Waiting for the Wanderers - 5th Feb 2002
Today was one of those non-days. Pat wanted to get a replacement bolt for one that had dropped out somewhere. In these parts there are generally little chaps all over the place with machine tools in little front rooms to run this kind of thing up at a moments notice. We asked which street was most likely and headed off. We had been warned that it was Sunday and most of the mechanics are Christian, and for sure all the little chaps seemed to be closed for the day. We did ponder why being a mechanic doesn't seem to appeal to Muslims. Is it getting the hands dirty thing, or that they are interesting in the time needed to learn the skills. Being now in the Christian quarter, it also has the bonus of having the only booze shops in town, which of course are also shut on Sunday.
The day drifted, we went in vain to see if our package had arrived. No such luck! Personally, I'm beginning to think that we should have a contingency plan, while Pat is ever positive.
For a while now I have had a craving (don't worry I'm not pregnant) for a proper Sunday lunch. It's daft that while I'm in the UK it may be months between Sunday lunch sessions, and then when you can't get one you suddenly desperately want one. Pat had read that a 'pub' in Luxor had the necessary every Sunday. I was a little reticent on the logic that I had built up a picture of a full homemade lunch and it could easily be a disappointment and when the price was at the top of our budget I would be annoyed that I had wasted my money. Pat bullied and cajoled me, knowing that if it were good I would be pleased. Thankfully, we left well satisfied. My thanks to Pat for his persistence.
Yes, it's hard sometimes to persuade Hippy that even though there is the chance for disappointment, there is also the possibility that something may just hit the spot. We are trying to work on the negative attitude. The parcel WILL arrive.
That's just about it for Sunday. As much achieved as we would at home!
Monday and it was time to get down to the light engineering quarter again. Before leaving, there was a rising tide in our bathroom to contend with. The hotel is obviously drainaly challenged. Every day they get their 'tank' pumped out first thing in the morning. This creates a bit of a stink for a while, but at least they are trying. Other blocks in the same area seem quite happy to have a lake in the basement. The manager was very helpful and moved rooms for us - to another on the ground floor! This seemed to be a bit higher than the other one and so we accepted his offer. At least the shower has a bit more power.
Success this time. A nice little man looked at my bolt and found a lovely bit of hexagonal bar out of which to fashion a replacement. I decided to get a spare at the same time. Using his son of about 8 years, we agreed on a price of 13 LE (that's 2 quid in Her Majesties coinage - which reminds me, CNN tell us hat you are not all massively enthusiastic about Liz's Golden Anniv - Why am I not surprised?). I was to go back at 4 o' clock to pick the bits up.
We took in a final day of Egyptian tombs/temples on the West Bank of Luxor and were delighted by what we saw. The Ramesseum is similar to the huge temple of Karnak, but not so often visited. We had a nice quiet time checking it out. There are the remains of a huge statue, here, fashioned out of a chunk of pink granite. Weighing 1000 tons, it must have taken a pretty major effort to ship it up the Nile. Once again, the domestic efforts at Stonehenge look a bit woosy by comparison. We were amused by the fact that although all of the pieces of this statue seem to be present, no effort, for once, has been made to reconstruct it. My guess is that the weight of each of the pieces is too much for modern machinery to cope with.
On to some tombs of noblemen rather than Pharaohs and we were much pleased to see that their wall decorations were much more approachable. Scenes of everyday life - hunting, shooting, fishing and farming were displayed along with the obligatory pictures of Deities in human form with animals' heads.
We had a bit of grief with the tourist police today. Nothing serious, just the fact that every car park we pulled into, they insisted on emptying out the panniers to check that we didn't have concealed weapons. In the first case, I made light of it and pointed out that I was British and we keep our explosives in our shoes. I guess the heat and repetition was getting to me with the next one and I gave him short shrift. Hippy was concerned that I should be polite to the man, but I felt that as we'd done nothing wrong (other than be born in a country that supports the American war on Islam oops terrorism) we should make it clear that this was not making us happy. Just as at the Israeli border, the thing that really piqued me was the fact that their search was less than comprehensive. Surely logic goes thus - this bloke looks dodgy so we'll check him to the point of a full body search or this bloke does not look dodgy so we'll leave him alone. I hate the half-arsedness of it.
I sat all evening with the scarf on waiting for news from the Trotters/Spurs match. As usual for mid week games, the World Service did not dedicate any time to it. We went to bed wondering what had happened. For once, I passed up the opportunity of heading down to a net cafe to check up on progress.
OK so its today that the Wanderers play. We only found out this afternoon when we started talking to some others about our plans to go to Sudan. Felt a bit daft. As Hippy pointed out, if they win tonight, it just goes to show that the scarf needs to be worn on two successive nights leading up to a game. As we move into hotter and hotter countries, the permanent wearing of the scarf may become uncomfortable, if not unhygienic. One has to suffer for ones club, what?
The rest of the day has been spent doing very little. We did at least have some success in a souvenir shop. They had a copy of 'Lonely Planet Egypt and Sudan'. We'd been looking for information on Sudan for ages and even though this book was 10 years out of date, I considered that as it at least lists the sights, it would be worth having. We did at least manage to get a bit knocked off the price.
That just about wraps it up apart from the note passing which is going on between Hippy and a pretty (not that I should be looking) little Moslem girl in the internet cafe. It's really rather touching, but Hippy can fill you in on that when the dust settles.