top limit (if not slightly above).  I'm surprised he didn't show us anything a bit cheaper.

The next day we arranged to see some apartments through the lady who organises such things at work.  We met the agent she uses in Maadi and he took us round three apartments.  Two were in the same building and it was very useful to see them since, although they had the same floor area and were both going for the same price as our friend's apartment, one was a 3-bedroom and one was a 2-bedroom.

If anything, it made us realise that, while 3-bedrooms would be useful for when we have visitors, a 2-bedroom would be more practical on a day-to-day basis and could still be very adaptable for when people come to stay.  It also helped that the 2-bedroom apartment had a family living there.  What would have been a third bedroom had originally been opened up onto the living area as a dining room, but they used it as the playroom for their kids.  Consequently the living area felt enormous and really usable, where everything could have a separate area rather than it all being chucked into the same cramped space.  Imagine knocking down the walls to the guest bedroom in our current apartment to open up the living room.  The area where there had been a narrow balcony had also been covered over so that it became part of the living room, extending the living area but keeping large windows to let in lots of light.  Both bedrooms were large, and each had additional storage space too.  The apartment only had one bathroom, though, which would also have a major effect on what happens at 'peak times' when people visit.

The 3-bedroom apartment in the same building demonstrated some of the trade-off.  It had three large bedrooms and one bathroom plus an extra toilet, but the living area was much smaller (about the size of our current apartment) and so not as useful on a daily basis with a baby. The 3-bedroom apartment was also on the other side of the building, and this combined with the heavy wooden furniture, made it seem really quite dark inside.

Comparing these apartments to the larger, more expensive, 3-bedroom apartments we saw previously it was clear how much you pay for extra space.  The living areas in the more expensive apartments were the same large size as the extended living area in yesterday's 2-bed, plus they had the bedroom and an additional bathroom.

That night we were called again by the first agent.  He said he'd found a great place, but we were worn out and told him we might look at it in a few days.  We'd also arranged to visit Rehab on Saturday and so didn't want to have to rush around to get back to Maadi for another viewing.

We got to Rehab about an hour before our first appointment in order to visit the 'Food Court'.  This is one of the 4 areas that people describe as being a key location.  It felt like a stretch of restaurants in a resort hotel.  It was gorgeous with beautifully manicured lawns and even a water feature with a little bridge.  It was clean and functional with wide pathways perfect for a buggy.  However, to us it lacked character.  Most of the 'restaurants' were fast food chains and those that weren't had generic menus with the same view.  On the flip side, they were all very child friendly.

We ate a light lunch at the Lebanese restaurant there, and then met the estate agent for our first few viewings.  He showed us 2 apartments in the same block, owned by the same landlord.  They were each 3-bedroom apartments and had a reasonable, but not enormous, living area.  The prices were in the region of the 3-bedroom apartments we'd been shown in Maadi, but the living area was much smaller.  They had a couple of small balconies, but were directly opposite a large mosque with one of the speakers directed straight into the apartment.  He then took us to another apartment quite a long way from the main area in Rehab.  It was a very green area, but the apartment was East facing and so didn't get much sunlight after the morning and was about 20-30 minutes' walk from the nearest shop.  We immediately ruled it out.

The agent dropped us back at the Food Court, and so we wandered down to 'Mall 2' to meet the lady from work who arranges apartments for staff.  We spent half an hour in the mall, which reminded us of the Grand Mall but cleaner and with a supermarket in the basement.  We also took a wander aroudn the 'souk' - an area similar to Road 9 in Maadi, but without the potholes in the road.  We were taken to the apartment of a couple of colleagues who are moving into a new place, and took a look around.  It was really nice - ground floor with pretty good light and a small garden.  However, this was still a good 15 minute walk from the nearest shop.

We sat in the mall as we waited for our taxi and mulled over the options.  We liked the peacefulness, cleanliness and space in Rehab.  The layout was very family-friendly, and we felt it would be 'easy' to live there with a baby.  On the flip side we felt that it was a bit too clinical and could feel claustrophobic.  There's some lovely people living there, but all our close friends live around Maadi.  It's a good 45 minute drive into Maadi and so we're not sure we'd end up visiting very often.  On the flip side, you could spend all day walking around outside if you wanted to as the entire settlement is like one giant park since there's so much greenery and open space.

We got back home and texted a friend who had a baby here a few years ago.  She's stayed in Maadi all the time, and we felt it woudl be worth getting the low-down from somebody who had 'done it'.  The people we know in Rehab all commented on how difficult Maadi was with a baby, but we figured they were talking about their occasional visits to Maadi and were comparing it to their daily routine in Rehab where it was more buggy-friendly.

The next day we met with our Maadi-based friend for coffee, and she reassured us about our gut instinct.  There's no doubt that some things in Maadi can be frustrating - especially some of the roads with a buggy - and it can be a long way from school, especially if the traffic is bad.  However, Maadi does have a number of positives.  We left feeling that our minds were made up - we'd stay in Maadi and see how things go.  If it does turn out to be too difficult in any way then there is always the option to move out.  We felt it was worth giving it a go.

We got back in touch with our first agent and asked to see a couple of the apartments again.  He said he'd also arrange for us to view two other places, including the one he'd wanted to show us a couple of days previously.  We met him the following afternoon while it was still light, in order to see the apartments in the daytime and check on the light.

When we stood outside the first place we weren't sure.  It's just along the road from us on the corner of 206 above a bookshop called Volume 1, and we know the road is busy.  However, once inside we had a really good feeling about the place.  It was on the 6th floor with a lift, and had a large living area with an enclosed balcony.  The third bedroom had been converted into a 'snug' area with a TV and a set of free weights (!) but could easily be turned back into a nursery.  The kitchen was large, light and well fitted.  It felt great.  He told us the rent was $1,100 - at least 10% more than we budgeted for, but we'd spoken about maybe being able to stretch a bit further for the right place.

He then took us to another apartment round the corner.  Both of them, he said, had dropped their prices significantly since last year.  There just isn't the demand any more, since all the big money - the oil companies and the diplomatic sector - cut back their staffing following the events of last year.  Consequently the only big market now seems to be teachers, and as we all know we don't have the same money as the oil companies!  This meant that while the second apartment was large and modern, the price was reasonable.  We again had a good feeling about the place.

We followed these two 'new' viewings with a visit to our favourite 2 apartments from the previous trip.  We were glad to have revisted, as we were abel to dismiss one immediately, but spent a while in the second.  Everything we felt was good about it from before still felt good, although we were a bit frustrated that the price we'd been told now came with a comment that the agent thought he could 'get it for that' - the actual asking price was higher.

As it turns out, that comment re-emerged the next day.  We spent the evening considering all the options, and headed out to look at the streets around those apartments.  The road alongside the one on the 6th floor turned out to be much quieter than we thought, while the other one - which we thought would be quiet - had the feeling of being a bit of a rat-run.  Based on that, plus our consideration of what was in the apartments themselves, we plumped for the one on the 6th floor.  So, yesterday morning - the day after viewing - Alice called the agent, who now decided that the price he told us was - again - what he thought he could get it for; he hadn't todl us the actual asking price.  Alice told him to call the landlady and say we'd take it for the price he'd originally said, and left it at that.

Later yesterday evening we had a text message, which we followed with a phone call.  The landlady is coming to Cairo today, and the agent would meet her around lunchtime.  However, she is coming to Cairo because she's arranged to meet somebody else at 5.30pm - somebody who has said they want the apartment.

Quite why the agent is meeting her, when she's already arranged to meet somebody else and sign the contract, is beyond me.  I don't feel happy about the idea that we could be pushing in front of somebody else in the queue, especially as they've already verbally agreed to have the apartment.  I'm also uncomfortable that it could lead to a bidding war.  We're already right at the top of our budget, and although I really want this apartment I don't think we can afford to pay more.  Additionally, I'm frustrated by the 'what if' of the situation - the agent called us 4 days ago with news of this apartment, but we left it until now to view it.  If we'd seen it earlier, perhaps we'd have acted earlier and woudln't now be potentially losing out on it.  Similarly, if we had called the agent yesterday morning rather than when we got back from work, we could have been first in the queue.  The waiting also puts us at risk of missing out on others we like - 'what if' somebody else takes those while we're caught in this to-ing and fro-ing?

At the same time, I'm very conscious that our 'wish list' is quite demanding.  We always knew we were unlikely to get everything we wanted, especially if we were to stick to our budget.  A lot of these apartments are actually really great places, and I know that if we had seen them on the internet and taken them without actually visiting, we'd be very happy walking in the first time.  That's how we got our current apartment, and we've been here for nearly 4 years.  Maybe I just need to chill out a bit and say 'that'll do'.

Whatever happens, I can say one thing for certain - the whole experience is exhausting.

Goings on

We've not been keeping on top of blogging with various things going on, so I'm going to make an attempt to catch back up with things.

I'm going to start with plans, and then work backwards I think...although that makes very little chronological sense.

MUSIC

We've got a few gigs lined up which is exciting - gigs that we will be watching, rather than playing in which is even cooler! The first is next week when we're hoping we'll finally get to the Cairo Jazz Club and will get to see Glass Onion. They are an awesome Beetles tribute band and they sound spot on so it should be a very fun night.  A colleague of ours is the drummer, so we hope to go along with a few people from work to have a good group together.

Then in two weeks' time there are two gigs going on; Rock at the Pyramids and then Rock Stop. We won't actually go to the Rock at the Pyramids gig even though it does sound awesome (Queen, Pink Floyd and Coldplay tribute acts on the Sound and Light stage in front of the pyramids).  It's going to be 6 hours long and starts at 10pm - way past our bedtime (even if it isn't on a school night!) so we just can't justify the ticket price considering we'd probably fall asleep after one band! We do plan to get to Rock Stop, though, which is an afternoon event at the weekend and includes a few musicians we've seen before - and some new ones. More on the gigs once we've enjoyed them!

FOOD

Last night we went out to have dinner at a new restaurant in Maadi. It's a place we walk by a lot and has changed hands twice since we've moved here. We've never been too attracted to the restaurants / coffee shops that have taken up residence in the area it's situated, but thought we'd give this one a go as we'd heard others had visited it. At first I thought it would be a standard 'Italian' but it actually claimed 'fine Italian dining'. There were a few other people in there when we arrived, but we were soon the only people there. They had a cover charge which included some nice breads and a too tasty blue cheese dip along with two olive-based dips.

To start we had mushrooms and a caprese salad. I must say that the mushrooms were very good; oven baked, instead of fried, and a nice amount of garlic on them. The salad too was good and they didn't scrimp on the mozzarella, but could have had some dressing on the side maybe. For the mains Scotty had veal and I had sea bass - mainly because I was quite excited to see something different on the menu. What was nice was that they served the vegetables and potato on the side; which in my case was spinach (again - excited to see this on a menu) and sauteed potatoes. Yum! Scotty found that his sauce was a bit bland, but I found mine slightly overpowering (a lot of butter was involved I reckon!).

It was more expensive than we thought it would be from the outside, mainly because the menu lists a price that is 'plus plus' (i.e. plus a tax and plus a service charge) but also because I think that the level of food quality in there is higher than other Italian restaurants in Maadi. I would go there again, but only as a treat.  Scotty, however, thinks the food quality is about the same as other places but the setting is nicer.

We did finish our evening off (somehow we made room in our bulging bellies) with another treat; ice cream from Stavolta. This ice cream place has been a real hit in Maadi and is a good excuse to walk in to Degla. They always have new flavours in that they make from fresh ingredients - last visit I had their hibiscus sorbet and this time I tried their lemon, orange and carrot sorbet which was a lot tastier than it first sounds! It was very lemon and citrus-y, but with only a hint of carrot at times.

WORK
So, why did we deserve that treat?  Well we'd had one of the craziest weeks at work yet. For the last two weeks since coming back from our half-term, we've been in full-on rehearsals for the school production and this week were the final rehearsals and performances. We love getting involved in these, even though we know how much hard work and how intense the final few weeks always are. We had three performances planned (two early evening and one matinee) but ended up doing a fourth performance because people were enjoying it so much. But 'phew' it's over with now and we can sit down, and we can sleep and we can do nothing!  It does always feel a little strange to have something that takes up so much time, thought and energy just gone, but I'm sure our bodies and minds will thank us!

LIFE

All around us other things have been going on.  Things are gearing up for the presidential elections and so we have been following the news closely.  Around in Maadi we haven't felt much effect of the elections just yet.  There has been some unrest down town and around the Ministry, but this seems to have been localised (although the reports of deaths two days ago was a worry).  In Maadi we have seen candidate posters up and today we've seen the first banners up. With fewer candidates I wonder if the banners and posters will cover as many surfaces as they did in November, but we'll have to wait and see.

We also made our baby news public via Facebook.  The number of lovely comments from people was quite overwhelming, and has made the whole thing seem even more 'real' now that people are regularly asking how things are going.

Save Way Book Corner

Save Way is the small corner-shop-cum-supermarket where we do nearly all our shopping. It's very 'local' which means it doesn't have five different flavours of Betty Crocker icing like the more expat stores (well it doesn't have any Betty Crocker icing come to think of it) but it does have what we need day to day; bread, eggs, veg and water.

Sometimes we do go to other places to get our veg, but we keep coming back to Save Way for the main items because although it doesn't have the range (you can be sure to get potatoes, tomatoes, onions and courgettes or carrots there all the time, most of the time you can get peppers too, but anything else tends to be short-run), the veg is much better quality than anywhere else.

In the front corner of Save Way when we first moved in they used to have a newspaper and magazine rack, but that gradually faded out of use about two years ago (possibly because the kiosk on the other side of the Grand Mall started selling papers).  Since then the area has been used as a storage area piled high with boxes of crisps or crates of soft drinks. Last week though I noticed that they were starting to clear part of it up.

What has sprung up is a small book store! It's all new books and imported titles (apart from a small AUC Press section) but it looks very good.  As the guy was arranging the books I took a look around and they had an 'Egypt' section which I browsed. Since finishing the Matt Rees series that I loved, I have been on the look out for something else to read that might be similar. On Amazon I managed to find an author with a similar character/setting, Barbar Nadel's series set in Istanbul.

Then by chance I noticed that in the stands was one of her books, quite reasonably priced I thought at 65LE. It was a random book from the mid-series and so I asked the guy if he might be able to get the first in the series. I've asked at bookstores for them to order me books, but not had much luck, so I wasn't holding out too much hope - I knew I could always pick it up from Amazon in the UK in the summer if I wanted to.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I went in to Save Way to pick up some things for lunch today and he came up to me to say he had the book! Well, he didn't actually say he had the book. He actually held another of her books and said to me '10 minutes' and then he dashed off. Ten minutes later (I'd already paid for my shopping so was just browsing his books again) he did indeed come back with the book I'd asked for. Brilliant!

Baba Ganough: The First Trimester

A bit of a back-dated blog post here as I thought it would be good for us to record the goings on of Baba Ganough's first trimester.

Even before we were able to do the pregnancy test I had an inkling that I might be pregnant.  I started getting a metallic taste in my mouth from about 3 weeks.  I recognised it as being metallic after spending so long three years ago on Flagyll tablets for tummy troubles out here!  I started drinking hibiscus tea after work to try and give myself a different taste (and because I heard it was good for maintaining good blood pressure).  Between about 3 and 6 weeks too I was sometimes feeling 'crampy' pains in my abdomen.  The unsettling thing is that these would feel a bit like period pains, but I tried to reassure myself that they were fine as I had read that other people do get these.  In trying to have a good balanced diet we went out and bought a range of nuts and dried fruit and some little containers so that we could have healthy snacks at work!

I had to have a day-off work soon after we discovered I was pregnant though as I came down with a cold that really wiped me out.  I was suddenly just so stuffy-nosed and stuffy-headed and so tired.  After having a day of rest though I was feeling better and able to get back in to work.

Once we had had two positive pregnancy tests at home, we knew we wanted to get to see a gynochologist to start pregnancy preparations properly.  We had been recommended Dr Cherif by a number of friends who had had pregnancies out here but no one still had his number, so we went out to find the gynochologist 'behind the Grand Mall' (!).  We assumed that he must be on the road that goes directly away from the Grand Mall back entrance so we started along there looking at the signs outside each building for a hint as to where we might find him.  We asked the Bowab for a couple of buildings for 'Doctor Cherif?' and a few looked confused but finally one said 'Aywa, el beit tenni' which meant he was in the next building down.

Our first scan with Dr Cherif was at 7 weeks, and it was really reassuring and wonderful to have Dr Cherif confirm the pregnancy. Before the scan though we were first seen by his assistant in an office who went over our medical histories. When he asked us why we wanted to see the doctor today we said 'because we're pregnant' to which he replied 'mabrook!' - our first congratulations!  After we had finished with the assistant the man himself, Dr Cherif, came in to see us.  He was very nice and friendly and went over the information that the assistant had taken.

After this we were taken across the hall to another door (that looked a lot like the first) with a bed and the ultrasound in it.  Up on the bed another assistant put the jelly on my belly and we sat and waited for Dr Cherif who then did the scan.  The black-and-white image was projected on to the ceiling above the bed, so I could lie back and see what he was seeing.  It didn't look like much, but then he pointed out a small dark circle which was the amniotic sac - proof that conception had occured!

Our next move was through a second door in this room and in to Dr Cherif's actual office. Here he gave us a copy of the scan image (with the mouse pointer helpfully showing the important bit!) and advised us that I should keep exercising, but should not exert myself, I should have a healthy balanced diet and that I should take pregnacare tablets (which are a multi-vitamin with folic acid in, rather than just the folic acid).  Dr Cherif was also able to explain why I had been feeling unwell with a cold since finding out I was pregnant; apparently your immune system is slightly lowered during pregnancy to allow for the foreign body inside you (!)

Our first scan was on 14th February; Valentine's Day


The week after this scan, we were flying to the UK for half term. We had told Dr Cherif that we were flying and he pointed out that there was a slight increased risk of miscarriage from flying in the first trimester, but doing further research ourselves on the internet we could not find any link between flying and miscarriage, only that there was all-round an increased risk of miscarriage in the first three months.  So it was week 8 when we flew to the UK and on our visit we knew that we would see all three sets of parents, so would tell them all in person. They were all very excited but with it being early days we were still feeling cautious.

Returning to Cairo in week 9, we started to get in to our healthy diet together and made a large soup at the weekend which we then put in to freezer bags with daily portions.  The soup was full of loads of veggies and really yummy, but after a few days I started to feel like I was missing out on something at lunch time, so started to bring along some bread for lunch too.  After a great start with the nuts I started to go off these and found that I wasn't eating them so often.

Luckily, I never felt what I would call 'morning sickness'.  I did feel queasey and a bit dizzy at times in the second two months.  It was mainly after a day at school (and bus journey home!) so was probably combined with some tiredness.  I found that the hibiscus tea helped, as did having a bit of a sit down on getting in.  I tried not to do 'too much' but work being work meant that wasn't always an option!  There was just one time that I felt like I might actually be sick, but it never got to 'head over toilet bowl' fortunatly.

Our next scan took place at 11 weeks, just before our Easter holiday and what was so exciting about this visit was that we were able to see and hear the heat beat during the scan.  Dr Cherif was pleased to see this too and he started to point things out to us on the scan as the baby was now growing in to a recognisable shape.  All signs and stats were normal; my weight and blood pressure, what could be seen on the scan.  Being able to see and hear the little Baba Ganough's heartbeat was well worth the wait (we were waiting nearly an hour-and-a-half!) and a great way to end the first trimester and start our journey of telling people now we were through to the second trimester.

My tiredness started to clear up at around this time too.  I only noted this actually because I was organising a day-long event at work on a weekend and had been thinking 'I'm going to be knackered after this - and might need a day off during the week to recover' but actually I was fine to run the event and do everything at work the following week.  This was a good sign!

After a long and cold (for Cairo) winter, things started to hot up and it was finally time to turn the AC on.  I started to get a blocked nose around this time and thought it was probably the AC being turned on and all the sudden changes in temperature.  I did the netti pot for about a week to try and clear my sinuses out, as I was really concerned about how they might be on the flight to the UK for Easter, and although it helped, it didn't fully clear it up.

We had a lovely pre-Easter holiday holiday when MummyB, G and Lis and the kids came out to visit.  When they were over, we told Lis and she was dead excited for us, as were Emi and Alex about the baby in my tummy!  We had a weekend all together at the Marriot and so we took advantage of the pool and good weather to have a bit of a swim.

The flights to and from the UK at 12 weeks were fine, but my nose was still feeling very blocked.  In the UK I tried to get some Olbas oil as well as use the netti pot and things would clear up for a day, but not much longer.  While we were in the UK we had the chance to tell the Dudleys who were all excited by our news.  Nic was able to recommend a good 'pregnancy' book, something that I felt I was lacking up until now, and we were able to order this online and have it delivered before our return flight.  On reading the book I was able to find out what was going on with my nose, as it was still blocked by didn't feel like a cold.  It turns out that at this point in your pregnancy you have a lot of blood running around and heading to your membranes which then start producing more mucus - great!  The book then added that this sympton may stay with you for the rest of the pregnancy - really great!

On getting back from the UK we had our fetal anomoly scan at 13 weeks.  The scan showed that everything was normal and all the measurements showed our little Baba Ganough was growing at a healthy rate. It's things like this that make us feel lucky to be out here with private healthcare. In the UK this would be our first scan, but we've been able to have two scans before this one.  All of our scans have been a lot shorter than the scans you get in the UK, because each time they haven't need to check for as many things (because they were maybe checked at the last scan).  By seeing Dr Cherif once a month it means too that he can have a fuller picture of the way our Baba is growing, rather than just snapshots at 12 and then 20 weeks.

St Paddy's gigs

While you read this post, why not listen to a selection of recordings from these gigs by clicking here to load our MP3 page.

Being in Cairo's premiere Irish band means that mid-March is a busy time of year ;-)

We had two gigs lined up in as many weekends which, considering we're used to gigging once a term, was something special.  The first gig was on St Paddy's weekend itself (albeit the Friday rather than the Saturday to allow for a weekend lie-in) and the second gig was the following weekend (as we can't cope with gigs either after or before a school day).

The first gig was at the BCA in Maadi and was their first outside gig since their opening weekend (when a neighbour had apparently complained about the music, making subsequent outside music requests hard to get police approval for). We were looking forward to playing outside as when we play in the downstairs bar the sound bounces around the walls and the size of the room means it is packed and people don't have much room to listen, dance or do anything apart from sweat or stand close to the speakers.

The problem being that this winter has been the coldest and longest that we've known here in Cairo and it was actually pretty chilly on the day of the gig itself and it just got colder once dusk hit. We ended up playing in jackets! The other downside of playing outside that we hadn't really anticipated was the lack of crowd feedback - without the intimacy of the small downstairs bar the crowd was spread out over the whole garden and from the stage we just couldn't get a feeling of how we were going down with them.

We felt prepared for the gig as we had had three rehearsals in the week leading up to it, but when it came to it we were a little fumbly. Listening back to the recording my bassoon became progressively flatter during the evening (probably a combination of the cold and that I was having some difficulty with breathing / tiredness that was affecting the support I could give each note) and was not sounding good at all.

The good side of the evening though was that the Guinness was flowing and our home brewed stout was going down well too (the three rehearsals during the week had provided ample testing time too). Everyone we spoke to said that they enjoyed the gig and thought we'd played well. We had a new singer join us who was fab, Mary. And the sound for us was a lot better outside than it had ever been in the downstairs bar - for once we could actually hear what we, and each other, were playing!

Jump to a week later and we're at the Maadi House in the mid-afternoon ready to get set up for their Post-Patrick's Celebration. The weather has been warming up during the week which is promising, and we're feeling quite rested (as we haven't met up all week).  It's the first time for most of us to go to Maadi House as it's quite an exclusive club - you have to have certain US affiliations to be a member - and so it's a treat to be able to take advantage of their import licence. And take advantage we do - they have imported Sam Adams lager from Boston!

Although the crowd at Maadi House was a lot smaller than we'd had the previous week at the BCA there was something about the set-up of the seating and the lighting (or maybe it was just the temperature!) that made the gig just 'feel' better.  I think we played better too - well it sounds it from the recording anyway!

In the kitchen...

...We've been doing loads of cooking recently.

Yesterday had a whole shelf in the fridge dedicated to two large sprigs of broccoli, nearly 1kg of green beans, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and courgettes. All of these we'd bought at the weekend and used some of, but were waiting to be finished in meals this week. We then went to the shop (well four shops actually, by the time we managed to find all the ingredients we were looking for!) and cooked up three different meals - two sets of lunches for work and our dinner. I think we manged to use every pan we have!

So what have we been cooking? Well a large part has been lunches for work during the week. For this we have been cooking soups. The first soup we made was a recipe that Scotty found with loads and loads of veggies in called 'Rainbow Soup'. The first time we made it we mainly followed the recipe (but struggled to find a substitute for spinach, and found ourselves shelling the green beans because we couldn't get hold of decent ones), but the second time we ad-libbed a bit more. Here's our basic recipe;

Rainbow Soup
Fry up loads of onions with diced carrot. Then add other veggies, like peppers and courgette (this was our ad-lib). Then add tomato sauce (we make our own passata as it's cheaper to use the fresh toms than to buy tins - simply boil up tomatoes for 10 mins, remove the skins and then whizz them in a food processor).  Add some chicken stock and green beans. Simmer away and add sweet paprika (we only have normal paprika and soon learnt that you need less of this than the sweet stuff to get it spicy). When everything is cooked then blend away!

The second soup that we made we found the recipe for in the Super Foods book that Fabs gave me as a birthday present. I think it was under the 'broccoli' section, but it could have been under the 'sweet potato' section as both are Super! We don't normally eat sweet potato even though it's usually quite easy to get out here, but this year we have been having it a bit more and so we thought we'd give this soup a go.

Broccoli and Sweet Potato Soup
Fry in a large pan onions, diced sweet potato (one large sweet potato per 100g of broc) and a chopped tomato. Once the sweet potato has browned then add stock and the broccoli and bring to a boil then simmer. Once everything has been cooked then blend and add pepper.

It was this soup that caused us the real shopping trauma this evening; it took us five shops before we found some sweet potato! We've said before how it's rare for anyone to be able to cook a meal out here without needing to visit more than one shop. This seems to be that some shops are better for certain ingredients, some shops are more reliable than others for having the range of ingredients in, and sometimes you forget things! This evening we gave Save Way a miss to start with as they hardly ever have sweet potato, we thought that Kimo would be a good bet but they didn't have any. At this point Scotty took all our other Kimo shopping home and I went a few blocks away to try Seoudi Market. No luck, so I thought I may as well continue another few blocks to Adam Market. This time when he shook his head I asked 'lei' (why?) and he replied that the season is over. That explains it, but it doesn't help the fact that we have two large broccoli stalks in our fridge that need eating. In a final attempt I head to Metro on Road 233. We've found that the veg we buy from Metro doesn't tend to be as good a quality as we get elsewhere but they do tend to have everything in. I strike it lucky when I find four 1kg bags of sweet potato left and leave happy.

After a quick trip to Save Way (because we needed juice and a few other things that it didn't make sense to carry half way across Maadi) we were finally home with everything we needed to cook our planned meals.

First up we made the Broccoli and Sweet Potato soup. Then once this was simmering we started to prepare our dinner of baked salmon with potatoes and green beans. With that cooking we chopped up some peppers and courgette to make an omelette with the six eggs that we didn't eat at the weekend. The plan here was to make an omelet that we could both take in to work for lunch, but once we added extra cheese and remembered about the bacon in the freezer it was a lot larger than we'd planned! Not to worry - we'll just have a few more meals out of it!

After dinner we bagged up the soup into portions and then stuck these in the freezer so we're all set for lunches during the week. How domesticated and how organised we have become!