Hurghada - First Furniture Purchase (Bookcase)

Sahl Hasheesh - Present (Green) and Future (To Be Built)

Despite saying that I’m settling in, I’m actually still very new. Now that I am back on two feet, I’ve turned myself to organising my flat a bit better. I’d already halved my lounge space and brought all my lounge furniture closer to the balcony doors; I was pretty pleased with this as it made the designated lounge area cosier and gave me some room for a library that would double up as a spare bedroom.

However, moving all my furniture down towards the balcony doors made my flat look empty, further emphasised by the presence of boxes of books and pictures dotted around the flat, waiting to be opened. My flat looked more like a temporary shelter than a home.

I needed to get a bookcase so that I could unpack some of those boxes and a sofabed so that I could sit in my library area. After looking at my boxes and contemplating what I’d seen when out with Safi, I made up my mind as to what I thought would fit best.

I initially hoped that maybe Safi could take me back to buy the items I desired. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised I should really be more independent and take my courage in both hands and handle it all myself. I had already had more assistance than I could possibly have dreamed of and I was in danger of becoming too dependent on others. In normal circumstances, I would have expected to have done everything on my own, so surely I could take it from here?

I decided to get Esmat to take me to the places for the bookshelf and sofabed, perhaps stay in that area for an hour or so while I located the shops and sorted things out, plus maybe look at some other stuff. After that, I would go to Senzo Mall to do some more food shopping. I had a plan!

But the plan was stuffed from the very beginning. Sometimes, I wonder if there’s any point in making plans at all. It’s not as if anything ever actually runs to plan, so they are there just to mock you, really, and who wants to spend their life being mocked?

Anyway, I phoned Esmat and unfortunately he was in hospital sitting with his father who had been taken ill. I felt awful for phoning at this difficult time, but Esmat sent me his cousin in a taxi to take me instead. I didn’t bother going into the details of what I wanted with Esmat; I would leave that to discuss with his cousin rather than burden him further.

The cousin arrived but didn’t speak as good English as Esmat, although this did give me the opportunity to try out my small vocabulary of Arabic, which he seemed to enjoy (needless to say, his English was better than my Arabic).

He didn’t know the place I wanted to go, but we went to the street and looked out for it. I was a bit surprised at how long the road was; it wasn’t going to be the easy walking from shop to shop that I’d originally anticipated. I deliberated in my head as to whether I should get him to drive me further down the road later so that I could shop in that area as well, but decided to leave mentioning this until after I’d finished my first task, which was to buy the bookcase. Otherwise, it would be too complicated and would most likely get lost in translation.

Anyway, the cousin spotted the store before I did. He parked outside the shop – as usual in Egypt, getting there wasn’t so straight forward; he had to drive back and back again in a kind of zig-zag to park by the shop. Inwardly, I prayed that this was indeed the shop selling the required bookcase.

I initially asked the driver to stay for an hour, but he looked at me in such a state of shock that I backtracked down to ten minutes, while I just went in and bought the bookcase. Still, he appeared uncertain and said he would have to phone and confirm that this was all OK with Esmat, which he did.

I went into the shop and dithered for a while over the bookcase, but feeling a bit pressurised by the waiting taxi, I just went ahead and didn’t even think to bargain (the price was on the item). As an aside, I asked if they delivered, having just assumed that they would, and was shocked to find that they didn’t.

After some discussion over what options were open to me (the shopkeepers were all very friendly and pleasant and willing to help), I asked the driver if we could tie the bookcase to the top of the taxi roof. Again, he looked a bit shell-shocked, but agreed. In the end, five men gathered round the taxi, trying their best to fix the bookshelf to the rack on the taxi roof. I was now starting to feel as if I was really living the Egyptian life!

As they finished, the shopkeeper waved my money in the air and beckoned me to come back in. My heart sank as I expected an argument about whether I’d paid the right money, but to my surprise, he claimed I had given them too much money and handed some back. I felt a mixture of confusion, gratitude, relief, and scepticism! In retrospect, I should have been more grateful!

I asked Esmat’s cousin if he could drop me off at Senzo Mall and, again, he looked rather stressed and said he would have to check with Esmat. He got this OK’d by Esmat.

I deliberated as we drove past more shops as to whether to ask him to stop off for my sofabed, but I wasn’t entirely sure which shop it was (just the general location) or how long it would take me to find it, and decided I would have a problem if the next shop didn’t deliver either. So, in the end, I left it, especially since it would stress out my taxi driver further anyway. However, it left me feeling a bit dissatisfied with myself, because I wasn’t exactly fulfilling my plan and I would now have to do a separate journey. But trying for the sofabed on the same day was now getting to be too stressful.

We got to Senzo Mall and I asked the driver if he could come back in 2 hours. Again, he looked distressed, asked me what he should do with my bookcase on top of the roof, and said he would have to liaise with Esmat, who was still presumably in hospital at his father’s bedside. I felt so guilty!

Again, Esmat gave the OK and the cousin just waited in car park while I did my shopping (and had a KFC). And from there, eventually, I arrived home. Esmat’s cousin looked delighted when I paid him for the journey, so at least I felt that, despite everything, it all ended on good terms. I suspect it may have started out as a favour to Esmat and then became his actual job.

The bookcase fitted into its allocated position nicely, I’m happy to say, and was just about big enough for all my books. Now it’s in, I’ve decided I need a table as well, so I’m going to have to fathom out how to do all of this a bit better! For once, I missed Switzerland!