Goodbye and Hello

El Andalous Foyer - Location of Owners' Meetings in Winter

Well, my last week in Egypt just flew. I told Kathryn and Stephen that I hoped to go for a swim on my last morning, since Lena had managed to do this on her last day. They scoffed, saying I would have more things to do than Lena would have had. As it was, they were right! Also it was cloudy on my final morning, which made leaving a little easier.

I didn’t even have to clean, since I’ll pay to have that done before I come back (it will get very dusty in the mean time; I have to clean my balcony every morning when I’m there). However, somehow the packing took me forever as did just organizing things. I had to bring the sofa cushions in from outside, tidy, work out what I needed to take with me (it was hard to remember what was already in Zurich), and also prioritise what was to go in my luggage and what would have to stay behind. I am already mourning my solar panel which is still in Egypt. Steph had informed me that I would need a bucket in my new flat in Zurich, and since I have two in Egypt (taking up space), I decided to pack a bucket in my luggage. I bet not many people do that!

In addition to packing, there were the goodbyes to be said as well, and last-minute tasks. I went out for a meal with Kathryn and Stephen to Chez Paul. It was a bit sad, since due to there being so few tourists, they were now offering only about three things on the menu, so choice was limited. I also went for the buffet at the Old Palace with Nicole, which has to be one of the best deals in Sahl Hasheesh (109 LE for residents). Then there was an owners’ meeting that I led and wrote the minutes for, and so, before I knew it, my week was over.

There was a huge queue at the airport and I felt a bit ashamed of myself for being the grumpiest person there. Everyone else seemed buoyed up by their holidays and were really in good spirits. I was impressed as I was expecting people to be moaning, but they absolutely weren’t.

I still got through with enough time to buy myself a cup of coffee. At the first place I went to, they said that they didn’t have any coffee and that I wouldn’t find it anywhere in the whole airport. It did make me stop to think, because it’s been hard to find ground coffee in the supermarkets recently (there must be some kind of shortage). However, Egyptians are fond of saying that what you are looking for can’t be found anywhere simply because they don’t have it themselves. I decided to continue to search.

I spotted another café where people were sitting with cardboard coffee cups and indeed that place was selling coffee. I felt quite pleased with myself for continuing to look and even a little happy that I’d had one final “Egyptian” experience before I left.

I didn’t have any luck with my complaint about my last business class flight (I’d hoped to get a free upgrade), so this time I flew economy (I had told them I would not fly business if their service was so poor). I think I managed to get my cheapest flight ever (around 260 CHF return, I think). To compensate for not being in business, I bought some cashew nuts and a selection of mini Ritter Sport chocolates so that I could enjoy some luxury during the flight. On the down side, I was crammed in between two people and the seats were pretty narrow. It wasn’t actually necessary as there were some free places towards the back of the plane (if only I’d known).

I ordered some prosecco and hoped that I wasn’t offending the Arabic guy next to me. As it was, both he and the woman to my right wished me “ein Guete” before I started to eat my meal, making me feel like a very rude Brit, since we don’t generally say “bon appétit” before a meal. I guess in the old days we used to say grace before meals, but I don’t think it’s something that anyone does these days (or maybe I don’t frequent those circles). Anyway, it was a reminder to polish up my manners!

I enjoyed the meal on the plane but it was small (but I'd complained about that in business, so it's not so bad when you're just paying economy). At some point during the flight, I came out in hives on my arm, so I was obviously allergic to something, but I’m not sure what it was. My prime suspect is the yoghurt Ritter Sport chocolate since I started to itch immediately after that. There’s a second one in my pack, so I’ll try it when I’m feeling brave.

We landed safely and it was odd to hear all the Swiss-German again (even though I’d been speaking to a Swiss woman in German for most of the second-half of the flight). I was a bit taken aback that the rail shop (where I’d planned to buy my rail pass) was closed after 8pm. But a single ticket was probably the better option anyway, so no stress, and I was lucky in that my bus arrived just as I got there, so I had no waiting at all. Switzerland was welcoming me back!

Egypt - Visitor

Pillars and Ceiling at Dendera Temple

I finally had a friend over to visit. Lena managed to squeeze in a week to come over and Egypt smiled upon her by giving us the best weather we’ve had in all the time that I’ve been here during this stint. One day, the temperature on my balcony recorded something like 37 degrees. I can’t believe that could possibly be true, but it was easily 25 or 26 degrees most days.

We spent most afternoons on the beach, but at the weekend we explored further afield.

One trip was to the Dendera (or Dandara) Temple Complex. It’s not so far from Luxor, actually, so if you’re ever having a holiday in Luxor, you should make the effort also to visit Dendera.

Although Dendera isn’t as well known as Karnak Temple in Luxor or all the tombs at the Valley of the Kings, it is nevertheless one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. They’ve restored part of the ceiling in one place and it’s incredible – half of it is black and you wouldn’t think anything was underneath it, but where they have managed to remove the dirt, the colours and paintings are vibrant.

The temple is stunning even by today’s standards (although I sometimes wonder if we have any standards today, when you see what they did in the past!), with decorations covering every inch of available space, so it must have been even more awe-inspiring all those thousands of years ago.

In addition, there are lots of passageways to the side, or up or down, so there’s more to explore in there than you might imagine. Because it’s not so well known, I was expecting us to be on our own there, but actually there were quite a few people milling about.

Esmat took us there and back and I spent the journey learning to read the road signs (most of them seemed to be saying “slow down”!). He has the wooden-slatted covers for the seats which help to keep you cool as the sun beats down on you as you are driving through the mountains. The roads are pretty good, but drivers don’t generally like to go through at night for fear of bandits hiding away and ambushing. During the day, there are police checkpoints at various places; we had to report our nationality at each one and there’s always the possibility that you’ll also be asked for your passport. Drivers usually have to show their license.

We spent another day in El Gouna. Unlike with Geraldine, where we had El Gouna included as part of a boat trip, we went by taxi. I spent ages online trying to find out when the lagoon trips took place, but to no avail. In the end, we just missed the last one on Saturday (at noon, I think) and it turned out that they took place (in English) only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Next time!

I was a bit shocked at how expensive El Gouna had become, but the marina area was pretty busy with plenty of people walking around and enjoying what life had to offer. As usual, impressive-looking boats were moored, with quite a few from Panama. Some arrived as we were there and you could watch them reverse in to their mooring space, just as if it were a car.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk to the town centre (this isn’t like a European town centre; it’s a set of cobbled roads with touristy-type shops and a couple of supermarkets which are small compared with European supermarkets). Lena haggled over some sandals and guava tea and also shopped in a store selling items where the money was to go to help various women’s initiatives in Egypt.

We went back to the marina for dinner. Here, and where we had a coffee, we were asked if we lived in El Gouna (I like to think that this means I look like a resident these days!). Whenever I replied that I lived in Sahl Hasheesh, they always laughed and said that El Gouna was better than Sahl Hasheesh.

A week goes by too quickly and, once Lena left, I myself only had one week left in Egypt. I am already entering my mourning phase as I think about having to leave this place that I love. But I know when I leave Zurich, I’ll be mourning for the loss of Zurich. It’s a bitter-sweet existence.

El Andalous - Swimming Goals

Part of My Swimming Route - El Andalous in Background

It’s been a cold winter this year, which is why I’ve spent so much time on repairs and reorganization. However, when I look at my Suunto Ambit watch it seems that I’ve done a lot more swimming than I feel I have. Although there’s the occasional week where I haven’t been at all, mostly I have managed to go 2-3 times a week. That’s not bad!

I’m sure the water must also be colder than usual, so I’m quite proud of being so hardy. I’m just so determined to make the most of the good weather when it finally happens. Once I’m in, the water isn’t so bad, but it takes me a while to take the plunge. This year, I’m splashing myself with sea water before I swim and getting myself accustomed to it first. That helps. I was quite impressed with myself when I noticed one of the Germans refusing to go in because it was too cold. I think of the Germans as being a pretty hardy bunch, especially compared with me!

At long last, my swimming speed has also marginally improved. Last time I was here, I was trying to swim faster, but my watch kept on telling me I was swimming more and more slowly. It was quite depressing. When I returned this time, I decided to give up swimming any faster, and then promptly my speed went up. Very bizarre.

I used to do about 1.8 or 1.9 km/hour; when I tried to improve, my speed decreased to 1.6 or 1.7 km/hour. I thought I’d tried everything to improve it! I am now steadily managing 2 km/hour; if I’m very lucky, I might get up to 2.1 km /hour. This isn’t anything to shout about, but for me it’s progress. I’ve decided it’s mostly due to doing more strokes per minute. I really need to improve my skill!

My watch now has a new feature where it tells you how you compare with all the other people who are using the watch. It kindly informed me that, for open-water swimming, I am in the top 100%. This made me laugh out loud. That’s a very nice way of telling me that I’m in the bottom 10% (since my next goal is to reach the top 90%). In fact, I’m probably at least in the bottom 5%, but it doesn't go that low!

To achieve the top 90% I need to take 7 minutes off my best time to swim 1.5 km and 3 minutes off my best time to swim 1 km. This all seems impossible to me, but I like to have the goal. For 500 m, I just need to reduce my time by 25 seconds to get to the top 90%. You don’t have to do these separately, so if I swim 1.5 km, it will record my fastest 500 m as well within that distance, and my fastest 1 km, and then decide if it’s faster than any other instance where I’ve swum, eg, at least 500 m.

It’s not even worth my while looking at the average times for my age (which are done by 5-year age group, so  I'm 50-54)), as they are totally out of my grasp. There's no excuse!

I am hoping that maybe once it’s winter in Australia, the averages might go down a bit. I blame all these high goals on the Australians who train ridiculously hard.

Also, the top times by Suunto watch users are not necessarily very accurate. I’ve looked at some other people’s recorded swims and I saw one, for instance, who was allegedly swimming at 15 km/hour for 1 km. This is twice as fast as the Olympic champion, so I can’t help but feel this must have been a wind surfer or something like that using the watch for another purpose.

On some of my swims, my watch has failed to pick up sufficiently good GPS data and the swim has been automatically excluded from the “personal bests”; I feel a bit cheated. I’ve learned to wear my watch a bit tighter so that it doesn’t swivel round to the area near my palm (when it fails to record).

However, these percentage data give me more motivation, a goal, and an additional interest, which I guess is the real point of it all rather than accuracy per se.

All this inspired me to try to find out a bit more about what a reasonable swimming speed is deemed to be. It seems that most swimmers seem to think about 3 km/hour is average (for those who swim regularly), which would explain why I’m so far behind. I now have this as my long-term goal.

I also found out these interesting statistics – Goldfish swim at 1.4 km/ hour; Herring at 6 km/h, Olympic swimmer c 7 km/h, Mackrel 11km/h, Salmon 45 km/h, Tuna 60-80 km/h (depends on species), Swordfish 96 km/h. It just shows you how amazing some fish are! I am beginning to think they really don't need my book 25 New Year's Resolutions - for Fish!

El Andalous - Slowly...

El Andalous Fountain - New Colour!

I have made progress. My bathroom now looks a lot bigger and less like a storage room.

Nevertheless, even though I’ve filled up my new plastic drawers, placed my cereals in the new cabinet where they fit just perfectly, and I’ve fully stocked my wash unit and mirrored cabinet in my bathroom, I still don’t seem to have any spare space.

I understand now that some things were irritating me without me realising. For example, due to lack of space, I was storing spare pens, batteries, and DIY items in with my knives and forks (yes, weird, I know). I now have a drawer for batteries and DIY things and another drawer for pens and sewing stuff. When I open my cutlery drawer now and there’s no “junk” in there, I feel a huge sense of relief. Yet I had no idea before that it even bothered me.

Similarly, some items that I threw out or reorganised are no longer taking up the space beneath my television. Finally, I can dust there!

I have also got a hook now for my key by the door. I used to keep my key in the door all the time so that I don’t lose it, but if I get locked out when the key’s in the door, I’m stuck. Yasser was the only person in the entire building who knew how to open my door with the key still inside (I had to drag him out of his spare time once), and he’s gone, so I really did need to change that habit.

These changes mean, of course, that I need to develop new habits, which will take some time. The extra cabinet gets me confused as to where my glasses are (they used to be in the end cabinet, but with the extra cabinet at the end, they are now effectively in the cabinet second-to-the-end; each time I have to think this all through), the washing machine is where my fridge-freezer used to be, so I’m continually trying to get milk from the washing machine. And sometimes my keys could be anywhere or still in the door. It’s surprising how easy it is to lose things in a relatively small flat.

Some changes for the good have happened without me having to lift a finger. For instance, finally, I am no longer plagued by ants. I should have complained about my ant infestation but I’d felt too defeated (I was convinced they’d never do anything about it). When I got back this time, there were hundreds of dead ants near my patio doors. I caught one infestation swarming near the back of one of my cupboards and sprayed them with an insect killer. After that, I had no more ants, but I suspect they retreated into the Engineering room and they sorted them (I could hear them spraying their office and maybe above my flat). I should have just asked them to sort it in the first place.

The fountain (I sometimes call it the waterfall) next to my flat has been repainted from dark brown to a light pink (it’s better than it sounds!); it is better as the lighter colour brightens up the place, but isn’t anything that I’d thought to complain about, given that we usually have blazing sunshine.

So, all in all, there has been some noticeable progress.