MVR transit lounge: Air hockey fun

The Kent-Croxen kiddies came round for an after-school play which was really nice. We went blackberry picking by the garages and later had these for pud with good ol' mackies ice cream. Doods came home early and played air hockey with H then Leila joined in!

MVR transit lounge: Visitors!

I need to start this post by saying a huge 'thank you' to everyone who came to see us while we were in London on our flying visit.  We knew things were going to be a bit manic; arriving with eight suitcases that would be unpacked, sorted and repacked within two weeks, and so we couldn't plan to make any trips outside of London in the time we were in the UK, so we are really greatful to everyone who was able to make time to come to North London and see us.

Grandpa Crunch
DaddyB was able to come down to London on the train and stay with us for a few days which was really great (for him, us and Leila!).  He and Scott to Leila for 'Music Time' at the Library one morning, but most days we just went to the park to play! Leila is loving having two parks near-by and her favourite thigs remains the swing, but she is enjoying climbing and running around too.

Fabia and Sam
Fabia and Sam were able to make it up to London on the one weekend we had there which was really good timing. Leila really loved playing peek-a-boo with Fabs ad having a tinkle on the piano before it was loaded in a white van and driven down to Brizzle!  For lunch one day we had Leila's favourite couscous salad and Leila decided that she would use this time to try and say Fabia's name. It ended up being "Faa!" but the funniest part of all this was that she would only try and pronounce it when she had a mouthful of couscous.  It got everywhere!  Soon after they left Leila moved on to Sam and quickly went from "Saa" to "Saammm".  It's amazing how quickly her language it suddenly coming along.

Auntie and Niece Selfie

Peek-a-boo

At the paino

Faa, Yaya and Sssammmm

What made the visit from Fabs and Sam even more special was getting to spend some time with Fabs whilst we are both pregnant (I don't think this will come around again!!).  We got to chat through things and I learnt from her about their plans for maternity benefits and hypnobirthing, and we got to share our expereinces of best and worst buys baby products! I'm really gutted that we won't be close to eachother for either of the births, but we wll have skype and all three nieces and nephews will meet eachother soon enough.

Leila with the bumps!

Park Party
We were able to have a little meet-up at Finny Park with some of the old Latymer and Uni gang.  It was partly our poor organisation and planning that we didn't make the meet-up any larger, but actually it was the perfect group of people as everyone knew at least a couple of other people and we were able to chat to everyone.  Leila enjoyed playing around in the open space and then persuading various friends to do things for her; such as Katie to take her to the exercise equipment for 20 minutes, or Bex to give her some Party Rings!

Auntie Chin, Laura, Bex, Ali, Leila and Katie

It was really brilliant that Craig and Debs came along too as we haven't seen them in years!  It meant we got to meet their two kids and Leila had someone to play with. Maggie was very sweet and held Leila's hand as they walked around the park, and Lewis was a real chatterbox for Leila to try and follow!

The Wilkies and the Allsops!

Gail and Grace
On Sunday Gail and Grace came down for the afternoon.  It was really lovely to see them and to see Leila with them 'one year on' from their last visit. Gail gave Leila a new Julia Donaldson/Axel Shaffer book (Gruffalo author and illustrator) which she loves and weeks later is still on the 'bedtime reading' list!  Down at the park Leila enjoyed being pushed by Grace in the swing and showed off her skills on the rope bridge. no matter what we tried (and how many time we showed her videos of Angus the dog playing in the water!) , Leila still wouldn't smile or look at the camera for a picture!

Zoe, King, Imogen and Max
 On our last day in London I was able to meet up with Zoe, King and their twins Imogen (Imo) and Max.  It was really great to see Zoe as I hadn't seen her since she had the twins and had probably only seen her once or twice since we moved to Egypt (as she and King moved to Canada that same summer).  We met at Zo's parents house where they were staying and had a bit of a play there.  Leila was a bit shy at first, but soon got to 'helping' Max with his puzzle.  When we said it was time to go, Leila got up and held Imo's hand to take her to the door.  Max then grumbled about being left out and so Leila extended her other hand. Super cute!  All three of them enjoyed swimming and the Clissold Park Toddler Pool (not Lido) was great for them as it had shallow splash area as well as a deeper pool that Leila could wade in at chest height.  After swimming Leila was having her snack in the change cubicle with me but was upset that I wouldn't let her leave the cubicle to share her snack with the twins.  A few doors down I could hear Zoe talking with Imo who kept saying "Where's my Leila?"

Last flight out of Cairo!

As you've probably read in previous posts we had a really mental 'last night' in Cairo that consisted of frantic packing, regretting running out of bin bags, power cuts and cleaning.  After moving two summers ago we vowed we would never have a 'last night' like that again, but this one got pretty close.

Anyway - we were up early on the Sunday morning and our minibus arrived on time so Scott got to loading our luggage into the lift and onto the bus (six large cases, two small cases, trunki, rucksack, change bag, buggy and car seat!).  He did such a good job at loading everything that I called down from the balcony to check that he had it all, and when he said he did I just asked "Well, shall I lock up then?" and Leila and I gave a final wave 'bye bye' and headed on down to join him.  With hindsight it was a weird 'goodbye' for us to such a significant home in our lives, but we have the memories and so know we can't dwell on things like this or we'll never get on!

Leila was great in the minibus and at the airport when we met Nabil to check us in.  It was a bit sad to be honest even saying goodbye to Nabil (as it had been when we said goodbye to Sayed, our regular driver, the other day) but maybe we will see him again - we're definitely keeping his number!


At the airport we grabbed some breakfast (Leila was finally tempted to try some scrambled egg off our plate!) and then wandered around to keep Leila busy.  We'd got loads of Egyptian cash still, but decided to not try and spend it on random souvenirs as we can change it in London when we arrive. Leila enjoyed posting a final few postcards (after bulk-buying stamps about a year ago!) and playing around with Trunki and then it was time to board!

We'll probably get to our final destination before these do!

Leila and Trunki take a final look out on Egyptian "soil"

Trying to explain to Leila that we are now inside the plane....Luckily she's got 5.5hrs to grasp the concept!

Leila in her own seat (while Chimp gets the lap belt!)

Leila was great on the flight even though it was a lot of hard work for both of us.  Buying the extra seat was the right thing to do, as having the three seats made things so much easier. Leila spent most of the time in her seat and was kept entertained by the food and drink on the flight (and in our bag!), standing up to look behind/in front, clambering over the two of us, playing with Chimp and reading and singing.  We did a lot of reading and singing!  There were times when things were tough and she was a bit gringy, but she was mainly under control.  It was really nice though that the older lady in front of us complimented us on Leila's behaviour (and her husband claimed he didn't realise there was a toddler behind him....not sure if I quite believe that!) and on our approach to looking after her on the flight.

In London we had quite a wait for the bags (well there were a number of them!) and then spent some time figuring out how we were going to transport them all with just the two of us.  In the end Scott had a luggage trolley piled high with our six large cases and I had all four pieces of hand luggage on the buggy and then pulled Leila along on Trunki. Luckily it wasn't far that we had to negotiate with these unsteady vehicles until we were out with the P's in the Arrivals Hall.

Waiting for one of our many bags at Heathrow

Taking it easy!

Pickle - T3 Cairo

I can't believe that we're leaving Cairo around the same number of weeks with Little Pickle as we arrived back in Cairo after the summer 2012 with Leila, our Baba Ganough. It's seems poetic in a way, but also that autumn 2012 feels so long ago and so distant.

I'm really starting to feel the stretch on my belly and feel the heat now.  Today it has felt like my belly is expanding by the minute and is tight on one side as the Pickle is pushing against me!  We lost power today between 6.30-7.30pm and even though it was cooler than it had been at midday, 30-plus still isn't 'cool' and I was soon feeling pretty hot and grumpy from it all!

I'm getting there with side-lying, but still find myself on my back somehow!  I've been getting my funny hip-thing again which I think was from my joints loosening and so becoming sore at night.  At least I've been having fewer night cramps now though.

These last few weeks before we leave I have found that my belly is really growing and starting to get in the way of things.  I try and squeeze past Scott into a space and find it pushing him out of the way (!) or I bend down to get something and then realise I can only make it halfway there because my belly is in the way!

It's good that we have booked an extra seat on the flight back as the space will mean that Leila isn't all over the two of us the whole 5 hours we'll be on the plane.  Leila still very much wants to be picked up by me and as I'm bending at the knee to get her I find that it's fine to pick her up. I obviously need to carry her 'above' the bump, but this is proving OK as it feels that my bump is pretty low. 

People talk about the problems of making comparisons between pregnancies but I think the real problem is that I can't really remember what everything was like with Leila!

This week we have mainly been.....frantic!

Our last week in Cairo has been absolutely crazy-busy.  I'm sure one of the 'upsides' of being so busy is that we haven't really had a chance to get 'hit' by the reality that is leaving Egypt after six years of our lives here, but a really fustrating part of this busy-ness is that it seems so unavoidable!

Busy-ness at work
Scott has had a lot on at work recently, which means his days have been chocca with getting things done.  At home Leila has been running around and wanting to be busy doing things all the time which has kept me on my toes also.  When we finally get her to bed we have no time to do anything apart from sort and pack and fall in to bed.  We're so glad that we started early with our sorting and packing, but can see that it's going to be up until the last minute with everything anyway.

Busy-ness packing
It's been hard, but we've been sorting our stuff into three, rough, groupings; things we want to keep, things we want to sell, things we need to give away.  Then the 'things we want to keep' have been sorted in to two/three groupings; things we want to keep but don't need on us (that will go in shipping directly to Romania), things that we want to keep but no longer need (pack in suitcases but then leave in London), and finally things to just pack!

We started quite early with some of the stuff to sell and managed to get our diving gear sold to Ciara and Brian (it was sad to admit that we're unlikely to use it in the next six years and therefore it wasn't worth taking with us). I was surprised at how hard it was to sell some of Leila's old toys amongst baby group people, but then realised that it was probably due to the fact that not many of the babies in the group were the ages that needed the things we were selling. I managed to find a new facebook group 'Maadi Yard Sale' that turned up trumps in terms of getting some random bits shifted that was good. We managed to convince Therese, Rob and Ruth that they wanted a lot of our odds and ends for a cheap price which was great, but then it took about four trips to actually shift everything (once we realised quite how many pillows, towels and bedding we had accumulated!). The most frantic aspect of all of this though was, of course, the last few items to sell. We wanted to keep the computer monitor for as long as possible, but this ended up meaning that the guy came to collect it on Saturday night before we were due to fly to London on Sunday morning! Towards the end it was also really hard just to deal with the stuff to give away, as Scott needed to take a taxi to the church to donate a load of things and then the bowab and ella had to make multiple trips to collect all the things we had for them.

When it came to stuff to ship we had the shipping company come round in May to look at all the things we wanted to take.  We kept saying 'it's not much' because all it was really was our pictures in frames, some toys for Leila, some bits and bobs, soft furnishings and two guitars. But as time went on we gradully found ourselves adding to the pile in our corridoor and it totaled 16 boxes and nearly 300kg in weight! Even looking at the manifest of what is in each box we can't quite figure our how it got to be so much.  I'm sure when it eventually arrives in Bucharest we'll wonder quite why we were sending some of these things, but hey-ho.  This week has been particularly frantic because the shippers came on Monday afternoon to pack everything up.  This timing was due to work well, because Scott was home from work so could be there with me (and Ella was working and so could take Leila out for a bit!). But actually the timing was a bit of a mad rush because we found ourselves getting things sorted for them on Saturday and Sunday night.

Just a few things to ship....

Oh, and all these pictures.... Damn you, Prime, Westwood and Hance!!

Turns into 300kg

Oh, and the the stuff to pack, well this was made slightly less frantic by the impromptu finally visit from the P's last week who were kind enough to take two suitcases back to the UK for us!  What was fortunate about their trip too was that it meant we actually counted the number of cases we had...ten!  Just the right number to cope with our EgyptAir allowance (we thought for a long time that we had just nine cases and so were literally about to go out and buy a new one!).  Two cases back with the P's, two cases as hand luggage for us, six cases in the hold for us, a buggy, three 'personal item' pieces of hand luggage (including Leila's trunki) and finally a buggy with a car seat! We had to go out and buy a specific bag that would be large enough to take the moses basket as it wouldn't fit even in our huge red case.  One of the genius aspects of our packing was determining that the blue hold-all could be packed on the morning of our flight and was just the right size to fit in the travel cot, pillows, washkit and a range of dirty clothes!

Our six cases ready for the hold!

General Busy-ness
The final thing that made this last week so frantic was the return of powercuts and the realisation, just a few days before we were leaving, that we would need to make sure that the apartment had been cleaned before we left.  It sounds silly, but we really wanted to be good tenants and for the house to be left in a good condition, but we had sold our vacuum cleaner (!), had already said 'goodbye' to Ella and then there was a powercut for over an hour on our final night!

Other things we managed to fit in this week included; two swimming sessions for Leila at Maadi House, a final apointment with Dr Cherif to say goodbye and get our permission to fly (!), buying Ramadan bags and giving them out to some of the people who have been so kind to us and Leila (our bowab, the bowab nextdoor, the police and the security on the corner), a visit to the bank to withdraw the rest of our cash in GBP and EGP, some final drinks and playdates at the BCA.

'Baby brain' vs. 'Big girl brain'

Me (with 'baby brain'): Leila, let's find your camera so that we can go out. Mummy's looking for it! (I have no idea where I have left it....)

Leila - walks straight to her room, turns on the light, gets her camera from the chair, turns off light and walks back the living room putting it in her bag.

What would I do without her!!!

This week we have mainly been....saying 'goodbye'

Although the End of the Road gig/afternoon was our sort of 'goodbye' to everyone as we have had another week in Cairo we have actually been doing lots of little goodbyes. Some were to people and some to places!

I was off work on Tuesday morning and so headed to Beanos so that Leila could have a play on the equipment there while I had a coffee. We were joined by Zuki and Tess who are both about a year older than Leila, but she really enjoys watching them and trying to copy them playing.  When it was time to go I said to Leila that she needed to say 'goodbye' to them and give them a big hug. Which she then did. Super cute!

A hug for Zuki

A hug for Tess

After swimming on Wednesday we popped into the CSA for a coffee and to drop a few things off to the Baby Group (old toys of Leila's that we weren't taking with us but hadn't been able to sell/give to Ella).  It was funny walking back in the door and seeing the room again and all the mums with their coffee and cake whilst baby was asleep on the floor, or the mums trying to breastfeed on the awkward fold-out chairs there! It's wierd to think that we didn't go at all this year but that a lot of the babies in the group now will be too big come September again and that the third generation of CSA Baby Group-ers will be there instead.  It was lovely to see Ursula and her new baby Sara too (Ursula's daughter, Luisa is the same age as Leila and we bonded when they were little because we went to the same shops and had the same slings!).

Back where it all began!

On our final weekend Scott and I were trying to get things sorted at the flat, but it was just proving impossible for us both to be productive with Leila wanting (quite naturally!) to play.  So I took Leila out so that Scott could have some time to get stuff done.  I took Leila to Jared's Bagels where we have been regular eary-morning customers since she was born. It's one of the few places open early every day (they open at 6am!) and it's usually pretty quite so they tolerate us and Leila. Oh, and Leila loves their bagels!!!

Bagels!
 

On the last weekend we did quite a bit of wandering around the streets of Maadi as I just wanted her to see it all for one last time. We bought Ramadan bags as gifts for some of the people that have been so kind to Leila and took a few final photos with them too.  On the roundabout near our house we said goodbye to the two policemen who work at the embassy (as mentioned in 'Things We See in Egypt') and the securtiy guard who took something of a shine to Leila, buying her many litle gifts.

The kind security guard who gave Leila her bird hat and first dolls!

We had always planned to have our 'last supper' at the BCA; mainly as an excuse to get out of the house and not cook on the last day here! What was lovely though was that it meant we could have a last play with Boodie and Samia and a last chin-wag with Mo.  We're going to miss Mo, who is very much our sort of person and we both got on well with her.  Boodie was always a real character (again, the same age as Leila) and we'll always remember him generally causing mayhem wherever he went!

Hot and sweaty with Boody and Samia

Now, this 'goodbye' happened a month or so ago, but we didn't blog about it properly. In mid-May the Prebbles left Cairo for the States (via the UK for a few weeks). They went through a similar journey to us in terms of Cairo, marriage and baby, and it's such a shame that we are going our separate ways once again (Scott used to work with Matt in the UK), but we know that we'll stay in touch and our paths will cross again. 

Prebbles and Allsops on Road 9