Grand Malt - first brew

Today we started our first batch of homebrew!

• 3kg of canned wort
• 3.5lt of boiled water to mix the wort
• 2 1/2 bottles (4lt) of fridge water
• 9 bottles (13.5lt) of bottle water
• =23lt fermenting in our back room

We had the ingredients to start in January after bring them over with us after Christmas, but hadn't been able to find a vessel to brew in, so luckily Jim and Net brought a proper fermentation bin over with them last week.

We decided to start off using a kit, rather than from scratch. We have the ingredients, courtesy of Fabs and Sam, for a brew from scratch, so that will be next time!

First task was to sterilise every thing we were going to use. So we boiled and then cooled some tap water and put this into the fermentation bin along with two teaspoons of Cleaner Steriliser. The instructions were to either immerse, or douse with water for 5-10 minutes. We couldn't immerse the whole fermentation bin, so had to use our bottle cleaner to douse the inside with water and keep it wet. Similarly with our metal mixing stick (which in a previous life was one-half of a pair of BBQ tongs - could not find a long plastic spoon anywhere!). We could immerse the thermometer and the air lock though.

We rinsed the sterilising solution off using tap water that we had boiled and then cooled (this allowed the chlorine to evaporate off).  Once the fermentation lid was sterilised and rinsed we used this as a surface to put other implements on.

After sterilisation we started the wort off by placing the two tins in warm water. This was to make the syrup a little less syrup-y and therefore easier to pour. This was then mixed with 3.5lt of boiling (bottled) water. We could improve our timing here, as we found we were standing around waiting for the water to boil in the kettle (we had to boil it once and then refill).

So now we have our wort in and our boiling water in. We used a bit of the water from the second kettle full to swish around the tins and get the last dregs into the fermentation bin. This was all taking place in the kitchen, so then we transfered the fermentation bin to the back room which is where it is going to brew as this is the coldest room in the apartment.

Once there we added bottled water up to 23lt. The last few bottles came from the fridge as the mixture needed to be between 18-25C before the yeast can be added. Because we didn't check the temperature early enough, our ratio of fridge water to standing bottle water was too low, and so our mixture wasn't cool enough when we reached 23lt to add the yeast. To cool it down we turned the air con on in the room and wrapped a damp towel around the fermentation bin.

Finally it got down to temperature and so we sprinkled the yeast on top and then stirred it a bit to get it oxygenated. Lid on and air lock (with two glugs of Smirnoff Blue Vodka) attached.

The air con has now been turned off in the room and we have a remote thermometer in there which is reading the ambient temperature as being 19.1C which is bang on (should be between 18-20C).

• TOP TIP for next time - we're going to buy a really large saucepan, so that we can boil up larger amounts of water in one go - rather than being restricted to the size of our kettle.
• TOP TIP for next time - keeping an eye out for a long (40cm) plastic spoon that could be used for mixing.
• TOP TIP for next time - we only added 2 1/2 bottles from the fridge, but this needs to be higher. At least four we think.
• TOP TIP for next time - have the water bottles lined up ready with their plastic seals off already.

Jim and Net's visit

We had a lovely visit recently from the P's.
We spent the first weekend walking around and exploring Old Cairo. This included a trip to Fishawi's for chai w'nana (tea and mint), lots of haggling and lots of walking - up Muhammad Ali street, along Bab Zuweyla, up Bab Zuweyla, all through the Khan and around the Used Car Parts Market.

During the week, after visiting Saqarra, they headed to the Canal Zone for a few days exploring themselves before we all met up in Alexandria for the weekend. We got a train after school, which was typically delayed, but allowed us to have a nice tea and relax and rewind a bit with a tea after school.
We all enjoyed the bit of luxury that is the Cecil Hotel on the Corniche and we even had a balcony with a sea view! After eating as much as possible at breakfast we managed to direct a taxi towards the Catacoombs in the Karmous district of Alex. It was great to explore this underground labyrinth. We first came here over a year ago with Fabs and Sam and this time it felt that there were a lot more tourists around. We had to wait a while to get into some areas. Having said that, this time it felt that we were left alone a lot more - a lot less hassle, so that was nice.
We then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon wandering around their Souq. There are far less tourists here than in the Khan and it is smaller, which means you can get between districts more easily. Great purchases were made; dried hibiscus, tie hangers, halva and pint pots were our favourite finds.
we had noticed that in the late afternoon a "concert" was due to be played at the Bibliotec Alexandria which featured Egyptian artists and east-meets-west etc. We decided to pay it a visit and got our 20LE tickets. The concert hall was great acoustically and those comfy seats were just what we needed. This first band on were technically good, but it was all a little "widdly-widdly" guitar-solo-y for our liking. Even Scotty conceded that he understood why some people didn't like prog! The second band were in a way an improvement, but more of the same. The third band though - after 3o mins change-over between bands - were awesome. They were a Pink Floyd tribute and played note-perfect renditions of their songs. We stayed for their whole set, even though we were starting to get hungry. We managed to stay for the first few songs of the next act, who were playing more originals and singing in Arabic, but then headed to Fish Market for a lovely dinner.On our final morning we wandered the streets downtown some more, making a few more purchases and then tried to fit as many as possible into our bags before catching the train home. The first class carriage was brand new - with even the plastic covering left over the floor carpet!
So two great weekends and a really great visit! :)

Making Plans

I thought I'd put up a blog post to share some plans that we have been a-making.

Since getting out to Boston/New York for 2 weeks about 7 years ago now (!) we've been saying that we wanted to do a big America trip to see family and friends over the pond and finally we can do it! YEY!

About a month ago we started looking at flights for the summer as we knew this was going to be complicated. We knew we wanted to get to Nova Scotia on the East coast of Canada to see my cousins and then Sacremento, California on the West coast of America to see cousin's on Scott's side. Also on the wish list was Illinois as we have friends there. After a good few days of entering every flight combination into flight search engines and then airline's own websites we finally came up with something that could work.
After checking with our wonderful family the dates would work for them we were set to book and thought we'd wait until we were next paid before going for it. Then, somehow, overnight the price of our trip started to jump up and up, so we grabbed the nearest credit card and went for it!
We're really pleased with the flights we've got as it means we get 2 weeks in Sacramento with the K's and Lau, then 2 weeks in Canada with J and A before a final week to meet up with the Pontiac, Illinois gang! Geeky I know, but I've started an excel sheet to fit in all our plans and already we've got; 4th July weekend of family BBQ and fireworks the K's, camping in Yosemite and then camping and walking in Lasen (bubbling mud pools and hot springs will keep the geographer happy!) and L and A, Evolve music festival in Nova Scotia with Al and a palooza in Pontiac! It's going to be an awesome summer!! We're hiring a car from Chicago so might even be able to nip across the boarder into Indiana to visit the Bushman Music Bar.
We've got loads of time to plan the rest of our visit, but we're just so pleased to have the time and money to make this trip and see our family and spend time just chilling and having fun with them.

If you thought that was long-term planning (!) then you'll be impressed with the next bit. We've decided to stay in our jobs here for another two years, so this is until June 2012. We're happy with things here and although everything will never be perfect (we're a long way from the UK for us) we think it's good enough to stay. This level of planning has been brought about by me gaining a promotion at work. After an application and interview I've been offered a coordinator role from September. More work (!) but I get rewarded for it and I also get training which is a real plus. So if you were getting in a panic that you wanted to use our hospitality in Egypt before we left, you've got an extra year to do so! Come out and visit for a first time - or come again and see some more of this interesting country and area of the world.

The Felukuleles - Live

The Felukueles played a few times over the past fortnight. The first was in the open air at school:

Our second gig saw us taking to the stage at Boss Bar, one of the few bars and gig venues in Cairo.  Fortunately it's only 10 minutes' walk up the road!

We played five songs, but unfortunately the video camera stopped working at the end of the first and missed the second.  Alice spotted it, though, so was able to sort it out in time for the third onwards.  Hooray!  You can see the videos in the playlist below:

Our final performance of this hectic fortnight was as part of the 24-hour 'fun run' in aid of Dan Fahy's attempt on the Marathon Des Sables in Mrch/April this year.  Staff and students at school started runnign around the track at 8.20 on Wednesday morning, with one person always carrying a sash around the track.  Anyone could join in, and at one point during the day there were over 400 students and staff heading roudn the track.  The sash kept going.  The Felukuleles headed to school at 6am on Thursday, arriving to see one of the band - Tony - already doing a solo half hour around the track carrying the sash.  The Felukuleles took to the track at 7.30am, and walked around the track while playing their ukes.  Different members of the band broke off to run some laps, and other staff and students took the sash at different points as well.

Storm in Cairo

Wow.

Yesterday was the last day at work before a break, so we went for a drink at the Red Onion with our friends. That morning there had been quite a downpour of rain, which for Cairo was rather impressive. By the time we had finished work, however, the weather had cleared up.

We sat down for a drink when one of our friends noticed the wind was getting up again, and then saw the frosted windows light up with lightning flashes. Quite intrigued we went outside with the video camera which we just so happened to have with us!

We were in the pub for longer than we expected while we waited for the storm to blow out, but when we got back to the apartment the lightning was still flashing across the sky.

Shortly after this, we noticed a sound like a shower outside the apartment in the stairwell. Going out to investigate we noticed a large puddle of water gathering outside our door (fortunately the large marble lintle stopped the water getting in). The stairs from the upstairs were a river of water, and so we worked with our upstairs neighbours to find buckets to collect the water coming in through the manhole that provides access to the roof. This was a rather futile attempt, but at least gave us opportunity to start clearing up so it didn't ruin the whole block.

It took about an hour and a half for us to get rid of the majority of the water and these videos are from when we were quite a long way into sorting it...they don't look particularly 'shocking' but an hour previously the whole apartment block was swimming.

We both really feel for our boawab, Nasr, who lives under the apartment block. Our apartment is on the corner of a road where the level is lowest, and so all the water gathers here. There are no drains and so water just sits around until it evaportes. The problem is that when the low level of the street overflows, it overflows to underneath our apartment...right into where the boawab lives. Apparently he has managed to do a really good job of damming the area so it didn't get too bad, but I imagine he was a rather unhappy guy last night. We'll see if we can find him later today and give him some extra money to help him out.

This morning we managed to find a news story showing that indeed the storm caused problems all over Cairo. http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/hail-storm-greater-cairo We knew it would affact the traffic as with no drains, the roads just turn into huge puddles. This morning a lot of the water on the street has evaporated and hopefully it will be all gone by this evening from most parts of the city. I wonder if there will be any more news stories on whether the water caused problems for the poorest people for Cairo whose homes and belongings will not be weather-proof.

Water Delivery

I tried a new experiment today - phoning for water delivery!
I normally walk down to SaveWay (the supermarket behind the Grand Mall - which is not very far at all) when we need water or a few things. But today I tried something different!
When I walk down I normally pick up a few other things, but didn't really need much this time and wanted to stay in - so I tried phoning instead.
I found the number on one of their plastic bags (!) and so gave it a call.
> Arabic greeting
>> SaveWay?
> Yes. One minute.
>> (after a pause) Mumkin, delivery?
> Yes. One minute.
>> (after a pause) Mumkin, two boxes water?
> Big?
>> Aywa
> Address?

I'm not sure what all these "one minute" was about, as he didn't hand the phone over to anyone else and didn't seem to be taking notes! After giving the address, we just waited to see what would happen!
They made it in about 30 minutes which is what I would probably wait if I went into the shop and paid first.
When it arrived it was two guys that normally work in the shop rather than on the scooters. And they were KNACKERED when they arrived! Some of the delivery guys manage the two boxes at once, but these guys had one box each and were gasping!! (I can hardly talk as I'm not the one hulking things up three floors!)
So I gave them a good tip and know now that if we don't have time to get to the shop itself we can still rely on them for a delivery :)

External Hard Drive Meltdown!