El Andalous - Remembering Habits Old and New

Party Preparations for Army Day

There are always things I forget about being back in Egypt.

One of the most frustrating things – because it’s my own fault – is that it’s very easy to settle into a life of relaxation and to lose the impetus to do anything very much. Therefore, for those who come over here for a week or two, it can be surprising to find that those who are here all the time don’t necessarily have a clue what’s going on. We’ve settled into our home beach routine and often don’t go much further afield.

This also holds for the events that are held here. Since I’ve returned, there’s been a party on the pier for Army Day, a car festival, a trathle and a triathlon. I did actually wander down to see the triathle (it’s a sports discipline in its own right, but is really preparation for a pentathlon; the one at Sahl Hasheesh was swimming, running, and shooting). Admittedly, I only went because Horst and Hilda told me they’d been and I felt ashamed that this was on my doorstep and I hadn’t even bothered to stroll along the bay to take a look.

Galina posted photographs of the motor car event on facebook, but again, I never saw any of it. It looked really good and I could kick myself for not making the effort.

I did look at the entrance to the party on the pier for the army celebrations and it wasn’t until a few days later that I realized I could have actually gone in (I thought it was invitation only). It was someone who was only staying for a short while who had found that out. See what I mean?

I’m not sure why apathy overcomes me when I’m here; it’s somehow just so pleasant on the beach and anything else feels like a tremendous and completely unnecessary upheaval. It’s not just this year; it’s whenever I’m here, and it happens to others too!

I wonder whether it’s a phenomenon similar to how living close to work often makes you arrive later than those who live some distance away because there’s no sense of urgency regarding traffic or transport. Or maybe it’s like the way people often never visit places close to home because you think there’s always time (and then others come over and see all sorts of things that you’ve missed). It does seem a bit extreme over here, though, because we’re talking about things that take just 10 minutes’ walk to get to.

I was dynamic enough on first coming back to make myself some hummus and tahini. It always seems really easy when I read the recipe, but each time I try it, I make the same mistakes (I never learn). One of the things that I always forget is that there are two almost identical jugs on my blender, but they are in fact different. I end up mismatching the connectors and getting a squidgy mess coming out of the blender. Thus, what was supposed to be a quick blending job ends up taking hours on end as I have so much cleaning up to do (and then I have to start again, and look up the instructions for the blender). This time, because I’ve been making a lot of falafel in Switzerland, I’d also forgotten to cook the chickpeas before making the hummus, so I had to yank them all out of the blender where they were with all the other ingredients, so that I could cook them. That was also a messy task. I’m sure it shouldn’t really be that hard.

Now that it’s December, the sea is definitely getting a bit colder (but still perfectly OK for swimming, once I’ve plunged in). However, October was still very hot and I again forgot just how much water I drink and how much my consumption of water correlates with the heat outside. I’m not a big water drinker usually, so I’m always a bit astounded at how much I have when I’m here.

This year, I’ve bought myself a swimming buoy so that I’m visible to the boats when I swim. This was partly inspired by my swimming holiday a year or two ago and partly inspired by seeing some girls using them in the lake in Zurich. I’ve often wished I could somehow be more visible as the boats can come quite close (I don’t think they see me) and the buoy, which ties round my waist and floats behind me as I swim, is bright orange and can be seen from some distance.

I’ve done a fairly good job of remembering to take it with me, but once when I went snorkeling in a more remote part of Sahl Hasheesh, it really irritated me as it was always getting tied up in my legs. I was cursing to myself thinking it didn’t live up to its description of not interfering with your swimming. When I turned to move it out of the way, I saw that, in my eagerness to get in the water and start snorkeling, I’d forgotten to blow it up. Doh. There’s so much to think about even just to go swimming or snorkeling!