DAY 6 Fri 18 June

It is becoming something of a habit, waking up early and lying in bed for a while. However, the minute I get up and start moving around, Bella will scratch at the door asking to be let in. After I was up and about, I headed over to the house to see what the plan of attack was for the day. However, nothing worked out as planned today – it was one thing after the other.
At first Maryanne and I were going to head into Maadi to get modem sticks for the computer – one to replace the one of hers she washed, and another so that I could access the internet. However, then Mona rang up and said she was coming around, so Maryanne gave her the shopping list – this turned out to be a good thing – possibly one of the few good things of the day.
We then went out to check on the horses, but we didn't get far – poor Figgy was standing in the paddock with his mum and brother looking absolutely miserable. He had been fighting off the strangles infection, but now it appears he had come down with what they call Bastard Strangles, where the pockets of infection migrate to other parts of the body – poor boy – he was also very dehydrated. So he was taken to the ICU area close to the guest house where they put him on an IV drip to deal with the dehydration.
I went and checked on the other horses, and they all appeared to be happy and reasonably healthy, eating and drinking like normal.
The vet finally turned up and checked out Figgy, Nazeer and Marzouk, the last three with obvious signs of infection. Figgy was given an injection to help him out, and Marzouk had the proud flesh around his ear cut off.
All the animals were then turned out in their respective paddocks for the rest of the day.
During this time Mona had contacted us, first to say that everything was closed, so she would check the shops again after prayers had finished (Friday is their Sunday). And then she had to ring to say the shop didn't open until 3, so she had to wait some more. This made Maryanne and I grateful that we hadn't decided to head into Maadi – it would have been a totally wasted trip.
When Mona finally made it out to the farm, we set up the internet on the two computers. Maryanne also needed to wait for a phone call from Mobinil to work out what the problem was, and the worry about Figgy, so there was the days swimming down the drain also.
Then Mona's mother was still sick, so she decided she should head home instead of heading out to the village wedding that Maryanne had been invited to. It turned out that we didn't go either as Maryanne wasn't feeling very well herself, and add on top of that her worries over Figgy, it was quite understandable. Instead Maryanne sent her grooms with her camera, so hopefully I'll get to see a little bit about what a village wedding is like from that.
With the stress of the day I was rather tired, and so I headed over to bed early, only to hear a voice out by Figgy who was back in ICU, so I went out and talked to Sabine while she was treating Figgy. I couldn't stay up too late though, I was so tired. I heard bits and pieces of their conversation as I was dozing, off, but missed that fact that Sabine came into the guest house to stay for the night!

DAY 5 Thur 17 June

Up early again this morning, but not as much the donkey's fault today at least I don't think so. So I got up and had a drink, then heard Bella scratching at the door wanting in, so I thought I had better let her in – she went straight into a corner and collapsed into a heap. Finished reading my book, then decided it was about time to get ready and see what Maryanne's plans were for the day. I hadn't had any luck charging my phone the night before unfortunately :( So it was still as dead as a dodo. So the plans for the day were heading in to Cairo to Maryanne's apple Mr Fixit. Before that though I had time to get my diary back up to date and sort out yesterdays photos from the evening ride, check e-mails and say hello to Pal when he came to visit.
Another interesting drive in to Cairo, drove past the pyramids, down streets with camels walking down he median barrier, but especially the family on the motorbike – Dad driving, Mum sitting behind, and Kid fast asleep between Dad's legs – not exactly the safest way to travel, but it does make for good pictures. Things here can be so random that I coined a phrase today “Egypt, we do random well” That about sums it up, because they do do random and do it very well – point of fact, the first person I've really seen in Cairo wearing a motorbike helmet. Is he riding a bike?? No, of course not – he's running down the road – lol.
Another thing I have also noticed in the last couple of days is the condition of the cart horses here. For the first time ever since I started coming here, the majority of cart horses are well rounded, no ribs showing, hip bones nicely covered, it is so nice to see. Apparently Brooke Animal Hospital and the Donkey Sanctuary now have a much higher presence in Cairo, thank goodness for all the animals out there.
Once at the nice, air conditioned offices of Maryanne's Apple repair man, it didn't take him too long at all to fix the problem. Apparently the problem was a buildup of static electricity on the motherboard – who knows how it occurred, but he fixed it and I have my iPhone back – miracle worker!! The Greatest Egyptian Hero :)
After leaving there we headed out to Old Cairo, and dropped Mohamed off near the entrance to the Citadel. He was going to take his volkswagon to the mechanic to get it repaired.
Back at the farm it was time for a nice salad for lunch, and then I collapsed on the hammock reading the second book in the series, until Maryanne said that Pal was at home and we could head round there to do the washing (unfortunately both of Maryanne's washing machines have recently broken down).
When we got to Pal's, Maryanne pulled out her laptop which she had bought to download some stuff, only to find that the washing liquid didn't have a lid and had spilled on the way over, drowning one end of her laptop – not good, and her charger and modem stick :S
We tried to get as much of the liquid off as possible, but we aren't sure if any of it is going to be useable again.
Then once the washing was on, I relaxed and read my book in the airconditioned bliss of Pal's place, while Maryanne explained to Pal how to get to the Apple repair shop (he has to go on Sunday) and Laura showed up to have her saddle re-rigged.
Once back at the farm I hung out the washing while Maryanne re-rigged the saddle or attempted to, and ended up lending Laura one of her saddles.
Then it was time to head off to bed – early I know but it gives me time to catch up on the diary, sort out photos and do a bit of reading – I'm so tired that it won't take me long to drop off to sleep tonight!

DAY 4 Wed 16 June

Woken up early in the morning by an awful racket. In fact it was one of those awakenings that has you jumping out of bed going "What the F***?" It took about 5 seconds for it to register that the sound I was hearing was a donkey braying... oh my goodness! After that awakening, it was too hard to head back to bed again, so I gave in and read some of the must read trilogy of the year, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
At a respectable time I headed over to the main house to work out what our plan of attack was for the day. Headed out with Maryanne and Mohamed into Maadi, where Maryanne needed a blood test. On the drive over there I saw a few things that caught my eye, and I wish I had the camera out and ready. The first was all these ute trays piled one on top of the other. It was like you could just walk in and say I'll have that one thanks! And not only did they have ute trays but also small truck boxes - some refrigerated, some with lutons - some complete with advertising already. Just past that there was a guy leaning on his bicycle, while fishing in the canal - I'm not sure I would like to eat anything fished out of there - assuming he could even catch anything.
Once in Maadi, while the Dr Vampire was sucking her blood, I went and finally got some Egyptian money out. Then while Maryanne got some money out I went with Mohamed to see if it was possible to get my cartouche fixed. Gouzlan where I had it fixed last time was closed, so we went across to another jeweller, but they don't do repairs, but suggested the silversmith up the road. So we wandered up there, only to find out that they wouldn't do it either - three strikes, time to call it a day on the jewellery front.
We then headed a little further up the road to Lucilles for a nice burger for a late breakfast/lunch. Yummy potato skins with cheese, beef bacon, onion and tomato with a lovely garlic yoghurt to go on top as an entree (though that probably could have done me for a main as well), and then I had the western burger with battered onion rings, bbq sauce, cheese and more beef bacon. Talk about a very satisfying meal, in a lovely airconditioned restaurant. And also the free refills of apple fanta - shame we don't get apple fanta back in NZ.
After we had finished lunch we wandered back down the road while waiting for Mohamed and Pat. We stopped in a silver shop which had a lot of lovely silver jewellery and pendants etc. Some amazing traditional afghani silverwork, including daggers and a sword. Oh to have lots of money - the would have looked amazing with Anna's costumes. It was beautiful. Might have to head back there before I go home, depending on the finances.
We got out of there and a little bit further down the road before Maryanne spotted the car, and we climbed and and Mohamed drove Pat and I to Metro - a supermarket, and we did some shopping while Maryanne went back to the vampire for another blood test. There is no rhyme nor reason that I could discerne to the layout of that supermarket - it certainly isn't easy to find anything - apparently not even for Pat who has been there recently - they changed the shelving all around. One good thing is I am not sure if Egyptian supermarkets are layed out as psychologically as western supermarkets.
Once the shopping was finished and we were on our way home we stopped at Pat's to drop her off, and went in to have a quick look at her dog, who has an ouchie where he had to have his leg amputated. What a sweetie boy Willie is - he came over to say hello and enjoyed a good scratch before heading off to collapse on his little pile of floor. Also got to see a couple of Pat's cats, including one who came purring around my legs - a lovely little ginger boy.
On the way home we stopped at one street corner while Mohamed went to get some cooked chickens. It took quite a while, but it was a pleasant time (excluding the heat) people watching. And not just people watching, also watching the cars and trucks go by and watching the energy that is Egypt. The shop next door to the chicken place is a juice bar, and once the juice is squeezed, it is measured out into a cup and then poured into a plastic bag. A straw is then placed in and the bag is tied around the straw - a novel method of takeaway juice! Then there was the lady that came down the stairs of the house between te juice bar and the chicken shop with a silver tray on her head. On top of the silver tray was the lunch for the family - I could make out a nice fresh salad, and she got some of the local bread from the chicken shop. But the tray on her head wasn't any ordinary tray - it had four short thick legs on it, so that it could also act as its own table - once again it was a shame I didn't have the camera out.
After that I did get the camera out, just in time to watch some big heavy trucks heading down the road... and of course what else would you put on the back of the truck but a very large tank! Got that photo as two of these large trucks went past. Missed to ute with one camel sitting down in the back with his head sticking up over the side of the ute, surveying everything.
Then there was the obligatory crazy driving, people walking past, guys sitting smoking their sheesha's, donkey carts coming from every direction. And then the guy pulling up at the cafe on his cheap chinese bike, his young son on his lap - the son wearing cool sunglasses - what a photo op!
Finally it was time to head on home and put away the groceries, and meet Maryanne's friend Mona Amyra, who was going to come for a ride with us when Maryanne's clients came in the cool of the evening. Her husband is an Australian basketball player, and her accent is a curious mixture of egyptian and australian.
Just before the clients turned up, Sabine arrived so had a chance to catch up with her again - I look forward to talking to her more during the next five and a bit weeks about healing and things like that.
Unfortunately today Shaboura had a temperature, so I got to ride Dooby.
We had a nice ride through the countryside, Maryanne on her girl Dory (Dorika), Mona on Sundos, me on Dooby and the two clients on Bunduq and Lilly. Lilly was a slow walker, but the guy on her back didn't mind (after the first startling time) as she trotted off to catch up with the others. I felt like I should stay towards the back and help out just in case, but Dooby didn't like that - that boy has such a big walk and he wanted to be up the front - wasn't at all happy at being held back. It was interesting listening to Maryanne talk to the lady who was riding up with her and Mona, finding out more about the area and the history.
And then as the sun began to set and the evening sky became very colourful, to see the pyramids in the distance, over the top of the farmland and the palm trees - it was that I remembered from my first ride over here with Maryanne 10 years ago - and what has enticed me to come back ever since - magical! And the trails are coming back to me now also - some of the ride I don't think I have done before, at least not in that way, but there were other bits where it was like "I know where we are... I bet if I followed this I could find my way back!" An awesome feeling.
Once back at the farm with the horses unsaddled, and the clients gone, we said bye to Mona (though I think I will be seeing a lot of her while I am here) and after a bite for dinner I went over to the house to write in my diary (though that didn't happen) and charge my cellphone. Unfortunately my iPhone seems to have chosen this time to die on me. I haven't got it wet or dropped it but it decided last night that it is not going to charge - talk about heartbreaking - too expensive a phone for it to last that short a length of time. So frustrating! So while waiting to see if it might actually charge after being plugged in for a bit I read for a while instead, until I started to nod off with the book in hand when I decided it was time to give up for the night.
Countryside ride 1:
Distance - 6.11 kilometres
Time - 1:28:55
Average speed - 4.1kmph
Max speed - 10.0kmph

DAY 3 Tue 15 June

Got one of the best nights sleeps that I have had for a long time last night - got woken up by Buffy at 2.30am, but managed to head right back to sleep again, and slept through until 6.30am, despite the heat. I said I was coming over here to reset my sleeping clock that has been all mixed up lately, and it seems to be working already - thank goodness! Lay in bed for a bit reading, before heading over to the house to see if Maryanne was up yet, and what the plan was for the day. While I was over there, one of the grooms came over to tell Maryanne that she had two brand new kid goats :) They are sooo cute, with their lovely shiny black coats, with little patterns of white. Georgeous! Around 10am we took out Dooby and Shaboura for a quiet ride through the desert, pretty much just to see how they coped. They coped great - in fact both of them really wanted to run and run - Shibs especially. We walked in to the desert just below the Sun Temple at Abu Sir, up past the Abu Sir pyramids and on to the Japanese hill (a hill where the Japanese started excavating), before heading back towards the farm. Oh boy - those two knew it was the way home, and wanted to run even more than before, so Maryanne relented and let them go for a run. The initial plan was a quiet canter, but they had different ideas, so a nice gallop through the sand was a lovely way to end the ride (well, not end it as we still had to exit the desert and head back to the farm). It was really nice to have my first ride back in Egypt on my favourite Egyptian mare (even if she is the wrong colour :P).
There isn't much of a plan for the rest of the day - shopping day is tomorrow, today is another day of rest to let Maryanne recover and catch up on stuff she has to do, which has given me time to download the photos I have taken, and catch up on my diary.
Because there was nothing much to do I headed on over to Morad's for a bit, and got to spend time with some of his horses. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, outside in the shade with a nice breeze blowing through, watching a weanling as she tried to work out how to eat grass. And then after she went out into the yard, Morad brought out Birdie and her young colt. He was so inquisitive, exploring the world all by himself. He would stay away for quite a while too before coming running back to his mum. Then there was the time he came back proud of himself with the remains of a cigarette carton in his mouth to show us. While I was standing there holding Birdie at one stage a falcon flew over, circled the field beside us, circled over Morad's place and then headed off again, while in the distance I could hear the call to prayer. That really just made my afternoon - I love watching the falcons fly in Egypt, and spending the time with a friend and lovely horses is perfect! Eventually it was time to put Birdie and the foal back in the stable, and Morad had to head into town, so he dropped me off at Maryanne's so I could download the photos to my laptop and see if I got any good photos of Birdie and the foal - shame I didn't have my real camera, but the iphone does take pretty good photos too! Then it was a matter of relaxing for the rest of the night, after a bite of dinner, watching episodes of the Deadliest Catch (kinda a weird programme to be watching in the heat of the Egyptian desert), and playing round with the computer.

DAY 2 Mon 14 June

Day two was a pretty quiet day, spent relaxing on the sofa, waiting for Maryanne to get home, reading a good book, with dogs strewn all around the living room.
The dogs were so happy to see Maryanne when she got home, mobbing her as she sat on the mounting block. I spent some time catching up with Maryanne and Mona, and helping with the unpacking, and then I went round to Morad's to get my laptop back - I'd left it with him to finish watching the last two DVD's. He told me that Saber had said it was okay to walk across the fields to get back to Maryanne's - which is just as well because I think if I kept walking along the main road to get there there would be an accident at some stage. I'd look up to see the drivers looking back at me instead of at the road ahead.
Stayed there for a while before heading back to Maryanne's and talking to her some more, grabbing a quick bite of some crackers and cheese before heading back over to the guest house with Buffy, Bella and Finn. Finn and Bella decided that they didn't want to stay inside for too long, which was fine with me, because they are big dogs, and after reading a bit more of my book, I crashed.

DAY 1 8am Sat 12 June - end of Sun 13 June

Well, it has been about 28 hours since I left home... and since then I have travelled half way around the world. After leaving Auckland Airport, the first stop was Singapore, where I had a nearly 4 hour layover. Time for a little duty free shopping, visiting the butterfly gardens (though being night time there wasn't much activity at all - though there was a cute little gecko feeding on the pineapple that was left out for the butterflies), and making the most of Changi Airport's free internet access. I'd stayed awake for the entire flight from NZ, as it got into Singapore at about 10.30pm NZ time, so the flight from Singapore to Dubai was mainly for sleeping - not that it really counts as sleeping - it was more like doze for half an hour, wake up for a bit, doze again, wake up, rinse and repeat. Then there was an hour and a half wait in Dubai, where we weren't even allowed to leave the plane. The flight was reasonably empty from Dubai to Cairo, so I managed to move back one row and make the most of an empty row of seats to sleep about two thirds of the flight to Cairo.
Once in Cairo, it was a waiting game... first off waiting for the plane to even make it to the gate, and then waiting for the luggage. There wasn't much of a wait for immigration however. So that rates Cairo ahead of Istanbul and LA as far as I am concerned.
Walking out through the crowds in the arrivals area, I finally spotted Mohamed stuck outside (they weren't letting people in).
Driving out to Maryanne's, I realised that not much here has really changed in the last two years. Oh there has been a lot of change to look at I'm sure if you are familiar with the place, but in terms of just how things generally go around here there is no change - the never ending construction, the general craziness of the roads - the little things that make Egypt Egypt. And as the title of the blog states, things in Egypt are rather random - Egypt does random very well!
There were some things I had forgotten about as well that came back quickly enough - just the look of the sand and realising how dry it was. We have finally come out of the drought at our place back in NZ, but even at our driest most people over there could not understand how a society could flourish in an area even drier than that - maybe it would be better understood over in Australia where they too make a living off dry desert areas.
The other thing was the reminder that we're not in Kansas anymore Toto... Egypt is first and foremost a military state. Just driving down the road from the airport, the watch towers and large concrete walls brought that back. It is something that is no longer that noticeable at the airport itself any more however. I remember my first trip over to Egypt, and the shock of seeing with guards with guns at the airport. Okay, the cops at NZ airports have guns, but not machine guns!
Speaking of construction, over here it is on a scale that we never see in NZ, and personally I hope we never see it. There are huge areas cleared ready to be built on, and also there seems to be something of the mentality from "Field of Dreams"... "You build it, they will come!". There was a Mercedes dealership built in the middle of nowhere, but just a little further along there were all these houses being built, closer and closer to the dealership.
Now I am back at the farm and all set up in the guest house, but oh so tired... and it isn't even 9am. Got to say 'Hi' to Mona, who is looking after the farm while Maryanne is over in the US. Checked e-mails and went out to see horses. Unfortunately Maryanne has a few horses with Strangles at the moment. You get to see some interesting?!? diseases over here. Strangles outbreaks occur so infrequently back home in NZ, and as for Equine Influenza - we don't get that at all. Got to watch the vet treating some of the horses, which consisted of draining the large abscess that had formed. Certainly not something that you would want to see if you were at all squeamish!
After the vet left Mona headed off to do some stuff, and I was left at the farm wondering what to do. I was soo tired due to the travelling, but I didn't want to head off to bed too soon - best way to beat jet lag is to stay up till a regular bed time local time. Unfortunately that was over 10 hours away. I knew if I stopped to read a book that I would probably end up falling asleep as well, I had to be doing something active, even if I did feel absolutely shattered, so I decided to head over to see if Morad was home.
Tried the back gate at the farm, but it was locked, so out the front gate, past the disney house and down towards the next road over, only to find out that in the last two years a gate had been installed... so much for that idea. So I walked up through the village only to be stopped by some of the local kids who wanted their photos taken. At first I said I didn't have a camera, because I wasn't actually thinking obviously, but they reminded me that I had a camera on the cellphone, so the next quarter of an hour was spent taking photos of the kids, as more and more of them turned up to have their photos taken.
I finally escaped from there and headed up to the 'main' road, and along to Morad's place. Took a little while to track him down once I was there, but once I did it was good to catch up with him again. We had a good chat before one of his friends, Danny turned up, and then we hopped in Danny's car and went out to Shoubramont to treat some horses.
Driving through Egypt, you'll notice that despite the law, most people still don't bother to buckle up, or they still talk on the cellphone. Which makes it kind of offputting when you are sitting in a car were you can't actually use the seatbelt.. even more so when all of a sudden out of no where, the two in the front seat buckle up - I asked whether I had anything to be nervous about - lol... Though with the state of the driving over here, one should be nervous whenever one hops in a car... you may trust the driver, it's all the other lunatics out there on the road - lol
Instead of heading back to Morad's we had a quick stop at Maryanne's so I could pick up my laptop. Back at Morad's I showed him and Danny the video of the Kumeu Santa Parade, and after Danny had gone I had to show him the two short clips of Lee on NZ Television - from the TV programmes Radar's Patch and Hitched.
He then decided it would be a good idea if we sat down to watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (I had bought over my extended edition for him to watch. Three quarters of the way through the first DVD I fell asleep - oops - so much for staying awake till a respectable bed time. Though it was just a doze until the movie ended and Morad's cell phone went off.
More dozing off through the second DVD of the Fellowship of the Rings - oh well, I think I'd done extraordinarily well to stay up for that long after the long trip from NZ. The next two DVD's were rather interrupted with people arriving and phone calls. After the second video of the Two Towers had finished, I decided I had to call it a night - I needed a decent night's sleep to knock the jetlag on the head and start the holiday off on the right foot - just as well because as I was leaving more people arrived. One of whom was nice enough to drop me off at Maryanne's front gate. Then Maryanne's dogs mobbed me - I relented in the end and instead of just having Buffy, who is the guest house dog, I ended up with Buffy, Terra, Geo, Pixel and Ginger joining me on the bed... just as well it is a large bed, and they are just little rat terriers!