There is no fun in doing nothing...

...when you have nothing to do. It was Jerome K Jerome who said this, and I have come to realise just how right he was. Regular readers will know that I gave up my job at the school in case I got a job quickly or had to go anywhere for interviews. Until now, I had no idea how important it is for me to have too much to do, in order to achieve anything at all. It's amazing how little you can achieve when you've got plenty of time to achieve it. I've got plenty I could be doing. I'm trying to write one book, and I'm thinking of writing another which will require lots of research. Some parts of the apartment need a good clean - for example the cupboard in the bathroom needs to be cleaned out before I can put the clean towels in it. I have had hours spare where I could have done this - but I haven't. I'm also looking for a job back in the UK, and, in theory at least, I'm trying to learn Arabic. Absolutely none of these projects is progressing in any way that could be considered 'progress'.

So, when I get to the end of the day, what have I spent all that time doing? Well a lot of it is sleeping. I know I like my sleep, but even I'm shocked by how much time I can waste sleeping. Or in that semi-doze state where you're not quite asleep and not quite awake. I spend a lot of time on the internet, doing nothing particularly useful. I check Facebook. I play Words with Friends, Pointless and Alphabetty Saga. I watch YouTube videos of my favourite Strictly Come Dancing dances. I eat too much and drink too much tea. I wander to the shops to buy more fruit and somehow chocolate ends up in my basket too.

So I decided to take some action today. I applied for four jobs. I have researched learning a language online (I found italki - supposed to be brilliant) and I also bought a course on how to write creative non-fiction. Of course, this latter purchase may just be another form of procrastination, after all if I'm doing a course on writing, it means I'm not actually writing. I also did some cooking. Yes! Real cooking! I made a stew. It's good to have a sense of achievement.

I also seem to have signed up to attend about 16 Christmas Bazaars. Given that Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country, it's amazing how many of these are happening. There's the German one, the Swiss one, the European one, the CSA one..... I think it might be an idea to start prioritising Christmas Bazaars, but it looks like my Christmas shopping isn't going to be an issue. I'm also going to a Thanksgiving dinner! And a book sale. There is such a lot to do in Cairo, it's amazing really.

However the best thing that happened today is that my best friend in Cairo asked me if I wanted to go for a coffee this week. This is the person who is largely responsible for how rich my life has become here in Cairo. Which is one of the primary reasons that I don't want to have to go and work somewhere else. Sigh.   

My heart, it bleeds

Blog posts are obviously like buses. You don't get one for weeks, and then suddenly two come along at once.  The title of this blog (specifically its grammatical structure) is a reference to the problems Arab students of English have with tenses, and also with the combination of possessive pronouns with the nominative 'it' (I know, I know, ever the teacher).

My heart does bleed though. It bleeds for all the people who have died because of horrific terrorist attacks. It bleeds for the people of Egypt because of the catastrophic impact this continues have on the already depressed tourist trade, the lifeblood of this country. There is no unemployment benefit in Egypt. If you lose your job, you can't feed your family. It's that simple. It bleeds for the Syrians who have had their country stolen by murderous terrorists who have the gall to attribute it to religion. Specifically it bleeds for the Syrian refugee hairdresser I met in Hurghada, who has not seen his family for three years and has little prospect of seeing them in the forseeable future. So he ekes out a living pampering rich tourists who are frequently obnonxious and disdainful. And make no mistake about it. We are rich in comparison, in financial terms as well as political stability, social welfare, education... I could go on. I witnessed one such person who was unfortunately British being extremely rude to the Syrian refugee hairdresser. If my head hadn't been covered in hair dye, and my sister hadn't had her face covered in a "soothing mask", we agreed that we would have rushed out to have a word, Scottish style naturally!  

My heart bleeds for me too, and my new family here in Cairo. Because of the devastating impact of these things on the Egyptian tourist sector, I'm going to have to seek work outside Egypt for a short period. Some of you may wonder why I bothered to move to Cairo at all given I am now going back to the UK. I don't see it like that though. As far as I am concerned, Cairo is now my home. I live in Cairo. I will just be working somewhere else for a while. I'll admit that it's a bit of a long commute, but the more I mix with the expat/immigrant population in Cairo, the more I realise that such arrangements are not as uncommon as one might think. Having lived and worked in one country my whole life, moving to Cairo has made me realise what a cloistered existence it is. Of course there's nothing at all wrong with this; it's the norm and the vast majority of people in the UK live and work for their entire lives in the same country. I think it's the realisation that there are other ways of living that can be equally successful that has been a bit of a revelation to me.

The two things about this situation that upset me most are firstly that I will have to spend time apart from A. Now we have found each other it seems cruel that we have to do this. Secondly, I have had to give up the teaching. I couldn't agree to do another semester knowing that I might have to leave half way through it or fly back to the UK for interviews. I was only at the school for 3 months but I loved every minute of it and I'm already missing it. All of you who know me though know that aside from my main ethos in life ("To thine own self be true") I also firmly believe that every cloud (EVERY cloud) has a silver lining. This cloud actually has several, and the one that is at the forefront of my mind is that this will allow me to build up some money and enable me to open my own school here in Cairo eventually. When A mentioned this ages ago I thought it seemed like an impossible dream, but the more I think about it the more it seems like a possibility.

Another fantastic view from my wonderful balcony

Of course there are many other silver linings. I will get to see much more of my family and friends, and my dog. I'll have decent WiFi. I'll be able to watch British TV without incurring exorbitant data download costs. I can have the Cairo sun but still have a bacon butty on the Sunday mornings when I'm in Britain.

But still. My heart, it bleeds.

Counting my achievements (part 2)

I've mentioned the organisation Internations before, kind of LinkedIn for expats. Internations is responsible for several of my happiest achievements since I arrived in Cairo. I joined the writing group and the reading group. The reading group was a bit of a no brainer, being an avid reader as I am. The writing group though was a significant move out of my comfort zone. I know I can write, but the vast majority of my writing has been business related (or letters of complaint that I rarely sent). I knew I had to start writing for the tour company website though so I thought, what the hell? And joined. 

The fact that I went to the first meeting at all was because one of the group consuls contacted me before I even got to Cairo. He was so friendly and welcoming that the scary prospect of going to meet a load of new people (proper writers at that) didn't seem quite so scary. By the time I went to the first meeting I had started writing this blog, so I had something I had actually written to read to the group.

There have been so many positive outcomes from that meeting. My blog was well received and gave me confidence to continue writing. Most importantly though, I met a wonderful group of people. Some of them (you know who you are) are becoming not just good friends but close friends. Psychologically, this is a huge step for me in settling into Cairo - to have made some real friends. Through the support and encouragement of this group I have also expanded my writing and have written something that isn't my blog (watch this space). I'm thinking about another writing project too but we'll see how it goes.

Learning Arabic has proved to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated, mainly due to the weird working hours at the school. So although this couldn't be considered one of my biggest achievements, I was thinking the other day how many Arabic words I actually know, and there are more than I realised. Off the the top of my head I know the Arabic for yes, no, thank you, good morning, good evening, ok, right, let's go, tomorrow, now, husband, son, father, mother, sister, brother, house, girl, sun and tea. There are probably more that I've forgotten. It's amazing how far these few words can get you. Learning Arabic properly is still a major objective but I do seem to be acquiring words, even if it is slowly.

As promised in my last blog, I am now sitting here thinking about things that haven't gone so well. I must be in a positive frame of mind, because I can't think of that many, really, and those I can think of are about the transition to a completely different culture and being away from all my family and friends. The things that repeatedly make me want to bang my head off a wall are the quality of the internet here, and the fluid concept of time. I was back in the north of Scotland last week with my parents. While I was briefly living with them before I moved here, I moaned like mad about their crap broadband and actually complained to BT (who, to be fair, did actually respond positively). Now their broadband seems incredibly speedy and reliable in comparison to the dire service here in Egypt. In fact, my students at the school frequently ask me what I think of the internet here (accompanied by a sarcastic laugh). 

I have mentioned the fluidity of time before, and I think I'm actually starting to get used to it. For example, apparently my dishwasher is arriving this week. If it actually arrives this week then I'll probably faint with the shock. We have a cable for the land line that will be installed at some unspecified time in the future. We're expecting hand made Egyptian cotton fitted sheets. At some point. Apparently they are actually made, they just haven't been delivered.

Looking back over the last three months, I would say this transition has been about as difficult as I expected, although not necessarily in the ways I was expecting. I realised when I landed back in Cairo after my fleeting visit to the UK that Cairo is definitely becoming home for me. My relationship with A goes from strength to strength. We haven't had the easiest of starts and there have been some real challenges. But we got through these. I'm pretty sure we have many more challenges to come, but at the moment I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.