Pyramis Isis Island resort

I have been home for three days now and have been informed that I have to start showing some of my photos from my trip to Egypt before I get too comfortable. I still haven't downloaded my photos from my camera, so here are some more that I have taken with the Blackberry. After our Nile Cruise, we spent a relaxing week at this all-inclusive resort on Isis Island. It was a welcome relief after a very busy five days of touring Pyramids, Temples and tombs. We were able to hang by the pool, read from their on-site library and soak in the peace and quiet  that this place had in abundance. We could walk completely around the island and enjoy the wonderful flowers, or  watch the birds and animals that lived along the river. We really enjoyed our stay here. It was so good for the soul.
   

View of the Nile from our balcony (right hand side)

View from our balcony (left hand side)

View from the dock in front of our hotel

After a few days of solitude, we were able to book a tour to Abu Simbel, one of the great wonders of the world. (You will get to see pictures later). It was a full day's excursion with a guided tour bus, as it is a 3 hour drive from Aswan. We also went by river taxi on our own to Kitchener Island to spend an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens. We also took a boat city-side to spend a morning on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel. The Old Cataract is very posh (comparable to the Ritz in London or the Empress Hotel in Victoria). We were too early to have 'Tea". so we settled for a tall cold glass of guava juice. Though these smaller excursions in Aswan were unguided, we felt perfectly safe. 

View from one of the two pools on the property

The sailboats in Egypt are called felucas, and yes we were able to sail on one. We looked forward to watching the school children pass by in river boats on their way home from school in Aswan. They were always singing and clapping on the boats and waving  to us on the island on their way by. So I will leave Egypt for a little while now, to report on my doings since I have come back.

I have completely unpacked and have done up two large loads of laundry and hung them out on my clothesline outdoors. Ya-a-ay! It really hasn't been that warm, but the last two days were sunny and breezy and perfect weather for drying. I have folded those two loads and another that was waiting in the basket, and put them away. 

I am mostly caught up with all my emails and blogs and  have left comments on some. The only things left are the You tube videos I subscribe to, but they can wait. 

I have looked after some end-of-the-month bills that are due, by paying them on-line. 

I cleaned the litter box downstairs and washed out the dog's bowls.

Both the  kitchen and the downstairs bath have had a good clean. 

I emptied the kitchen compost. I usually take out the garbage and the Blue Box, but my Sweetie Pie did that for me last night. Yay!

Tomorrow I would like to vacuum through the house, make some birthday cards for April and May, and then make up my room-by-room lists for decluttering and Spring cleaning. But I will be back to share more photos with you. I want this happy feeling to last a very long time. 

I am back safe and sound

I am back. I hadn't planned on writing first thing this morning but I will write this short post to assure you that all is well. Having being alerted to the hijacking of an Egyptair aircraft yesterday (the day that coincidentally we were also flying home on an Egyptair airliner), I have decided that I must at least let everyone know that it wasn't OUR plane. We arrived in Toronto Pearson airport yesterday morning and I took the Megabus to Kingston from 11:40 AM to 3:15 PM. My Sweetie Pie bought us pizza and I was in bed sleeping by 8 PM (2 AM Cairo time), so I was just plain worn out and exhausted. So I didn't get any news until I woke up this morning. Access to the internet was very sporadic while we were travelling, so I was unable to send posts to Blogger as I had hoped, so over the next few days I will try to send out some photos and stories of our adventures. In the meantime, know that we felt very safe while we were there. We felt pampered like Egyptian goddesses. The Egyptians are very friendly and were always concerned that we felt both safe and happy and that we were having a wonderful time during our stay.

The Temple of Philae in Aswan

Sonesta St. George

Some pictures of our Nile Cruise Ship. I have noticed that my last post has completely disappeared, so I will only write a little and hope our WiFi improves. The cruise ship was very elegant and "Old World" looking....

Reminded me of the Titanic.  Meals were absolutely scrumptious. We were always on the go. There were tours at least once, sometimes twice a day. There was also entertainment on board in the evenings...so much fun. We have seen so much, but I will give better descriptions when I get back.

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Luxor

Most of my photos from Luxor are actually on my digital  camera so I am unable to show them to you until I get home. But we began the day with a 4:30 wake up call, a boxed breakfast, and a boat ride across the Nile to the West side for an hour's hot air balloon ride. It was absolutely incredible. The photos taken from the air are on my other camera. We did a "sugar kiss", which meant that we got down so low, we were able to touch the tops of the sugar cane as we passed over. We were able to see down into the open floors at the tops of houses where they kept chickens, goats, donkeys, and other livestock. We saw the tombs and Temples from a different perspective. We also flew so high that our ears popped with the change of altitude. We saw fields of bananas, wheat, and lots of sugar cane. When we came down for a landing, we came down close to a school, so we were surrounded by the students who were looking for any baksheesh.  Unfortunately, I hadn't realized we would run into any children on this outing, so I left all my pens and candy back on the Cruise ship. 

This was a very full day. After the hot air balloon ride, we joined the rest of our tour group to explore the Temples and tombs from the ground. We rejoined the ship for lunch at 1 PM, and set sail for Edfu. We were able to sleep that afternoon. I am sure everyone in our tour group DID. Afternoon tea was always served on the top open sun deck around 4:30 every afternoon, if we happened to be on board. And dinner was served at 8 o'clock every evening. Meals always were much later than what we were used to. So it seemed strange to us to be heading off the ship after tea, at 5:30 (sunset), to be touring the Temple of Edfu. But it wouldn't be the last time that happened. A lot of the Temples are lit up at night. When we go back to Cairo, we will go to one of the light and sound shows that are so very popular. 

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First days in Egypt

I have discovered that I can compose some emails so that when I do get lucky and find some WiFi, they will be sent. So let me say that I loved flying with Egyptair......lots of flight attendants......lots of food and drink served. Each passenger received a pillow and blanket at no charge. We were presented with a travel pack containing tension stockings, sleep mask, earbuds to watch the movies, travel toothbrush and toothpaste. The flight was 11 hours. When we landed, we were greeted by an agent who took care of everything for us........luggage, customs, travel visa, and transportation. We went immediately on tour in Giza to see the Great. Pyramid and the Sphinx. And yes, we went on a camel ride.

We had a short visit of Cairo with a lovely lunch of  various Egyptian starters and a grilled plate of various meats and vegetables.  We watched a demonstration of papyrus being made from start to finish. At the end of the day, we were taken to the train station for the overnight sleeper to Luxor. Dinner was brought to our room and our beds were made up. We slept really well until 4:30 when we were awakened. Breakfast was served and we arrived in Luxor at 5:30. Again, we were met by a guide who took us to the Cruise ship on the Nile. I will talk more about Luxor next time. It was absolutely breath taking.

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Sonesta St. George

Our Nile cruise ship is very luxurious and Old World. It reminds me of the grandeur of the Titanic but on a much smaller scale. The chandelier is two stories tall and the staircase is a lovely handpainted mural. The meals are too die for. Would you believe each stateroom has a whirlpool tub?  I am so enjoying this cruise so far. We only set sail yesterday at lunchtime, even though we have been on board since the morning before. We have been on so many tours and have seen so much history. It truly is a trip to remember for the rest of my life. Lovin' it and would highly recommend. The Egyptians are lovely and friendly, especially the children. They are always blowing us kisses.

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Spending overnight in Toronto

I took the airport shuttle from Kingston to the front door of the hotel where we will be spending the night. The one way fare cost me 50 dollars, which is an incredible bargain.....no driving through the crazy rush hour traffic, and right to the door delivery.  My Sweetie couldn't drive here and back for less than 50 dollars. 

I never realized that our room was a housekeeping unit. I would have brought my dinner with me to heat up. I don't know if there is a grocery store close by, or I would pick up a couple of things to cook or make a sandwich. "D" hasn't arrived yet. She may not get here until after 10 o'clock, so I have gone ahead and ordered from Boston pizza for delivery. I am having an individual pizza with a tossed salad for $25., which negates all the savings from the shuttle drive. But I was starving when I got here, and I didn't feel like wondering around a strange neighborhood. Also, I didn't bring a jacket with me to save me having to pack one. 

Tonight I will watch some TV while waiting for "D" to arrive. Since we will be on the Nile cruise almost immediately upon arrival, We may not have WiFi until around March 18th. I will write when I can.

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Accomplishments today

So after emptying the dishwasher of last night's dishes, I sat down to my computer with my coffee and cereal. 

There was a message from Natalie with some advice on how I might post to my blog using email. I messed about with that for about an hour (not because her notes weren't clear, but because of the operator) Anyways, when it turned out successful, I was pumped. Rather than waste any more time with it, I decided to get some work done. I will try to send pictures  with this post. One thing at a time.

I chopped up what was left of two bunches of celery for the freezer.

I cut up, boiled, and mashed 5 pounds of turnip for dinner tonight and the rest also went in the freezer.

I fried up two pounds of ground beef with onion, carrot, and celery. I made gravy with my homemade brown gravy mix, and added that to the meat for three meals of mince and gravy. Two went into the freezer, and one will be dinner tonight with a serving of mashed turnip and leftover potatoes from two nights ago.

I added more stuff to my luggage (oh no) and repacked my purse including scanned copies of my travel documents, passport, out-of-country insurance, my itinerary, etc. I have also left copies for here at home.

As "D" said to me this morning, "It's a good thing we are finally leaving tomorrow so we don't end up packing and repacking anymore." If we leave anything behind.....too bad.

I made a few phone calls.  

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This is a test.

I would like to figure out a way that I could send updates from my BlackBerry.

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I am trying to figure out if there is a way to post blogs from my Blackberry and have wasted several hours trying. I don't think it can be done. I have tried to go through Bing, Google and Yahoo, but it won't let me sign in. I see where other users have asked in the on-line foums if it can be done. It doesn't appear to have an answer. I might try tomorrow to see how I am able to communicate while I am away. Right now I am beyond frustrated. 

I baked a second batch of dog biscuits yesterday and I repacked everything in the two bags I am taking....one pullman and one carry on. We may not see our pullman until we board the ship, so I have to pack my carry on accordingly. 

Doggie biscuits

This morning I dyed my hair and did a load of laundry.  I also baked cookies. I ran out of chocolate chips, so I baked Hootycreek biscuits with white chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cranberries. I also found a roll of refrigerator cookies in the freezer (from Xmas) called peanut butter chocolate pinwheels. I sliced up the roll and baked those up as well. 

Peanut butter chocolate pin wheels

White chocolate and cranberry hootycreek biscuits

I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and a couple of stores to visit for two of my most important items to take to Egypt with me....... a pair of polarized sunglasses and  some 60 SPF sunscreen. I have the rest of my lotions and potions packed, but am considering removing some of them because of the weight. Ha. ha. I will check with "D" to see if we are duplicating any items. 

My son and his GF look after their own meals, so I have done little in the line of cooking to prepare for my departure. I have a small container of chili con carne, a cooked pork loin, and mince and gravy. Otherwise my Sweetie can look after himself. We have sausages, hot dogs, Kraft dinner, and lots of canned goods. He won't starve. 

Only two more sleeps. I am getting excited. 

Domestic Monday....Again?

Sheesh! You mean I have to clean all over again? I am not sure I am liking this. At least I have a project to work towards, before I get sidelined again. That is what generally happens here. I am putting out fires or I am flitting from job to job. It feels like I never get anything crossed off my list, even though I feel like I am working hard.

So while my kettle boils in the morning, I generally put away last night's dishes from the dishwasher. After breakfast this morning, I took everything off my counters and scrubbed them down, putting dirty dishes back into the dishwasher as I went.

I made Easter cards over the weekend, so I needed to find the last roll of postage stamps that I bought, so they will be ready to mail out before I leave this Friday. I couldn't find the stamps that were supposed to be in the mess we call the top drawer of the desk, so I proceeded to empty everything in it. I found the stamps about half-way through, but I kept going until I had purged all the non-essential items from the drawer. There was a huge stack of papers and documents that needed to be shredded, so I sat there and ran them through the shredder.

I went back to the kitchen to make a batch of my Miracle Clean. My spray bottle in the kitchen was nearly out after cleaning the glass cook top and counters this morning. Also the bottle in my laundry room has mysteriously disappeared. I refilled four spray bottles with my new cleaner. When I took a new spray bottle of cleaner up to the laundry room, I decided to throw a huge load of towels in the washer. I will throw them in the dryer after 7 o'clock tonight. I also emptied the waste baskets upstairs and brought all the trash downstairs to the garbage cans outside.

Back in the kitchen, I decided to make the first of two batches of dog biscuits. While they were baking in the oven, I made more Seasoning Salt which I had run out of. I took some frozen hamburger out of the freezer to "make something" for dinner tonight.

I decided to make two more Easter cards and print out some verses and sentiments for the insides of the cards from my printer. That way, I will only need to sign my name. I usually write each of the kids a personal note inside, but not this time. I will probably address them tonight while watching the television. I also made a list of things I need to accomplish this week in preparation for the trip. (dye my hair, last minute things to pack, scan and print my travel documents, etc.) The chocolate chip cookies I made on Friday are gone already. My Sweetie was looking for some after lunch. I would like to make some more sometime this week, if I have time.

My son and I went into the attic to move things around to make more room, and then carried in more bins of items for storage. That is a big job done. There will be more I'm sure before we are finished.

I cleaned out the litter box downstairs AGAIN. My son is responsible for the one upstairs. I will leave you a picture of Brucie (short for Bruce Willis) lying on a table in the sun and using the cat tower as a headrest. I will show Nathalie that our cats are just as cute and adorable as hers. Notice we still have snow.

Little Brucie enjoying the warm rays while giving me the evil eye. 

In my suitcase so far....

On our day excursions to the archaeological digs, capris are recommended. They are not form fitting and they cover the knees. Jeans may be too hot in the desert sun (although I will have the pair that I will travel in. I also own some capris already, so I may bring one of those pairs as well. I will definitely bring a small amount of  laundry powder to wash out some pieces, if there is no laundry services. We will be in Egypt for 16 days. 

Capris that I bought from Value Village

Long skirts mid-calf....just the black tulip skirt. I think I have already decided against the brown one. 

The black skirt is longer and more "formal" looking. The brown one will take too much space to pack. I bought both of these at the Thrift store. The black one I can wear out to dinner  on board the cruise, or shopping at the markets in Cairo, or into the mosques with a pair of footless tights or leggings. If I have room, I may bring the brown one as most of  the tops I am packing, will also go with the brown skirt. 

Light coloured 100% cotton camp shirts with elbow length or 3/4 length sleeves for casual wear.

Casual 3/4 sleeve top of cotton and polyester blend and a long sleeved 100% cotton Tee.

In my purse I could throw in the long sleeved T shirt and black footless tights that I bought in WalMart, in case I need to put them on under my clothes to be completely covered when entering a Mosque. If I don't need them in Egypt, I will certainly wear them in a typical Canadian winter. 

I bought black rubber sandals for the shower, water's edge and to act as my indoor slippers. I will also pack black flats, black leather sandals, and black trainers. In the back are black footed tights and a pair of black leggings to go under  skirts. I think now I will only pack one pair of tights. 

Long palazzo pants with chiffon overlay  (formal attire)

I could wear this one or two nights for dinner on the 4-night cruise ship on the Nile. 

2 long-sleeved tunic tops to wear with black skirt.

I bought both of these tops from Value Village. I love them both. They will pair nicely with the black skirt for a  dressier look. 

Two sleeveless shirts can be worn with long sleeve cover ups with the palazzos. 

The black cover up is a light knit sweater which is recommended in case the evenings are cool. The plum print is a tank top, which matches the palazzos, covered with the same white tunic. I could also wear the tank top with PJ pants to sleep in. I will also be bringing one white and one black cotton tank top to wear under  my shirts if I need more modesty (and also for sleeping)

Scarves.

The first one is brown with plum paisley print. The second is my swimsuit sarong, and the third one is a beautiful red silk scarf on loan from a friend of mine for this trip  I am bringing my swimsuit in case the resort in Luxor has a pool, or if we travel to a beach area.  

I will be bringing socks to wear inside my trainers, a camera with extra batteries, a dual voltage adapter and the rest of my luggage will be what my Sweetie calls my lotions and potions. I only want to bring one pullman and one carry-on. I think I can do it. If something has to go, it will be the palazzo pants and plum tank top. I can change up my wardrobe with those scarves. 

So there you have it. This is my Egyptian wardrobe. Besides that, I hear they sell some beautiful things there, if I NEED to buy something. 

 

Domestic Wednesday

Nathalie of Imperfectly Frugally  challenged (invited) me to partake in Domestic Monday. Of course I couldn't do it Monday because my Sweetie and I left here at 4:30 A.M. for Toronto General Hospital for some tests and a visit with the vascular surgeon. We got back late in the afternoon and I promptly went to bed to catch up on my beauty sleep. Nothing was accomplished that day. The results of the appointment were disappointing in one way. Surgery will not correct the problem. But the good news is that my Sweetie has 100% blood flow to his legs, so physio will help him, and therefore things may improve with less pain and more stamina. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had to buckle down and get two birthday cards made and in the mail. I have been remiss the past two months in getting my birthday cards out in time. 

So today was the day to try and get some housework done. Here is what I accomplished.

• Vacuumed the living room, dining room, kitchen and front room.
• Unloaded the dishwasher of last night's dishes and loaded it up again
• Washed the inside and outside of micro wave oven and the outside of the electric kettle.
• Washed the "ick"  from the inside rim of the dishwasher door with old toothbrush
• Washed the counters, cooktop and kitchen sink
• Folded a load of laundry from last night's dryer
• Made a stir fry for dinner using the leftover pork loin from yesterday

Doesn't sound like I accomplished too much on the "domestic" front. But on the renovation side of things, I helped my son cover the furniture with drop cloths and did the fine sanding of gyproc waiting to be primed. I also helped my Sweetie hang a new bedroom door. The new hinges had to be moved and the strike plate needed to be repositioned on the frame. Now I will need to patch the old holes with plastic wood, sand and prime. Because the doorway is not a standard size, the door needed to be planed on both the bottom edge and one side. The wet dry vac had to be emptied and the filter cleaned before I could vacuum up all the sawdust and gyproc dust from the day's work. I think I earned my keep. What do you think Nathalie?