Back in the UK

Corinne was waiting at the airport and a treat of home made soup, champagne and a mezze was waiting back at the house.  Damn it was cold arriving back.

Set off for Liverpool the next day but it was snowing in a BIG way so stayed over in Gloucestershire for the night, became rather drunk while watching Liverpool beat Aston Villa with a lucky injury time goal, had an Indian and then to bed.

Up at 8am then back on the road, weather not too bad, just steady drizzle.  Back to Dad’s and a hot bath and change of clothes.

Met up with Corinne and did a bit of a pub crawl, with food at Wagamamas.  Great evening, but sore and tired so back at Dad’s and hoping to sleep soon.

And then there were none…

… no more days left that is.

I’m sat on the EasyJet flight back to Gatwick trying to remember where I got up to last time I made an entry.

After the drunken revelry that was Christmas Eve, a day was spent in recovery due to not getting to bed until 5am.  Booked a cab to El Gouna as Mel said we would be meeting at Papas in the Marina.

Got to El Gouna around 6:30 and called Mel to find out where The Lodge (place booked for dinner) was.  “Where are you?” she asked. “In front of Papas in El Gouna” I said. “Not THAT Papas!” she said, “The one in the Marina”. “This is a marina” I replied.

So it turns out that there are 2 Papas, in 2 different Marinas.  One about 10 minutes from the apartment and the other in El Gouna which is about half an hour away.  Luckily I managed to get hold of the taxi driver before he’d buggered off and headed back to the Marina in Sakkala.

A lovely Christmas meal in the Lodge accompanied by James Blunt and Macy Gray was followed by a free drinks night at Papas with a live band, pretty good but a bit heavy rock for an after dinner soiree.

The meal at The Lodge was an appetiser of smoked salmon crostini (it was on half a bread roll), veal with mushroom sauce (gorgeous!) as a starter and seafood pasta for the main (with or without scallops it said on the menu – it turned out that tonight it was without) and a cheeseboard to finish.  Unfortunately the free glass of red wine was mulled, but a cool Stella went well with the cheese.

Boxing day was spent chilling before heading up to Mel’s place in El Khayam where a turkey roast was in swing.  Sprouts in Egypt! Who would have thought it!

Played Poker with Mohammed and Steve and then played Buzz on the PS3 – all good clean fun.  Mel’s house is lovely with the garden going straight onto the private beach.  Also met Keefy – what a lovely guy. Had a great night before Mohammed provided a lift home.

Slept in late on Sunday and went down to the local bar for a few scoops before heading over to Kasanias for dinner and a drink in Cacao.

Intending to get up early today for the flight I crawled out of bed at 11am and went round to see Amgad and Ashraf.  A few final beers in the bar opposite and the taxi was waiting.

Met Amgad at the airport and said goodbye, then was stopped when they scanned the bags as Amgad had provided a giant clam shell, the export of which is illegal. 20 LE changed hands and I was assured that as I was English it was a “present” from the customs guys.

Onto the Airbus 320 and there were 2 rows of seats near the front, each with one person sat in the aisle seat with two empty seats next to them.

I moved into an empty seat and the woman across the aisle started whining.  It turned out that all these people were from the same family and wanted 3 seats each to themselves! Bloody southern chavs!

I’ll now be existing on red wine and Pringles for the next 5 hours (flight time 5:50 due to strong headwinds) and so the laptop is going away for a bit.  Cold, wet England, here I come!

‘twas The Night Before Xmas

and was spent mainly in the bar.  Did some laundry then off to Ministry of Sound on the beach in Sakkala around 11pm with Ashraf.  What a load of crap, pretentious club with repetetive music.

Moved on to Dutch Bar and had a great time there before a final stop off in the local Russian meat market, Calypso.

Grabbed a kebab on the way home, big enough to feed a small african nation with enough tahini sauce to swim in!

In bed at 5am, up at 1pm, now having a coffee looking at the sea and nursing a hangover.

Off to El Gouna later for Christmas dinner.

A New Dawn, A New Day…

Had one of my “can’t sleep” nights so got up and went to the local shop at 7am and bought two huge bottles of water and some bits and pieces, including some incense which I currently have burning all around the apartment as I smoked myself silly through the night.

Bought some Liptons Yellow Label tea only to get it back and realise that it’s “dust tea”, so I’ll have to drink it like the Egyptians do.

Arabic for the day :
tea = shay
coffee = a’hwa
milk = laban
sugar = sukkar

Now you can go get your early morning drink of choice ;)

Catch Up

What a busy few days!

Wednesday went to the public beach with Mahmoud and had a terrific lunch.  Down to the hotel beach after and dinner is Kasanias.  Top local family run restaurant, lobster for £6.50.

Went off to meet Mel and the ex-pats in Papa’s in El Gouna for a quiz night on Thursday.  Drank copious amounts and for the first time, the Brit team (us) won!

El Gouna’s marina area is something out of a Bond novel.  Multi million pound yachts all moored next to glitzy shops and bars.  It’s a secure community and the taxi driver, after saying he’d wait, decided to go off and get some more business.  He then couldn’t get past security when he returned so that was the taxi out of the window. Had to wait for the bar to close (4am) and travelled back with the staff in their minibus.

Up at 9am as I had my Emergency First Responder course – felt like … well, you can guess!  Managed to get through the day though and passed the course.

Saturday I was off diving for the day and 10 minutes into the first dive at carless reef the divemaster tank-slapped and shot off ahead.  I switched on the video camera and followed and suddenly I was nose to nose with a gorgeous turtle busy snacking on a fish.

A couple of minutes and a Moray eel later we were swimming alongside the dropoff and the instructor pointed to what I thought was a tuna swimming about 5m below us and 20m away.  I watched with interest until i realised it had a sharp dorsal fin and white tips on it.  It was a (small) white tip reef shark.  Just after that I watched a dolphin shooting away into the distance. Great stuff to see for the first dive of the day.

The second dive was less eventful, shallow diving over a couple of lagoons with nothing much to see except schools of brightly coloured fish and a few large parrot fish.

Sunday was, I think, a day of rest, meaning I didn’t get up till the afternoon and wasn’t feeling great.  Went to Barclays in Sakalla and tried to open an account. Off to Peanuts for a few scoops then met Amgad later on and went to Kasanias again.

Monday, penultimate day before leaving, was spent in Sakalla trying to open an account with Barclays still.  Didn’t get much joy so went to HSBC and opened an account in about 10 minutes.  Met Mel, Rita and Emily in Dahar and had a few scoops in El Hambra before dinner in Mandarine and then onto Cacao where we proceeded to get well and truly leathered and decided to stay on another week to get everything sorted.

Up at 11 on Tuesday to check out of hotel and moved all my stuff to the apartment when Amgad came knocking on the door and lent me his USB dongle to look for flights on the internet.  Booked a flight for next Monday with EasyJet, so now I can relax and get things sorted.  Bit upset about not spending Christmas with the family.

Went off to Sakkala for a wander then met up with Amgad again and took a trip to the Government shops in Dahar where I bought 2 small tables, a kettle and a water heater.  As I write this the bawab and plumber are in the bathroom fitting the heater.

That’s about done with catching up, see you all soon.

Night Out

Had a great night in Sakkala in the Dutch Bar, after visiting Hard Rock Cafe. Live singer and dancing followed by an African show,free nibbles, all good.

Lazy day today, picked up laundry and put bedding on the bed (went to Senzo Mall yesterday and had a look around).  Bath plug mechanism doesn’t work, so Khalif replaced it with a plastic plug ;)

Off to a snake show in Cacao’s later.

Finally…

… found a decent internet connection.

Met up with Amgad to view the apartment block he lives in – I’m now his next door neighbour.

I love the place, magnificent views, great location, but unfurnished, so spent an evening with Amgad buying furniture.

Apt is 1300 LE/month (about £150) with an extra 100 LE for doorman, electric and water.

Marble floors, 2 beds, 2 balconies, bought 2 beds + matresses, 2 wardrobes, 1 dressing table, two-piece kitchen dresser, dining table and 6 chairs.  Cost about £650 secondhand and delivered :(

Need to get a water heater, fridge and cooker next.  No chance of a dishwasher :(

Sun’s still shining :D

Hurghada

Thanks so much to Corinne and Ian for overnight accommodation and a lift to Gatwick.

The flight was painless and the efficiency at hurghada airport left me breathless! Visas and bags obtained and outside in 10 minutes!

Private car to hotel, shower and a walk around the town.  Average meal in hotel then sleeeep!

Up at 5:00 with the call to prayer so went out and found a 24 hour bar opposite the hotel with wifi and drank lots of great coffee.

Cloudy yesterday so walked around the town, had lunch at the sister hotel and then had a nap.  Grabbed a taxi into Sakkala for £1 and had a wander around.  Very nice but i think I prefer  El Dahar where the hotel is.

Back to the 24 hour bar and up chatting until 3:30!

Woke around 11 this morning and was picked up  by an estate agency to view some apartments.  Very nice  but out of the way and surrounded by building sites.  Back to the 24 hour bar and sat here with Ismael, a bloke I’ve just met whose brother has 2 apartments  for rent in El Dahar – off to view in 10 mins.

Pack, Pack and Pack Again

Spent the past few days packing, unpacking and repacking my bags.  I think I’ve got it all sorted now.

Missed the postman so I’ve had to put my trip down south back until first thing Monday as I need to collect my PADI training manuals from the sorting office before I go.  Early start!

Woke at 4:30 this morning and every 10 minutes after scratching myself silly!  The lyrics from Pink “I can't stay on your morphine ‘cause it's making me itch” seem to ring true.  I was itching everywhere last night so tonight I’m going to take the pain over the itching.

Filled the day by having lunch out at Wagamama’s with Clare, then round to John and Dyl’s to drop off a few bits and catch up.

Going to chill for an hour or two then get myself off to bed.

Missed a few

I seem to have made myself too busy to post recently, so here’s a catch-up.

Went to The Cotswolds on Thursday for a couple of days, did a bit of a photoshoot and had an early Christmas meal at Elly’s as she’s off to Oz for 6 weeks.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend, nothing rushed, time to do things at my leisure and I thoroughly enjoyed it, apart from the incessant rain.

I’m really feeling positive about things now, got up Monday morning at 5am and arrived back just in time for my counselling at 9:00.  Final session with counsellor and it all went well.

Came back to the house and sorted out some of my clothes, went to the gym and did an hour and a half, then a bath and off to Arabic class.  I have no idea how I used to fit a job in around all this ;)

Didn’t sleep until gone 5am, too many things running around my head, but when I did get to sleep I slept through until nearly 3pm.  I’m now sorting out the back bedroom to clear more stuff but they day’s almost over!

Might take Dad out for a curry and a pint tonight.