El Andalous - My Purchases

El Andalous Waterfall - Or is it Rain?

I thought I would report back on my progress with that list of purchases I had from when I was back in the UK.

There were a few items that I bought in addition, much to my surprise. An additional two mobile phones, for example, but I’ve already said more than enough about that.

Another bizarre and unexpected purchase was three tubes of toothpaste. I’m a sucker for a three-for-two offer. I haven’t got the hang of buying toothpaste here, although I’ve only bought it once. I got a large tube of Colgate Total, which is the brand I usually get. It looked like the stuff I get at home, but it was a lot cheaper here in Egypt, only it came in one of those tubes with a tiny lid, rather than the nice large lid that you can use to stand it upright.

However, I have my suspicions as to whether the contents actually were the genuine article. This is also standard for Egypt. You’re never too sure what you’re buying. The toothpaste I bought here brought back memories of the 1970s. You squeeze some paste out onto your toothbrush, struggle to close the tiny lid, then the next day the toothpaste has all dried up and you have to dig out a centimetre of white cement before you can get to any usable toothpaste. Repeat each time you clean your teeth. Remember those days? Alternatively, you can squeeze the tube really hard and it will all suddenly squirt out. It’s really tiring and life is too short.

I had the good fortune that my toothbrush heads were on special offer, so I have four now, which should last me two years. I’m on the first one already. Oxo cubes and icing sugar are other items in my cupboards that are available on standby.

I purchased a dress and three new t-shirts. I don’t really need new clothes, but I do need more dresses that I can just slip on and off very quickly and I’m a bit short of t-shirts with sleeves and Primark was cheaper than Egypt. I haven’t worn the t-shirts much yet (they are more for winter), but the dress has been washed several times already.

My clock, my camera, and my Red Sea fish guide are three things I use daily. I’m surprised the camera is surviving my maltreatment. Annoyingly, it has to be soaked in fresh water for 10 minutes if it’s been used in the sea and I keep on forgetting it and leaving it for 2 hours. It’s supposed to remain underwater for a maximum of one hour! The Red Sea guide is good, but I still have photographs of fish that I cannot identify. However, I go through it for hours some evenings and it has named quite a few additional fish for me. And as for my clock, it’s beyond me how I survived without it. I look at it many times a day.

My weather station doesn’t work. Well, I think the main unit is OK for temperature, but the second, outside sensor doesn’t work. I think it can’t access the radio frequencies and the main unit can’t even fetch the time. So that was a bit of a disaster, although its room temperature reading is surprisingly consistent with what my air conditioning tells me it is. Funnily, the unit keeps on telling me that it’s raining because I have a waterfall/fountain next to my flat.

I’ve finished my Shreddies. They sell Cinnamon Toast Crunch here, but it’s six quid! I’m not paying that. Migros didn’t stock the Caotina chocolate powder, so I went without as I didn’t want to spend my time in Switzerland going round supermarkets.

I bought the vitamin B complex, on special offer, for half the price it would be in Egypt, but I’m still not convinced it’s actually doing anything about fending off the mosquitoes. I couldn’t get citronella essence, but the citronella candles I bought have turned out to be ineffective against the critters.

An unplanned item I purchased was a mosquito bite zapper – you place the head of the device over the bite and click it; the tiny electric shocks are supposed to stop the bite from itching. On a head-to-head trial of treating concurrently just one fresh similarly-sized and -itching bite on each leg under each condition, I detected no difference between the effectiveness of the zapper and the effectiveness of my insect bite lotion. Both are OK, actually, but the lotion is less stressful.

The dustbuster is busting dust. I’ve yet to have a “thank God I’ve got that!” moment, but I’ve felt mentally relieved at being able to give my furniture a quick hoover, so that I don’t feel that layers and layers of dust are gradually becoming ingrained into my cushions.

And I absolutely love my new fuscia kindle cover. It’s so bright and easy to see, it’s light, and it’s not leather so no need to feel you need to treat it with care. I can now just put my kindle in my beach bag without worrying that the sand will scratch it. Fabulous!