All comes at once

Had another 4 hour trip on the Red Sea Dolphin and got some snorkelling done – enjoyable day out.

I’ve been commissioned to do design work, website and some software for Red Sea Dolphin, so that is keeping me busy at the moment.

My bike registration papers are also ready.  I went down there on Wednesday, waited an hour and was told to come back tomorrow with my bike. Wednesday the bike started first time so I headed to the traffic police and it broke down half a kilometre away from home.  I called a mechanic out to take my bike to the bike shop but just as he arrived I found my little “fuel tank selector” was on reserve tank.  Switched it to main tank and bingo! I was off again. Cost me 30 LE for the callout but gave me peace of mind about the future.

Another hour at the traffic police then they told me they were to busy and to come back on Saturday morning at 8am *sigh*

Went over to Alain’s and sorted out Mr Mohammed’s iphone, then back home, bath and off to the footie where Liverpool were unlucky to get knocked out of the Europa Cup.

Sat chatting to Amgad until 3am, then up and cleaned the apartment as Christine is on her way over today. Amgad offered to take me to on the airport run with him but it’s a 5 hour run around and I’m too busy, so I’ll get a cab around 4:30.

Where to begin

Well it’s been 11 days since my last confession so I’ll try and keep it brief.

Managed to become ill for a week so I spent a lot of time in my apartment.  During that time I converted the website to multi-language.

Met up with Alain, he’s quit his job at Sindbad group and gone to work for Red Sea Dolphin.  Through him I have the commission to do the website for RSD and also brochure and advert design.

I had a day out on the Dolphin to see what it was all about and took a few photos (see below).  Alain mentioned that Ashraf had turned down the job of IT Manager with the company, so I offered myself for the position and was accepted.  The job isn’t available yet, but looking forward I’ll have something to keep myself occupied, even if the money is crap.

I have a meeting tomorrow with Brian from Solutions company, so hopefully something will come of that as well.

It’s been madness here, with the Icelandic volcanic dust cloud grounding flights across the world, people have been stranded here for 10 days.  They finally reopened the airports last night, but the loss of tourism has affected everyone badly.

Still no news on my bike registration, but it looks as though Rami’s on the case again.

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Football Heaven

Stayed in all day Wednesday cleaning and rearranging the apartment, then headed out in the evening to Mandarin down by the Shedwan.  All the restaurants down there have now moved to Siva Mall on Villages Road, so I walked up to Kanaria’s and had a lovely seafood soup and a lamb shwerma.

I dropped into Cacao Bar on the way home in time to watch Bayern Munich do just enough to knock the scum out of Europe – bliss!

Intended to get to the beach today, so after lying in bed watching Gran Torino (great film) I got up and readied myself, only to find that my bank cards were missing from my wallet.

I took a taxi to the bank and ordered a new atm card then sat in the Sphinx for an hour and read. I then went to Rami’s for an hour or so to say hi before heading home.

Out to the Sphinx again in the evening to watch my beloved Liverpool and I was joined by Glen and the gang, so we had a most enjoyable time watching the mighty Reds beat Benfica 4-1!

Bought a bottle of vodka (50 le) for the apartment and left it in the taxi!

Birthday Blues

Went to El Mina restaurant for a lovely fish dinner for my birthday.

Up at 6 the next day, cleaned the bathroom, then off to the post office at 9.

Came back and had a nap in the afternoon then went to see Dr Mike the dentists and took some photos of his new equipment. Went walking through Dahar to try and find a longer switch-pull for the ceiling fans, but after 2 hours of wandering around I’d found nothing, but had come to know Dahar a little better.

Ate the leftovers from last night’s restaurant meal and had an earlyish night.

Countdown

Thursday and Friday were spent in the Geisum on the beach again, some good snorkelling and lots of sun.  I’ve been eating salads for 3 days!

Saturday decided not to go to the beach, instead went to the aquarium to see Sayeed as he’d had a brochure design from another company but wasn’t happy with it.  I took his requirements back to the apartment and put one together, with the design critique of Corinne, then went out in the evening with Mel and the crowd for her birthday.

We started off at Mumbai, an Indian opposite the Grand Hotel on Village Road, which was nice but the portions were a bit scant.

A bar crawl followed, with us finally ending up in the Dutch Bar, much to Mohammed’s disgust.

Lots of drink, good music and a boogie saw us heading home around 4:30 when we took a quick detour to take a look at the villa that Mel wants.

I crawled into the sack about 5am and woke VERY hungover.  Finally went over to Rami’s late afternoon before taking the design to Sayeed at 8pm in the aquarium.  He was happy with it.

Up at 9:30 on my birthday today and lay in bed for a couple of hours, chatting on msn and looking out over the balcony at the sea.  A friend was supposed to be taking me to pick up my birthday present from the post office but finally at 1pm I got in a taxi and headed over there myself.  It was shut, so I went into Dahar and bought myself some shelves and a new shower, which are all fitted now.

Sat here trying to decide what to do with the rest of my birthday.

Beach Bum

Tuesday : Went to Geisum and sat reading by the sea for most of the afternoon.  Still not sleeping and didn’t manage to sleep on the sunbed either.

 

 

Wednesday : Back to Geisum and had a really nice day chilling on the beach, a bit of a swim and some lunch. Met Jitka, a Czech girl who lives here.

 

 

Afterwards went to see Rami and picked up some post that Clare had sent me.  Ashraf was there, still looking better and still off the booze.  Alain popped in and a pleasant hour or two was passed there.

On the way back I got into a non-smoking taxi!  I decided to go to the Marina and had a drink in Papas, then back to Shahrazad for one before I headed home.

Slept well, sat here at lunchtime all ready to head back to the beach for the day. 29°C today and warming up more for the weekend.