We've moved and everything is perfect! I wish.

Goodness me it's been 3 days since I posted. This is partly because of the moving, and partly because getting stable communications in the apartment has been rather trying. I've got a dongle though and whilst it's not quite up to BT Infinity standards of reliability and speed (I will never moan about BT again as long as I live), it will do for now. There is no broadband in the apartment because there is no phone line. This, like many other things in Egypt, seems quite hard to obtain. 

Anyway. I'm absolutely amazed to report that my blog posts have been read 577 times since I started posting. I started this blog mainly so I could keep all my friends up to date on my move to Cairo, as some of them either don't use Facebook or never look at it. So it fills me with delight that so many people have read it. It's also proving to be quite therapeutic for me, getting the trials and tribulations off my chest and sharing the triumphs.

I'd love to post that it's all fabulous, the move went without a hitch and our apartment is completely perfect, although you'd probably not believe me, because what in life does go like that? The truth is I have found these last three days a bit of a roller coaster. As some of you know, I have a trait called Sensory Processing Sensitivity, which basically means my senses are a bit - well - oversensitive. I do honestly wonder sometimes if I have bitten off more that I can chew with this move, because at the moment I feel in a constant state of sensory overload and completely overwhelmed. Naively, I thought that once we moved to the apartment everything would be fine, but of course that just presented a whole new set of challenges. Wonderful though my apartment is, there is a lot to do in it. There is air conditioning only in our bedroom and the lounge, but it can't be used in the lounge because at the moment it has no door. So with temperatures in the mid-forties these last few days, the choices are melt or stay in the bedroom. We also have no furniture in the lounge at the moment. The airconditioning from the flat above causes a flood on our terrace. A flood! Mind you I've put the lemon tree under it so I don't have to remember to water it. Every cloud...

On the plus side, I went to Carrefour at Cairo Fesitval City Mall and spent £430 on household items. Gosh it was such fun! Aside from my newly found skill of buying pillowcases which don't fit the pillows, I bought lots of really cool stuff, and some boring stuff too, but even that was good fun. I never knew buying spoons could be enjoyable. Of course, this is one of the best things about Carrefour - you can get all this stuff from the same shop. It's not actually particularly cheap, but it's certainly convenient and practically everything is in English as well as Arabic. Luckily, I had my two slaves with me who I had bribed with hot chocolate from Starbuck's. Mohamed has never been to Starbuck's, so I managed to introduce him to something in his own country.

Mohamed and Baha in Carrefour

I constantly feel drawn to Cairo Festival City Mall. I think it's because it's so similar to what I'm used to, it means I don't have to think about what I'm doing. I don't think I underestimated how hard this move was going to be, and god knows I did enough research to prepare myself, but it is hard, I can't deny it. The simplest things have become difficult. It would be so easy to stay in the apartment and not try doing hard stuff (which used to be easy), but then I would just become a prisoner in the apartment. 

The other problem is I feel under constant pressure from all sides (including myself) not to admit how bad I sometimes feel. I don't want A and Mohamed to think that I don't want to be with them, because nothing could be further from the truth. I don't want to tell my family and friends because I know they are already worried and I really don't want to make them worry more. But dear god how I miss them all. This is why the connectivity issues are such a problem, because not being able to WhatsApp my Mum, my sister, my closest friends, plunges me into a disproportionate downward spiral of despair. I can say with certainty that I really did not appreciate how good our WiFi is in the UK until now.

I read this post again 24 hours later, with the intention of deleting most of it. I wrote it at 3am when I couldn't sleep and things felt too overwhelming. I've decided to leave it as it is and post it even though it's difficult. And, what a difference a day makes as someone once said. In the interests of not making this post too long, I'll save my news for my next post although those of you on Facebook will already know it by now. Oh ok I'll tell you - I've got a job!