Retail Therapy...

My return to work yesterday,

which included 3 hours of rehearsals resulted in -

me hyperventilating

collapsing

ambulance being called

and then sucking up the O2 for half an hour

That will teach not to put those Red Shoes on

so fast after not getting out of bed for week.

Needless to say today was spent doing

some far more gentle exercise

ie.

Retail Therapy....

life.....

So after 6 nights of crippling headaches

i finally went to the doctor last night.

I kept putting it off hoping that i would just get better au natural,

but i gave up hope and am now waiting for the drugs to kick in.

Besides i'm uber bored at home.

Work started back yesterday and seeing as i havent

gotten out of bed in a week my muscles are wasting away.

When i mentioned this to my friend who

drove me to the doctors yesterday she was

a bit surprised that i would feel like a week off

work would make such a difference to my body.

Ordinarily not so much ,

but i'm working on the solo for Spanish in the Nutcracker

at the moment and it requires a lot of stamina and strength.

When i took a few days off the other week it

did take a few days before i was up to par again....

and i dont like dancing under par!

Although i have been enjoying

watching the Life series by Sir David Attenborough,

its so beautiful.....

Pinned down....

So i've spent the last week housebound.

its not so dangerous outside,

but i've got some kind of virus or something that has rendered me bedridden

which i guess is not so bad seeing as work has been shut down all week any hows.

at anyrate...

i've become addicted to Pinterest

I'm not sure what the actual point of it is, or if i'm using it right cause basically everytime i see a pretty picture i'm like 'repin'....

surely there is more depth to it than that.

I'm loving the recipes that i've found on it.

Like hows AMAZING is this Panda Bread....

Under Cairo Curfew

So here i am again, under curfew.

Although this time i just dont have quite the

same fear factor as i had back in January.

Sure things are crazy down at Tahrir,

but i no longer liver in that area,

and in the area where i live now (about half an hour away)

life is going on as normal.

Well i say normal,

i havent been to work in 3 days,

because of its proximity to Tahrir.

In fact,

i'm more annoyed about the fact that i haven't had

any water in my apartment for the last 4 days

(unconnected to any protest problems)

I just wonder how much longer Egypt is going to

keep ebbing and flowing in this violent way.

I really dont know enough about Egyptian politics

to be able to make any sound comments on the situation here....

but i do know that nobody can want

to continually live in this type of unrest.

If dinosaurs were ballerinas....

Of Chalk and Moustaches....

Some pictures from the Chalkboard photobooth from my sisters wedding....

Beach Bum....

I have lots of underwater pictures that Captain Tim took,

but blogger doesnt seem to want me to upload them.

So until then,

here are some pictures of me practising being a beach bum to fill in the time.

Oh how i do enjoy being a beach bum....

Growing Wings...

"I love the recklessness of Faith,

first you leap and then you grow wings"

William Sloane Coffin

Birthdays and beaches....

My holiday was just what i needed.

No work.

No stress.

No Cairo.

Dahab was also pretty quite too

(tourism still suffering from effects of the revolution)

which was great also.

I'll head back to work today and see if i'm in any trouble!

It was my birthday whilst we were away and Captain Tim even managed to arrange me a surprise party with all the people we had met during the week whilst diving, with a special birthday cake with Diver Rebekah written on it.

We were having dinner on the beach so

when they brought the cake out it was pretty funny trying to

light the candles as it was windy,

i think in the end we got one to hold long enough for me to blow it out!

Forbidden Holiday....

I'm offski!

Onto my Forbidden Holiday....

but surely things that are forbidden make them so much more fun.

Although i'm not best pleased as i've got a cold and

your not allowed to dive if you have a cold.

So i'm pushing the drugs hoping that it will clear up in the next 12 hours.

The three main things i learned from my diving lessons so far are -

1- If you stop breathing underwater your lungs can explode

2-If you have a cold and go diving your head can explode.

3- If you surface too quickly you blood can fizz up...ie explode.

oh yes...

okay so they didnt quite voice it in those words

but that's the way my brain processed the information...

So here's to hoping i survive my holiday,

although the way i've been feeling and acting this week i

may be on the receiving end of some Bad Karma....

A different kind of Halloween?....

So facebook has been filled with Halloween this week.

Pumpkins and crazy costumes everywhere.

There is very little Halloween here at all,

on the other hand this week see's one of the big Muslim holidays.

The Eid Festivities.

One of the main things that happens during these days is that a sheep/goat is sacrificed.

So popping up all over town are little makeshift barns where you can come and pick your sheep.

i guess its a bit like us having a turkey for Christmas but having to do the killing part yourself rather than just picking it up from Tescos.

In fact, i even went into one supermarket where

next to the Pringles they had set up a mini stall with a couple

of baby lambs that you could pick up and put in your trolley if you so desired.

Most of the mini barns are set up right next to the butchers though....

who have been working over time in the last week.

I havent left the house yet today as i've heard that this

morning is the big sacrificing morning and the streets can be filled with blood.

Real blood,

not the red corn syrup type...

i guess that's kind of Halloweeenish

at any rate,

Happy Holidays....

update

so i did leave the house for a couple of minutes and witnessed -

-2 cows lying down tied up about to have their throats slit

- a sheep being hacked up with an axe

- a stall full of animal heads

-various random animal limbs all over the street

- pools of blood

-a terrible stench

i quickly decided to return home to see the

cows had already been skinned and beheaded

Pretty Dresses....

Its not so cold here (still warmer than a Scottish summer)

but i've been feeling a bit poorly so decided to wrap up warm this morning.

As in donning a pair of jeans, and wearing boots instead of sandals.

On my walk to the Metro station one of the local shopkeepers shouted out to me.

'Where are your pretty dresses? I like your pretty dresses.'

It made me laugh.

Being pretty much the only 'white' (blonde/blue) girl living in a pretty Egyptian area

sometimes i feel like a bit of a celebrity.

i really don't make that much effort with my clothes styling here,

because most of the time i'm trying to be as incognito as possible,

seeing as the blonde/blue thing gets me enough unwanted attention all by itself

but i do like my pretty dresses.....

Little Darth Vader Mermaid....

On the topic of my not-so-legit-holiday.

I've been taking scuba diving lessons.

ummmm... one of the main reasons i'm not

backing down on giving up my day off!!!!

i've already payed for the lessons!

I havent done the Open Water dives yet,

i'll do them when i get to the beach.

but did have fun in the swimming pool.

I thought i was going to feel like a mermaid,

but instead i just felt a bit like Darth Vader

what with all that breathing apparatus...

but i figured that was equally as cool!

At any rate, it got me googling mermaid pictures....

Is Honesty the Best Policy?

So i had a slight dilemma over the past

couple of days having an issue of honesty.

I dont want to go into too much detail,

but basically my boyfriend is flying out to visit me for my birthday next week.

We have a few days holiday coming up and i've booked a holiday away at the beach with him.

Which i was planning to extend by calling in sick for an extra 2 days .

And then three days ago work put an 'optional' folk dancing

performance on my day off/birthday.

When i say optional,

i mean it is not mandatory,

but for some people (ie me, the suckers) it is.

And a performance means that if i call in sick,

i will be leaving people with an extra work load trying to cover for me.

I've been on the end of that a lot, and its just not fun.

I tried to skip out of the rehearsal....

but couldnt do it.

i was racked with guilt.

I was racked with the responsibility

towards my leaders and my fellow dancers.

So i apologised for skipping the rehearsal but also

at the same time adamantly told them i would not do the 'optional' performance.

I told the truth and said that my boyfriend who i get to see

for a few days every six months is coming to visit and

i do not want to work on my day off.

I have given them plenty of notice please cast it with someone else

as there are plenty of people going spare.

Needless to say this got me into a lot of trouble.

But what makes me mad is that here,

people take time off all the time, they call in sick,

they just dont turn up,

they dont come to rehearsals but turn up for performances....

in general a lot of bad attiutude.

I have never once taken a day off or missed

any rehearsal since i have been here,

and i am fed up of carrying everyone else's load.

The problem is that i didn't play by their rules or system.

I was told that if i had just kept on skipping rehearsal there

would have been no problem,

if i just came to some of the rehearsals but turned up for

performance then there wouldnt be a problem.

i disagree.

I prefer that people are upfront and honest in their dealings.

I was told that i was a foreigner and different standards were expected of me,

(ie its okay for the egyptians to choose when and they want to work, but not for me)

I disagree, i think that it should be the same rules for everyone.

So i was adamant,

and i have been threatened that there will be repercussions.

And i came home and i was upset,

and was thinking if i was wrong?

Should i have just sneaked around?

Should i follow suit?

Should i just be the general dogsbody that i normally am?

And although i'm still going to have to call in sick

for that extra day that i'm going to take,

in that i know that yes, in that i am not right.

But at the same time now my 'sick leave' will not

leave other people in the lurch.

And i was reminded by my Gentleman Caller,

that i had made a decision to be upfront and honest

about my reasons for not doing the performance

because i didnt like the way just sneaking out of it felt.

So i guess whatever repercussions come my way

my conscience in that is clear.