Here’s my news…from El Gouna, Egypt .
Saturday was supposed to be the big day when the real estate was to come over at 10am to where I have rented since mid Sept, inspect the premises, and fork over my apt rental deposit.
It didn’t quite turn out that way.
But all matters regarding this rental would be settled by Monday morning.
I took one last look at the place I have lived in for the last 3 months.
To think that I have slept on a cold stone floor in front of this TV for 3 months.
Then I took one last walk in Abu Tig marina, and saw a Christmas tree; alas, they are not celebrating Xmas in Nazareth this year, due to the Jerusalem thingie.
I arrived in my new villa via tuc tuc, and had some initial problems with recalcitrant doors, but sorted that out after calling the villa real estate agent, who came by promptly and solved the problem by kicking the door in.
My bad lieutenant S5 went on the blink, so I could not call or receive mobile calls for a day and half, till I fixed that particular issue on Sunday, but this was only a temporary respite, so I am buying a new (cheap) cell phone only on Tuesday for 18 dollars.
The worst part was — as expected — no Internet connection. I went both on Saturday morning and Sunday to the Orange shop… I will spare you the gory details. I ended up having Internet service sporadically, until the S5 died, so this is still a to-do issue. For some reason my Chromebook Plus does not like the WIFI router in this villa.
On Saturday afternoon, I finally kicked back and sat by the pool. I soaked up the sun, far away from it all, at last.
The winter desert sun warmed my arthritic knees, hobbled by months of sleeping that stone cold floor in hateful Abu Tig marina, I realized, suddenly, how content I felt. I was actually happy, especially when I noticed various wild birds dip their beaks into the pool and look at me with mild curiosity.
In the evening, a few friends came over, and admired the magnificence of my new digs.
We watched Real Madrid win the FIFA World Cup, and during the match, one of my friends arranged from my wife to be greeted at Cairo International by a service called Ahlan (which means hello). The Ahlan VIP service includes having a trustworthy professional waiting inside by the international arrivals gate with a sign that has her name on it, escort her through passport control, and make sure she gets to the domestic departure gate without a hitch — where I will be waiting — and we will board the plane that will take us to Hurghada.
Last night, I was visited by two very beautiful cats in the latter part of the evening, whom I am sure my cat-loving wife will end up adopting, especially the shy young female who was being pursued by some ardent bewhiskered tom cat.
Then I went to sleep but was awoken by the sound of skeeters buzzing, and sure enough, I’d been bit quite a bit.
So I tried to put together the skeeter net gizmo I bought via the miracle of the Internet from a UK camping outfitter. It’s actually a Pyramid Mosinet pop up bed net.
This did the job, even though my way of putting it together in the dark was a total hack, and in the morning, I set up the ingenious contraption up in the big double bed on the top floor, so now it looks like the dead wife Scottish shroud in Braveheart. Never was 70 quid or so better spent.
On Monday morning, the little female kitty came back in the morning and I gave her water but had no food for her. I bought her some on Monday, as my wife loves cats, and i think she will like this one in particular.
Stay tuned!
Leaving Amerika 