El Andalous - Christmas 2016

Christmas Present from My Brother - Flowers and Christmas Cake with Maltesers, Kit-Kat, Mars Bar...

Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s actually been pretty cold here, but I’m failing to get any sympathy. It’s more the wind than anything else – when I arrived back, I wore bed socks at night, used a blanket, had to wear a cardigan when I was sitting outside. I’ve been back almost 2 weeks, and yet I’ve only managed to swim three times in that period. I am beginning to think I may as well have stayed in Switzerland.

The temperature is around 21-24 degrees (which is why I’m not getting any sympathy), it’s just the wind that makes it chilly. If you can get a wind breaker on the beach and position it correctly, you can be OK. But it’s definitely winter. I’ve never had a year yet like this; previously I’ve been able to swim pretty much every day throughout the year. I was beginning to wonder if I’d just softened up, but when we had our first non-windy day and I was able to go to the beach, I realized that this was how it usually is. It’s most definitely an unusual winter. I feel sorry for people taking a holiday here just now. Another bit of bad luck for Egypt.

An additional sign that it’s winter is that I’m now back to drinking hot (filter) coffee. That seems just unthinkable in the summer months. Maybe it’s a hangover from Switzerland, but I’ve taken a real craving for a piping hot caffe latte in the afternoons. When I haven’t been able to swim, I’ve quite often wandered down to either Chez Paul, Il Gusto, or BestWay for a caffe latte. At home, I finally dusted off (literally) my filter coffee machine and started to make my own coffee, too. I’ve bought 6 cans of diet coke, which are sitting in the fridge, and I haven’t had a single one yet.

I don’t know if it was just me, but it seemed to me that Senzo Mall had more decorations up this year for Christmas. Even locally, they are doing more – there’s a large tent being put up on the beach by Il Gusto for three days of activities to see in the new year. Also the Piazza seems to be having things erected inside it, although I haven’t heard of anything going on there.

I didn’t see turkey this year in Spinneys, but I bought a duck instead for Christmas day (I was originally under the impression that I’d bought a goose, but that’s just because I either didn’t read properly or I bought duck and then changed it to “goose” in my memory).

It was the first time I’d ever cooked a whole duck. I did pretty well. It fitted in the oven, which was one thing I forgot to consider (I only have a small portable oven). It was a bit difficult to time the vegetables etc, since my electricity can’t handle me having the oven and my hob on at the same time. However, I cooked the date sauce in advance, and I cooked the giblets the day before, and I parboiled the potatoes before I put the duck in the oven. This is pretty organized for me. It tasted good, but I completely forgot to take a photograph. The half-mauled duck doesn’t look quite so photogenic, so it’s a bit too late now.

On the 24th, I went out with the Lotus Ladies for a Christmas meal. I was relieved that this year we did not have to prepare stuff and bring it along as in previous years; this time, we just paid and had the meal at Bulls (a restaurant in Hurghada). That was when I got my full turkey Christmas meal. They even prepared stuffing (labeled “stuffiny”), because one of the Brits, who couldn’t attend, had insisted on it. It was lovely to have a typically British Christmas dinner. I think the other nationalities who were there (Egyptian, Dutch, Belgian, Polish... at my end of the table) were a bit perplexed by the stuffing.

So, I think that’s now my 4th Christmas over here in Egypt. Every year, it’s been a bit different, but it’s always fun!