DAY 7 Sat 19 June

Was lying in bed in the morning contemplating getting up, when out of the blue a large dog jumped up on the bed and draped herself over me asking for a pat. I had no idea how Bella had got inside until I looked out the bedroom door and saw that the front door was open just wide enough for Bella to sneak in. But I knew I had closed it last night, so I climbed out of bed and saw that not only was the front door open, but so were the doors to both of the other bedrooms in the guest house. That didn't make any sense at all until I saw the car outside, and figured either Mona had come back during the night or Sabine had crashed for the night. As I was climbing back into bed for a bit of a lie in I heard splashing, and looked out the window to see Figgy playing around with his water bucket and effectively spilling it all out on the ground – silly boy.
Soon Sabine got up and we had a look out the window at Figgy and a bit of a chat before she hopped in the shower. I was back in my room when I heard a noise from out the window that didn't sound right at all. I looked out to see Figgy having some sort of seizure and shaking, so I ran over to the house to get Maryanne. The grooms let Figgy out of the ICU, and he went to see his mum and his brother, and was a lot happier. The three of them were given the run of the entire farm, and it was good to see Figgy with an appetite. I also went and got the camera to get some photos of the horses being silly – especially Nayzak and Dooby. The majority of the rest of the day was spent keeping an eye out for Figgy, until 4.30 when Mohamed took me into Maadi to meet a friend of Maryanne's, Susan, who is a teacher here. I got to meet her dog and cats, and we sat talking for a while before another of her teacher friends, Paul turned up, and we caught a taxi out to Khan el Khalili. We had dinner in a nice restaurant close by – the menu was an interesting mix of Middle Eastern and Indian food and was rather tasty, except maybe the kofta. After dinner was finished and we had had a look at the upstairs room of the restaurant, which also had a very nice view out over that area of Cairo, as well as being very nicely furnished, we walked down the road to find the old building, Wikalet El-Ghoury, in El-Hussien in Islamic Cairo. It was here that Sultan Qonsuah Al Ghoury, the last of the Memluke sultans used to host foreign merchants. Each merchant was given five rooms. The ground floor was used as a showroom, the 2nd floor as an office, the 3rd floor as a living area, the 4th floor for the servants, and the last for the wife and the children. It is in this building where three times a week, there is a free Sufi display, otherwise known as the Whirling Dervishes. We got in early enough to get seats, but to get a decent view, I went and sat on the fountain – not the most comfortable of seats but the best place for photography.
The music was great, and the pipes they used sound similar to the scottish bagpipes at times. The dancing was also wonderful. I'd seen whirling dervishes two years ago in Turkey, but it was one person at a time, where as this was a whole group of people up on the stage, maybe one whirling (though at times three), and the rest dancing around, often with an instrument – it was a whole nother kettle of fish! One guy was whirling for about ½ hour. It got to the stage where you just wanted him to stop – round and round and round and round and... it made the audience dizzy. And when he stopped, he was able to walk in a straight line. I have managed to answer the age old question of what a Sufi mystic wears under their skirt – the answer is in fact, another skirt!
It was a great night, the colours were amazing, the music was awesome, what an experience.
I stayed the night at Susan's because the show didn't finish till 10, so it was easier to stay there than have to work out how to get back to Maryanne' at that time of night.