Hissing Sid

Meet Hissing Sid, our latest "adopta-moggy".  Mrs Sid, for she is of the female persuasion, gets her name from the fact she her favoured form of communication is to hiss at us, even when we are treating her to a plateful of crunchie cat snacks and a plate of milk.  Grateful eh?  Still she provides a bit of female company for the other Mrs in the house......

Bricks and Mortar

With the banking system seemingly looking as stable as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, standing but being propped up, we decided we would like our worldy savings transferred from pounds & pence into bricks a mortar.  Having something 3D - that you can touch just seems a little more tangible at the moment.  So summertime I sent Mrs T off on a mission to filter all the house/cottages in Suffolk and provide a short list for when I returned.  House hunting, we have found, can be like one of those long Norse Sagas, with wonderous worlds, strange beings, both good and evil (estate agents) and incredible plot twists - heres our potted journey - names and places changed to protect the innocent:

House 1:  Nice house, next to football pitch, somebody wants it more than we do. Fail.

House 2:  Converted barn that used to house pigs.  Very nicely done, way over priced.  Owners "It was on the market for 485k last year".  Well, hello, thats why its not been sold! Fail.

House 3:  16th Century listed house in lovely village opposite Church.  "Access to upper floor bedroom is from a ladder" could optimistically mean a small 2-3 rung set of steps.  In this case it was a 8ft high vertical climb that fireman Sam would have struggled with.  No option to change as it is a listed cottage!   Agent "Yes I know about the upper floor, did you need to use the third bedroom then?" Fail.

House 4:  Old Bottle Cottage, beautiful views over lovely chalk valley with terraced garden, in village close to town.  "A lot of house (and garden and garages) for your money" sez agent, and she is right.  Needed work but had the scope to extend and for us to play around with walls and room sizes.  Somebody had spent a lot of money outfitting the stunningly large bathroom however it was styled by Captain Birdseye who went overboard  (pun intended)  on the nautical theme.  Still tastes can be personal and we can send said bathroom to davy jones locker.  "Two offers have fallen through on this for personal reasons" said agent, rubbing hands like Scrooge and looking rather shifty.  Prompted by every relative we spoke to who collectively said "You need to check where Snoasis will be built".  We did indeed check where Snoasis - europes largest indoor Ski and snow centre-parc like resort is to be built and the answer was not far away.  The images of an 85m (14 buses) 425m long ski run behind the house look pretty impressive..  this is how it will look.House was close!

Thus no 3 offer fell through due to "personal reasons" - bullet dodged. Fail.

House 5:  DIY enthusiast on speed.  Words or even pictures could not describe. Fail.

House 6:  Converted Victoria school house in very quite (2 street) village.  Needs plenty of TLC unless you are a fan of 1970s features and fittings.  Great gardens and backs onto village field with football pitch.  Offer in and accepted - now going through all the rigmaroll of solictors ("cha-ching" 150 pound per hour), surveys "cha ching", ground searches cha-ching, mortgage arrangment, cha-ching, cha-ching cha-ching.

Once we finally get it Mrs T will act like a whirling dervish desgining and planning and project managing the dragging of the property into the 21st C.

As a certain Bush would have said on efforts to get my money out of the bank - "mission accomplished"

And lastly....Anyone know what this fruit tree is in the garden - best guess is quince but grateful to be educated....

  

A visit to the Careso orphanage

Mrs T and a couple of other like minded ladies visited the orphanage today in Heliopolis. This is the one that Mrs T has been helping support with sales of her wonderful and lovingly homemade greetings cards (available at all good Bazaars in the Cairo expat social circle!). I have plans to sell a few prints of the mosques I have been visiting - see previous posts - at the next bazaar to the same ends.....

As they were visiting around lunch I took in the camera, popped out for lunch and met Fawkeya and the residents and got to snap a few images. I did not use the flash and so had a little trouble with exposure and shutter speed but I got some acceptable photos. If invited back I'll get some more. I plan to get some hard copies and give to Mrs T to take down and hand out. We plan to use the images to potentially update the website.

Left: The entrance and loom. Right: the ladies and Fawkeya.

One of the residents demonstrates the loom in action. They have been making rugs to sell and the look great. The loom helps with their motor skills, gives the residents a sense of achievement and they are rightly proud of what they produce!

The ladies and Fawkeya discuss the rugs and how much they would fetch in the bazaars.

The happy residents of Careso Orphanage enjoying social time.

Happy smiling faces......

Working on motor skills

The brightly painted walls

Finding out what the needs of the orphanage are and how the ladies can help....

Fawkeya looks proudly on as another demonstration of rug making


A visit to the sensory room, recenlty put in. Lights and colours.

A really interesting trip! Its great to see the valuable work of people like Fawkeya and it makes all the effort from all those who support the Careso Orphanage worth it.

If you get a chance buy a few cards from Mrs T, or even a print or two from me, you can be sure the profits are well appreciated and a little goes a long way.