El Andalous - Horse Riding

 

Horse Riding, December 2020

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to mention that I went out horse riding before Christmas. Sahl Hasheesh is only small but it has its own stables (I have blogged about them before). Due to coronavirus, it’s been in danger of shutting down, but I think it’s doing okay at the moment.

Anyway, to help it keep in business (and for our own enjoyment, of course), a group of us decided to go horse riding for two hours. The last time I was on a horse was when I took five lessons in Horsham, right when I first moved there, so that must be around eighteen years ago now (yikes!).

I’ve got very nervous as I’ve got older (and I’m not even that old), so I wanted a quiet horse that wouldn’t run away. As it was, I chose the wrong riding hat; it was perched on top of my head rather than fitting down over my head, and I didn’t feel very safe. So, I wasn't up for cantering. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one wanting a slow-paced day.

It was a good fun. We rode over to where the marina is supposed to be (it’s supposed to have been there for about twelve years now and still no sign of anything happening). I’d never been over that far – I’m always a bit aware that if I go too far out on my bicycle and I get a puncture, I’ll be stranded in the middle of nowhere with no-one around to help and it being hours and hours to walk back. See what I said about getting nervous these days?

Afterwards we rode the horses into the sea and along the shore line, coming back at sunset. The more experienced riders cantered. At one point, Kathryn shouted over to me that my horse was having a baby and for one awful moment I thought she meant it was giving birth that very moment (the horse had suddenly stopped and wasn’t moving and I wasn’t sure why). However, it turned out she was just informing me that it was pregnant and only had a few weeks to go before it was due to give birth. Phew.

When finished, we spent some time looking round at the goats, turkeys, horses, dogs and kittens that were roaming about.

All in all, it was great to go somewhere different, have a change of activity, and enjoy the company!

El Andalous - Tax Office

 

I'd Rather be on the Beach

It’s not nice to pay tax at the best of times, but it’s even worse when it eats up all your time. My life should be easier now I don’t have a Swiss tax return.

However, I wanted to switch my stocks and shares account from my Swiss address to my Egyptian address. Last time I tried to do this several years ago (and gave up), they wanted me to provide (i) a residence visa and (ii) an electricity bill with my address on it. However, at the time, my visa was just a tourist visa in Arabic in my passport and my bills didn’t have my address, because they are just given to me by hand. The smallest things over here can get very complicated.

This time, I was more determined. I asked our accountant to change the structure of our water and electricity bills so that they’d show our full address (otherwise they are not recognized by the authorities as proof of residence). He enquired higher up in the company and it was allowed. The change was made. Tick.

Since this year, the visa office supplies us with visa cards which show the validity of the visa and a personal identification number. It’s part in Arabic, part in English, so I was able to use that as my proof of visa as it looks more official than a stamp in Arabic in your passport. Tick.

Unfortunately, although I passed these hurdles, they still said I couldn’t change my address unless I gave them an Egyptian tax number. It’s like a never-ending obstacle race. All I want to do is change my address!

I looked up how to get an Egyptian tax number on the internet, but it said to get a tax number, you had to supply a contract of employment. But I’m not working. I’m living off savings.

There was no way I would be able to get anyone in the tax office to understand this rather complicated state of affairs, so I asked Esmat if he could help. He said his friend who worked in the tax office would sort it for me. One reminder and several weeks of waiting later, nothing happened. Egyptians don’t like to say “no”. This can also make life difficult at times.

In the end I got a lawyer to come with me and sort it out (only I’m not sure it was). It’s never simple over here. I’m not too sure where we went. As with many official buildings, the outside area is just sand and rubble and it’s hard to believe that this is where the tax headquarters is located.

We must have seen three or four separate people. I was a bit freaked out as hardly anyone was wearing a mask. This is in a government building! I’d worn my antiviral mask for the occasion, so I was okay. Anyway, this first building was for paying my overdue property tax. At least that’s done and dusted now.

Our management company said they will pay this tax. I was waiting for them to bill me. Many owners don’t trust them. I’m not too sure what the truth is. I hear the management company still has the title deeds (why?!), in which case, the tax should be payable by them. On the other hand, if I pay the tax, perhaps I have a greater right? It’s difficult (or should I say “impossible”?) to get to the bottom of things over here. Anyway, I had to go to the tax office, so I thought I should just settle it while I was there.

My lawyer joked to one guy that he was on the computer and that things were starting to get modern (he may not have said that at all as the conversation was in Arabic, but that’s what I imagined him saying). Everyone else in the office was working with huge ledgers all stacked up on their tables. They flick through it to the right page (one hopes!), and everything gets recorded there. It seems a miracle that they can track everything like this, but it does seem to work. Even the single computer looked a little old-fashioned!

The next step, my lawyer said, was to fill out a tax declaration form. So off we went to a different building and had to find the right room dealing with Sahl Hasheesh (can you imagine me trying to do this on my own!!). The tax declaration is new and has to be done by end of March this year. If you don’t fill it out, there’s a fine of 5000 LE (around 250 GBP, which is a lot of money over here; and it’s more than the penalty for submitting your tax form late in the UK!). It turned out to be a property tax declaration form. I had to provide various details about my property – the size, the location, number of rooms etc. Out came another ledger.

In return for filling out the form (which was only in Arabic, so my lawyer did it for me), I got a property tax registration number. This is what’s new, I think. Each person has their own number. It’s supposed to be complying with the way things are done in other countries. Egypt is making vast improvements at the moment and things are becoming more and more up to date and really at quite an impressive pace when you think just how much is being done over here.

I asked my lawyer yet again about whether I could get a tax number, but he said it wasn’t possible because I don’t have any business earnings in Egypt. He said my property tax number would do. I am not convinced.

Anyway, I’ve submitted my materials again to my stocks and shares account and I’m hoping they will accept my property tax number as a tax number. To my mind, it’s not really what they want, but I don’t know what else I can possibly do.

I’m still facing massive problems trying to submit my UK tax return this year, but that might have to wait for another blog…

El Andalous - Boat Trip

The Island Where We Moored

All is well here. I must have had about ten days not really seeing anyone much – just writing and swimming (and failing to get into the self-assessment site for my UK tax return)  – so I was pleased to be invited out to a boat trip with some of the Christmas crowd from Sahl Hasheesh. We were on a private boat with just us, so I thought it would be safe. And we’d be in the open air, of course.

We were blessed with a beautiful day – around 27 degrees – and the sea was very calm. When I’ve been on boat trips in the summer, the sea’s been choppier. We left at a reasonable 9.30am, so it wasn’t a horrifically early start and we were a convoy of three or four white cars, so we must have looked very purposeful.

We stopped off to do some fishing (I didn’t fish, and just remained talking to the three people who were on the top deck). They didn’t have much luck so, in the words of the ship’s captain, they decided to move on to somewhere where the fish were less intelligent.

On the next stop, they met with some success. I hope they released the fish; they were putting them in a bucket of water when I looked and someone else was saying she’d make sure they returned them to the sea. I didn’t enquire any further…. Although, to be honest, I wouldn’t blame the crew if they took some for supper.

The following stop was for snorkeling. I wish I’d asked how long we were staying as I’d have snorkeled for longer and it turned out that we moored there for a few hours. If I heard correctly, even the boats have to socially distance these days, so it was nice not to have other people around me while I snorkeled. We were moored by a small island. Coming back, I returned to the wrong ship (but realized before I tried to get on), so in a way I was longer than I meant to be.

Theresa and the daughter of Fran made pizzas on board (there was a small kitchen and a large dining table on the boat). Some people started jumping in the water again. Amazingly, Alexa jumped off from the very top of the boat and she’s going to be 80 years old next birthday. You wouldn’t believe it to look at her and she has more energy than most people I know. She’s such an inspiration. I was quaking at jumping off from the edge of the boat! Needless to say, she gave me some stick for that.

I finally dived from the side and went for a swim. Unfortunately, the boat left, not realizing that I’d not got back on. That’s the second time this has happened to me now. However, this time I didn’t realise. I decided maybe I should turn back and at one point I noticed that the steps to get on the boat had been pulled up, but I just carried on swimming (I’d just have to shout at them to pull them down again, I thought). Apparently, someone asked where I was and they stopped the boat! This resulted in everyone standing by the side of the boat and cheering me on as I swam. I got a load of really nice compliments on my swimming afterwards, so I was completely unfazed by it all.

Next stop was somewhere calm so that we could eat. The pizza was delicious – they made some without cheese for me. I’m not normally a fan of pizza anyway, but the crust (the pizza was all home made) was amazing. I’ve never tasted such a nice crust before. It all had to be eaten up, so by the end I was really stuffed.

We arrived back at sunset. All in all, it was a perfect day and was just what I wanted at this point in time. I am so privileged!

El Andalous - Happy New Year (2021)

 

View from Azzurra

Well, happy new year, everyone. We’ve made it this far.

Even I didn’t do anything to see the new year in. However, I don’t think I did anything last year, either, so maybe it’s not a huge difference.

After Christmas, which was already two days running eating out (not that I’m complaining), I was invited round to a meal on the following Monday and Tuesday, so by the time I’d done all that, I was quite happy to spend some time on my own.

There’s a new set of people in Sahl Hasheesh at the moment. A lot of flats have been sold, new people are moving in, and the social circle is changing.

My first invitation was to Tina’s rental place in Azzurra (another residential block further up the hill from me). Tina’s been here a month and is loving it. She’s very sociable, so she’s made friends with many people, and as a thank you, she invited everyone round for a German meal (red cabbage, goulash, dumplings). It was pretty much the same crowd as at Christmas.

The Azzurra flats are all lovely. Most of them have full views of the sea and quite a few have large roof terraces (as did Tina’s). Consequently, we were mostly sitting up on the outside terrace. You need a jumper this time of year, but it’s still lovely.  I’ll probably put a photo up of the moon over the sea for this blog – that’s the view from Tina’s roof terrace.

I’m not actually that keen on German food, even though I’ve lived there in the past. However, Tina’s food was great. The red cabbage was surprisingly nice and the goulash was wonderful. Apparently, the dumplings needed a special kind of potato that you can’t get over here. That’s always the problem (and joy) here – nothing is ever quite the same. Anyway, they went a bit wrong, but I still ate some.

She bought a lot of beer (I thought that was very German!), but unusually it seemed that everyone wanted to drink a spirit with coke. I’d brought rum with me because I didn’t have any wine at home, plus a couple of cans of diet coke, and it turned out to be quite popular. I think another person brought vodka and that was also chosen by a fair few people.

The next day, my meal was in El Andalous, so that’s like visiting someone in student halls (which seems like another life now). There, I had a wonderful Lebanese cottage pie equivalent with cauliflower cheese without the cheese (I am so awkward to cook for). And some broccoli. It was all wonderful. I somehow drank a bit too much, so didn’t swim the following day.

So, that was my run up to the new year. To see the new year in, I got myself chicken and chips from our local fried chicken place, ate the chocolate cake my brother sent me for Christmas, and pigged out in front of the television with some vodka and coke (since now I no longer have any rum either). It was actually a lovely evening.

My first five hours of 2021, however, were not the best as I had diarrhea. I think it must have been the chicken (I couldn’t think of eating chicken the next day, but my veal was most acceptable). I was up all night until about 5am, but after that was better. A new year’s swim was even possible.

Anyway, I’m enjoying going round saying that I started off 2021 by getting rid of all the crap!

Let’s hope that’s portentous for this coming year! Wishing you all a healthy and happy year ahead.

El Andalous - Christmas 2020

 

Pre-Dinner Drinks

I forgot to wish everyone an enjoyable festive season in my last blog, so I’ll say it now, even if it may be a bit late. It’s strange to think that this is my last blog for 2020 and, as everyone’s saying, let’s hope this coming year will be better, at least by this time next year (I guess the first few months are going to be difficult with the new highly-infectious coronavirus strain rearing its head and vaccines only just starting).

Anyway, a friend (hello Geraldine!) told me I really was living the dream and it does feel like that. I had a pretty good Christmas.

For the first time, they’d organized a Christmas Market in Sahl Hasheesh. Rather weirdly, it was held on Christmas Day but maybe they were thinking it would be good for the Coptic Christians. However, it was a good initiative and I really hope they hold it again next year. Sahl Hasheesh residents could have a stall for free, so I could have bought some of my own books and sold them, for example. However, we had only about a week’s notice.

But they did a great job of organizing it. There were food stalls, and if I hadn’t had a Christmas meal booked, I’d have eaten something. Two of my friends were selling items – one makes crafty items from shells and driftwood (I bought a shell ornament off her which I still need to hang on my wall) and the other owns a gift shop in the Old Town (SH) selling high quality items for presents. From her I bought a maroon antibacterial face mask and some fish serviettes.

Then I bumped into some friends and had a couple of glasses of wine with them, watching everyone enjoying the day, including a kid with a huge candy floss. After that, I met other friends as I was just leaving. It’s a small world over here.

An animation team dressed as elves, Santa, the Ice Queen, jugglers and probably more all roamed the street providing entertainment and added to the general festive atmosphere. It was a strange event to organize during the coronavirus, but it wasn’t too crowded, at least when I went there. However, it was good to feel fairly normal.

In the late afternoon, I went along for our Christmas Dinner at the Bar by the Bridge. Around twenty of us attended and I knew most people (all from Sahl Hasheesh, where we’re fairly protected from the rest of the world). The police turned up at one point – Christmas Galas are not allowed – but we got away with it (it was hardly a gala, and we all knew each other, so it’ was more like a gathering of friends).

Anyway, I had a lovely meal of mushroom soup, roast turkey and all that goes with it (no Brussel sprouts! I’ve heard they’re ridiculously expensive here if you manage to find them), and chocolate mousse. Christmas Day itself was a little cloudy, which is unusual, but with the Christmas Market and the meal, I’m not sure I’d have had time for a swim anyway.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and very NOT 2020!

El Andalous - Bar by the Bridge

 

Dining Area of the Bar

One of the owners here has taken over the management of a bar just a few minutes away from our building. It’s a beautiful location, overlooking the sea towards the mountains, with the underlit pier jutting out into the water.

She somehow managed to persuade the bar owners (a local hotel) to let her run it on a commission-only basis so that she doesn’t have to pay rent. Her task is to bring it up to European standards and bring in guests. She’s not doing it for a career; it’s really something to keep her busy.

She was born in Egypt and lived in Miami, so she’s fluent in Arabic and English and switches from one to the other seamlessly.

As with everything in Egypt, there’s always a bit of wheeling and dealing, and you have to have your wits about you. There was a rumour that someone wanted to rent the bar and thus my friend would no longer be able to run it. We suspect it was a ploy to get her to pay for it so that the owners would get more money for no effort. She was alert enough to tell them to take the other offer and they ended up asking her to come back!

Similarly, the bar manager wasn’t so happy at having a woman suddenly come in and take over, so my friend has had to explain that she’s not wanting his job, or to take his money. Fortunately, the bar owner stepped in and supported my friend. On a related matter, she also has to ensure the tips get spread out equally among the staff and don’t go straight into one person’s pocket only!

Another problem has been that all of the hotels here are all-inclusive. Consequently, the staff are used to serving customers on that basis, and don't pay attention to how small or large the measures are. Similarly, they don't hesitate to water down the alcohol or buy the cheapest available. Now that it’s a bar for paying customers, they need to give consistent measures and price accordingly. And, of course, guests paying with their hard-earned money expect a quality drink. 

When I went there for the opening dinner, for example, they were charging me the same for my glass of wine as they did for my neighbour who had a glass twice the size of mine. I complained and they reduced the price, but I think they thought they were doing me a favour!

My friend is primarily catering for the residents, since all the hotels play loud music quite late at night. The residents, however, while sometimes wishing to party, don’t require the music to blare across the entire bay and prefer a quieter ambience during dining hours. 

She’s also set up a happy hour from 4pm-6pm (just extended to 7pm). This makes the drinks a reasonable price, so these days, if you fancy a drink, you can just pop along and almost always there’s someone there you know that you can join (or if you don’t know them, you can usually still join!). This was also part of the aim – to bring the residents together and to create a social hub.

She’s offering a Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day, so that’s where I’ll be this Christmas – eating turkey outside while overlooking some pretty exceptional scenery. How lucky am I!

El Andalous - Community Cocktails

 

Modern Whirling Dervishes!

Once in a blue moon, our resort management (ERC) organizes an event for residents. The last one that I remember was free lunch on the beach (mini burgers, fries, and other food items, plus soft drinks), plus use of the beach area for a day.

Anyway, we recently got an invitation to a community cocktails evening, which is quite surprising given coronavirus, although I believe there are no cases in Sahl Hasheesh (but who knows!). It was for residents only.

The advertisement described it as sponsored by the Tropitel and taking place on the rooftop at Sahl Hasheesh, so most of us assumed it would be at the Tropitel. However, it turned out the venue was the rooftop above Sailors’ Bar in the old town of Sahl Hasheesh. That was actually a lot more convenient as it’s in walking distance. I’d have needed a taxi to get to the Tropitel.

It started at 4pm with free cocktails. I wandered over with Karen, leaving El Andalous at 4pm, since I knew others were planning to be there for when it started. It’s a lovely location (as is most anywhere in Sahl Hasheesh). The Christmas decorations are now up in the streets and the rooftop overlooks the bay. I guess the timing was to coincide with being able to watch the sunset.

Anyway, when we got there, a group of our friends was already there with a reserved table (it was all outside). They ordered wine, but I should have been more alert, since we had to pay for wine (which was very expensive), but the cocktails were free. Between us, Karen and I managed to blag six cocktails (Sex on the Beach), but then they stopped us from taking any more. Fair enough, I suppose!

It's a small community, so I also knew the people who took the table next to ours, and in the end we spread out onto two tables as our group expanded. It’s almost like a village where everyone knows everyone else. Otherwise, there was plenty of distance between those who didn't know each other.

They handed out canapes, which were very nicely done. I had some small beef sandwiches and some chicken bites in a salsa sauce. If you like fish and cheese, there was a lot more choice. There were plenty on offer. I ordered a crispy chicken dish for 60LE (around 3 GBP) which was quite a lot of hot crispy chicken in bread, with coleslaw and some French fries. It wasn’t a bad price, but I didn’t see many other people order food. After three cocktails, I was in need of sustenance.

On top of this, they laid on entertainment – a saxophonist, a few whirling dervishes with a modern touch, and a belly dancer. Plus there was a DJ and music playing with a large area for dancing (and I did dance).

It was free entry. I was surprised at how many people were there (somehow, I always get the impression that Sahl Hasheesh is near deserted with very few residents). The organizer gave a quick speech and said he planned on organizing more events, so here’s hoping.

It was a lovely evening and well organized. Definitely more, please!