Night and day you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
~ Cole Porter
El Gouna’s rather enjoyable, now that my wife is here. I am doing more, a lot more in fact– instead of sitting alone by the pool all day, like some weird Dr. Isolato, which is my normal mode when Zouz is not around, then vegging by the TV at night.
The days are splendid, not too warm, not too cool; and the nights downright cold (55 F). Bonus points: the loud NYE shilla (ie, posse of unpleasant young men, out for a brainless Lost Weekend in Gouna) of New Egypt zibala (ie, garbage, that is to say, Nasser’s figurative progeny) next door have gone back to Cairo. Gouna is back to being as “it should be” (the resort town’s air head motto): a quiet and safe oasis on the edges of a jarringly disquieting world.
Below are a few pics — shown here in random order — that depict the simple, untroubled and deeply enjoyable day we had yesterday, with the Zouz playing tennis with Mourid, the club pro, then us going to scope out the library (it housed few books but includes digitized historical resources, such as L’Art Arabe, and other rarities, that I must investigate at some point), finishing out the evening with dinner at Kan Zaman, an authentic Egyptian food restaurant in the Downtown area, where we leisurely strolled about, and considered dining at the Swiss Chalet, but were put off by its steep menu prices, and the fact that the joint was infested with overdressed Germans.
As I type this at way past 3AM, I hear the welcome sound of occasional, straggler NYE party cars whooshing by (many Egyptians laugh at the idea of sleeping at night) as they head to the West Golf exits to return to Cairo, which of course is absolute music to my ears. Good riddance! No need to come back anytime soon! Oh, and don’t let the wooden swing gates hit you in the ass on your way out!
Finally, cat alert: Sandy has now sought shelter from the night cold and is inside the villa. Hope she’s flealess.
Leaving Amerika 