El Andalous - Walking and Cycling

 

Solar Farm - Antenna in Shape of Palm Among Solar Panels

I wanted to keep fit while I was waiting for my mosquito bite to heal. I had mixed success. There were a couple of days where I didn’t go out, although for the most part I forced myself to either have a walk or to cycle somewhere. If I wasn’t in the mood, it would be just a short walk. The main thing was to get out of the flat and also to keep healthy.

It was quite interesting doing different things for a change. I had two major bicycle rides (for me). One time I cycled as far as I could go along the sea at Sahl Hasheesh towards Makadi Bay. It was good to have a change of scene and I’d never gone that far on my own before (I had done it in a buggy with other people on a few occasions). As I reached the end of the road (it just stops, leading nowhere), I turned to cycle back and two guys were riding horseback. It was lovely to watch them cantering by the sea.

My other major cycle was up to the solar farm in Sahl Hasheesh. I’d often wanted to take a closer look at it. It’s a bit of an uphill journey, so it was good exercise, too. I stopped where all the buildings were, but there was a security guard there and I felt a bit nervous. I parked my bike by the side of the road and stared up at the solar panels which were up on the hill above. The security guard was watching me and I felt a bit self-conscious. Here in Sahl Hasheesh, all the mobile phone antenna are disguised as palm trees; there was one of these sticking up in the middle of all the solar panels. The fake trees are quite convincing, but you can always tell because they are so much taller than the real palms.

I realized I could get a closer look at the panels if I went further up the hill, so I did that and parked the opposite side of the road. That way, I hoped the security guard wouldn't pay too much attention. I walked up to the panels, but the path beside them was blocked for entry, which I guess is fair enough. No-one was there to stop me, but I obeyed anyway. No point in potentially putting myself in danger. I didn’t get the full overview of the panels I wanted, but it was good to see it up close for once.

I had two longish walks towards Jamaran, the villa district in Sahl Hasheesh. Again, the road stops in the middle of nowhere and then you have to walk across sandy hillocks. It’s pleasant as the sea is beside you and it’s interesting to see how different the open sea is from the sea in the bay. There's a distinct line in the middle of the sea where the open water starts. The open sea is, of course, much wilder, with more waves, and a darker blue.

A group of Egyptian men passed me. One pulled off his face mask and said “Hello, Fiona!” I had no idea who he was but I greeted him back, pretending I knew him. I suspect he saw through my bluff, though!

On my way back, a guy on a bicycle appeared out of nowhere and passed me. He stopped, handed me a menu, and asked if I wanted to order a drink! I had no idea where from as we weren't by a bar or anything. That was most bizarre. I saw him the following day, too, when I took a short walk on the pier. This time, he was walking with his boss and they showed me their food menu. They were just opening a new restaurant, which explained the weird behaviour!

It was all quite pleasant and added to the feeling both of adventure and of belonging. That’s what’s so great about being here.

El Andalous - Mosquito Bite Gone Wrong

 

Beautiful Risbecia

I’ve been stuck at home, but not because of coronavirus. For me, it was an infected mosquito bite. It was one of those big ones with a lot of pus that I wrote about before. Somehow, this one burst twice without me intending it to. It was on the top of my right arm and I unwittingly banged it twice and wham! The bubble burst.

I swam, and I’m not sure if that’s my mistake. Anyway, the skin was still sore at the time, and it was hurting, so I gave up. I’m not sure if it was already infected, whether it got infected from my swim, or if it was never infected at all but just took a long time to heal.

Anyway, that was eleven days ago. I waited for it to heal, but got impatient so went to the pharmacist. He prescribed me an antibiotic cream, which I used diligently (actually, I used it one more time a day than I was really allowed, but I wanted it to heal and I wanted to swim).

It didn’t seem to get any better. I went back, and this time he added an oral antibiotic. I wasn’t too sure about this, although I had read that this was exactly the correct procedure. However, they’re always saying these days that people take antibiotics too easily and my bite wasn’t hot to touch. It was just sore and my arm was swollen.

Nevertheless, whether because of the antibiotic or just the passage of time, the wound did improve. I went in to ask if I could swim, and he advised me not to as it would hurt. That was what stopped me from swimming in the first place! He said to wait for two days. I did. It still looked a bit tender, but I thought I’d give swimming a try.

It was a failure on several accounts. Firstly, although it was fine when I first stepped in the water, as soon as I started really swimming (ie, as exercise rather than just moving slowly), I could feel the wound starting to hurt. Ugh. Secondly, I discovered that my goggles were leaking, so even if I wanted to swim, I couldn’t. I’m now hoping that part of the reason I kept stopping before really was because of leaking goggles and not laziness. I was never sure if I was using leaking goggles as an excuse to stop, but the leak is so bad now, it’s obvious.

So, I’ve spent most of my days working on my other novel (Time Tells). I’m feeling quite excited about it now. I should have achieved some extra things like cleaning my flat, or doing my tax return, but I was in too much of a sulk to do anything like that.

I was back in the sea today, this time for a snorkel as a slow introduction to me being in the water again. It was wonderful. Different days seem to be good for different fish. Today, there were a lot of cigar wrasses (what’s the opposite of “close, but no cigar” – “bullseye, I see a cigar!”). Excitingly I saw a beautiful risbecia, which is a type of sea slug, and I think it was mating. That was the first time I’d ever seen it (let alone seen it mating). So it felt like the sea was welcoming me back!

El Andalous - Shopping at Esmat's

 

My New Solar Lamp - Push Up and Lamp Appears!

Esmat, the taxi driver I used to use, has opened a kitchen and home shop. It makes sense, since he was previously focusing on trips round Egypt (Cairo, Luxor, etc) and, of course, these days there aren’t many tourists due to coronavirus. He said it was always in the back of his mind to diversify since tourism is so volatile.

He's very enterprising. Well, the Egyptians in general are enterprising, but Esmat particularly so. He has a FaceBook page (not sure whether he has a web page, though) and advertises every day on that, demonstrating items he has. You need that for kitchen stuff as often you see things and don’t have a clue what they’re for (well, that’s the case for me, at any rate). He states the price as well, most of the time, which is also good. As he says, it’s not a bazaar, it’s a proper shop with fixed and fair prices.

It takes quite a bit to start up a shop as you have to buy all the stock first as well as rent the premises etc. Esmat goes to Cairo once a week and says he is able to undercut the local big shop competitor here in Hurghada (I’m not sure which shop that is and I didn’t ask him). He also claims he is the first one to advertise online and have a physical shop and others are now copying him. It’s good to see him so ambitious and succeeding.

Anyway, he advertised a shelving set that I wanted. I’ve been looking for one for a while as I need to sort out one of my cupboards that has no shelves and could be better organized if it did. However, his shop is right at the other end of Hurghada and the taxi fare would cost twice the amount of the shelving. After a bit of back and forth, Esmat agreed to drop it off for 50LE next time he was sending a taxi to Sahl Hasheesh. I agreed, but then managed to persuade Kathryn to take me there after the woodburning workshop. She knows Esmat as well, of course. Everyone knows everybody.

His mother was serving, so it was delightful to meet her. The shop was packed full of stuff – waffle makers, glasses, two-sided tape, shoe racks, cleaning cloths. I bought two of the shelves and was delighted to find he stocked some solar lamps. My one disappeared from my balcony some time ago and I quite miss it. It’s useful during power cuts and also to have some light when it gets dark. This lamp had all the same functions (including the option to charge items via USB) but was nicer looking than my old one. Plus it doubles up as a torch. Perfect.

I also bought a fish sieve. It’s the shape of a long fish with holes in it that you hold over a pan to drain it; it saves getting the colander out. I never use the colander because it’s too much of a faff and so I usually use the pan lid to drain. However, I have one pan without a lid and then I use a strategically-placed knife, but this fish sieve should be easier than my old methods without taking up the space of a colander. And it was in the shape of a fish, of course, so what’s not to like!

Between us, Kathryn and I must have spent coming on to 1000 LE (around 50 GBP), which would have been good takings over here. So, it was a mutually beneficial transaction, with any luck.

He’s now opened a shoe shop just opposite as well, but I haven’t visited that yet.

El Andalous - Writing Critique Group

 

Alice in Wonderland in Sahl Hasheesh

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been sending my novel Space Shapes out to literary agents; unfortunately, all I’ve had so far is about twenty rejections. Although this is fairly normal, I’m concerned that I haven’t had a single agent requesting to see my full manuscript (I submit the first three chapters; next stage is to wait for an agent to be interested enough to ask to read the whole novel). I’m beginning to wonder if my manuscript isn’t sufficiently commercial.

I found this brilliant tool online called Query Tracker (QT). It allows you to keep a record of all the agents you’ve submitted to, their replies (rejection, request for full, etc), and the relevant dates. All the (anonymous) data are shared, so the more authors who use QT, the better idea you get as to where your query is in each agent’s queue. 

From the data, you get an impression of how many (or few) manuscripts agents are requesting to see. Some agents haven’t requested any manuscripts from anyone for three years or more! The tool also has links to the agents’ websites. You can sort agents in the database by genre, by who they represent, etc, to help you find a suitable potential home for your manuscript.

I paid for the full version (only 25 USD per year), which gives me access to additional data and reports (eg, which agents are currently requesting the most manuscripts, which agents reply the fastest, etc). If you like data, it’s fascinating. Sometimes you can see that agents read by genre (ie, they’ll respond to all the mysteries on one date, then all the science fiction novels on another date); sometimes it’s just unfathomable as to why they’ve jumped to reject one sooner than the other (was it super promising so they went to it first, was it appalling and easy to reject?). I love it!

There’s also an associated forum, so I posted my query letter, synopsis, and first five pages for public critique, which has been helpful. Of course, I’ve critiqued others in return. Anyway, an upshot of this is I was invited to join a small critique group of five, and we’re all critiquing each other’s novels. I’m not using Space Shapes as I am confident it’s sufficiently well-polished (that’s not to say I won’t change my mind at some point). However, I have another novel fairly far progressed (Time Tells), which I think might be more commercial than Space Shapes, so I’m having Time Tells critiqued in the group.

We have about a fortnight to critique 10,000 words from each of us (it took a bit of experimentation, but our novels all have different chapter lengths, so we settled on word count in the end), so that’s 40,000 words altogether. We’re a mix from Canada, US, and UK (me).

I’m enjoying it on several levels. First, it’s really interesting reading what others are writing (I’m loving all four of the novels!); second, we all have different strengths and weaknesses so it’s good to learn from that; third, it’s good to have a little group to share writer information, frustrations, and hopes; and fourth, I like to think I learn also by critiquing (it’s easier to spot things to improve in others’ work and then you realise that maybe it applies also to you).

We have the occasional zoom meeting for chit chat, but I’ve only attended one so far as my time zone is difficult for everyone else. We all lead busy lives in addition to writing (particularly the others). I think I’m the granny of the bunch, but that’s fine. The atmosphere is good as we all encourage each other while not holding back on the critique. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we’ll all win.

Anyway, it does take quite a bit of time to do the steady stream of critique. I’m feeling more like a proper writer now as I’m spending so much time either critiquing or writing. But that’s what I wanted to do and at the moment, it’s making me very happy, despite my current state of failure!

El Andalous - Woodburning

 

My Finished Product

I’ve run out of internet, so this blog will be a bit late this week.

Anyway, I’m back to doing my best to live the dream. I’ve been feeling the need for a change as my days are regularly taken up with swimming or snorkeling, writing or critiquing others’ works in progress (maybe that’ll be another blog), and reading when I can fit it in. As well as the daily items of cooking, cleaning, eating, etc. I enjoy all of this, but sometimes I need to do something different.

I saw there was an arts and crafts group in Hurghada and they were offering a woodburning workshop. I hadn’t come across this before; it’s basically burning a picture onto wood. I really loved the example picture in the advertisement, so decided I would sign up. Fortunately, Kathryn agreed to join me, so we were able to go in her car and at least I’d know one person there.

It very sensibly didn’t start until 11am. The person running it Linda) was Dutch, and the workshop was held in a flat she has for this purpose. Four of us took part. The other two ladies were also Dutch, but I don’t think Linda knew them. The small numbers enabled sufficient social distancing.  And, of course, this is Egypt, so even in winter, windows and doors can provide ventilation.

Apparently, in some countries, they do woodburning at school. I feel I missed out!

As always, it’s nice to be somewhere new. This was in an area called El Kawther (sometimes written El Kawser); it’s near the Egyptian hospital where I went when I had my broken leg all those years ago. There are several cafes and shops in this area and a popular apartment complex among Westerners called the British Resort is also there. I've been in the area before, but not the complex where the workshop took place (which was opposite the British Resort).

I need to live by the sea, but I can see the appeal of living downtown. It’s easier to get about, it’s cheaper (by quite a lot), there’s lots to do. The apartment had a large balcony, so it was lovely to sit there at lunch.

To my surprise, we used carbon paper (ha! Remember that?!) to trace the picture we wanted onto the wood. I supplied a picture of a lionfish but I think she already had some appropriate for tracing (there are special designs with the main lines only to make it easier to do).

After you’ve traced the picture outline onto the wood, you use a hot pen to burn the picture permanently into the wood, using the tracing as your guide. On a more advanced level, you can vary the pressure you put on the pen to do shading, so you get colours ranging from black to light brown.

Some people (well, everyone apart from me) colored theirs in for the final result. Since I was doing a lionfish, which is in any case brown, I didn’t bother, and I also wanted to keep the look of woodburning at the forefront. I’m a purist at heart!

The lady running it offered soup or sandwiches for lunch, plus coffee and cake mid-afternoon, so the pace was very relaxed.

Once you’ve finished, you use sandpaper to get rid of any stray marks of carbon paper, brush it with teak oil to enhance the look, choose a way to frame the picture (I used a wide cord strip), put felt on the back, and then her husband attached the chain to hang it. We returned the following week to complete these final tasks.

I’m quite tempted to buy my own equipment and do more at home, but I have writing to get on with as my priority.