31st December

 

An interesting year! We are back from our Nile cruise with 2180 pictures to sort through and blog at some stage, lots of temples, tombs, hieroglyphs and good food.

 

I will give fuller details next year!

25th December Christmas Day

 

A wonderful day with friends, food and a trip to Luxor. I am blogging this before we set off (midnight) to the airport.

Maddy got games to play, books to read and some assorted bits and pieces, Geoff had brought back some planes so Maddy wrapped them up for him and I finished his plane .

 

As we opened our presents the turkey cooked in the oven and we watched tv. At 1:30 our guests arrived Svetlana and Moussa were first, they brought gifts for us! Amazing wonderful gifts. Then Timothea and Jonathon arrived and they brought a live table decoration and presents as well. Maddy got a wonderful white rose! I felt a little guilty as all we had was a turkey dinner for them (and drinking chocolate).

Around 5 people left and we rested until it was time to pack ready to go on Geoff’s Christmas present, a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan . . . . . .

24th December Christmas Eve

 

Today was soooo busy. First I made some deserts for Christmas Day, cheesecake, chocolate slice and some mince pies. Geoff brought the mincemeat all the way back from the UK for me.

 

Timothea held her Christmas party from 3pm until 7pm when she left for the Candle light service. We went from 3 until 5 and enjoyed some scrummy food and conversation. Geoff could see 9 pyramids from her roof!

Then we went home to pick up the guitar (and clarinet) and song books to take to Rocio and Phil’s after the candle light service.

By midnight we were home, as Ibrahim was working at 6am and he had offered to drive us. Unfortunately there wasn’t any time to play so we had to leave without singing any carols.

17th December Carols, Candles and Cake

 

Thursday was the home group Christmas do, our theme for the was Carols, Cake and Candles. As host I dutifully provided the candles and some carols to listen too, I also provided some Christmas crackers as table decorations and too pull. Much to my amazement Ibrahim (Egypt), Svetlana and Moussa (Russia) and Donna (Philipines)  didn’t know about them and the Brits had to explain about the hat, motto and  present. I looked on the internet and it does appear they are a mainly British tradition.

 

Much to my surprise only Margret brought cake, usually we are overwhelmed with cake and have to hand out doggy bags to people as they leave. This time all we had left were Donna’s Christmas biscuits and some sachet’s of hot chocolate to give as a parting gift.

 

For those of you with Facebook Ibrahim has lost of pictures, my favourite was of him using his phone to take one of himself in his his hat!

Geoff has finished school so is going back to the UK for 2 days to pick up our Christmas presents. At least on St. Helena we could rely on Amazon! Maddy and I finish on the 20th. Our Christmas plans are not finalised yet but we will go to Rocio’s on Christmas Eve and have invited Svetlana and her son Moussa for Christmas lunch after that who knows!

25th November Happy Half Century

 

It gets to us all in the end and here I am, I suppose I should reflect on the last 50 years and where I am now but I’m not going to, instead I had my friends round for pizza (from Dominos), home made garlic bread and chicken wings and 2 birthday cakes. Geoff and I went to the cake shop and Donna brought a delicious chocolate cake from the Fino Bakery as well. Timothea bought me flowers, Ivy had left me a book to scarp into and Geoff had got his mum to bring the ‘Lord of The Rings’ blu ray extended edition dvds across when she came at the beginning of the month.

We had a great time and it was brilliant to share this milestone with all my friends. Mum and Dad and Ivy phoned while we were eating and Steve and Al sent emails. All in all a perfect day.

11th November ‘The trip Back’

 

After a breakfast of honey, fig jam, flat bread and cheese triangles we wandered round for an hour while the guide and driver packed up camp then we headed off to rescue a group camping with the same company whose 4x4 wouldn’t start! After jump starting their engine we continued our tour.

First we went and found an acacia tree (same wood Moses built the Tabernacle and the poles to carry the Ark out of ) growing in the middle of nowhere. It was full of life, spiders, bees, birds, a small burrow, . . . .

From here we went to the  ‘Small Oasis’, now this is what Hollywood makes you think an Oasis is half a dozen palm trees and a pool of water. Not 92 km by 40 km!

The place was surrounded with a legend involving a dinosaur eating people and the eggs it had laid. The egg shell was still there (chalk formations) as well as a cave that had been used as a dwelling.

 

From the photo you can see the reason for the egg story.

Our last stop was for a scenic view of the black desert, for all those willing to walk to the top (45 mins) we were promised an amazing scenic view, only Geoff was interested as by now the rest of us were quite tired, so we settled for some photos at the bottom.

Then back to the hotel and the mini bus to travel back to Cairo. We stopped at the petrol place on the way back and ended up giving the wife of the owner of the company back to Cairo as her car had broken down. We were back in Maadi for 5 and real toilets after an amazing 2 days away.

11th November Sleeping out

 

The tour provides tents, mattresses, sleeping bags and camel hair blankets so we were all kitted out for a night of fun. The desert provided open air toilets with amazing views of the camp fires of the other tours and the moon lit (full moon) panorama.

Our amazing cook/driver produced rice, bbq chicken and an Egyptian vegetable dish, even Maddy ate the veg and asked for more!  

After dinner some of the other campers came and joined us bringing the entertainment with them. First a couple from Barnett who were spending 2 weeks in Egypt and had an amazing drummer with them and then 3 Germans heard the noise and wandered across. Copious amounts of mint tea were drunk from small cups the drummer brought with him, I tried it but didn’t like it much – too sweet for me. Every one was gone by 9:30 pm as we were all (apart from Maddy) intending to be up to see the sunrise at 5:30 am.

Sleeping in the desert can be cold, Maddy and Pritti had opted for separate tents and mentioned their faces were cold. I had Geoff and was fine!

Sunrise was slow to arrive but we were up at 5:30am ready and waiting and got to see the moon set as well.

 

Then back to bed for some extra sleep before breakfast and our final day.