Mahna, Mahna

Cake's new album, B-Sides and Rarities, is out. I like it.

Sweden, ja.

So, as I usually do sometimes, I'm trying to squeeze in 9 holes at lunch yesterday... This time I'm with the Project Manager, so we're not as hurried as I usually am. We're the back 9 today when we turn a corner heading into #16 when we see a bunch of carts up by the green and one in the middle of the fairway. I think I can make out a big tripod on the green but am not sure. Anyways, there's a short blond golfer in a skirt gets out of the cart on the fairway and proceeds to hit 4 or 5 balls onto the green... then a dude in white pants gets out on the fairway and hits some balls onto the green. The PM and I patiently waiting, a little annoyed but nothing serious. I normally would have packed it in in order to make it back to work on time, but I was with the PM...

They finally finish up and wave us up... I make an awesome tee shot and I'm in the fairway with under 100m to the pin. I semi-skull my approach and end up 15 feet over the green. But no worries, we put out and forget about golf for a bit.

The long and short of it is the group around the green is a camera crew and hosts of a Sports Editorial show in Sweden who is doing an episode on golf tourism in Egypt. We stop and chat with them for a bit, talking golf, Egypt, TV, etc... They eventually find out that we're playing squash that night though, so they get it in their head that it will be good footage to have me beating he pants (or short skirt) off the female host. I would tend to agree! So we laugh, joke, and eventually the PM and I finish our round and head back to work.

That evening we meet as usual for squash... then about half an hour in we them coming... they were serious... They show up with their full-on camera, gear, sound, 3 crew members and the hosts. A bit of a build up, some more laughing and carryin' on, and then the dude tells me to kick the girls ass at squash. She was supposedly a pretty good (semi-pro) tennis player, but anyone who knows anything about squash knows this doesn't factor in on a squash court. Now I'm a Canadian, who believes in fairplay and sportsmanship in all things... but tonight I made this cute Swedish girl run from corner to corner relentlessly. I mean I made her sweat, scream, swear, and I'm sure pray to God (but in Swedish). Unfortunately we were still on the squash court and not somewhere else, although there still may have been a camera recording it....

A brief post-game interview, some hockey talk, and more jeering from the male host and it was a wrap. Supposedly they may use the footage in their program. I'm thinking it will more likely end up on the cutting room floor, but ya never know...

Of course we met later that night for drinks and sheesha, good times were had. It was a good break in the routine, a glimmer of excitement, a mirage in the desert.

Piece out.

Peck once he goes back to work...

...........

I've downloaded The Shaun Micallef Program, season 1. Aussie humor... shocking, brilliant.

Promoted

I *heart* unsolicited promotions/raises. Merry Christmas to me!

I think I'll use this recent one to by a new mobile phone. 2-Che!

Beer Diet

New Years' resolution

I think I'll have to take up diving here pretty soon... Greg and Lisa have been out diving 3 out of 4 of the last weekends with their daughter who is visiting them. I was invited to go along but never did because I'm not certified, opting instead for housesitting for them while they were away having fun. Their description of last weekend in Sharm El Sheikh sounds pretty good, so I think in the new year I'll definitely take it up. It'll be relatively easy to burn down to Hurgahada, a 3 hour drive, on Thursday and dive all day Friday, then home Friday night for work on Saturday. I should be able to get certified easily this way and then I'll be free to book some more serious dive trips. I really should have done all this before Bryan and Patti came out for their dive trip and then I could have went with them there, but oh well. Better late than never.

Besides, Jacques-Yves Cousteau rated the Red Sea as his favourite place to dive... even above the Great Barrier. I passed on the Great Barrier, I'd better not pass on the Red Sea. I'm calling it, this is my New Years' resolution.

The best a man can get

My goatee experiment is over. It was a relatively lame example that resulted in a bad-teenaged moustache, a gap, and then a bad-teenaged chin thing.

I've shaved it off and reverted back to a University-era soul-patch for the time being. It's very popular with the Egyptian ladies (and dudes, they're very vocal of their opinions).

This recent facial hair experimentation has become possible with the purchase of an electric shaver in the Frankfurt airport back at the end of September. I used to be a shower shaver (no mirror) before that and therefore didn't have the means of precision required for letting the thigh-tickler grow. But with the purchase of the electric and the use of the mirror I was able sketch in this fine specimen pictured above. It had to eventually end, as I discovered 1 grey whisker. End of story.

P.S. I'm only accepting positive, non-offensive replies to this post. I think I've degraded myself enough above without requiring any further ridicule from you. (Yes you).

two front teef

i'm writing this post with no capital letters... don't push me, i considered no punctuation altogether and then there would have been hell to pay.

i escape from egypt on the 19th of december on flight to friendly manitoba for christmas with my dad and family, looking forward to some home cooked meals, family gatherings, and cold weather. i may be regretting the cold weather wish since i no longer own a winter coat, but whatev. then it's off to yyc on the 27th for my birthday and new years with my mom and calgary friends...

what's with the f'ing candian dollar? it reached a 50 year high yesterday... since i started this overseas work i've effectively taken a 15% pay cut due to the fact i'm paid in monopoly'esque usd's. wtf? miffed = me.

Golfing in Egypt - Egypt style

I didn't even do this as part of a bet...

Tolerable

My weekend (Thurs/Fri) was alright this week... On Thursday me and 11 others took a bus to Cairo for a "pub night" at the Canadian embassy, which turned out to be pretty fun. There was a lot of expats there, plus a pork roast bbq!! woo hoo! After the embassy we went to the Hard Rock where we ate some more and then danced for a bit once the "nightclub" started... all in all a good time. We got back to Stella around 3:30am which was a little hard because I had a golf tournament to play in at noon on Friday, but I made it up in time! Didn't play too well though which sucks, but whatev.

Friday evening I did some housesitting for fellow Canadians (the GM of the operations team, he and his wife will be here for 3-5 years)... fed his cat and dog and chilled out at his place on the beach about a 15 minute drive south of Stella Di Mare. It was great to sleep in an actual bed and not a hotel bed... Too bad we have to stay in the hotel here instead of being able to rent villas, I think it would make our stay here a lot more tolerable.

Keep on...

Ali-baba

Well, it's been a wild and crazy few days... First off the last weekend of Ramadan where we had from Friday to Monday off was a bit of a runaway, as per usual I s'pose. For those of us expats who hung around the resort we planned a tournament each day. Friday was golf, Saturday was Poker and college football (via slingbox), and Sunday was pool. I was relatively well behaved Friday and Saturday nights even though I had dressed up in my galabeya (spelling?!) to play golf... But Sunday was a little different. After he pool tournament it turned into crazy expat karaoke, followed by drunkin' room rally in my room, followed by even more drunkin' beach crashing... I only remember about a 2/3 of the evening, and I'm not proud of that either. Needless to say the sun was well up when we finally crashed and I didn't wake up until 3:30pm Monday afternoon. I'll try and post some pictures as there was a guy taking some until the wee hours... You could safely compare him to "that guy" that takes a camera to a bachelor party, I thought what happens in Egypt stays in Egypt.

So then I had a squash game lined up for Tuesday evening. So I get back to my room after work around 6pm, realise I'm running low on Egytian money so I take $400 US out of my safe and put it with my wallet so I remember to take it to work the next day to change. I leave my room at 6:25pm to play squash and return at 7:40pm to find the US cash, my Egyptian cash, and both my mobile phones gone. No signs of forced entry, but also not all "valuables" are gone, only the cash and phones. So the rest of the evening is spent convincing hotel security that I didn't just misplace it all and it didn't fall behind the desk. It all seems a little sketchy for my liking, even by Egyptian standards. I'm hoping the perp is a hotel guest who's gone now, but if it was staff then we're all f'd.

Bottom line, I'm out about $600 in mobile phone technology and $500 US equivalent in cash and an uneasy feeling leaving anything of value in my room. But where do I hide a laptop and related electronics, sunglasses, watches, personal documents, pictures, etc in a 250 square foot hotel room with a .5 cubic foot safe? Son of a... So I had to call Rogers and deactivate my YYC SIM card/number so don't bother calling that one. Mind you I've been here 8 months and the only calls I field are Scotiabank trying to sign me up for credit card insurance. I'll replace the SIM and reactivate the # at Christmas when I'm back on the continent.

I grew a goatee over the weekend (ok ok, last 2 weeks)... I don't think I like it and haven't decided if I'll share it with anyone. blah!

Ramadan

Below is a presentation that was forwarded to me via email that Shell put together for their non-Muslim employees to let them know a little about Ramadan. It has been Ramadan here in Egypt for nearly a month and it's ending this Friday... As a foreigner working in a predominantly Muslim country it has been quite the experience that I'm glad to have had. Living in a "European" style hotel run by a Coptic Christian Egyptian hasn't exactly been too effected by Ramadan, but my work environment and other interaction with Muslims has been enlightening.

This weekend, starting Friday, we get 4 days off... Some of my co-workers are taking off to Europe or other places to take a break, while me and some others are sticking around the resort. We've planned a weekend of tournaments, including golf, poker, pool, and couple others. I'm looking forward to a relaxing and fun weekend, glad to have a break from travelling...

Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Slingbox

Does anyone in Canada have access to a SlingBox connection that they want to share with me so I can watch Flames' games? One hooked up to a PVR would be prime, that way if I sleep through it I can watch it the next day...?

P p p p pleeeeaaaasssseeeee...

Europe Video - again

Here is the video again through blogger in case you can't access YouTube.

Europe Vid

Here's a quick video compliation I put together of the recent trip to Prague. Sort of amateur, but whatever. Enjoy...

Eastern Europe Pics

Here's a link to about 50 pics from the Europe trip on Facebook... hope you can get to Facebook from work...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56093&l=a12f0&id=666980653

Insert Homer Simpson scream here.

From: Amani.Shenouda@dfat.gov.au [mailto:Amani.Shenouda@dfat.gov.au]
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 1:09 PM
Subject: <> [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

The travel advice for Egypt has been reviewed and reissued. It contains
new information in the Summary and under Terrorism (Israeli government
warns of very high risk of attack and kidnapping in the Sinai at this
time). The overall level of the advice has not changed.
The full text of the revised advisory on Egypt can be found on the internet
at: http://www.smartraveller.gov.au
Please find below the text of the Summary & Terrorism sections of the
Travel Advice:
Summary:
We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Egypt because of the
high threat of terrorist attack. Attacks could occur at any time, anywhere
in Egypt.
Tourist areas and popular destinations such as Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan,
Giza, Alexandria, Red Sea and Sinai resorts, Upper Egypt and places
throughout the rest of Egypt are potential terrorist targets, as are
commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners. We
continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against a
range of targets, including but not limited to places frequented by
foreigners. These include tourist resorts and hotels, transport
infrastructure, including the Cairo metro system and its stations, and
other symbols of the Egyptian government.

Pics from Europe 2007

Here is a quick link to some pics from the trip... I'll post more and some stories afte some sleep (and golf).

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56093&l=a12f0&id=666980653

Praha 1

Back in Prague, 2nd time in 2 years (I think, the first time is a little cloudy). Not much has changed, it's a lot busier here this time with it being high season... Jagr's bar is closed, it's now an Irish pub/sports bar. The other change is I'm staying at a full-on hostel this time too, which we did a bit of in Krakow but never shared a room with anyone. This time we are, 2 bunks out of 6 in 1 room. How come the more money I make the cheaper places I stay?? Haha, so far it's alright and has been a good way to meet a couple younger people. We'll see what I say tomorrow after listening to 5 other donkeys snore and toss and turn. It's friggin' cheap tho, I'll give it that.

We're thinking of Berlin in a couple days, we're thinking we'd like to see "the wall" since Munich is likely going Oktoberfest crazy with drunken brits, which we also experienced in Poland. No complaints though, just sayin'.

Anyways, enough key clackin', back to the streets!