DAY 40 Thur 22 July

After getting up and medicating the dogs, Mohamed then drove me round in the Volks to Pat's place, making jokes about the air conditioning (windows) as we drove along. The only problem with the 'airconditioning' was the fact that the roads around the area often have a thin layer of sand on them... and we were following a rather large truck. Got a little sand blasted before reaching our destination – lol. Once at Pat's we gave Willie (her three legged balady dog) his medicine, and when her driver turned up we hopped in the car and headed out to Khan el Khalili to do some more shopping – tshirts, and belly dancing costumes were on the list, as were the hand blown glass christmas decorations once Maryanne told me about them.
In fact, our first stop was Maged's shop with the Christmas decorations – they were beautiful. In fact I went a little overboard with my purchases – here's hoping I can get them home in one piece! We then went next door to his t-shirt shop, where once again I overspent – some on t-shirts, some on galabeeyas and costumes for use with the horses. I'd better make sure Anna uses them now – lol. After spending way to much money here, we then headed to try and find the five story belly dancing store. Found another store instead with some lovely belly dancing costumes, and the guy was very helpful in choosing the right stuff to take home. I tried on coin belt after coin belt, and got an outfit in the end that consists of a skirt and two coin belts – one of the coin belts can be used as a bra. I think that will do me for now until I work out where I am going with the belly dancing. Before I head back to Egypt I will try to have more of an idea in mind of what type of costume to get! I found some coin belts that Lisa had asked for, and bought an outfit for Linda as well. Here's hoping it fits – but the guy did seem to know what he was talking about. After a coke to refresh us, we then headed to the shop behind, which was the large store I had been told about – it was a good store to look at, but the staff were nowhere near as helpful as the guy I had bought my stuff off. They did have a very wide selection of costumes however. I had no money left by this time to buy anything with though, which was a good thing. The fifth floor however was closed off - probably used for storage, meaning there were only four floors of belly dancing equipment on display.
When we left the store, we headed to a coffee shop for a nice mango lassi, before making our way back to our driver.
It was a long drive home, as we got stuck in traffic at one point – the cause of the traffic jam? A guy directing traffic who had no clue of how to do it correctly and efficiently. Oh well.
Back at Pat's, we gave Willie a much needed bath, and left him in the yard to dry. He did his normal trick of heading to a nice dusty place to lie down instead of on his towel, but fortunately he didn't need to be rewashed, he just needed a spot clean instead.
Once back at Maryanne's, with all the gifts unloaded out of the Volks, I could relax for a bit before heading around to Morad's. I sat with Morad for a bit watching movies, before heading back to the farm, as I needed some food – hadn't eaten since breakfast. As I was walking to the guest house I saw something moving on the ground ahead of me, and at first I thought it was just a bit of rubbish – but the movement was too regular, and when I looked closer, it was a tiny little snake, about 10cm long. I assume it was harmless – it was more concerned at running away (sqwiggling away) from me, and Buffy who was following me. That is the first snake I have seen in Egypt, and after talking to Maryanne about it, she said it was a little garden snake.
After some food, I headed back to Morad's and we sat down and watched King Arthur, before I headed back to the guest house for a well deserved rest. To think, I have only two full days left in Cairo :(

P.S - thanks to Pat for the photo of me in the belly dancing ensemble (it looks funny, but I tried it on over my clothes - lol)