DAY 26 Thur 8 July

Managed to sleep in somewhat in the morning, before going over to check on Maryanne, and get the feeding of medication to dogs out of the way. Blimmen Demon has got wise to the fact that there is often stuff in his meat and cheese, so I've had to start dropping the pill down his throat, and while I'm at it holding him for someone to put eye drops in his eye – at least with him tucked under my arm he can't escape anywhere. There was no riding to be done in the morning, as we had the group of children coming around. The children spoke a mixture of Arabic and English, and were all special needs children. The dogs were locked up in the front garden (except for Bella who had settled herself in the guest house), as we weren't sure how the kids would take the dogs (especially with there being so many dogs). I actually think the kids handled the dogs better than some of the adults however :P. They went to see the horses, the goats, donkeys and gamoosas before the dogs were locked in the house with Maryanne because the kids wanted to see the chickens (which also meant turkeys, geese, ducks, pigeons, parrots and budgies – not sure if that covers them all, but it must be close).
While they were checking out the birds, the grooms put bareback pads on Sundos and Farhan, and the kids that wanted to went for rides. Initially it was just one kid who had put up his hand saying he wanted to go for a ride, but after one kid hopped on, the majority of them wanted a go. They had a ball just walking up and down the driveway, with Mohamed and Sherif holding the kids so they didn't fall off, and the grooms leading a horse each. Even the little girl that initially didn't want to go for a ride hopped on board and had an absolute ball – in the end she didn't want to get off. It was nice to see the kids happy, and they didn't stay for long after the riding had finished. I was then able to let Bella out of one of the bedrooms (had to lock her in there so they could use the bathroom in the guest house.
After the kids left, I headed with Mohamed into Maadi to do some shopping. I needed a recharge card for the modem (though Mobinil was having big problems for the day and I couldn't get onto the internet on my phone, let alone the computer). Sabine had also asked me to pick up a couple of bottles of wine so that we could celebrate her new flat at Tatouch's place – she was moving Elvis over there this afternoon. I also picked up some food and stuff from Metro, as I was all out of my breakfast stock.
As we were heading home, about to pull off the ring road, there was a van ahead of us with an airconditioning unit attached to the back of it – it looked a bit like it could have been a camper van, not that I think they really have anything like that over here, but Mohamed told me it was an ambulance. Makes sense to have a decent airconditoning unit, but I didn't expect to see a household airconditioning unit attached to a van!
We stopped at Shoubramont on the way back to pick up some chicken and kebabs. I could sit in the car for hours there watching the world go by! Horse carts and donkey carts, cars and trucks – it is a very interesting spot to sit. There was also a motorbike and side car that went past, which reminded me of the guy I had seen earlier as we were driving along – also on motorbike and sidecar, with his galabeeya flapping in the wind.
Back at the house I had a little bit of kebab for lunch, and then went over to the guest house to relax, until later in the afternoon Sabine asked if I wanted to go for a ride. The grooms saddled up Negmadin for me, and I rode out the back gate and down to Marina, where Mohamed, Sherif and Waleed had gone with Sabine. They were in the middle of loading all Elvis and Sabine's stuff in the back of the Jeep when I got there, ready to move it to Elvis's new home at Tatouch's. Once the stuff was all loaded and Elvis was saddled up, we headed out for a ride through the countryside. Finally I had a chance to go faster than a walk – when Sabine suggested a little trot, it turned into a little bit of a canter race between the two boys – Elvis was feeling nice and fresh, and Negmadin is an ex endurance horse, so racing is in his veins. The only problem was that the stirrups that had been fine for walking through the countryside were a little long for the faster stuff – and add to that the fact that Negmadin has a trot that resembles a jackhammer – lol. At one stage I ended up with the stitch from the bouncing around. As we neared the end of the path, there was a pump pumping its water across the road, and into the field. Unfortunately this time there was no one around to turn it off while we went past, so we rode through it – a wet leg and a wet saddle blanket, but both boys did admirably well!
We also came across the little baby donkey that I had first seen with its ears tied together – they are no longer tied, but the sweet little thing was stretched flat out on its side snoozing in the afternoon sun. I left Sabine at Tatouch's entrance, and rode on up to Maryanne's back gate, but I had to stop along the way as some young guys were trying to get a dancing horse somewhere or were teaching it to dance or something – I really couldn't see too well what they were trying to do. The horse was in the middle of a gateway when they got me to stop and I think they were trying to get it to dance, when all I managed to see (as I could just see the back half of the horse) was the saddle slip over to the side – that made me laugh! Eventually they allowed me past, and I managed to get the attention of little Mohamed, who unlocked the gate for me.
I decided to have a relaxing evening at home, and I had just curled up in bed with the light off when Sabine rang, saying she was coming home. So at 11.30 I sat down with her and Tatouch and we had a couple of glasses of wine, and a good chat. So much for an early night. I was greatful to collapse into bed after Tatouch left!

Countryside ride 14:
Distance - 5.59km
Time - 0:54:01
Average speed - 6.2kmph
Max speed - 21.7kmph