El Andalous - Christmas 2014

My Christmas Tree and Flowers from Orbit

I hope you all had the most enjoyable Christmas ever!

Now that I’ve been here for more than a year, I’m starting to do things for the second time and that also includes Christmas. Last year I had Holger visiting and I was still recovering from my broken foot, although I was pretty much better.

This year, I was fully fit and spoilt for options, so I guess this means that I must have settled in. I ended up with a total of three celebrations (so far). It’s actually not so easy to celebrate a British Christmas over here since the relevant populations are either Europeans, who celebrate on 24th December, or Russians (Orthodox Christians) and Coptic Christians, who celebrate on 7th January.

I put up a small Christmas tree in my flat (shipped over by Geraldine from Switzerland to the UK and then by me from the UK to Egypt!) and this year I bought some extra tinsel for it and some lights, which were available in Spinneys.

My first celebration was the “European” one on Christmas Eve. Joke (pronounced Yoka – yes, I was also surprised when I first saw the name written down!) had organised a celebration at her home for a group here called the Lotus Ladies. As Sheila pointed out, this all sounds fairly exotic, but actually the group was set up for foreign women married to Egyptian men as a support and social group, but now includes any women who wish to join. Various classes and activities are organised via this group as well as a range of discounts in and around Hurghada.

Anyway, Nicole offered me a lift, so I went along with her to celebrate on the 24th. It was a “bring your own” affair, so I took along cupcakes and shortbread. Joke lives in a place called The View in Hurghada and it has stunning views of the Red Sea. The apartment was huge (there were fifteen of us, with one table for ten and one table for five, and we hadn’t even taken up any of the lounge area or the balcony). Really, it was a privilege just to be able to go in and see the view. The block has a swimming pool, a gym, and a beach across the road.

We were a variety of nationalities. There are quite a few Ukrainians here these days escaping from the violence in their home country; the Russians are struggling due to the plummeting rouble. So, for those who think that Egypt is a problem country, perhaps think again!

Anyway, we had a lot of delicious food available to us and it was really a great event (after I’d got over the stress of having to bake! I ran out of butter while cooking my shortbread so I made half with margarine, and I ended up having to throw that half away, they tasted so bad!).

On Christmas day, Nicole, Ajay and I met on the beach as usual for our Arabic session. I can’t remember if I said, but we’re now working our way through a set of 8 CDs and meeting up each day to practice what we’ve learned. I’m coining this as (Egyptian) Arabic on the Beach and it’s really working out quite well.

Because it was Christmas Day, we’d agreed to celebrate by bringing some items to the beach with us. Ajay made a completely wonderful smoothie (it turns out he’s a qualified raw food chef), Nicole made some great pizzas and was kind enough to do some without cheese especially for me (I am so spoilt), and I brought along, yes, you guessed it, cupcakes.

I went for a swim afterwards – it was a beautifully warm day with little wind – and so all in all it was perfect.

In the evening, Safi and I dressed ourselves up and went to the Premier Romance for their buffet dinner, starting off with a drink beforehand and then moving on to the food. We’d discussed and booked with the hotel beforehand, agreeing a price and having our local discount cards photocopied. These were supposed to be at the buffet reception when we arrived, along with a note of the agreed price, so that it would be trouble-free when we were there.

We had a fantastic meal – they had roast chicken and I also had some steak with pepper sauce, fish and chips (mistranslated in reality into crisps in UK English), a curry dish, a kebab... and I can’t remember what else, but also mushroom soup and a selection of desserts.

As you might have guessed, by the time we came to pay, it turned out that the bits of paper with the agreed price had gone missing and we were charged 170 LE instead of 150 LE each (discounted from 220 LE without the residents’ card). It took us almost an hour to get it sorted as they couldn’t work out which manager we’d spoken to who had given us this price and it was, of course, 11pm on Christmas Day. We got there in the end, but even now I don’t know if the manager quoted us the wrong price or whether the guys at the till got it wrong.

In a way, I’ve also had a fourth celebration, because Safi and I followed it up with a buffet breakfast at Premier Romance on Sunday. Again, this was super and included all the things you’d usually expect from an upmarket hotel at breakfast (beef bacon, eggs, beef and turkey sausages, fresh doughnuts, cereal, fried aubergine, juices, various breads, fresh fruit, cheeses, meats, etc). We’d never received a quote for the price, but we got the standard residential discount without any fuss. It’s been ages since I’ve had one of those breakfasts, so it was a great thing to do (it almost made me miss my days at Novo Nordisk!).

All in all, I have to say that I’ve had the most enjoyable time!