Its all happening - maybe

Well its all happening round these parts and we feel we have been making at least some progress but we have come to learn it ain't over in Egypt till the Obese Cleopatra is singing.

On the housing front the negotiations have started yet again. We decided to try and spend the greenbacks and are attempting to get the house that is at the breaking point of our limit (read beyond our budget). P keeps walking around mumbling "its only money". We decided the house was by far the best we have seen and although a few hundred more than we were willing to pay pre-house hunting, it is worth it. Unfortunately it does not have a pool, however it is walking distance to the heated pool at the club and a friend has offered their above ground pool (they have just moved). We should know by Sunday next if we can sign the contract. P was wanted at a meeting in Damascus but refused to go as this was radically more important than work. More later......either from an estatic, or suicidal family!

In the meantime we are leaving (again we say this with an air of the definite, however....) our 5* luxury at the Intercon to the Egyptian "transit flat", an apartment complex close to Kattameya, which J calls "Safari" but is really Safwa Resort. Unlike the transit flats in the Hague this one, according to Mrs T, for she has been, is "fantastic". Apparently it makes Bachmanstraat (for non-Shellies, company transit flats in NL) look like a broom cupboard - I actually thought Bachmanstraat was a broom cupboard. According to the boys the pool is the size of the North Atlantic and so they are wisely "investing" their pocket money in a rubber dinghy or two!

It will a nice change to eat at home, don't get us wrong, we love eating out but 4 straight weeks is getting a little tedious, and even J is looking forward to good home cookin' (no.443 of things you thought you would never hear: J "Mum, I really want your pasta cooked with garlic and spinach dinner"). Apart from the cost-saving and the sanity-saving, the apartments are 5 mins on low traffic roads to school which minimises the travel for the kids, only issue is P will start travelling on the RING OF DEATH (the Cairo ring road), initially with Ahmed "D" (Da Driver, init).

Moving out of town and school starting means the next job on the to-do-list is Cars. Egypt has enormous tax on imported cars, thus tax-paid cars are extortionately more expensive than we are used to. In the US and Holland P had his beloved sexy Male menopause Mazda RX8 sports car which he had to reluctantly sell. He is not so much coming down to earth now but colliding with it like an rather large asteroid. He has been browsing around looking at Diahatsus, Hyundais, and Toyotas etc. although he refuses to contemplate the Geeleys, Splendors and Daewoos, car makes with dubious genetic lineage, designed in Korea, made in India, put together in Egypt, whatever could go wrong. Style, sex appeal and excitment have been replaced by "anything with an airbag or two is a go-er". Favourite choice at the moment is the Diahatsu Terios, a little Postman Pat van shaped 4wd. Its not all doom and gloom on the car front as we can also order a tax-free car as we are in the petroleum sector and can only sell it to someone in petroleum sector when we leave. Looks like we are going back to our Omani friend, the Toyota Prado. Order now, "guareented" to be here is 4-8 weeks inshallah (god willing) which means it could be here in time for Christmas. You have to give them a choice of three colours and then apparently you get whatever comes anyway, or wait another 4-8 weeks for the next one.

Ramadan Karim - Happy Ramandan, the Islamic Holy month is here and the muslims are fasting during the daylight hours. T and J were a little worried they would have to as well. The first few days the restaurants were empty in the evenings so we could just go anywhere, however tonight we went to our favourite Mexican and it was packed with people waiting for Iftar (the breaking of the fast) and we were lucky to get a table. This is because the first few days Iftar is taken with the family, but after a while you just want to go get away from them and eat with friends - sounds very like Chritsmas!! Normally we order and our food comes but tonight we had to wait until the fast was broken and the whole resturant was served at once, an impressive operation.

Other little snippets of news: Boys and Mrs T visited the school, liked what they saw, got the uniform and met one of the teachers, an Aussie, the day after England beat them to win the Ashes (for our American friends this is Cricket - I will not bother to try and explain, its like the superbowl of baseball played over 25 days only between England and Aus). T, with abnormal restraint declined to mention Englands win.

After months of waiting and hasseling J has finally got a phone, I've never seen him so excited. However it took us a few days to arrange a pre-paid sim card but that did not stop him walking around City Stars mall with his phone to his ear most of the time! He is also looking forward to his Ramadan birthday, as he is an Omani, not really, but he was born in Oman. His birth cert. has 9th day of Ramadan on it - so he is getting all excited for his second birthday!

The airfreight has finally arrived and has only just beaten the sea freight. The seafreight should be in the Mediterranian now, hopefully not literally. The more geographically challenged members of the family are worried about Somali prirates! The more realistic amoungst us are concerned about Egyptian dockers!