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!