Moving

So Thursday was the last day of term, the last day of the academic year, the last day for us in our old apartment and the last day before we would fly to the UK for the summer.  So even though we had been packing and sorting for weeks, we had quite a few things to get sorted!
We’d already done the bulk of our move, but knew in the back of our minds that the last few things to move are always the fiddly things and take a deceptively long time / amount of space to move.  By this point though we were pretty knackered as we’d done so much moving (well, Scotty had done so much moving, as I wasn’t able to help all that much) and sorting to finish things off at school.  Before going in to the manic moving that took place on Thursday I’ll give a run down of the rest of the week!

Sunday – this was our final radio show for the ‘season’ as we like to call it!  On the show we spoke about the newly announced President in Egypt and the political situation with parliament being dissolved.  As soon as we had finished the show we packed up our sound gear in to one of the suitcases as even though we planned to Skype home a few more times we would do this using the computer microphone rather than our large set-up.

Monday – this was graduation and so we finished school at lunch time.  Our plan had been to do a few moves this afternoon when we went over to the new apartment with Fatma, but when we met Fatma after school she told us that she would be leaving Egypt and so could not clean for us any more.  We blogged about her here , and to be honest her news threw us a bit and so we didn’t manage to move anything this afternoon.  Having an afternoon off was probably a good thing for our sanity though.

Tuesday – this was the big move day for us as we’d arranged with the head of maintenance at school for some of his ‘boys’ to come round and move our larger items that we knew we’d never get in a cab!
At the apartment we grabbed an early dinner (which was well-timed to be our last frozen meal) and waited for a call from a colleague, Dean.  Dean was taking a few of our pieces of furniture for his new apartment, but he was also with the team of removal men who were going to move our big items to the new place (bookshelf, chairs, mattress etc).  Dean arrived around 6pm and we went down to meet him and the two trucks he had with him.  We very nearly became the proud owners of a 6ft ‘coke fridge’ which the removal men tried to carry up the stairs in to our apartment before we managed to stop them and remind them that they were meant to be collecting things, not delivering at this point!
Between the four of them they quickly managed to move all of our bits downstairs to the driveway and then started on the puzzle of fitting them all on to the truck.  The mattress proved a great way at holding everything in as it lay over our suitcases, microwave and the brew box!  At the new apartment they unloaded everything and sent it upstairs in the lift (which they managed to unload at the fifth floor at first even though we did specifically say it was the second!) and soon enough the ‘big’ move for us was complete.  The night wasn’t quite complete for Dean as he still had a truck-load of furniture to take to his new place and the ‘coke fridge’ to take to another colleague’s apartment.  We gave Dean a 6-pack of beers to thank him for getting himself involved in our move (!) and gave the guys who had done our move in super-quick time 400LE for the trouble.

It was just past 7pm and we’d done so much already but there was one final job to do this evening before we could properly call it a day, so off to Dr Cherif’s it was for a final check-up appointment.  Although we’d seen him the previous week and all was fine, this appointment was to take more detailed measurements so that we would have a full set of notes to take with us on the plane (not that there should be any problem with travelling at 24 weeks) and to take with us to see the docs we would inevitably see in the UK over the summer (we plan to have one check-up in the middle of the break and then we’ll need to see someone to get the ‘permission to fly’ note at the very end of the holiday too).
Everything was fine with Dr Cherif and the Baba Ganough which meant we left feeling very happy and pleased with how we had got through the day!

Wednesday – this was to be our final move day (we hoped!) when we would finish off a lot of the move, leaving only a few things in the old apartment.
Straight after school I went to collect the cot bed that we had bought from a girl in Rehab. We got Sayed to pick me up at 3pm and by 3.30 she was negotiating Rehab car parks and slip roads to find the closest point to the apartment. Sayed didn’t know before that we were expecting, but when I turned up at the car he realised why I had mentioned I’d need a hand putting stuff in the car. The cot bed was bigger than we remembered and so it had to run through the boot and on to the folded down back seat. I was back in Maadi by about 4.30pm and Sayed (along with Om Yasser, our new bowab) helped me take everything in to the apartment.
Meanwhile Scotty took the bus home with Sayno and together they carried around most of the larger frames we have with pictures or paintings in. They also arrived at the apartment at about 4.30pm and phase one of the Wednesday move was complete.
Now we were together again we needed to do another two taxi trips to bring the final few paintings and guitars over.  What made these moves difficult was not the weight we were trying to move but their delicate nature and the odd shapes we were moving (bedside lamps!). Before the last move of the night we also packed up the desktop computer and packed this in to a small suitcase to move leaving us with just the essentials to live with and things to do some final cleaning with.  By this point though we were both feeling very tired – tired with moving and tired with everything to be honest!

THURSDAY!
The last day of school was not as manic as it was last year (when Scotty was so ill that he threw up on the way to work and I had so much to do to finish off that I missed the bus home!), but it still had a few surprises!  We checked in online to our flight while at work and sad some sad goodbyes to colleagues and friends that would be leaving (we’ll miss you Frenchie and Judlove!)
We were back in Maadi by 3pm and started to get on to the final few moves.  Our aim was to get everything out of the old apartment apart from what we would need to sleep the night there.  We also needed to pack our bags for the UK and wanted to get down to the Club for a goodbye/end-of-term drink with people.
We cleared out the fridge and the last two plates, two mugs and two glasses from the kitchen.  Along with this we load we took some computer items and the mop and bucket (we paid good money for them!) to the new place in a taxi.  Just as we were getting home from this move we have a call from Kurt and Kristi who we have bought a computer chair from and so I dash back to the new apartment to meet them.  They also really kindly give us their stroller which they aren’t taking when they move back to California and although we won’t be able to use it for the first few months with the baby, it’s great to have as a light extra pram option.  Whilst I’m meeting them, Scotty packs another large case and brings it over.
We’ve still got some things to move, but we haven’t packed our bags for the UK yet, so we go back to the apartment, order dinner and start packing.  We’ve been putting things aside ready to pack for a few weeks, but we need to see what space we actually have.  One case has already been packed with picture frames and a few clothes, so we’ve got two left to pack.  We try to make the largest case the ‘wedding’ case and put the large wall hanging that we’ve had made for Fabs and Sam in there along with Scotty’s suits and all the bunting that has been made to decorate the hall for the reception.  We cut back on a few clothes (mainly clothes that I had been thinking to take, but actually I’ll probably only get to wear once before they are too tight for me) but otherwise manage to get everything in.
It’s 7.30pm and we decide that we deserve a break from packing and sorting and so head down to the Club for a farewell drink.  We only stay for one, but it’s really great to see people for a final goodbye before the summer (or in the case of the wonderful Lucy and Roly, before they move away!).  After this though we are back to the final dregs of the move and jobs that need to be done.
Our final move of the night is a case of computer bits and bobs and the clothes we didn’t fit in to the case for the UK.  We arrange to meet Prebble at the flat and he drops off some keys that we are getting cut for him (another, even longer, story!).  After a brief sit down and chat together we head to Road 9 and divide forces with Scotty going to close our internet account and me getting the keys cut.  It’s all done very efficiently as three guys work on cutting the four keys at the same time, and we’re soon in a cab back to Degla.
When we’re checking that the newly cut keys work in Flossie’s apartment Scotty gets a call from the internet people saying that they forgot to give him the correct change.  We really can’t be fussed to go all the way back to Road 9 for a fiver at this stage (it’s nearly 11pm) but they insist that it cannot go to charity and so back Scotty goes.
By midnight we are washing out the fridge and cleaning the bathroom so that we leave the apartment in a good way and can be sure to get our deposit back from the landlord and it’s nearly 1am by the time we have had a shower and get in to bed.  Our flight is tomorrow morning at 9.30am and we are utterly exhausted.

Epilogue: Friday
We woke up at 6am and stripped the bed – packing the pillows and dirty laundry in to the hold hall. We drank the last of the milk and juice and then took our bags downstairs for 6.45am to meet Abdul.  It was a bit odd to see the apartment so empty – it was essentially back to the way it was when we first moved in – but we didn’t have much time (or energy) to dwell on this. On the way to the airport we got Abdul to take us to the new apartment so that we could drop off the dirty laundry etc that we didn’t want to take to the UK(!) and then headed to the airport (so we did our final move in to the new apartment about 3 hours before our flight to the UK).  Although the roads were clear all the way there the EgyptAir terminal slip-road was jammed and these last 50m took us 15 minutes in the car. We got in to the airport 2 hours before our flight but by the time we had queued for the plastic bag wrap (our large hard case is really on its last legs), check-in and passport control it was reading ‘go to gate’, so we grabbed a coffee and did just that.
Goodbye Egypt (for the summer) and Hello UK!

Fatma

We found out today that Fatma is leaving Egypt and returning home.

Fatma has been our cleaner since we moved here, and although she is primarily an invisible force (she comes during the day when we're out at school) we've known her for four years so it's quite sad news for us really.

We were recommended Fatma when we first arrived by a colleague who she'd worked for for years as a cleaner and nanny and she started with us two days a week. Part of our plans for next year included the fact that she had looked after kids before and so in our minds it was a possibility that we'd ask her to look after the Baba Ganough when we were both at work. 

Fatma has been amazing as she has been so reliable and trustworthy and always done such a great job.  It's sad that she has decided to move back home, but she said that this was because she wants to have a more regular education for her daughter. She has found that things have been so disrupted this last year for her so it's understandable really, but we wish them all well.

Leaving Road 206

El Nada Hospital

It gets more 'real' by the day.  Over the past couple of weeks Alice has been feeling what she thinks are occasional movements by the baby.  I've been able to put my hand on the bump and at times feel them too, but they're so small that to be honest it's been difficult to know for sure whether it's the baby or just an overactive digestion system.  However, this week we had an ante-natal appointment which all went well, and during which time we saw the baby move on the screen.  "Oh," said Alice.  "So that feeling is the baby moving!"  Everything else is on track - the measurements are within the 'expected norms', and all the organs and limbs and growing fine.

Last time we were with Dr Cherif we asked when we should visit the hospital to check it out.  He suggested that weekend mornings are best, as most of Egypt is asleep at that time, and so we followed his advice.  We spent the first part of the morning checkign the internet for the exact location of the hospital, and rather helpfully found a blog by a couple of ex-pats who had a baby there a couple of years ago.  The key information we found was:

1. It's on the main road on Roda Island / El-Manial
2. It's above a huge McDonald's

Hailing a cab outside our apartment, we got to the hospital in 14 minutes.  Now, the roads were very quiet and the driver liked to put his foot down, but it strikes me that even if we end up needing to go at a busier time it's still do-able...which is just as well since there's not really any other option!  It was also incredibly useful to have read the tip about it being above McDonalds - we spotted it easily, whereas without that advice I doubt we'd have found it so quickly.

Walking round to the main entrance, we went past the McDonald's scooters.  I think it's hilarious that there's a maternity hospital above a load of mopeds that say 'McDelivery'.

Walking into reception, the first thing that struck us was that it actually felt like a hospital.  Some of our other hospital experiences here have been a bit more like walking into a field hospital in war, so finding a calm and clean reception area was brilliant.  We explained to the receptionist that we just wanted to look around, and so she gave us the price-list for the rooms and called for somebody to show us some examples.  While we were waiting, we scanned the reception area and noticed signs everywhere saying that there is a no-tipping culture in the hospital - "No Tipping: We Are Here To Serve You".  In a country where tipping is part of everyday life, it's interesting that they hammer home the point so strongly that we're already paying for a service and so shouldn't have to pay extra to make it happen (although deep down I suspect it might oil the cogs if necessary).

There's 6 levels of rooms from '1st Class' up to 'Royal Suite', and we know that a lot of people go somewhere in the middle with the 'Junior Suite' which our friends had a few months ago (it's the first level that has a sofa bed so I can stay over, and it has a more comfortable bed for Alice).  As it was, we weren't actually able to see this type of room as they didn't have any free - but we saw the level above and the level below so it's not too difficult to work it out.

The place was immaculate - considering we live in a country where dust permeates every inch of life, it was as if the hospital was hermetically sealed.  Maybe it was.  Either way, we both felt very comfortable with it.  We were shown the nursery first, and then went on to look at a range of rooms - all of which we were very happy with.  The difference between each price level is obvious, but even the cheapest were comfortable and clean.

We asked also if we could see the ICU - and to be honest were pleased that they made us wait outside for 15 minutes.  I think if they had just let a couple of people wander into intensive care I'd have been worried.  As it is, they took us into a viewing room where they opened the blinds into the second of two rooms, all fully equipped.  In the distance we could see the blue glow of the incubator lights of the second room where there were some babies being treated.  It felt a little uncomfortable seeing this, but we're pleased to know that they are equipped for all eventualities and take the care of the babies so seriously.

The language barrier could be a bit of an issue, but it was always going to be.  The big advantage is that Dr Cherif is held in such high esteem that what he says goes - we give him a list of what we want, and he will make sure the nurses stick to it.  All in all, both Alice and I feel very happy with what the hospital offers.

And on the way out we saw a horse and cart!

Jungee-Eurovision weekend

This weekend we managed to combine two of our favourite activities from last year; Eurovision and Jungle-themed water parks!

With the Eurovision final being broadcast on a school night our plan was always to download a copy and then watch it the following weekend - and thus maximising party potential. But when we realised that we had already booked in to Jungee for a weekend of sliding and all-inclusive action, we decided to simply shift the location of our Eurovision party to Jungee and use it as an excuse for some fancy dress action too.

So for the last month or so everyone has been watching youtube videos of previous entrants to get ideas of what to wear that either showed a Eurovision or country stereotype, or a previous entrant. There were loads of ideas bandied about and some people settled on an idea quickly, but we took ages to actually decide on our costumes. I had three long trips to the mall, first looking for a white floaty dress (Azerbaijan's winning entry from last year) and then red trousers (Brotherhood of Man, UK's winning entry from the 70's). We even flitted with the idea of getting a costume made (Ghengis Khan, Germany's 1979 entrant, anyone?) but finally settled on Romania's entry for this year when I found a short orange dress and Scotty managed to find white linen trousers and shirt.

Other outfits that featured at the Eurovision screening we had at Jungee included Scooch (brilliant tailored outfits that were perfect!), Bucks Fizz (complete with detatchable skirt for her and detatchable trousers for him!), Ireland (Irish flag dress), UK (Union Jack dress), Englebert Humperdink (specially crafted Engle-burns), Moldova's 2011 entry (pointy hat) and Cicero (Germany's entry from a few years ago...man in silver suit).


It was great fun to watch the show through and we all had 'superfan' score-cards so that we could rate each act on the song, costumes and dance/performance. There were some surprise hits (Love Me Back and their ship!) and some unsurprising groans (EH was terrible!) but a good time was had. We were well in the need of a drink (all-inclusive didn't include room servive or take-away...gggrrrr) by the time we finished watching the acts and so headed out to the Jungee nightclub. It was good fun to parade through Jungee in our outfits and it was only afterwards that I realised how ridiculous I must have looked in public (pregnant lady in tight orange dress up to her knickers is not my usual look!)

Apart from the Eurovision-action of Friday night, the other draw for the weekend of Jungee was the 32 slides and pools that they boast.  We loved them last time and spent hours on the slides (even though I still could not bring myself to do the tsunami or the yellow slide on my own, or open my eyes on the tsunami!) but this time was set to be a little different. I think it took Flossie and Frenchie about 5 minutes after we told them that I was pregnant for them to ask if I was still going to go to Jungee. Of course I'd be going - it's just that I would be eating for two, but Scotty would be sliding for two!

The first day went quite quickly in the end as we all got up late (as Thursday evening turned in to a much bigger night than anyone had planned!) so we only had a few hours poolside before breaking for lunch.  I spent some of the time finishing my book but had a dip in one of the pools and went to watch some sliding too. After lunch it was much the same, but we also managed to fit in a round of crazy golf (the fact that this was not jungle themed was dissapointing to say the least).  On the second (and last - boo hoo!) day we didn't go to the sliding pool in the end, but decided to stay by the pool near our room. It was pretty cold in there, but we braved it for about 20 minutes before heading inside.

What is it with us and nice hotels and important events in Egypt's modern history?  We were visiting reception on our last morning to confirm check-out time and we pass a small group of hotel workers all watching a TV - it is showing the Mubarak trial. We knew that the verdict in the trial was due that day, but were never totally convinced that a) they would announce the verdict that day b) they would announce at promptly, but here we were at 10am and the live footage was telling us otherwise. We were quite tempted to stay and watch with the workers, but we decided that it would be better to watch it in our room where we could get coverage in english and wouldn't be around to see others reactions / be asked our reaction (as we didn't know what the outcome could be and what the politics of these particular workers were). When we got back to our room the result had just been announced and we did spend the next hour following it on and off on the TV and internet.

So all in all a weekend to remember!

Can you tell what it is yet?

I guess some people can - as this week, for the first time, I've had people who don't 'know' coming up to ask me if I'm pregnant!

 

It started with one of the Secretaries at work (who was very excited when I said I was....don't know what reaction it would have been if I said I wasn't!), then today the cleaner on my floor asked me (by jesticulating a 'round belly' shape and smiling).  Scotty was approach by two students whom we both teach today who coyley asked him. Just to get a reaction out of them he did say at first "erm, no, she's just a bit fat" to which they looked back in horror (haha!), but he quickly told them the truth and they were very congratulatory too.

 

So here's a picture of what I looked like today to see if you would be able to tell too!

 

 

Busy Long Weekend

This weekend was a 'long weekend' for us as school was closed for two days for the presidential elections.  We think school took the pro-active decision to close as many workers would have otherwise struggled to get to polling stations to 'use their voice' - it didn't feel like the decision was anything to do with concerns about security or safety.  We were pleased that the whole lead-up to the presidential elections had been peaceful and this boded well for a productive election.  A number of friends had decided to use the long weekend as an opportunity to get out of Cairo.  Much as we felt we needed (and deserved!) a break from it all too, there were a few things we needed to be in Cairo to do, and so we felt that a relaxing long weekend here would still do us good. Little did we realise how busy it was going to turn out to be!


We got home from school on Tuesday and spent some time mooching around the apartment - not wanting to launch in to our long weekend just yet.  At about 5pm we were on the phone to SayNo and checking something on the internet for her when we had a powercut. We promised to call her back when it was restored, but after 15 minutes we saw that it wasn't just a blip (we ended up loading the USB dongle on the laptop to finish our search for her!) Two hours later and the light outside was fading, meaning we could no longer read and play guitar as we had been doing to fill our time (fustratingly we couldn't use Skype to call MummyP on her birthday or DaddyB to see how he was doing). We decided we needed to take action - out to dinner it was!

We assumed that walking a block or so towards the Degla area we would see the power back on and have a choice of places to eat, but no such luck.  It seemed that the power cut was very sporadic; affecting all the buildings in our street and about half the buildings in Degla with no particular pattern.  The first two restaurants we planned to go to were both out of power and so we went to Ceilo Lindo with SayNo and the Prebbles.  We often Otlob from there but had eaten there a few nights ago for the first time and found it to be alright.  How wrong we were!  It was busier than before (probably because the powercut had reduced everyone's eating out choices) but still not significantly busy.  Yet it took them 20 minutes to bring us our drinks and over an hour to bring us our food.  I had to send back a plate of rice they had served me ten minutes before anyone else because it was now cold, and they even managed after all that time to miss one meal off the order!  We had a nice time chattering together as we haven't caught up properly for ages, but we didn't leave a tip!

On our way out of the restuarant we had a call from our agent where we found out that someone else had already expressed interest in our 'first choice' apartment.  This was really fustrating, not only because I could have called him earlier in the day, but also because the message from him was unclear about what was now happening; had the landlady agreed to let the apartment to someone else or not, what was the actual rental price she was looking for?


All this created huge anxiety which we blogged about here.  Overnight, and on waking on Wednesday morning, we were unsure about what was happening but couldn't distract ourselves from it.  We finally have a call from our agent and manage to work things out, which we blogged about here.

With a contract and the keys to our new place in our pocket (!) we were all set for Wednesday evening - a 'pirate felucca party'! It was SayNo's birthday and she wanted a fancy dress pirate-themed felucca party and we were only too happy to oblige!

We spend sunset on the felucca enjoying some cider and beers in our fancy dress and bunting-decorated boat.  We like to think that the felucca sailor enjoyed the evening too; looking on at these crazy westerners and getting a can of Sprite served in a pirate-theme paper cup.  Back at SayNo's apartment we ordered some food in for dinner and then enjoyed two amazing deserts; warm brownies with vanilla frosting and then a Captain Basboussa cake that we had designed (a large circular basboussa with a pirate face cut out of it!).  It was late when we finally wandered home, but we were glad to have had such a positive afternoon when 24-hours ago things looked quite different.


After a hectic first day off we decided to have a restful Thursday morning so attempted a lie-in.  But we were soon up and looking again at pictures of the new flat.  Since visiting it again yesterday we'd become really excited and having signed it feels like we 'know where we are going' now.  It was hard to have a restful morning when actually all we wanted to do was plan the move!  So we started to think of where our things would go in the new place and what things we might need to buy. There isn't a desk in the new flat, and the dining room table we want to keep as a dining room, so we decided to have a pre-purchase look at a few stores at what desks we could get.  It was just before lunch when we got in a cab and headed to Carrefour.

We started with getting lunch at the food hall there and it was just so nice to be out and about.  With everything going on this year we haven't been going out so much and this last week especially we haven't had much time to ourselves - so a trip out together was really good.  After lunch we browsed all the stores looking for Eurovision outfits (fancy dressis Eurovision-themed next weekend) and found a few options. We also found a general clothes store that had a really good baby range upstairs, so we'll definitly visit there again.

In Carrefour itself the desks were dissapointing; either something cheap and flimsy or something the size and look of a company executive!  Oh well - at least we gave it a go! With hindsight we shoud have quit shopping at this point, but we though 'oh, let's just see if there is anything we need'. We knew we didn't need a big shop, but managed to find four things to buy.  The queues were pretty big, so we had the good idea to get round to the far end of the shop and the 'ten items of less' tills. We spent 15 minutes in a gathering (not queue) of people who all had the maximum ten items (one man had ten boxes of water - surely that's cheating).  We left empty handed and pissed off.

So to try and make the trip worthwhile we return to some of the potential Eurovision outfits, only to find on trying them on that they aren't so great after all. I don't think any of the dresses I was trying on would have suited me anyway, but my growing bump definitly wasn't helping and nothing worked. We abandone shopping and head home feeling grumpy and tired (well, I feel like that!).

After a few hours recovering from a truely bad shopping trip I head to the Grand Mall to give it a go. I scout every shop on every floor and come up with a shortlist of possibilities.  We decide on a dress and finally can say two things - we know what we're going to dress-up as for the Eurovision fancy dress (after being undecided for weeks!), and that you _can_ buy everything you ever need from the Grand Mall!


Surely today should be a rest day, but no we've decided to head up to Rehab this Friday morning.  We've been tipped off that there is a garage sale taking place with lots of second-hand baby and kids stuff so we are going to meet our friends Adam and Lorna with their daughter Alya and go along together. It's nice walking along the green walkways and quiet streets with the buggy in Rehab, but we know we've made the right choice to stay in Maadi next year.

We end up with a set of large foam mats that can be used to cushion the floor in the nursery or living room, a play mat, bouncer, cot mobile and some newborn clothes.  We've also paid for a great looking cot that we'll pick up in a few weeks time.  With all this baby stuff things are starting to get real!!  We manage to chat to some other parents at the sale who give us various tips about giving birth out here and having a baby in Egypt and in Maadi.It's after prayers by the time we can call a taxi to get home and we've been out a lot longer than we thought!

Back in Maadi we relax at home for a bit before heading to the BCA where we need to make the public draw for our Eurovision sweepstake competition.  we have a few drinks along with the draw and then visit Kimo on the way home to buy some fresh veg for dinner. Tomorrow will be our day off!


Or maybe not (!) as we get a text from a family friend, Hugh, who is in Cairo for a few days as he is reporting for the BBC on the elections. Today, Saturday, is his last full day and although we'd love a total rest day we decide to head downtown to meet him.  It's always good to meet Hugh and catch up on the goings on and rumours that can abound in this city.  We decide that a taxi will be a less tiring way of getting to Midan talat Harb, but not with the taxi we manage to pick up.  He really doesn't seem to know the way downtown and so keeps checking with people.  We then has the brilliant idea to try the AC in the taxi, but after a few minutes with the air pumping and the windows rolled up it seems that the only air being sent in our direction was heated! we didn't want to be rude, but having the heater on in a closed vehical while it's high 30's outside is not a good thing!  We meet at Cafe Riche which is on Talat Harb, a main street running east from Tahrir Square.  It's a great place with some classic furniture and old photos on the wall. The table cloths look like original Stella ones that have been washed and used so many times that the table shape is permanently imprinted in their hanging. It's great to pick over the happenings of the last few days in the election and afterwards we walk towards the old AUC building checking out some of the new grafitti on the walls.

So although we tried to fit in some relaxing time this weekend, it turned out to be a very packed long weekend!  It was all great fun though and we wouldn't have wanted to miss out on the parties, gatherings and exploring as that's what life here should be all about.  Whilst all this excitment would make next weekend the ideal weekend to plan 'nothing' we kind of have the opposite in mind.... Next weekend in Eurovision-Jungee!