?

Have a strong headache - had it all yesterday, on the left side of my head. I don't think it was a thirst-headache, because that feels a bit different - more like a tightening crown, and this one is more crushing down one side of my head. Cold now - been watching the temperature fall half-degree by half-degree since August, first with eager joy, now by apprehension. Seem unable to type O_o

On Wednesday, after the imtihan, I was walking homewards with Nadia, and she put fifty pounds into my hand, and said it was a present. When I realised what it was, I was shocked! I tried to give it back, I told her I couldn't accept it, but she wouldn't take it. I didn't know what to do - I didn't want to make a fuss but I also didn't think it was right for me to take it, because I don't need it. I mean, true, I'm economical and watch the piastres, but it didn't warrant aid. She absolutely wouldn't take it back, and there were no convenient pockets for me to deposit it in either, so I had to hold on to it. I thanked her rather stiltingly for it, only because it was the only thing left for me. Dad wouldn't be pleased at all - he would say how could I? And I wouldn't be able to explain how I had to. I feel ashamed myself - not, I hope because of pride, but more because I know I haven't the need of it, and it is a misplaced charity - no, not charity, gift. If Heidi was still here, I would have given it to her.

Oops, sorry XD

I'm sorry I haven't posted any updates recently! I've posted up what I've been writing at home, so there's a whole bunch of backdated ones.

John:
I'm so sorry about your sadness :( I think I understand at least a little, and I hope it gets easier for you. There isn't really much anyone can say or do to help, I guess - I think it's one of those things that you just need to work through at your own pace, in your own way. I hope everyone around you is helping to ease your mind and keep you busy when you need it.
I'm always really interested in your comments, so I hope you'll keep them up; even my sisters enjoy reading them. Also, next time you see Sophie, can you pass this address on to her?

(Also, I'm interested in a job in September! I don't want to work anywhere but BTP >_>)

Re: Ruth and being mugged: that back door is asking for it. It always has been, and I've always hated it - do you think you'll finally be able to get a spyhole put in it, at the very least? I've been after that since I started. We REALLY NEED IT. (Did you notice how I say 'we' like I still work there? XD)

Do you know who did it? Was it one of those estate rats someone we know? I hope she's okay! And don't forget, get the spyhole. How are we ever to even know who we open the door to without one? It could be, you know, one of those December Mondays, and there're only three people working, and it's 7 o'clock...etc. Always hated it. *shudder*

Get the spyhole!

Crunchy Leaves!

It is strange to write the date as above. It feels like the last thing to December. If we were judging only by the faculties of the senses and expectation, without recourse to calendars and watches, I would think it April, or maybe early May. Of course, until you are away from what you are used, you don't realise you have a habit - or indeed, sense - of the changing year and seasons. So of course, there is a clash of fact and sensibility, producing what is altogether an interesting alloy of confusion. As a faithful devotee of autumn and its sundry delights, this is perfect - I can only lament at there not being drifts and drifts of crunchy brown and red leaves - I know I spend all year waiting for the bushery (I know that isn't a word :P)(it is now) next to the old railway line (near my house) to start accommodating the season: the leaves go first yellow, and then bright vermillion, from the tip of the leaf, upwards. It looks like it's dripping redness.

I took photos of it last year (when I still had my camera)(*sigh*).

---

"Dear, dear Norland," said Elinor, "probably looks much as it always does at this time of the year. The woods and walks thickly covered with dead leaves."
"Oh," cried Marianne, "with what transporting sensation have I formerly seen them fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight."
"It is not every one," said Elinor, "who has your passion for dead leaves."
- Sense and Sensibility

.

These broken shoes
They've done some walking and

Through all these holes
I touch the ground and it feels

like home.

I don't need anything.

Haya Mustawa Rabi'

My toes are cold. I forgot to mention that we've started a new level. I'm so grateful I got the 8 o'clock class I asked for; everyone else's is at 11.15. It's so much more practical for me to have this class - it means I actually have time to do things after. Really, it was such a boon that mum was here for exactly the remaining duration of the last level, because I might've died if I had to the stuff I normally do and homework. So Level 4. I still feel like I don't really know any Arabic at all. How can that be? What will it take? I figure I might get up to about Level 10 before next August, inshallah, which is actually just one level shy of the complete course. Regret at not being able to finish it but for one course briefly crossed my mind, but I really can't bear the thought of staying here longer than necessary. Like everyone else, I just want to go home. If we have lots of time at the end of the last level we can do, I hope we can come home early.

John - do you miss me enough to give me a job again in August/September? Please? Think of all the benefits! You won't need to train me, I'll have another language to add to your repertoire, and and and! Everyone LOVES ME because I'm SO NICE. You can't really argue with that, right? *hopeful*

I'm actually really dreading going home and not having a job/munny. I have to pay for my course at the IoE, and I definitely don't personally have that money. Actually, part of why I agreed to come to Egypt this year was if dad would be so kind as to pay my fees the coming year (gosh, expense upon expense :S) - I've always wanted to learn Arabic, and it was always part of my master plan, but the timing had me a bit sideways. At the point where I came up in discussions, I'd already been accepted to read my course, and I was anticipating it and preparing for it, etc. So yeah, big change of plan, had to request a last-minute deferral and everything (the result of which I found out after I got here XD).

Need to start heading to the chicken *blink* ...to the kitchen. I don't know what to do for dinner, too un-bothered. I wish food would cook itself.

...

Mum left last Wednesday (15th), and we all went to the airport to see her off. When will Allah allow me to see her again? There is something else, though - before she came, there was something about being here...strandedness, desolation, maybe? But since she's been here, it's like the house has absorbed her presence, as somehow it feels like she's still here - maybe she's in the other room, maybe she's sleeping - maybe. Because she has been here, even if she isn't now, and the house remembers it. I can see her, sitting on the piano stool, I can hear her moving around in another room, I can feel her sleeping. I can feel her happiness in being with us, equal only to our happiness to be with her.

--

I just slashed the inside of my left ankle quite deeply. I thought I'd cut it on this sharp corner of glass, and I looked down and I was right, and it was bleeding black. Then I was like, oops, bloods! and bobbled away to wipe it with something (only found a tissue)(previously used to wipe my nose). But then it just carried on bleeding and I couldn't even see where the cut was, or how big. Heidi and Z just sailed on out the door, and Tabassum and Abdullah just moseyed away, so I was like, 'oh. No one's going to see if I'm okay. Okay.' It was slicking with blood, and by the time I got to my first aid stuff it was all over my sock and still coming, but I couldn't first-aid it on my own, so I had to call those two anyway. Didn't want to though. Abdullah and Tabassum were my ambulance - they wanted me to say that.

It's starting to hurt now. XD

-

'Many were the tears shed by them in their last adieus to a place so much beloved. "Dear, dear Norland!” said Marianne, as she wandered alone before the house, on the last evening of their being there; “when shall I cease to regret you!—when learn to feel a home elsewhere!—Oh! happy house, could you know what I suffer in now viewing you from this spot, from whence perhaps I may view you no more!—And you, ye well- known trees!—but you will continue the same.—No leaf will decay because we are removed, nor any branch become motionless although we can observe you no longer!—No; you will continue the same; unconscious of the pleasure or the regret you occasion, and insensible of any change in those who walk under your shade!—But who will remain to enjoy you?"

- Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility

I've been entertaining myself rather delightfully with doses of Austen - I've always meant to be well-er-read (:P) than I am, instead of accidentally pretending to wit and intellect. I've been something of a Jack-of-all-books (master of none) - I know very well what I ought to have read (and recommend very readily to other people what I haven't read myself) but there is much reading of people dead and wise, yet to be done.

Ironically, that makes me rather like Emma (if you've read it, you will know ^_^).

I forgot how old I was going to be next birthday, and then I forgot how old I was. Ironically, I will be 23 next birthday. XD (nobody likes you when you're 23 XD)

It's either rather late or very early, depending on how you look at it. XD

School's started again, but MY MAMA IS HERE ALHAMDULILLAH. It's like she was always here, you know? Or, like I haven't not seen her for two and a half months (how is that even possible??) and nobody but Allah knows just how happy I am to be with her again. I don't think about her leaving if I can help it. Depressing.

Eid wasn't so bad. I was geared up for it to be the rubbishest Eid EVER, and although it was the first time we've been split up like this - there've been Eids when dad was in other places, but we've always been at home, with mum at least. So it was never going to be the same - but for all that, it wasn't the horrible depressing scene I'd half-constructed in my head. We slept half the day away, which is always a good way to start the day XD, and by the time I'd tumbled out of bed and lurched into the shower for my Eid-bath, it was already pretty lateish. I finally psyched myself into cooking at around half four, but it was sloooow.

Here is a picture of my food:





We had:

pilau rice (note how the onions only cover half of it since half of people like them not)
chicken korma (with potatoes)
fried chicken
fried potatoes
kebabs
chana (chick peas) with potatoes
salad
minty yoghurty dip
kheer (like creamed rice pudding stuff)
shape phithas!

and then it was finally ready but Heidi'd already gone to bed after a bad day, Shamim baya had left after being embarrassed at being asked why he was there if he wasn't going to eat, and I was generally feeling infected by the baddish atmosmood plus my 4/5-day-old headache was really killing me. Oh, the fun.

Me and Abdullah went to the airport to collect mum with Shamim baya, at like, four in the morning. The night before, dad was describing to me how mum'd be looking, and I was like, I think I'll recognise my own mum lol!!!! Knew it was her the moment I saw her.

My mama is here, my mama is here, my mama is here, my mama is here, my mama is here, my mama is here, my mama is here!

My mama is coming tomorrow inshallah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look how I split up one long post into three short not-so-long ones! So your eyes don't bleed!

It's too early *bleary* I couldn't sleep - the moshas 'squitoes were making a meal of me, and et my face TWICE and et up my arms and feet and everything. When I get bit, I go all hive-y and get these big-up raised patches of whiteness (I am brown) which are sehr itchy mitchy ouchy. So I got up and watched the sun rise instead. It rises fast! Mr. Schumacher said it takes 8 minutes for light to reach the Earth from the sun - that was in year 6 (he was my teacher). Our windows are full east. I watched birdies and kitties with my noboculars, too. My noboculars take pictures, but they're quite rubbishy quality.

Aww man, I've been woken up nearly every morning by them blarney flies crawling on my face!! I thought if I ignored them, I'd get used to it, but you reeeally don't get used to being walked on by flies. And they all come in the morning when you're like, aaaahhh naaaap *snore* and they ALL sit on ME. Nevermind both sisters being adjacent on either side, you know. Blarney flies.

I'm really behind replying to emails - sorry! It's because it's Ramadan and there's no time! But Ramadan is nearly over :( :( and Eid is nearly upon us, and soon we will be back at school, and I can devote some nights to writing to everyone. But really people, I can't write twenty million original emails :( you will all have to come here and read this instead. Yes? Yes. Okay.

I feel too tired to do anything special for Eid, even cooking. I'm understanding why Shamim baya (my cousin here) always sleeps for the three days of holiday. And the cleaning is really disheartening. I just want to sleep through Eid. And then sleep for another week, too. And I want internet at home *whine* I'm really tired of going to that blarney net cafe, where they redefine the concept of 'slow' and overcharge us because their silly computers are too rubbish to work. Oh for fast internet! At home! *complain*

It's so weird - all my life, I've been obsessed with reading - from cereal boxes at breakfast, to air-freshener cans in the toilet, to everything else you can imagine - I'm like the Hungry Caterpillar when I read. I plough through books like there's no tomorrow, and I've read so many that most of them become a blur in my mind. And yet, to my shame, I haven't read the Qur'an in translation, cover to cover. What a miserable failure. The trouble was that there were always other books - books that were easier to read, that seemed more, 'yay fun!' or something, and there were always so many - even to the point where I was leaving, I had, like sixty million library books at home - under the bed, under my desk, on my desk, on the windowsill, in mum's room - everywhere (you may laugh, Shaun, you may laugh XD). Of course (don't worry, John!), I had to give them all back before I came. Books are like, my staple diet - from bookerpillar, to working in a library, to working in a library and a bookshop...books, books, books, to paraphrase slightly rip off Katy (whose lifelong refrain was 'boys, boys, boys') XD

Anyhow (I'm sorry, I'm easily sidetracked)(I easily sidetrack myself, even), with all those other books to distract me, I never quite had the patience to read the Qur'an - you know how it is, the moment someone tells you to do something Islamic, people suddenly lose enthusiasm, despite being all jazzed up before (ain't that the way?). Mum and dad were always telling me - telling all of us - at least to read something Islamic, for god's sake, for x number of trashy books I read (this was after giving up on telling me not to read trashy books)(I am such a trial to my mama and papa O_o) but of course, being us, we didn't really change. Here, though - dad said straight off that no one was allowed to bring any trashy books (our luggage allowance was already crummy)(that wasn't the reason why, though), and that if we got bored, we would just have to read Qur'an. I balked a bit at first, but then I remembered that if I got desperate, I could download stuff off the internet XD XD

So yeah, mum and dad always turn out to be right, it just takes me a long time to get there. That's the trouble with kids and adults - mum and dad always know what they're talking about - clearly, they speak from experience; the trouble with people in general though, is that nobody likes secondhand experience. You also never quite learn a lesson so well unless you experience it yourself. And then! Then you're all, 'omg I know this, I know this!!' and you try to tell someone else and they shake you off, go and do dumb things, and then they're like, 'omg I know now O_O.' Tradeoffs, tradeoffs. Being a parent/similar must be like being Cassandra. Nobody listens.

Ack! 888 More digression! Sorry!

I know the Qur'an is amazing - it's a fact of life for me, just like the sky is blue, and things fall down. But I've never felt so close to it, or felt the perfection and wisdom of it more, and I realise I want to know it better, I want to be so familiar with it that I can think of an ayah and know where it is - knowing Harry Potter back to front and inside out is, in short, a waste of time and no use for my akhirah. If I knew Qur'an as well as I knew Harry Potter!! I'm feel really ashamed that there are books I know every detail about, and films that I can recite the script for, and yet I don't half that much about the Qur'an. Heh, some muslim. The trouble with books, too, is always that they finish too soon - I get to the end, and am like, 'you can't be finished! How can you be finished??!! Nuuuu please don't be finished!' and the thought briefly crossed my mind that what if the Qur'an finishes too soon and I want more and there isn't more? That would be too sad; it's not like there will be a sequel O_O But the Qur'an is long! It won't be finishing anytime soon! It'd take a lifetime and some to get right to the bottom of it, and even then, there would be more to it, because it is Kalaam-Allah.

So I think this year will be dedicated to improving my relationship with the Qur'an, inshallah. I said that to Tabs, and she was like, 'Affa, you're so DUMB!!! What do you think mum and dad have been SAYING forEVER?!!?!' 'cause I was all, 'WOW THASSO COOL,' about the whole thing. XD

It is early! This is the last day of Ramadan. :( It always goes so fast, just when you're really getting into it - I guess that is the wisdom in preparing for Ramadan before it starts. *makes note to self* It's been great being given time off school, if only for the last ten days...I have to say, I didn't even remotely meet my goal of going to the masjid every night (that'll make Heidi laugh XD)(I didn't go at all after Laila left XD). I was thinking lots about what Jasmine said last Ramadan, about developing a relationship with and attachment to the masjid; I wanted to try to build my own relationship with it, but...well, you can see the success of it.

However! All is not doom and gloom and the scent of failure! The main reason I opted to stay at home was to watch the taraweeh from Makkah: Makkah is always surreal, but in Ramadan, it is like, surreal squared (that's surreal x surreal for the mathematically-challenged XD). What most people - and masjids - try to do during Ramadan is to finish the Qur'an once completely through the taraweeh (that is a special extra Ramadan-prayer, which can be 8 or 20 rak'aat [units of prayer] long - for instance in Masjid Salaam [our one], they do 8, and in the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, they do 20). The qur'an is divided into several kinds of sections, one of which is in thirtieths, and each thirtieth is called a 'juz' (part). So anyhow, they do a juz a night - 30 juz, 30 nights, et le fin! Good, innit?

Anyway! So yeah, they broadcast it live (on 4353905673 channels) and they subtitle it with the English translation and it's like, so cool. My favourite recitor is one of the Imams of the Ka'bah - Sa'ud ash-Shuraim - so it's like, coolness squared. XD Also, I really like Sudais and Abdullah al-Jehany who reminds me of one of our uncles (the family-friend kind of uncle :D) and we saw Saleh at-Talib's feet! You just don't expect people like that to have feet, you know? XD XD

So yeah, the point of all that was...it was like animating the qur'an - when you read a translation on your own, it's not the same as thinking of the translation as you hear - and see - it recited. 'Qur'an' means 'recital' - when it's words on a page, it doesn't have the same living, organic quality as when it's being recited by someone who really knows how to do it - it's like the difference between 2D and 3D, where the kitaab, the book, is the 2D representation of Kalaam-Allah (the word of God), and its qira'ah (recitation) is its 3D form - and its highest form, was the living, breathing 4D exposition of Muhammad (saw) - it's just how A'ishah (ra) described him.

Wow, subhanallah.

I am trawling Mr. Internet looking for a book called 'al kitaab fii ta'allum al-arabiyya' (Textbook for Arabic) by one Kristen Brustad. It is expensive. I want a cheapy one, I don't want DVDs, just grammar, lovely grammar, in ENGLISH, please God!

Okay, found one!

I just realised I don't need books with exercises and stuff - all I need is a book of fus'ha grammar. Ack. I need to hurry up and buy it so it gets sent home so baya can bring it when he comes, inshallah. But now I need to look for grammar book O_O

Arrrgh why can't it be simple? Just like Egyptians. In order to get from A to B, Egyptians will go via F, take a detour at P, u-turn at T, reverse back to H....etc, etc. They just don't know how to go from A...to B.

Now I need to email Dad and baya.

Also: Hello Elizabeth!! How are you?

And John, can you ask Jo (if she's back) if she's developed the photos yet? There should be two cams-worth, and I hope she got in people who couldn't come in on my last day. If it's not too much trouble, could you get her to pop the lot into the post, addressed to my house, so my brother can bring them when he comes? And I hope she had a good time in Australia!

Aww, I miss my job :(

Condoleezza Rice is in Egypt, wonder what she's doing here.

But then, she was just in Bangladesh, too. And London.

Hrm.

Yesterday I fell asleep while I was reading Qur'an, and about an hour or so later, I suddenly woke and bolted upright, saying, 'have we been to school yet today?' and everyone laughed. It was really strange – it was about half four and I really thought I'd woken up late for school, and had completely no recollection of actually going to school in the morning.

I think our phone sim has expired, or something. I miss-called baya (that is my big brother) from my normal phone yesterday just to, you know, remind them we're still here because they haven't called for days, and he texted back to say they'd tried calling a million times but couldn't get through. Come to think of it, nobody has called us for days – not Shamim baya, not our tutor (her name is Do'aa), not Laila…things began to make sense. XD

It is very early for me to be out – at this time I am normally in bed in these days of 10.40 classes. I really want my 8 o'clock class back.

Ooo the other day, our normal teacher, Samia, was ill, and we had a substitute – also called Samia. There are 3 Samias at Markaz Fajr – Samia Saghira or Qadeema (Small Samia/Old Samia), Samia Kabira and Samia Jadeeda – Big Samia and New Samia. It was very funny how she told us about how someone said the name, and everyone in the room would turn around. She was a really fun teacher – I learnt a couple of new grammar things (how to make certain masdar (gerund) forms) that I never knew before, which really must be a first so far, in all this time (not yet been taught any other grammar I didn't already know), and she spent a large part of the lesson telling us about how a woman in Russia liked to kidnap little girls and skin them, and store them in the freezer, and when they caught her, she had a leg, two arms, a head, and other various body bits, skinned and cleaned, stored away, and she was eating them. I was actually really horrified and spent most of the time she was talking about it covering my ears and wumbling so I wouldn't hear her. And then we started talking about Steve Irwin and how he played with timsahs crocodiles, and now he was dead.

I hope we get her for the next level; that would be fun.

John - There's only one Zakia Superman XD Of course it's her - do we not lead parallel lives? Except she is doing medicine, and I am, like, not. Also, in your great venerability, take care to Mind The Gap Between The Train And The Platform, Please. Hee. And sounds like there is too much rum going around. Oooo that reminds me -

I just remembered this a few days ago, but a couple of weeks after we arrived, I went over to Zakia's for the first time, and there was a can of beer in her fridge. So we decided to try it - that's another experience for the scrapbook, trying beer together in her kitchen. XD XD We were laughing so much while pouring it out that we sloshed it into the sink, and then we poured it into glasses but the foam reached the top before it was even half-full! So we were like, quick! drink the foam before it goes away!

It was sooo disgusting, I don't know why people drink it. We both had a mouthful, and we just looked at each other. SPIT! into the sink!

So that was our experience of trying beer together for the first time. A phase people tend to go through in their teens, but all the better for being done in our twenties. XD XD

It was, of course, non-alcoholic.

Oh we've also figured out why Indians like BBC/BBC World so much - it's 'cause it's all about India. Yesterday, for the first time, we FINALLY saw some weather that wasn't for India (sponsored by Gail India), and managed to include Cairo in a corner of it.

Very hot, still. It's October, for God's sake, it should be temperate-er!

How many girls does it take to haul a 3+ kilo-bucket up 6 stories?
Two.

Heidi told me a joke a while back. A guy told her it.

Q: How do you make a woman's life easier?
A: Put her bed in the kitchen.

Here is a ripped-off extract of an email I wrote to Calorie Crinoline Cairo-line Calliope Calliopolis Calorine, Caleroroereoieriionne:

Ooo the other day, this beeg bug flew in from the window, and hung out on the ceiling. How many girls does it take to Raid a buggy? Two and a half! The half is, in fact, a boy, and therefore, half a girl. Not twice a girl, as some might say XD XD We are such chickenettes that we can't even catch a bug honestly - we have to incapacitate it with Raid first, and then scream when it doesn't land where we expect it to, and THEN, we have to yell at someone to get a glass, quick, and argue about who will cover it. Eventually, someone (me) gets annoyed, and just does the damn thing, but then refuses to be further involved in an unspectatorly capacity (hah) so then yet someone else slips a piece of paper under it and scoops it up, before finally depositing it in the toilet (after another lengthy argument about who will carry it, and the unhelpful party being the one to flush the toilet in an attempt to compensate for said lack of help). Do not we lead exciting lives?

All these things happening O_O

This happened at home, at the building site which used to be my primary school. O_o

John (sorry, just answering here) - that guy is...he makes me really uncomfortable, the Hintex guy (opposite the station). I don't know where he got the idea I was going to Pakistan XD I'm not even Pakistani XD XD I made a point of not telling him that I was leaving, but I did mention it to his son, because I got my Misr photos developed there. I stopped going to him since he asked me to marry his son. XD Poor chap was mortified. His son, that is. Arrgh. XD XD Yeah, I reeeeally avoid going to him. He treats me like a long-lost daughter, but in a slightly scary way, and is always asking me if I'm married, and when I'm going to. Scary scary man.

A Saturday always feels like a Monday - it's difficult to adjust to the Thursday-Friday weekend. We just think of those as off-days, and still consider Sat-Sun the weekend. It kind of makes you think like you have a three-day week.

It's October already. Weird. Apart from being pinched and punched, and kicked and flicked (pinch, punch, first of the month and no returns! Kick, flick, for being so quick! Etc.), that's the only normal thing. I'm beginning to feel quite affectionate about our little corner of Cairo - I look out of my window at night, and it gives me almost the same sense of pleasure as looking out at home. It must be something about the night, and the closeness of stars. Speaking of which, the stars are...strange. When we arrived, we had to lean right out of the window to see Orion (the one single constellation I can pick out without resorting to some kind of reference) and his belt. But the other night, I looked out, and he was right there in front of me. Since then, he's moved around night to night...is that normal? I know that, you know, they move and all that, but are they supposed to quite so much? Also, they are bigger here - I'm used to the stars looking very distant, but here they are so big and close. Orion stretches over a large part of the sky, in a slightly grotesque unusual way. *welcomes explanations*

We've (finally) managed to install a Qur'an tutor, and we've had two lessons so far. She is Misriyya, and doesn't really speak English. Her Ammiya is quite difficult to understand until you get used to it, or know what to look out for. For instance, instead of pronouncing the letter 'qaaf,' they drop it - so 'qahwa' (coffee) becomes 'ahwa' - and it's weird when they do it to verbs, like 'qaala' (he said/to say), and in all its various conjugations it sounds very strange - like 'aala', 'na'ool' etc. And I've finally mastered the use of 'mafeesh' (I think), which is basically the Ammiya substitute for 'la' or 'laysa' (no/not). I like how 'mafeesh' sounds. Mah feesh! Muffish. Hee. ^_^

Heidi-hi has gone off to stay with Laa Laa for her last week. It's strange, but you can feel she is not in the house. I didn't think I'd notice much. And it's only the first day night! Zakia left yesterday, and she must be home by now. I went to farewell her, but didn't really do it properly. Just as well, really. I'm so sad she's left...with Laila leaving, that will be the last piece of home gone. Gosh, I won't see Zak for ten months. How many goodbyes I've said, and how many people I've been left by. XD

But! On the BRIGHT SIDE - Free called me yesterday!!!1!!1 Completely didn't expect it but was soooo happy. It was just like...like I was at home and she was calling me just like normal, and just having an ordinary chat and...! Eee! And you actually get quite a good line these days so there was no lag except in intelligence XD; it's the same whenever mum and dad call. It so felt like...just normal. We call used to call each other all the time (well, she calls me when she has the free minutes), and it wasn't like we hadn't spoken for two months at all. Fareeha jiddan, ferry harpy ^_^

Oh, Arabic has crept into all parts of our daily conversation. Especially, 'li maa thaa??' (Why?) 'Li anna...' (because...). We'll go home and nobody will know what we're saying. And we'll have odd little in-jokes that no one will ever understand either. XD Ooo I made sweet rice today. It makes me so happy to be able to cook the things I want to eat. I burnt the almonds a bit at the beginning though, so it's somewhat flecked through with black. But that's okay, because then it just looks like the cinnamon. The only thing really wrong with it is that it is rice-coloured instead of yellow or orange. Or green. I've been looking for food colouring here, in Awlad Ragab, but not yet found. Must ask my mama to send something along. Mmm food colouring. Then we can have multi-coloured pholau for Eid. Yes, us Noakhali-ites don't say pilau or polau. We say pholau. So.

One of the really fun things about Arabic is that loooads of Bangla seems to have come from it. I'd always understood that it was Shanskriti (yay for interspersing my writing with Bangla, too!), which just means it is Sanskrit-based. This definitely refers to the script, which is more like Hindi - unlike Urdu, which doesn't really seem to be much different from Hindi, except that Urdu uses an Arabic script. It's really interesting about Urdu - dad said it was the language of the lashkar (soldiers) who all spoke different languages, which eventually formed modern Urdu. That means that Urdu is, in fact, a kind of Hindiyya Indic creole. The presence of so much Arabic and mutated Arabic is also a sign of the strong impression that the Arab muslim merchants and Islam itself made, to have embedded itself in the language. As we've also been observing, especially with Zakia around, is the difference in our dialects and vocabulary. Zakia speaks 'shud'do' which is fus'ha standard bangla, whereas we speak (badly) a local dialect - a dialect particular to our own district, Noakhali, in Bangladesh. Our dialect is very thick with Arabic words - with a good quantity of words that aren't used at all in standard bangla, but are very common to us. This is all very fascinating, since we know that about six generations ago, our family, and many of the other villages, actually came out of Iraq. It's part of the reason why we look so un-Bengali, and people always mistake us for Iranians, or something. We also know that mum's side of the family were from Baghdad, which is pretty cool, although I'm not sure where dad's side is from. So yeah. I was always embarrassed at the way we couldn't speak standard, but I'm very happy now that I've found that the things we say differently, are in fact, Arabic or Arabicised words. Yeah. ^_^

Hrm. Digressions, eh?

In class, we are doing, 'at-tadkheen,' which is le smoking. In the middle of the lesson, our teacher suddenly stopped and went, 'Eh? Why are we doing stuff about the dangers of smoking? Like anyone here even smokes!' But the words are new and interesting - all infections and epidemics and cancer and slow suicides. Very useful. Shisha hasn't come up yet. Must remember to ask about the dangers of that. Speaking of which, we have shisha bars on either side of us - one seedy one next to the net cafe, and one very classy and fragrant one round the back, which calls itself a coffee shop. They are just like those gentleman's clubs the Victorians and people had. Smells nice.

Hrm, late. Spoke to mummery flummery and daddery for nearly an hour the other day.

Must go to bed.

Woo, asked Mr. Hendy to make my flash drive work, thus, lots of backdated entries.

Apparently, my seafaring uncle is now in our house (at home), staying in my room. I hope he doesn't poke around in my drawers and cupboards (XD), see, he has no concept of privacy - he'll be like, oh, look, wonder what's in here, la la la! Oh, how interesting! Etc. XD

We are having a heatwave. It was 37 the day before yesterday. Our TV is fixed.

Wow, it's been a while.

School's started again, and Ramadan is well under way. I have mixed feelings about Ramadan here. On the one hand, it's Misr Egypt, a muslim country, and everyone really gets festive and happy and excited...but on the other hand - I think Laila got it exactly right - I haven't felt the deep spirituality of Ramadan properly yet - you know, the sense of barakah and contentedness and the syrup-like passing of time. I thought this year, being away from work, away from university, away from anyone who would distract me, I would have oodles and oodles of time, but somehow, it's like there is even less time here. Even last year, which so far, was my busiest Ramadan ever (going to the shop just about every day - even on Eid), is paling to this - the shop environment was such that you felt like it was Ramadan for every minute. One of the things about here is, even though it is Ramadan, everyone still does just the same things they do the rest of the year - same old street-fights, road rage, shisha and cigarettes, loud music...it's probably very naive of me, but the first several million l times I heard a passing car blaring out horrible music, I was shocked - don't they know it's Ramadan? It only really feels like Ramadan inside my house (and even then, not all the time) and in the masjid.

On the other hand, we've been going to a masjid (mosque) close to us a loooong walk away for Tarawih (special Ramadan prayer in the earliest part of the night), and it really is something. The masjid we go to is called Masjid Salaam, and Zakia said people come from all over Misr to pray there. There are so many people that they put out carpets over the whole huge courtyard, and even then, there isn't enough room, and they spread carpets right onto the road outside. The great thing about MS is that they have a completely separate masjid building for ladies, and this lovely huge grassy courtyard which is curtained right off from sight, so it's really nice and safe inside, and open to the sky. I haven't prayed inside yet, but I love it outside, with the wind and biting ants grass and sky. The whole recitation can be heard via loudspeakers, and it's loud enough to drown out random noise. It feels like...I don't know, as if the recitation were a liquid form of Qur'an, and you become submerged in it. The sweetness of Qur'an increases with the more you understand of it. It has to be the best thing about being here - I mean, of course, it's the reason for being here, but those moments of clarity and understanding are what is really motivating, just for the sheer pleasure of embracing Qur'an, and truly feeling like Allah is talking to you. Subhanallah.

At iftar (fast-breaking) time, the buses and cars and everything just stop where they are, at the side of the road, and get out and eat and pray - right where they are. I watch them from our window. It's so nice to be in a place where people do that! When you spend most of your life squeezing in a prayer here and an iftar there, it really is liberating to live where people schedule their lives around prayer times. Misriyyun Egyptians may keep horrible time (worse than Indian Standard)(that is +2 hours)(they turn up the next day if you're lucky, but more likely, the week after), but they definitely keep their prayers straight. Also, something we've noticed since we got here, is the daily charity of just about everyone. Our local supermarket does weekly deliveries - useful ones, of proper basic food like rice, oil, pasta, beans, lentils, sugar, etc. - and during Ramadan they do it almost daily. It's not just the supermarket, but everyone who can, does. The welfare state may not be like ours, but here, people care, and do something, instead of just talking about it. I would love to see Zakah in action properly...it must be amazing...people who can afford to give up some wealth give it up, and people who can't, receive. Such a simple system, but not a country has managed to get it right yet.

Anyhow. I'm not glossing over the things I don't like; I just happen to have forgotten them. Zax is leaving on Saturday, and Laila the week after. Don't know what I will do without them :( Having them here has hugely eased the transition from one kind of life to another (notwithstanding Mr. Darcy), and it's felt so natural, them being here. I kind of get used to seeing Zakia everywhere, that it only occasionally strikes me as unusual that we should both completely seperately end up in Misr, within 20 minutes of each other, at the same school, and in the same class (to start with). Weird, that. But! Looking on the bright side! They have bequeathed a ton of spices and medicines (medics, eh?) to my household, for which I am always grateful (food vanishes so fast here). And I like spices. Hee. ^_^

We made a ton of samosas and spring rolls and kebabs before Ramadan started. Ooo we had a terrible fishy saga, also XD XD I had the misfortune to buy some smoked fish here - and is smoked fish normally salted? But anyhow, this being Misr, it was salted. Very salted. And it STANK. I can't stand the smell of raw fish, but smoked fish is worse than meat and fish and cats put together and even after I cooked it with onion and spice and all things nice, the smell didn't change one bit...I mean, except to become more pungent, if that was even possible. My hands stank of stinky fish for four stinky days (of course, nobody else would touch it), and it was so salty that we couldn't even eat it as we'd planned to. So then, dilemma, dilemma, dilemma, POTATOES. Eleven kilos of them. I probably only put in about two, though. I turned them into fishy kebabs. Without tasting it at any point. Clever me. XD XD Yeah, they were still too salty. So they have become our fishy horrors, all 164 or whatever of them. But we had some for iftar today, with salad. Made it edible, surprisingly. Tasty, even. Smell was still very...exotic, though.

Fish, fish, fish, I feel like a proper little housewife sometimes - especially after a particularly enjoyable conversation about the many uses of semolina, conducted in English, French and Arabic, all at once, or how to best prepare various incarnations of rice, or the particular virtues of Indian cuisine (namely samosas and chops and all things bright and beautiful), or indeed, managing one's finances while trying to come to terms with the alkaline-wrought destruction of one's handies by a year of hand-washing.

Most of the time, I just can't believe how it's nearly been two months since I last saw my mama, and how on earth we are getting on without her. It's funny how these things go; I used to differ with my mama on all sorts of things, like the way she cuts onions. I always cut them the other way, just because I thought it was a better way to do it. But lately, completely subconsciously, I've taken to cutting them her way. Funny ol' world, innit?

Argh, I feel like I only come online to complain about the computer I'm using >_< It won't recognise my flash drive and rejects the drivers, too.

Ramadan Kareem!

Despite the 'anonymous' comment, I would beg to disagree, but I don't have the time to expound why (but I will eventually). Of course, from a secular point of view, the material benefit is outward charity. The rest doesn't really count. After all, who needs blessings and god and all that? [/extreme sarcasm]

John! Arabic! Why else? I'm so sorry about your mother, too :(

This business of blogging at the net cafe really doesn't work. Thus! I am taking to typing up at home, and then later copy-pasting at the cafe. Am not I clever? (Heh.)

The water's been a bit offish for the last few days - it comes and goes erratically, and without any notice that I might understand (like, not in Engrish XD).

Oh man, today, we got ripped off so badly - Tabs and I went to buy fruit, and we thought we'd go to the shop next to our net cafe, since it was closer, and also, we hadn't been there before and I'd seen some nice-looking banababanananas there. So there we were, trying to buy mangoes, and the guy said it was 'ashara guinea' (gin-ay-a), and I was like, sorry, ashara? Isn't that, like, a lot? 10 whole pounds! For a kilo of mangoes! He was having a laugh! I've bought them for three fifty a kilo! So I was like, eh? and asked for a kilo of the other ones. Dunno what he gave us but it certainly didn't look like a kilo. We also asked for some nice looking golden deliciouseseses and he kept trying to sell us the red ones (waxy ones, yuck) and kept plying them at us, saying 'amrikiyya, amrikiyya' (american, american), and we kept saying we didn't want them, but he put them straight into the bag and then with a face as straight as you know, he said it was ishreen guinea (20 quid)...like, eh? Me and Tabs looked at each other and agreed we heard wrong and I gave him 20, and waited for change. And a minute or so later, he was looking at us like, 'yes?' and I asked him for change. And he said there wasn't any. Oh man, was I mad. I don't know enough ammiya to have a good yell at him for trying it, and he'd just taken all my money. >_<

So THEN. Then we got home and Heidi was like, yay, red apples! But she cut one open and it was rotten. So was the next one. And the next one. Ooo so mad. Not only were we ripped off, but he also gave us rubbish apples we didn't even WANT and then had the nerve to make us buy the damned things GAH. Anyhow, I will never go to his shop again. OoooOoo. >_<

Abdullah just asked me to help him with a maths problem. I couldn't do it. How pathetic. Why do they give people like me degrees? Don't they know I can barely do year 7 maths? Here is the question:

Mum is 20 years older than Andrew, and 24 years older than Anne. The three ages ages total 73 years.

Mum is ___ years
Andrew is ___ years

I still can't figure it out, and I've forgotten how to do simultaneous equations even though I was forced to revise them some months ago...OH OH OH I KNOW HOW TO DO IT. I feel so happy!

a + (a - 20) + (a - 24) = 73
3a - 44 = 73
3a = 117
a = 39

Yo ho, me hearties, yo ho!

And now, I have letters and emails to write.


Oh no. Here is another one I can't do.

In a school there were altogether 476 pupils and teachers.
The girls + the teachers = 241 the boys + the teachers = 258

There were ___ teachers, ___ boys, and ___ girls.

g + t = 241
b + t = 258

I'm too tired to try and work it out. :(

I forgot to bring the phonecard down that we were supposed to ring mum and dad with XD XD And nobody wanted to go upstairs (6 floors XD) to get them. Also, I don't like to surrender my key. I'm the only one with both keys, and it is a bit scary.

I wrote a big long post the other day, and the computer ate it.

Decided to diarise at home since I find computer-diarising much easier. No internet here means I write at home, and then just take it to the net cafe and Bob's your uncle, Jenny's your aunt XD XD

We don't actually have a proper computer table so one has to write on one's knees. Sehr uncomfortable.

There is no water at the moment. The water here goes more often than the current (eckeltrickity) goes in Bangladesh! Of the two, I prefer losing electricity to losing water (still having the presence of mind to recognise which is the essential and which the superogatory XD)(the desert addles my head, but it also teaches me the value of wasser). Aieee! It is back!

Alhamdulillah! Here, you really begin to understand why rain is one of the blessed times in which du'as are accepted, and rain itself is described as Allah's mercy (rahma) - where it barely rains for two days out of every year, water from the sky is a blessing indeed - like that ayah in the qur'an, '...and We send down pure water from the sky' - water from rivers - particularly the Nile, which serves so many people and countries - can become tired by the point they reach their ends. The heavily chlorinated Nile-water of Egypt is nothing like rain. Perhaps in green England (and sub-sea-level Bangladesh) it's difficult to appreciate the sweetness of rain (do we not spend our lives complaining of it?), but here, with the Sahara at our backs, the thought of rain is like a pipe-dream.

I miss the rain.

Anyhow, nature calls. now that the water is back XD XD

This is an interesting computer...it closes my email window, citing 'may contain adult content' as the reason. Hrmph?

Omg we went shopping today and it made us SO HAPPY. I spoke to my mama and papa this morning, and they told me to stop worrying about money and buy what we needed (real trouble making budget work), so I felt much better and not so much like I was counting the piastres. Since we all promised each other to get ourselves a post-exam treat, we spent aaaages looking through Awlad Ragab (shop - like Tesco's but more expensive!) at their cakies and sweeties and looking for people who spoke English. We finally decided on a pick-and-mix of baklawa (mmmmmmmm, lazeeeez)

damn net time is up XD

We had our end-of-level tests yesterday and everyone did really well, alhamdulillah! I got 79/80 and now we all have to treat ourselves except for the penny-watching business. Alas!

I have lots of emails to reply to and my time is nearly up. We farewelled Piruze yesterday :( and now she is gone back to Germany, and their Awesome Foursome is sundered (Laila, Zax, Heidi and Piruze) and our English-speaking ghetto is broken up. Sad :( I kept imagining I heard her speaking when everyone was around yesterday...I suddenly realised also, that she reminded me of Nour from school.

Ack, time up!

Oh and I forgot to add things!

On Tuesday, we have to have a little leaving-thing for Piruze (I can spell her name now!) and we are going to have a Pride and Prejudice munchfest. I feel a bit guilty about it, but it probably won't happen again, anyway. I miss my Fruits Basket :( All those DVDs I burnt of my stuff before we left are...dunno, they don't work in Heidi's laptop which makes me very O_O 'cause there was tonnnnnnnes of stuff - and all my fruits basket >_>

Mama and papa called yesterday. Want to go home. Can't believe it's been a whole month since I saw my mama. But! 11 to go.

Ramadan soon - it really is so different - the mood in the streets is more buoyant, and they are being decorated and all the shops have begun to sell a million different kinds of dates and it's generally very festive. Ramadan here will be an experience, inshallah.

It's so weird - I think I dream about the library every friday night. A
couple of nights ago, I dreamed that I was in the liberry, and Debbie, Louise, Jemma and Jane were welcoming me back.

The dreams are generally very bizarre - like another night I dreamed I was home for a week on holiday from here and my dad suddenly had a butcher's shop, and I was sailing around Tooting High Street on what were like skates but were really tiny hovercrafts strapped to each foot.

Today, I fell asleep in my lesson and my teacher threw a pen at me, and then I refused to give it back (she shouldn't have thrown it) - so it was a classic stubborn-as-a-dog me-moment especially when she refused to continue the lesson and I refused to return the pen (she shouldn't have thrown it at me).
Drama!

Life here is a lesson a minute.

It's a good thing I unlearned hating washing up years ago. I am currently learning to enjoy cleaning the toilet and constantly working...I don't mind it on my own. It's therapeutic. But the rest of the time, it just makes me tired.

We made jelly today. One of the great liberating things here: you can buy food without checking the ingredients! We bought sausages yesterday! They were spicy and tasty!

and now my time is up!

My papa left today.

Want my papa back. :(

How many girls does it take to catch a cockroach?

Four, it seems. XD XD

The painters are finally gone (I think) and maybe we'll get our house back again, and do IMPORTANT STUFF like getting internet sleeping in beds again.

I had my test yesterday - after getting in a half-hour late XD XD XD See, I use my mobile as an alarm clock, and my mobile time is still set to home time, so when I looked at it and it said 5.30 I thought I had another hour of sleep XD XD completely forgetting about adding two hours. So I woke up fifteen minutes later, it suddenly clicked what the time really was, and I was all, 'ARGH LATE TEST SCREAMZ' and then decided not to stress because then I'd forget everything I'd learnt. So I took my time. Mosied to school. Waltzed in fashionably late and still finished the test before everyone else. I didn't notice two questions, which was dumb, so I got 37/40.

Went and hung out at Zak's yesterday. Is like a haven. Long walk home though. Still tireeeed. Had a nap in lesson today, and then sneezed unexpectedly (twice), and half my stuff fell off my desk. Too busy giggling to be embarrassed.

I am having a series of the weirdest dreams, involving people from school (putney), work, and the desert. Really interesting, but very weird.

Heidi is going to the 'mids on Freitag mith Zax and co - maybe they will ride camels! ^^

Sorry for not being interesting yet ever sporadically interesting. And anyhow, since my boss reads this, I have to censor my thoughts accordingly! Even if Wandsworth Borough Council don't believe in censorship, eh, John?

Counting down the days...nearly a month gone already, which means there's only 11 to go. Home home, sweet home, how I miss thee and stuff.

Still just want my mama, though.

It's getting cooler. When I walk to school in the morning, I can't stop staring at the sand. The light here is different. You know how in the morning, the light is pale blue? Here, it is bright orange. There is no pale blue light at all, at any time.

Yesterday, I made chicken. You want to know that? Yes. Yes, you do. I argued with my teacher the whole lesson (she keeps using the WHOLE. PAGE. for stars to say how great I am!)(WASTE.) and tomorrow we have a midsessional. Which they insist on calling midterms. Huh. I'm planning on a post-exam raid to Zakia's ba'da al imtihaan (POST-TEST)(see how much I learn?) and there will be merriment and stuff.

I am very tired. Being a mama is not something I am turning out to be good at. Did I mention everyone in my class is married? They're all pretty much my age, and they are so surprised that I'm not. It's odd to be the odd one out! In a left-out kind of way! XD XD

I miss my mama.

HELLO.

So sorry for not updating sooner...I've tried to distribute messages among people to tell other people I was okay!

Anyway, the long and longer of it is THERE IS NO INTERNETZ IN THE PYRAMIDZ. I mean, there is, but I've had insane amounts of trubble finding a net cafe that was close. I've found one that is almost next door to the first one we went to (which was RUBBISH), and the secind one we went to (a week later) was okay, but faaaaar. Leaving the house is no joke - 6 floors, and the lift doesn't work. I will be so fit by the end of the year, if the lift never gets fixed! I might not be recognisable! wishful thinkingXD XD

I've paper-diarised for a few days, so I'll save that for later. In the meantime - school, builders, dodgy stomachs and watermelons!

Not yet seen a camel, but my friend Pirosa (sp?) is going to see them on Thursday.

School! We had placement tests and they put me in level 2. The Markaz (centre) is a 12-minute walk from my house, and my classes start at 8. It's 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Our weekends are Thursday and Friday - this is unusual even for Misr (Egypt), since the normal weekend is Friday and Saturday (yawm al jum'uah, and yawm al sabt - i.e. Jumuah and Sabbath). It's a bit odd when you think of Monday as midweek.

I really like the girls in my class - there's 7-ish of us - 2 Americans, a French girl, a couple of Russians/Slovenian/Dagistani, etc, most of whom speak good English. AND AND. ZAKIA. I bumped into Zax on our third day here, right at the school - turns out she was enrolling, too, and also lives ten minutes from us! She's over when she's free, and our class is at the same time, although she's in mustawa' level 3. So I get to meet the cool people in her class and we hang out together in our break. Our parallel lives continue, it seems. Isn't it funny? We cross continents and STILL we're only ten minutes away from each other.

The flat was a bit of a shock when we walked in - from what my cousin told us we were expecting...I don't know, something vaguely palatial, I guess. And I suppose it was - if you left the palace for about 16 years, and then flooded it so all the floorboards came off. So anyway, the floors are being retiled, which means builders everywhere, and then it will be repainted - which means painters will be everywhere. Woo.

8 minutes left, I'ma reply to some comments, kthxbye!

Gah, I am a tired person. I think my 4-day-old headache must be a tension headache or something, since sleep hasn't cured it.

I'm up early! Again! I have to burn some DVDs of all the stuff I've been ripping over the last few days. It's taking forever.

Computer-stuff: it won't be/isn't ready to take. Apparently, I bought the wrong kind of hard drive, but I really don't believe the guy who advised me could make a mistake like that. Maybe I bought the wrong one? Either way, it's all a bit pointless now, since we can't take it. Le sigh.

I've just started the burning business...*twiddle fingers*

Heidi came over to drop her luggage last night - they came reeeeally late (all the girls came, yay)(and Kaya)(and I haven't seen Kaya for a squillion vermillion years)(it was vey nice to!) and I was still frantically packing/unpacking/repacking. Mostly, it was boxing up the stuff on my desk and shelves, 'cause I don't want them sitting around gathering dust for a year. It was horrible to leave all that work to the end; all I wanted to do was go downstairs and spend time with mum.

I'm kind of just writing out of boredom now, and nothing better to do while my discs burn. Okay, one DVD is done. Next one!

I didn't get a chance to call everyone anyone last night, so please forgive me. You are all in my du'as and I will miss you. But you know! A year goes quicker than you think, and inshallah, we'll be back before you know it.

My usra/free: Always always in my duas, dunno what we'll do without you. Please call my mum every so often to make sure she's okay and to keep her company! I know she would appreciate it.

Maybe I should get breakfast. Yeah. I need to go to the library again because I forgot to take a couple of things back yesterday. 46% done!

47%!
48%!

*bored*

I just realised that Bry has a new blog for her transatlantical fantastickal adventures which lives aboard a pirate-ship, and the Captain said to meee...we're going this way, that way, forwards and backwards, over the whole of the sea; a bottle of rum non-alcoholic beverage to fill my tum, and that's the life for me!

Etc.

Packing like maniacs. Dropped in to the liberry this morning. Waah. =(

If only I could commute every weekend.

I got mum a chilli tree! Actually, it is a 'morris gaas' being as how I would never have said it in English XD

It would be really nice to have nothing left to do tomorrow...I'd better get off the spinsternet, I guess. XD XD

Today it's finally sinking in, that this is our last day. I've been up since 8 frantically ripping CDs (need sources of intellectual enrichment XD XD).

Everyone just realised that no one's packed any shoes yet, and the house rumbled with this collective groan of yet another suitcase. XD

The last few days have been an alternation of sitting on suitcases, and zipping them shut. Last night, we had some peoples over to dinner, which was when it finally began to dawn on me that we were really leaving. I can't uncouple the thought of leaving from thoughts of my mummy. We've been in a haze of anti-panic for the last couple of weeks, but it's finally finally descending into all-out chaos, panic and irritability. Potent stuff. XD

One last visit to the liberry (I still have books to return XD XD). I have a list of errands scrawled over my hand so I won't forget them.

Dear Everyone at BTP,

Thank you so so so much for yesterday. I'm so touched, and so sorry to be leaving! 'Everyone' includes all the staff (obviously!), the postman(!), the kids (<3), and ALL the borrowers! It's been a great six years - for everyone who came yesterday, it was so nice to see you! Those of you who couldn't make it, I'm sorry I didn't see you, but I was thinking of you.

I don't know how you feel about being named on the internet (dun dun dun!) so I won't, but the card! It was so nice! THANK YOU.

My little brother's nabbed my football stickers and almost claimed the chess set, the card makes me choke with laughter every time I open it, the book will finally get to see all the places it talks about but has never visited (hah), yet an0ther book will stay firmly undercover (oo the new Artemis Fowl is out!!) and the chocolate and polos will be selfishly carefully savoured for as long as possible, when I'm as far away from BTP as I've ever been. And the cake? The cake is only a distant gastric memory.

I'm sorry I couldn't oblige you with the appropriate tears (hah!), but I came home and wept for England. So there we are!

I'm extremely jealous of how much fun the Saturday kids will have without me (*pout*) and soon there will be a new Fab Four and you will be GREAT.

Also, Blogspot is weird. I may migrate to a different one soon, because I'm too dim to figure this out XD XD

And Kas, MR. POSTMAN IS GREAT.

So!

This will be my Egypt blog. Eventually. When it starts working.