Into the Maelstrom: with bull bars.

We managed to buy a used Mitsubishi Pajero from my friend who has just left Egypt but we have been waiting to get it registered. Nothing is ever straight forward and there is always one more hoop to jump through. Anyway Hamdi "da car fixa" took the car off on a merry little jaunt to Port Said and turned up at work this a.m. with all the official paperwork. Therefore I faced the daunting task of driving back though the general melee of a Cairo rush hour. Even worse we are still in Ramadan and my fellow road users, who are generally lacking in courtesy and concern for their neighbouring road travellers, were all low in blood sugar and trying to speed to get home for their fast breaking Iftar meals. I say trying to speed because Heliopolis where the office and my journey started was "chocker", we were packed in like a Chrismas North Sea ferry. Still I could practice my "edge into a milimeter gap" technique, which is aided by the Mitsis fabulous bull bars and all round testosteronic front view. Also had a good "leaning on th horn for no apparent reason along with everyone else" event (I have no idea why). Must admit it felt quite good though. We then sped up a little and everyone changed lanes 4 or 5 times for fun, flashing and horning the cars in front to get out of the way even though there was nose to trail traffic as far as the eye could see into the smog. Then we slowed up near the area called 4.5km where the entrance to a poor housing area is close to the road - nose to tail again with added kamakazie pedestrians, date sellars, kids, motor cyclists and the odd bored looking policeman all sauntering back and forth. Again speeding up to the dizzying speeds of 50 to 60km/hr we reached the Ring of Death (the Ring Road), narrowly avoiding several zigzaging black and white Taxis I sat in one lane all the way home, this seemed to annoy some other road users who, thinking this "straight line concept" rather alien behaviour tried to cut me up left, right and pretty much always. Made it home in one piece, and even managed to fill the car up with fuel (just to make those of you in Europe jealous, 18 quid for a full tank).

Everton Reds and Sevilla Yellows.

This weekend saw the first games of our teams in Cairo Youth Soccer, oh joy! football season again! Ps team "Everton", although they play in red, look quite promising, the standard of some of the kids is reasonably high, with only a couple who have not played much. The team is composed on English, Egyptians, Americans, Egyptian Americans, Canadians, Egyptian-Canadians, Japanese, Koreans etc etc. so makes for a nice mix. Parents are a good friendly group also. The kids responded well to Coaches organisation and came out 9-1 winners against Aston Villa in a balmy 30oC at 9am (although coach wanted to know how they let one in - typical). Toms team is much more mixed ability (poor and very poor!) and he is head and shoulders the best. This mean't he tried to do the job of 4 players in 35oC by kick off time = resulted in one very hot, knackered, slightly disillousioned footballer (lost 0 - lots). Still he picked himself up and now sees the benefits - developing his leadership skills, organising the team etc so im sure he will get something out of it.

Both are signed up for the junior golf program at Katameya on Friday mornings and what with football thats our weekends sorted for the next couple of months. Still P has requested some golf lessons for his birthday and Im going to have a ladies beginner course with some friends so we will all be out there! Its such a beautiful facilites and right on our doorstep we would be silly not to use it.

We're off to swim with the fishes in the Red Sea on Saturday - flying to Sharm El Sheikh for the Eid holidays (Eid is the festival after the holy month of Ramadan). 4 days relaxation by the sea is just what the doctor order after the last couple of months! As we are residents we get good rates of flights and cheap deals in hotels which is good as we have been boosting the egyptian economy these last few weeks.

"Schools out for Swine Flu"

Not a song by Alice Cooper. We have had rumours for a few days and today we just heard school will close tommorrow till 3rd October. Not sure what the real story is, more may be revealed later, but its not too bad as it just means a prelonged Eid holiday. Homework packs will be brought home tommorrow, and then for a bit of home schooling with strict Mrs T!!!