ATC Swap

I joined a swap on UKS recently involving the use of Arnold the garden gnome visiting various places and this was my offering - Arnold in the desert with the camels!

Dance Like an Egyptian... version 2!!

Jetlag, being blonde and suffering from senior moments are a really bad combo to deal with... when I did my post yesterday I knew what photos I wanted to use to go with the post title... but I couldn't find them!! I realised this morning that they were actual photographs and I needed to scan them in first.... doh!!

The Sheik and a couple of his women....

One night on the Nile Cruise we had to dress up for the galibiyah night, this is the long gown that Egyptians wear and most everyone in the party got into the spirit of it and dressed up... I have to admit that Chris made a scarily accurate Saudi sheik.... methinks he has perhaps been here in the Kingdom a tad too long!

Chris, Mum and I dressed up for the Egyptian Night

So there were various games and challenges going on that people got picked for out of the different groups and the little guy comes up and puls me out on to the dance floor... and then proceeded to pick out a bunch of really young nubile looking creatures from the other groups... and tells us we are in a belly dancing competition!! Yikes... well, heck, I have the belly but the dancing bit was going to be a tad more difficult!!

I think I might have had a chance if everyone else wasn't a couple of decades younger!! ;)

Dance like an Egyptian...

I'm back!! LOL Did ya miss me? Did ya? Nah? PMSLing...

Mum, Chris and I in front the Great Pyramid.


We had a fabulous trip to Egypt, stopped in Cairo for 3 days and saw the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids, went to the Cairo Museum and drooled over the treasures of Tutenkamun and visited The Mohamed Ali Mosque and had a quick scout round the Kalili Bazaar. Now, I live in an Arab country and have lived in Arab countries before but I have never witnessed the sheer pushiness of sellers to the degree of those in Egypt... you are attacked on all sides by people shoving stuff in your face and demanding you buy it at outrageous prices... its very offputting and I think I bought the least amount of stuff I have ever bought on a holiday just because of the sheer aggressiveness of the sellers and I am used to bartering for stuff and dealing with the occasional beggar, so I cannot imagine what it would be like for the average tourist off the plane.

Looking for treasure... Kalili Bazaar, Cairo

The Great Pyramids

Chris....pppick up a pyramid!!

We also visited Sakkara and Memphis and saw the huge step pyramid and popped into a tomb, before travelling onto Aswan where we stayed in a beautiful hotel on a island in the River Nile.

Giza, the Pyramids.

Then it was a visit to Lake Nassa, the Aswan Dam and the Philae Temple and a really early morning start (2 a.m. get up) to make our way by bus to Abu Simbel.

Chris and the Sphinx

Mum, Chris and I at the Memphis Sphinx

Off on a 3 day cruise down the Nile visiting Edfu and Esna and onto Luxor to do the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Chris got sick so we missed those but Mum managed to do them and Chris and I returned to the hotel by taxi... the taxi was an ancient 1970's model something with no working speedometer or any other gauge come to mention it, the seat covers were old badly cured sheepskin and the suspension was a distant memory if it had any at all!!

Chris and I went for a balloon ride over Luxor and viewed the temples from the sky... it was BRILLIANT!! I have always wanted a ride in a hot air balloon so we couldn't miss the opportunity when it came up... sunrise in a hot air balloon is magic....

Its so quiet and the view is amazing... and I wasn't scared at all!

In Luxor we visited Karnak and Luxor Temples before returning back to the UK... for a 3 day stint at home in Scotland - where British Airways managed to lose our luggage... luckily it turned up the next day so I had time to wash everything before re-packing it to fly back to Saudi.

So, here I am, back with lots of new stash to play with and hundreds of photos to scrap!!

Update on Gypsy... so many people have asked about little Gypsy. We left her in the compound at Murjan when we moved and my next door neighbour is feeding her. She has only ever known life in Murjan Village and I wasn't sure she would want to move with us, plus, if we moved her here before we went on holiday there would be no one to feed her and she would have been in a strange place. Now we are back I am informed that she misses us, turns up at our old house every night at 5 pm for her food and chats to Odelia. So, Chris and I are off tomorrow to find a pet store where I can buy a litter tray and cat cage and we can then go over to Murjan for a bit of catnapping... I hope she settles here in the new house, she just wants to belong to us and be an indoor cat with occasional ventures outside... so wish me luck that she comes to me and lets me put her in a cage!!

I'm back online again...

Had a few problems getting the internet to play nicely in the new house, but it did mean that I had no alternative but to get the boxes unpacked, stuff put away and everything in its place!! ;)

Just a few days and we will be heading home to Scotland for our leave.... I'm asking my friend Sarah to get the smoked streaky bacon and bread all bought and in the fridge ready for me so that I can get the grill going and have a bacon sarnie as soon as I arrive home!! Mmmmmm... yummmmm!

This is the mode of transport they appeared with to move us with.... I have to admit.... I was totally unimpressed to have my belongings plonked onto the back of a flatbed truck without so much as a canvas to cover them.... I mean what did they think I was a hill billy? Anyways, everything arrived in one piece and nothing got lost or broken so I guess that makes it ok?? ;)

Our first night in the new house and we had the most glorious sunset to look out upon...

This is the beach at the new compound.... and of course that sign doesn't say no photography allowed!!!

So this is the new place... be it ever so humble... its home for now!!

On the Move Again...

Well, after 5 months of living in the villa on the beach, we are moving again... down the road to another compound called Pearl Beach. Its a smaller house and I can't see the sea... but the beach with its own coral reef is just a five minute walk away so I don't think I'll moan too much! LOL I'll certainly miss Odie and Efty, my neighbours, we have become very close and spend large chunks of the day in each others houses... well, that's me in theirs... Odelia makes frothy coffee in the morning and I pop in to chat and drink mine, then in the afternoon, Brigette makes frothy coffee and I pop in to hers to imbibe and chat!! Heck its a hide life being an expat wife!! ;)

This is a gatefold album I made for Brigette about her two boys. Cosmo Cricket papers, which are perfect for the theme and I used the Zutters rivets on the closure and the back to make little feet for the book to rest on. I love hammering those things... its so satisfying!





These are a set of three books I made for us girls as a keepsake of the good fun and friendship we have enjoyed in the past few months. Used Luxe and Daisy D's papers in black and white with red as the accent colour - definitely one of my favourite colour combos.

We had a dressing session and tried on the hijab just to see what its like... what a hoot - even Chris couldn't pick me out from the 3 photos (even though I am the only one with blue eyes)!!

I must admit, its one of the things that occured to me when I first came here... once these women are totally covered up... how the heck do their husbands or kids know who is who in the chaos of the supermarket... Chris said I had to keep my cellphone on me, if I got lost he would call me and he would take the one home that was ringing.... Well, one day I was abayah clad and standing in line at the supermarket check-out and I felt this little tug at my abayah... looking down there was this tiny little chap hanging on to my black abayah for dear life... obviously believing that he was holding onto his Mum... imagine his expression when he finally looked up and met my smiling face looking down at him!! I sort of pointed him the direction of another black abayah before he screamed blue murder and he went off and clutched onto her instead!!