Last night I went to see a concert at the El Sawy Culture Wheel with some friends of friends.  Hamid, his cousin, his brother and some friends agreed to meet me around nine and take me to see Black Theama.  The band is Nubian and they have a large Nubian following, including Hamid and the … Continue reading →

On Friday I went to meet some family friends who are visiting Cairo.  On the way back I got in a huge strop with the taxi driver because I accidentally told him the wrong turning in Zamalek and we ended up in an hour-long taxi jam.  (The link is for those unfamiliar with British slang … Continue reading →

Baghat ‘Ali Street is one of my favorites during the day, a wide verdant and quiet avenue full of trees, climbing flower vines and stately old embassy houses set back from the road.  At night, though, much of it is so poorly lit it’s almost pitch black until a car comes along.  Some of the embassies … Continue reading →

I was in the doctor’s office.  He did your standard pulmonary-doctor things,  frowning as he listening to my chest as I breathed sharply in and out, taking my pulse, taking my blood pressure.  After listening to the burbling and whistling coming from my lungs, he took his stethoscope off and looked at me gravely.  “This … Continue reading →

One of the exciting things about Cairo is how easy it is to get food delivered, cheaply by American standards.  Even McDonald’s delivers – even Cinnabon delivers if you want.  For the past two nights I’ve been exploring the exciting culinary possibilities of a website that serves as a database of all the delivery restaurants … Continue reading →

This all starts with a call to an insurance company.  My British travel insurance has a service where they can provide you with the names of local services, like doctors.  I needed one of these because my asthma has really been troubling me since the sandstorm.  For a day or so I sounded like I … Continue reading →

Last night I went to Samantha’s house for iftaar dinner.  I was picked up in a taxi by one of the girls working in the same theater.  Naomi is Romanian, a dancer, actor and assistant choreographer for the show in which she and Samantha work.   We took a yellow cab down Pyramids road.  As … Continue reading →

At one point today all three of us in the apartment noticed that the sky was darkening earlier than usual.  We looked out the window and beheld a dark gray smog enveloping the buildings on the opposite side of the river.  We could see it billowing and creeping towards us, shrouding this building, then that … Continue reading →

Just because I’ve found an apartment doesn’t mean everything is smooth sailing from now on, my friends.  Oh, no. We have a lovely gas oven and stove, but they are extremely old fashioned.  To use the oven, you have to turn the gas on and then basically throw a match in a little hole in … Continue reading →

Okay the reason I haven’t regaled you with all my moving in adventures is that our flat wireless isn’t up and running yet.  Right now we’re stealing from the neighbors, but I absolutely had to tell you about the very dumb thing I just did.  In the spirit of spiffying up my new digs, I … Continue reading →