El Andalous - My Purchases

My  Self-Made Necklaces!

Well, I’m off to Switzerland again, so just a quick blog this week. To make it easy for myself, I thought I’d give a quick report back on my purchases and whether they were worth it.

1. New EasyBreathe Snorkeling Mask. If you want to get attention on the beach, this is the way to do it! Every time I’ve taken this with me, I’ve been accosted by strangers asking me about it, and sometimes also by people I know. It took me a while to place my trust in it. It fits over your face, so you have to be confident that you’re not going to drown with water coming in the mask. It doesn’t. And even if it does, it tends to trickle down the side of your face and run out by your chin, so you don’t drown. You can breathe through your nose or your mouth and is easier than standard snorkeling gear. I don’t particularly notice the wider range of sight, although most people comment on that; I’m more aware that you still can’t see to your side because of the curvature of the mask. After about an hour, my jaw aches because it’s a bit tight; I did try loosening it and it was better, but if I loosen it any more, water starts to come in. A normal snorkel hurts my head after a while and sometimes my jaw aches from gripping onto the mouthpiece, so it’s about even there.
2. Solar Panel, 40W. This was supposed to provide enough energy to charge my laptop but it doesn’t really work. Admittedly, I think it’s supposed to be for up to 19V and my work laptop needs 20V; my personal laptop is 19V but it didn’t come with the connector for that (presumably because I bought it in Egypt and is probably a slightly deviant design). I use it to charge up my powerpack (which can then charge my work laptop), but it takes quite a while for it to charge up via the sun. It’s not helped by the fact that my balcony is in the shade all afternoon and in the morning I have to shift it around every half an hour for it to be in the sun. The sun seems to move really fast in Egypt! In reality, I’m only using it to charge my tablet, my work phone, and my kindle. I’m not sure it was worth the money. Having said that, maybe I’ll change my mind now that electricity prices have gone up by almost 50% in Egypt!
3. Power Bank. This works well, subject to above proviso. To be fair, it's designed to be charged via mains electricity, so it's not its fault that I can't get it charged quickly enough via solar power!
4. Solar Lantern. This worked just fine during my power cut. It has a USB socket where you can also charge devices and it took me a while to realize that it will power devices over charging the light, so I need to be careful not to charge a device so much that I have no light left. Also, it’s not strong enough to charge my tablet or my iphone. It works well for my Suunto Ambit watch, though.
5. Solar Light. I have this in the bathroom and it is great! It never seems to use up any energy and provides a good light for the bathroom during my power cuts. It’s magnetic and sits nicely on my towel rack.
6. Swimming costumes. One turned out to have not very much material on the sides and I feel a bit naked in it; otherwise I really like the pattern on it. It’s OK for Switzerland but I feel it might be too revealing for Egypt. Another one I haven’t worn very much because I’m scared by the fact that its size is “small” (help! Will it really fit me?) as that was the only size left, but actually I really like it – the material is a bit weird and quite thick for a swimming costume, but it’s fine. The final one was just great.
7. Craft Materials. I’d got it into my head that I’d like to make necklaces out of shells here in Sahl Hasheesh, so that I could always have a part of Sahl Hasheesh with me wherever I went. I bought some rings (can’t remember their official name) to hook the shells on to a neck chain and also bought some neck chains (one in a charity shop and three cheap silver ones from Argos). It turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. At the end of the day, I’m not really cut out to do arts and crafts as I don’t have the patience or the dexterity. I’d read on the internet that you can make a hole in a shell with a needle, but I either couldn’t do it or the shell would break. Similarly, I didn’t have the patience to tease apart the ring to fix it on to the chain and then close it up. The rings were so small and my fingers so clumsy, it just wasn’t going to happen. Or I didn’t have the patience to persevere. In the end I used glue. It wasn’t easy. The rings would slide about on the chain, the chain would stick to the cardboard surface I was working on. The shells wouldn’t stick. I got there in the end and I think the necklaces are beautiful. However, one of them is a bit crooked, and when I wore one of them, the glue started to melt over my neck. It’s not a great look. I am hoping maybe a few more days’ fixing time might solve the latter issue.
8. Cereals. It seems that I can’t buy UK cereals any more because Egypt does not have the money to import them, so I brought 5 boxes back with me. I will be repeating this exercise because I love my morning bowl of breakfast cereal and it’s been heavenly being able to have something I enjoy first thing. It makes getting up all worthwhile!