21st October Still here

 

Despite recent events we are still here and unaffected by what is going on. We have had a quiet week but seem to be very busy as well. Geoff has been to the dentist to have more work done on his tooth, all that remains is one more trip on Tuesday to add a crown.

Maddy has gone to spend the weekend with her friend Louisa so Geoff and I are going to have a quiet evening in together. For various reasons I have not done any school work all day, instead I printed off some photos of Ascension and started my New Zealand scrap book. I shopped in the UK at Hobby Craft and various other outlets and brought the stuff back in the summer. Anyway this is the first page. I found the mirrored New Zealand shape in Timaru and journaled the label as my mentor taught me (on both sides). I hope she approves of the start I have made .

 

The pictures are awful, but you get the idea. (without flash, then with flash)

Photography Club

 

I have volunteered to help one of the Arabic teachers run the photography club at school . I was motivated by the fact every member of staff has to be involved in an extra curricular activity and I needed something I could tag along with. Anyway he takes them on trips with their cameras and our first trip was Sunday 9th to the Khan el Khalili. Because he knew the area we took pictures of the bazar and moved onto the historic buildings in the same area.

It was an interesting time and I found this tile pattern that I’ve forwarded to David Bailey'.

Maddy is 15

 

October 2nd was Maddison’s 15th birthday. We tried to get 15 candles into her life in strange and wonderful ways.

 

! didn’t quite manage it but we had a laugh! Her present is coming from the UK with her Nan when she comes to visit next month. Because there is so little here that Maddy wanted (a cars pencil case) we went away for the weekend to Ain Soukhna where she goes with her friends.

Geoff’s school have a special deal with Stella Di Mare, one of the hotels there in a walled compound. It has 2 other hotels in the same compound and a large number of private villas. The Stella Di Are was the golfing hotel of the three. The room came with robes for all 4 (Louisa came too) of us and a fruit basket, some nice toiletries and a balcony. The food was included breakfast and dinner and was an amazing buffet. Maddy had chocolate cereal with chocolate sauce one morning.

We didn’t take the golfing option but took tickets to the Spa at one of the partner hotels with a private beach.

we spent quite a bit of time in the hydro spa and then went to the beach 25 m away. Sun worshipping is boring! I can’t see why people do it. The Red Sea was beautifully clear and we could see ships waiting to travel up to the Suez Canal.

 

Geoff and I returned the following morning to the spa for an hour then we returned to Cairo rather burnt. I’d forgotten the pollution and dust saves you from burning in Cairo but at Soukhna the sea breezes blow all that away.

Mysterious Man named

 

The email about the pavement photo did indeed come from David Bailey, a tessellation fanatic in Grimsby of all places. (Hull, where we ‘live’, is just across the Humber from Grimsby). We have exchanged a number of emails now, the upshot of it all being I have tried to enlist the help of the students at school to find the tessellation in a number of locations and asked a tour guide to help out with the questions. David would like me to measure the tessellation as well. Thursday is a public holiday (Army Day) so I will try and get it done then. Eventually he will write a paper on it for one of the mathematical journals!

As part or her English homework Maddy had to design a web page . . . . . When I showed her a site for writing your own free web site on she has got a little carried away and has spent a lot of time working on something for her favourite game, Dragon Age’. Eventually she will publish it so everyone can see her master piece. At present she is out with Louisa enjoying a birthday lunch, a tour of the coffee shops on Road 9 and maybe a trip to the cinema as part of her weekend birthday celebrations that will continue until Monday!

Geoff also spent some time at Road 9 today, 90 minutes at the dentist! One of his teeth is cracked so last week he went and had the filling removed. Today he had the root removed and in 3 weeks time (when the dentist gets back) he will get the tooth rebuilt. All in all it is costing him £120, I am sure it would be much more in the UK and am grateful  we are here. If the work goes well I am considering check-ups for Maddison and myself as we haven’t been since before we left St. Helena.