Noodles

Finally, some emotion on the Flames' part in this series. Not exactly the most tactful response, but hopefully they follow it up on the ice tonight.

Austria eh?

There's a giant (tall) Austrian girl named Ann stalking me at the hotel. Normally this would be a good thing but I'm scared. She drinks white wine like it's apple juice and the tree trunk's she carries herself around on could have me tapping out after round 1.

Sweden, eh?

Shot a 37 tonight after work... that followed up a mediocre weekend round of 85. I know most of you don't care, but to break 40 on semi-regular basis is an accomplishment for me.

Had a good weekend as well. Thursday we went golfing after work as usual, then went for dinner with the golf pro from the course and two visiting Swedish female golf pros. We went to a seafood restaurant 15 minutes up the road where we picked our fish from coolers on the counter... we literally filled a table for four full of seafood with fish, snapper, calamari, and prawns (shrimp), all for 400 EGP, or about $70 USD. A steal of a deal. After dinner we headed back to Calle's place for a few more drinks, then off the "nightclub". At another hotel here in the complex there is a "disco"... we were 4 of maybe 20 in the whole place. Overall it was a good night, and a welcome variation to the norm.

Friday was good too. Started off the day with a round of golf, then went on a 3 hour snorkeling tour on a boat with 10 other people from work and their families, then had a tennis match at 5pm. Needless to say I was a little bagged by the time I got to tennis, so Juan beat me around the court... Next time we play he told me to stay home and rest before.

Now it's Saturday evening, and I'm waiting for to use Overmann's friend's slingbox to watch the Flames' game. Very nice.

Missing Oz

I've been listening to Triple J, a radio station in Australia, at work a bit lately and it's totally making me miss Australia. I miss the music scene in Brissie, surf, humidity, the accents, food, people, and walking to work.

Ain Sukhna Open

I played 9 holes after work last night...

#10 Par 4, shot 4, even

#11 Par 5, shot 6, +1

#12 Par 3, shot 4, +2

#13 Par 4, shot 4, +2

#14 Par 4, shot 4, +2

#15 Par 5, shot 5, +2

#16 Par 4, shot 2, even -- had a good drive with about 50m to go and one hopped a sand wedge over water into the hole.

#17 Par 3, shot 3, even

#18 Par 4, shot 5, +1 -- on in regulation, but left the par putt on the lip.

Result: a +1 37 on the back 9. 2 bogies and an eagle. Best ever.

Now the goal is to shoot 37 without fluking an eagle on a par 4...

Sling

I managed to watch the Calgary vs. Detroit game 2 live. It was on at 1pm ET, which is only 6 hours behind me, so it was on at 7pm here. I did this by borrowing a friend of a friend's "Slingbox" connection. Basically it is connected to a person's cable box and computer/internet in Canada, and then you can watch it over the internet from anywhere in the world. It was sweet, except that we lost badly again.

If anyone out there has one, or is thinking about getting one, man would I like to watch it sometime... The 2 English channels I get here show episodes of stuff from 2 years ago. Plus there's no CBC for hockey, no TSN for curling or baseball, no Late Night with Conan...

Rome Pics

Here are some pictures of my trip to Rome in April 2007. We had 5 days off of work in Egypt so me, James, and Alisha decided to take a quick trip to Rome. We rented an apartment near the Vatican and saw pretty much most of the center of the city while we were there. There was a lot of walking, eating, drinking, shopping, and looking at old stuff. Being Easter it was relatively busy everywhere we went, especially the Vatican on Sunday and Monday.

Here we are the door to the apartment waiting for the lady with the key:
Looking left from the door, towards the Vatican:
Looking out our back window at a wall that connects the Vatican with Castle Saint Angelo:
Went for pizza and Peroni right away:

Piazza Del Popolo:

Rome Pics

Inside Saint Peter's Basilica:
Outside:
They were busy setting up all the chairs for Sunday's services:

Inside again:

Rome Pics

A statue somewhere in Rome:
The Pantheon:

Trevi Fountain:

Rome Pics

Piazza Navona, I bought a painting from this guy:
Piazza Navona:
Foro Romano:

Rome Pics

The view from Palatino:
A fountain in front of our apartment:
Fori Imperalli:
Palatino:
Piazza Venezia:

Rome Pics

Lunch near the Colleseum:

Inside Colosseo:

Gladiators outside Colosseo:

Rome Pics

Italians sunning themselves on Isola Tibernia:

Dayun

I've told my mom, so now I can tell you guys... I went on a trip to Suez a few weeks ago on a motorcycle hunting trip. I enlisted a couple Egyptians that I work with to be my escorts and negotiators because everything in Egypt is cheaper if you're Egyptian. Suez is about a 40 minute drive north of work, so we burned up there in no time. We checked out a couple "motorbike" stores and finally settled on one in run an old shrew'ish dude. There wasn't a lot of choice, and nothing over 150cc's, whish is probably better for my safety sake (reference motorbike incident in Vietnam). After a bit of haggling I picked up the beaut below for a skinny 3800 Egyptian Pounds, or roughly $675US. Not too shabby. I took the boys out for a celebratory seafood dinner (best meal in Egypt so far). Part of the deal was delivery to the resort where we're staying. So we went back to the joint, loaded the bike in a pick-up (after helping change the rear left tire), and then followed the guy back to the Stella Di Mare (home).

After smuggling it through security, it stays neatly parked right outside the main hotel entrance. Security keeps a close eye on it, and in return I let the security guards take it for a burn around the parking lot every once in awhile. This has been a good arrangement so far except for the guy who ran it into a wall on the 3rd day I owned it. Just scratches though, give it character and a story!

I mostly use to get back and forth between my hotel and the golf course... short shopping trips... and to show off to any Czech girls hanging out front of my hotel.

Roma

Has anyone told you I'm going to Rome this weekend? Well, it's true. We get April 5-9th off and a couple that I work with (James & Alisha) thought it would be a good idea to check out Rome. They asked me to tag along, and it was either that or golf for 4 days straight. So off we go. I booked a flight on Egypt Air from Cairo to Rome for $366 USD. Not too shabby... We've also booked an apartment, so the weekend is shaping up. The apartment is in the middle of Rome, right in the heart of the city where most of the cool stuff is.

I'm looking forward to it. It'll be a good break away from work and the monotony of life at the Stella Di Mare.

Any news from anyone out there?