Easter 2011

 

Easter Day was spent eating! We had an invitation for roast chicken dinner at Liz’s on the Sunday lunch time In the evening we were invited to Pilar’s for a meal after the service of stuffed peppers, a mexican rice and chocolate cake to follow. We were stuffed!

I wore my new green shoes, even though they look a little turquoise in the picture.

Monday was a holiday here and then Geoff had to go back to school while Maddy and I had another week off! We are all at school tomorrow (Monday) but only for 7 or so weeks before the holidays start. Then we shall start globe hopping again. At the moment we have two plans. Plan A is to go see Lynn and Nick but the flights are very expensive and I’m not sure there’s any room in the garage! Plan B is to go back to the UK and stay in self catering cottages in a variety of locations. We don’t have to decide yet, so we will think about it some more.

21st April

 

We have just got back from a short (6 day) break in the UK, to our amusement it was hotter in London (26) than here in Cairo (21) when we got back this afternoon.

England smelt fresher and less polluted than Cairo and much greener. We arrived at the same time as the M1 was closed due to the fire at the scrap yard underneath one of the bridges so it took 1 hour 45 mins to get to Geoff’s mum’s rather than the usual 45 minutes. While we were there we did some shopping and got new clothes, stationary and school books, oh and some Easter eggs for Maddy. We did the traditional trip to Clifford’s Tower in York. I have invested in a pocket camera for Egypt in the hope people will find it less intrusive, so these are all point and click pictures.

Geoff had a desire to see some fish in water so we went to a couple of mills, I think that is one of the things we have missed in our travelling – the pond!

 

On Sunday I managed to get to All Saints for their Palm Sunday service and then spend some time (not enough) with the Turpins. We finally got to meet Samuel, who was born just after we left last August. Barry has almost finished his vicar training, but didn’t have a dress on this week!

 

We got to see everyone but David (so if you read this get in touch!). Mum had everyone round for a Sunday lunch, including Stephen and Lucy who have just got engaged (the wooden thing is their engagement present). Stephen is opening his own gym next month (Vulcan Training Centre), for which he is advertising on Facebook. Alison is starting to look for a job, as she finishes university this year, but hasn’t found much yet.

At Geoff’s mum’s all is well, Bob has gout and pain in his Achilles tendon that needs looking at and lots of decorating plans for the house that he hopes to get round to soon. We saw Tina and the princesses (Abby and Mia), and their new dog Alfie and went to Stanborough park to the funfair and round the lakes there.

 

 

Rain

 

Rain is a special occasion over here. It rained (thunder and lightening) on Mother’s day on and off all day. Geoff and Maddy forgot and were sent across to the Grand Mall but all they got was wet! They did bring back cake as well, although Maddy fell over and the box got a little damp.

At school the kids got a little silly with the rain. They stayed out in the rain and then complained about being wet. The rain snarled up the traffic as well, instead of taking 20 minutes to get home it took 90 minutes!

The buses had problems the next day as Cairo streets have no drainage so there was a large amount of standing water to negotiate as well as a fallen tree blocking the street on our way round to pick up the students, so travel was a little slow.

Baby Shower 31st March

 

I think of all the people in the world I am the least likely to be associated with hostessing a baby shower! But I stepped up and offered our flat for the great event for 3 weeks before Melinda’s due date. In the UK being pregnant is described as being in the ‘pudding club’ so the food for the evening was puddings. Those that could baked and those that couldn’t went to the amazing cakes shops.

As well as the food we played those traditional baby shower games ‘pin the sperm on the egg’ (Maddy found this when doing some research online for me!), ‘draw the baby on a plate while balancing on your head’ and the all time classic – ‘scoop the cotton wool balls with a wooden spoon and blind folded’.

Social conversation covered all sorts of topics from where the Revolution had got to and where it was going to what a good book ‘The Shack’ is! (I tried Nick but they didn’t hear). I was confused why Christians would think that a book that promotes God as a black woman etc would be a good thing to have circulation, surely this is just more deception?  

Monday 28th March

 

It has been Mothers day here and Geoff and Maddy did not take the opportunity to buy me a gift! WE did so well having 2 Christmas’s but they didn’t manage 2 Mothers Day’s I’m expecting them to forget when the UK one is.

Life is quiet but busy here. School have had a trainer out from the UK but to avoid disruptions to lessons they train at the weekend, so I spent last weekend training. Geoff had a quiet weekend as Maddy went away with her friend to the beach (and came back with a tan from swimming in the sea). So he watched TV and played games on his computer. Maddy has been asked to try out for the girls football team today after her PE lesson and she seems quite keen, we will see how it goes!

We have booked a trip back to the UK in April for the week before Easter and will be able to pick up our books from Geoff’s mum, shoes (they aren’t big enough for me and Maddy here), some clothes from Asda and any other bits we see. DVD’s aren’t a big problem as we are streaming a lot of Tv shows at present, Bones, Criminal Minds, Stargate (!), . . .

On Thursday we are hosting a baby shower for Melinda, who is in my bible study group, she has about 2 weeks left before the big day. In honour of her being in the pudding club we will eat puddings and Maddy did some research and found there are a number of strange and interesting party games to play such as pin the sperm on the egg! I have passed this information onto Brian and Liz as they will have time to make and gather the items needed.

During one of my A level maths lessons recently this diagram was produced. What can you say? Maths is fun!

Saturday 12th March

 

We are still here despite the chaos around us. Cairo is pulling in two different directions at the same time. On the one hand people are banding together to clean the streets (the team we saw today were sponsored by Persil and were wearing red sport bibs saying so) and paint kerb stones, and then you hear about the rise in crime and how people in their cars are being robbed the same way it happens in South Africa. The police need to come back on the street, not as the intimidatory force they were in Mubarak’s time but as a force that supports the people. If they can’t then the military police need to step in to help!

Now Geoff is working we are starting to add house items, a bookcase, mirror, new throw for the sofa and Geoff’s piece of ceramic that should be on the window sill but he liked it so much it stayed in the house and we are looking for light to put in it. In the background you can see the flower curtains I made with Liz.

 

We did try to find some kitchen scales, Maddison really does need to weigh the ingredients when she cooks rather than throwing it all together, but to no avail, we may have to pick some up next time we’re in the UK! Hopefully we are going back for a week at Easter to pick up essentials and English chocolate!

Friday 4th March

 

Back to school and back to a blog a week! It was like starting a new school year, the students were twitchy and wanted to have their own revolution. Across the school there were several incidents – students refusing to enter classrooms, refusing to work. My year 7’s spent a lesson clicking pens tops, tapping feet, whistling, at one point most of them put up their hands and as I went round to solver their problems they didn’t need anything. The culprits came back and apologised the next day, but there were issues in their next lesson with a smaller number of students.

On Friday the school had a non uniform day where the students got to dress in the colours of the Egyptian flag, red, white and black. One of my year 7’s wore this!

Even the trees are being spruced up in this patriotic time.

As well as the curb stones being painted, mainly black and white, but it looks good.