John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Tuesday 7 February 2012 (2)
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[2012] [From Tuesday 7 February 2012 (1)] We met with Ahmed in the upstairs lounge. He gave us feedback questionnaires from Jaz and from Travco, and an envelope in which to put in a tip to be shared out to the crew. He’d be leaving this evening as soon as the boat docked at Luxor to catch the train to Alexandria to see his mother — not his wife and baby son in Cairo. Back to the cabin — then back out to buy the Galabeya Party photos that we’d ordered and also postcards and stamps. I wrote postcards to my Mum, to Chris, and to Joan, and Janet did the rest. She realised that she didn’t have cousin Janet’s address.  13:23:06  13:23:17 The half-built look is deliberate to avoid the taxes levied on completed houses.  13:23:49  15:13:47 Church and mosque Lunch. To cabin — Janet packed the cases. Afternoon tea. The group met Ahmed and gave him an envelope with our collective contribution in it. Drew gave a good farewell speech of appreciation for his efforts. We continued to sit with Drew and Ruby after the others left. After they left we realised that the towel folding demonstration was starting on the open-air part of the deck. It wasn’t Mohammed who did it; he just handed the other guy the towels.  Photo by Mehran, 16:42 (14:42 UTC) Later Janet and I lay down in the cabin for an hour or so. We went to the “farewell cocktail party” in the lounge. I had a glass of red liquid from the “alcohol” side of the table that had been set up. It was sweet, and tasted of aniseed. Then dinner, below. “I realised,” Janet wrote, “that Mehran was trying to get me to eat [more than just salad or plain vegetables], so I told him he wouldn’t win. He was wasting his time!” Ca.8.30pm (18:30 UTC), back in the cabin, Janet phoned her sister Pat, asking her to look up Janet’s address; she would phone back in 5 minutes. She did this, and got the address. There was still sufficient credit from my recent £10 top-up for me to ring Mum. “Where are you ringing from?” “Luxor, on the Nile.” Back to the bar at 9pm for Rubensesque belly dancer. “She’s hitched her panty-hose up a bit high!” I commented (she wore some kind of body-stocking). She got others to go out on the dance-floor area to join in.  21:04:17  21:04:38  21:05:04  21:10:59 After her, a whirling dervish-type dancer, who held drums together in various patterns, created amazing effects with the shape of his costume, and also put on a light-show.  21:21:33 Use of flash masked the lighting effects  21:21:53 Taken without a flash After that there was a disco. We stayed for a while and chatted, and the rotund, jovial manager came and chatted to us also. Finally, we bid our goodbyes and turned in for the night. [Wednesday 8 February 2012] |
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