After a week on the Nile we returned to our Cairo home. After the calm of the river and the less manic towns of Upper Egypt, Cairo felt like bedlam! The initial madness getting out of the airport was much eased by the wonderful Nader. He is a true gentleman and the calmest of drivers! He came highly recommended and husband had been chauffeured by him to and from the airport for his New York trip. He had formally been a sound technician to some Egyptian pop star and had travelled widely over the world. He clearly has a fantastic notion of good service. It’s hard to know his motive for becoming a chauffeur but we are very glad he has taken this route at this point in his life. He is to be trusted and highly reliable. We naturally want to adopt him! That evening, he brought us home without fuss but as always these days, I entered the apartment with the usual level of trepidation! The lift was working, so, electricity ok. Water?!? Turning on a tap on entering the apartment, we discovered it as also fine – for now! However, all was not well within minutes. As I switched on the bathroom lights to wash my hands, I noticed what husband calls his ‘shaver’ lights, one of them was decidedly wonky...nay, and it was hanging off by its thin electric thread!!! The cable holding it up had snapped! It was one of a triptych. The other two were working, but clearly, something seriously amiss had happened. Within ten minutes, there was a call from husband in the kitchen! The tap was buggered and water was gushing out! Within another half hour, three bulbs from the main bathroom fused off! Ah, the comforting welcome home! So, the new super heroes of our lives ‘TG Services’ were summoned. Not once but nearly half a dozen times in the week. Not only were there the aforementioned niggling problems but the shower hose snapped off (fabulous Egyptian quality again) and both the hot water heaters decided to play silly buggers! The hot water supply in the apartment became as temperamental as British summer time. All is better, but not fixed! One has to tenderly adjust the hot tap for the shower or one will burn as the cold water pressure is not predictable. In the kitchen, the hot water tap has to be turned on and off three times for the oxygen flow to kick in! Neither system is broken, so no point getting anything replaced! That is the mantra here! If it ain’t broke, don’t expect it to work well, but for goodness sakes, don’t replace it! No guarantee of quality on the next one!
Last Monday saw me leaving school with Nader to find the Burmese/Myanmar Embassy in Zamalek. We had been told to go into the Embassy to apply for our visas. The trip was a mini nightmare! The quarter is rather charming with colonial buildings, shady roads, whiff of faded elegance coupled with cosmopolitan appeal. Nader seemed to know where he was going and found the building. However, we had overshot it, so had to get back on the sardine one way system of narrow warren like streets for him to deposit me outside the gate! Husband arrived half an hour before closing time and we both managed to fill in required forms. We dealt with only one lady diplomat in a longyi who was helpful and charming but impressed on us that she could not make the decision and we would need to wait to see if our application was successful. Nearly a week on, we are still awaiting the decision. I am hopeful but dare not be complacent. I have not returned to the country of my birth for 33 years and would dearly love to do so this year.
I have also had my first hair cut and colour in Cairo! After phoning around several recommended ladies, all of whom were booked up or busy, I settled for an American trained lady by the name of Sally Hassan! This morning, I was in her salon for over three hours. She reminded me a great deal of Bloody Mary from South Pacific! Her Bali Hai was clearly her Salon Vogue! And she happy talked me the entire time with her motherly sharp wit. An Egyptian by birth having grown up in Florida, she now lives in Cairo but makes frequent visits to California, to see her daughters I assume. She had two assistants who did all her bidding but she was very hands on and I delighted in her calling me Sweetie! The prices are UK prices, but since I only bother to do my hair twice a year, I paid up and left happy feeling thoroughly pretty!
Earlier this evening, I got a call. ‘Miss B?’ the lady asked. ‘Yes’ I replied. ‘This is TG Services. Is everything OK?’ My response, swinging my newly coiffed hair was, ‘At the moment, everything OK.’ Do I detect a wry smile dear reader? Ah, how well you know my life now!!!
