El Andalous - The Return

El Andalous - Old and New

I’d been so busy in my final week in Switzerland that I hadn’t even gone swimming for an entire week. The weather had been extraordinarily good even though some trees were starting to turn into their autumn colours. All this transpired to make me feel, for the first time, not yet ready to go back to Egypt. I think if I'd have stayed one more week in Switzerland, I would probably have wanted to leave as the weather was just starting to turn as I left and the film festival had just finished. Still, it’s maybe nice to depart with the feeling of wanting to stay.

My flight back was fine and I was picked up at Hurghada airport by ABC taxis with no problem; indeed the fare was very cheap (125 LE – around 6 GPB or 8 CHF). I wondered what my flat would be like, since Ahmed had expressed concern over email that I hadn’t given him enough time to get the flat sorted before I arrived back. I was a bit surprised, but on my return realized that since they were currently renovating the entire building, getting my flat ready also meant repainting my balcony.

I arrived in darkness, so I didn’t have the full effect of arriving and seeing El Andalous in its newly-painted state. My first task was to unpack and, perhaps predictably, this was when I discovered that I’d made a few wrong decisions in my packing prioritization (after all that!).

I decided my curtains wouldn’t really go with the rest of the furniture (so I’ll use them in my Edinburgh flats, I guess), the seat covers that I’d bought for my sofas didn’t really fit properly, although I’m still using them; they just look a bit messy as they’re always coming off. I’d brought back a bedspread as I’ve got a bit fed up with looking at the one I’ve had for over 10 years, but actually it isn’t really usable as it’s too thick for the hot nights over here. That too will have to go over to Edinburgh at some point.

I’d brought over some rice flour with me, but it turned out that Spinney’s now stocks this; I wish I’d brought chickpea flour across with me instead (to make bhajis and falafel) as it’s been difficult to get that and when I found it in my very own local BestWay, it turned out to be very expensive (although I was delighted to find it and felt renewed amazement at just how good that small supermarket is).

I went outside the next morning to have a look at how the painting of El Andalous was progressing; Ahmed caught me looking and asked my opinion, so I gave him the deserved praise he was seeking. He came round to my flat to check that I thought the cleaning had been OK and even got me to turn on my TV to check that my reception had been recovered. As the new manager, he’s doing a great job.

Every time I go to Egypt, I assume that nobody much will be there and it’ll be quiet. And, almost always, to my surprise, it’s a hotbed of social activity. This time when I returned I discovered that Stephen and Kathryn, Horst and Hilde, Jason, Janice and Chris, Karl-Heinz, Adi, Essam, quite a few Ukrainians, and the Russian Abbas family were all already over. Thus, my beach visits were full of catching up with people. But I’m not complaining.

I’d collected my old internet SIM from Nicole to see me through until I went to Spinney’s. Unfortunately, the free bus wasn’t running on the day I wanted to go, but I got a taxi, so it wasn’t much of a problem (just a bit of extra expense). Anyway, it appeared that my usual guy at the kiosk must have left his job as he wasn’t there and I haven’t seen him since, either. Thus, I didn’t get the promised extra special deal on renewal. In fact, there weren’t any special deals at all and I had to renew my bundle without getting two for the price of one. The good thing was that it was all done really quickly as I didn’t have to sign a new contract. It was slightly cheaper than before but maybe that’s because I didn’t need to get a new sim card.

The things I’d managed to forget this time in the intervening period were that Fridays are often busy on the beach due to Egyptians having the day off and also that it’s not easy to ask for things to be done on that day. I’d also forgotten that while I can’t get European / UK breakfast cereal at a reasonable price over here, they do have Nesquick cereal at a good price (no idea why!). I never eat this when I'm in Europe, but over here I have it as a weekend treat and as a change from Spinney’s Cornflakes (which are perfectly OK, but still not as good as Kellogg’s). My breakfasts are important to me.

So, all in all, it was a fairly smooth return to Egypt. I had to ask for one dead mouse to be retrieved from above my kitchen as it was smelling, but everything else was fine!