Home.

Gatwick-Mancs flight was delayed by just over an hour, but my luggage came pretty quickly at the other end, so they are forgiven.

It's so good to be home. In my own bed. With my housemates (but not in my bed, obvs..)

And it's all GREEN. Aaaaaahhhhhh.

Oh and, iPhone?

It's good to be back.


EW. Just stepped on a slug in the kitchen. Welcome home, Prilly.

Day 54: Perforated Ear Drum

I have FINALLY seen a perforated ear drum. FINALLY. It was so clear and in focus.. MAGIC. Definitely a Dr Sinclair "AH-HA!" moment.

Hamdullah (thanks to God)!

I am one happy happy HAPPY bunny.


In other news, I'm all checked-in and ready to go (well not quite, I still have to pack but that's a job for this evening.)

HOMEWARD BOUND HOORAY!!!!

Day 53: The End is Nigh!

Last day of diving yesterday.. :(

DId my last dives, cleaned and returned my kit, paid my bill (ouch) and then it was all over! Sad. Times. All good things must come to an end though, eh?

All that's left to do is to get signed off (that's today coz Dr Adel is on holiday as of tomorrow).


I can't believe I've been here for almost 8-weeks. It's slightly bizzare. I remember being in week 5 and thinking, "God, when will this END?" And now that it is coming to an end, it's weird! It's been amazing. Seen some good medicine, met some brilliant doctors and people in general and learnt to dive. It's hard to believe that this is a compulsory part of my medical degree!

I'm ready to go home though. I've burnt enough way too much cash out here doing various things. All ABSOLUTELY worthwhile, but..

I want proper tea with proper milk.
I want an Innocent Smoothie.
I want CHEESE.
I want to cook.
I want a family dinner whilst watch South Park on the sofa at 10pm.
I want to bake a cake.
I want to do the crossword (with Matt whilst bullying Nav).
I want a decent internet connection so I can talk to me mam proper.
I want to RIDE BIKES, especially tandems.

And most importantly, I want to see John, the family and all you other people. Yes, you.

I'm definitely ready.


Please, PLEASE let me fly on Friday, Mr Eyjafjallajokull-Ash-Cloud.

No. Let's be a bit more Egyptian about this, hey? Insha'Allah (!) (God willing), I will fly home on Friday.

Day 49: Kitten Care????

What. The. Fuck.


We went to T2 in Hadaba for some live music, which was pretty cool.

As we were leaving, Amr was talking to a frequent chamber client. I asked what was going on as we walked to the car, and he said, "No, she wants me to look after her cat for a few days."

Oh ok.


When we got in the car, there was a wee handbag. "Take the cat."
Er, what? "It's in HERE?" I asked.
"Yes," Amr said, "And you take care of her for me tonight, yes?"
Er, what?
"Because I need to go to Na'ama Bay now."
"Um, yeah, ok. What do I do?"
"Just sleep with her in the same room, it's ok?"


Aaaaaand, that was it. I am now looking after.. A kitten.

I've lined a box with some newspaper (or the Sharm Yellow Pages 2007), then a towel, then another towel wrapping her up. A wee milk bowl in the corner (aka ash tray) after attempting to feed her 30 minutes ago. (She had about 5 licks then looked very disinterested.)


And now she's meowing.

And meowing.

And meowing.


Bets on the amount of sleep Prilly will have tonight..?

Day 48: Tandems FOUND!!!!

As told by Nav,

"They raided a house with a SWAT team and dogs and tear gas and snipers on surrounding rooftops...... and they found the tandems in the back yard with a bunch of other stolen stuff. A scally has been arrested. Matt will go to the police station soon to make a statement at some point soon I think."

I think what actually happened was that the police were already onto some theiving scallies and when they busted into their house, they also found our tandems in their back garden.

Special special thank to Amna who spotted them twice and was good enough dial 999 and report the sightings.

Absolutely relieved (seeing as one of them didn't even belong to us!) and so so SO glad they are back (or in police custody..)

Day 45: Stolen Tandems

Gone. Both of them. Gone.

Stolen ?Friday. Spotted on Saturday with some scallies by Baz.

Matt has told the pol-pols.

Heartbroken. Absolutely heartbroken.

Day 44: To Tell Or Not to Tell

Wow, I'm awake. Can't sleep anymore either. The story goes:-

Alice is insistent on doing her Rescue Diver Course. She has about 35 dives but is very very comfortable in the water and has been told so by a couple of people. She had previously (when she first got here) asked Dr Adel about doing the Rescue, and he said to do the Advanced and see.

Yesterday, (Dr Adel was in a rather foul mood, however) she asked him. He disapproved of her doing it and said she should have at least 50 dives before she does it. Then we were interrupted by a patient.

Later, Ingrid (the nurse who has moved in with us) managed to put her foot in it, just as Dr Adel had finished writing an angry e-mail to one of the insurance companies, by saying, "So are you going to let this young lady do her rescue." This resulted in him giving Alice a MASSIVE lecture about doing her Rescue Course.

But he still lent her the Rescue Course book...


SO. The issue now is me. I am going to go do my Advanced Open Water on Wednesday and Thursday. I spoke to Dr Ahmed about it and he said he would (as a friend) advise me to do more dives and do my Advanced at a later date, but if I really wanted to do it, then I should do it. He has also given me the time off I need to do it.

So what's the problem?

Well. I feel like I need to tell Dr Adel. Maybe it's because he cleared me for diving in the first place. I don't know. I feel like if I went and did the Advanced Course without telling him, I'd be going behind his back, or something. I dunno what my brain is up to.

But I know if I tell him, he'll be disapproving and give me a (fully legit) lecture about experience. And I don't *really* want that. So do I tell him? Or do I just go anyway? And what do I say?

I DO need to tell him though, coz I'm waking up at 6.40am when I don't need to be up till at least 9.30am.......

Day 42: Under the Sea

WHEY! Today, I am (officially) a PADI certified Open Water Diver. I got a congratulations e-mail and everything.

So it was a 4-day course which consisted of DVD-watching, pool-training (confined water dives) and then open-water training/ dives. We also had to do a swim test (200m swimming non-stop- ARG) and a float test (10 minutes floating in fresh water- double ARG). But (incredibly) I passed BOTH of them!!!!

The 200m (9 lengths of our pool) swim was tough. My course consisted of 3 boys, one of them was in the RAF and another one was an ex-police diver........ *thumbs up*

So I did like 2 lengths and was TOTALLY knackered. Eventually managed 9 lengths (even though everyone else actually did 10 so they could get back to the shallow end) and was "air lifted" out of the pool by Steve (our instructor). It was great.

We basically had 3 instructors: Steve, our proper instructor and Sophie, who didn't actually work for Emperor (our dive centre) but was shadowing Steve whilst waiting for her PADI to finish her instructor paper work. And also Nick, our Day 2 stand-in instructor coz Steve was away for the day doing... Something. They were all great! And boys of course were boys and were *constantly* telling dirty or BAD (so bad they're good) jokes.


Um, had a few panicky ("wobbly" as Nick described it) moments of GOD-I-CAN'T-BREATHE whist underwater in the pool (Day 1 & 2), but once we got out to the deep blue, I was ok.

Open water dives 1 & 2 was at Shark's Bay, where I'd been snorkelling with Alice, so it wasn't anything particularly new and/ or exciting. But today, open water dive 3 was at this place called White Knight and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. There was soooo much reef which parted and made a canyon-type ?landscape. And the SEA! Was just BLUE. It was proper clear blue. You could see to such depths! We had to do a "compass swim" (so swim to a random place in the sea on a bearing then back again) and on the way back, the sun was almost directly above us, so you could see the rays of sunlight shining down into the water and down deep. It's so difficult to describe, but it was incredible. Absolutely beaut.

Open water dive 4 was at Near/ MIddle Garden, which were so called because the reef (supposidly) resembles an English garden... (They don't.) There are 4 parts to the Garden: Near, Middle, (Fiddle,) and Far.. They are named in relation to Na'ama Bay. Creative, hey?


Shit, I can't believe I'm an open water diver! It's amazing. And I now understand why people fall in love with it and rave about it so much.. Well, coz I pretty much have. (I'm even going to attempt to do my Advanced Open Water Course next week..!)

Day 38: Co-Inhabitant

Bummer. Someone has moved in to our house. Her name is Ingrid, she's a nurse, and she's (already) annoying.


First, I got woken up by Amr to say she was here. Then, I had to move out of my room (with internet) and into Alice's room (with no internet). And then, she complained that the house was "filthy".

Well, yes. I'm lazy. And I don't really give a damn.

THEN she took down Alice's washing AND our washing line. AND has Hahlet (the guy who came to pick me up from the airport when I first got in) cleaning and mopping the floor. Jesus, if you want the place to be clean, why don't you bloody CLEAN IT YOURSELF???

UGH.

And she's here for (and beyond) my remaining time here.


In other (better, more exciting) news, Dr Ahmed has cleared me to start my Open Water Course tomorrow - WOOPIE!!!! (Tomorrow is all theory anyway, the diving doesn't start until Thursday and even then it's just in a shallow pool to learn/ practice techniques etc.)

Day 36: Diving Fail.

Ugh. I have a cold. Not a bad one, but snuffles + sore throat = blocked Eustatian tubes = no diving.

HOW ANNOYING.

Was going to start the Open Water Course tomorrow, but will have to wait till next week and see if this has cleared up. Goddammit.

Cairo & the Pyramids

Upon our return from Gebel Musa, we packed and set off for Cairo.

The night bus up to Cairo took 7 hours and was rather sleepless. But hey ho, we got there for E£100 with free food and air-con.

Getting to our hostel, Wake UP! Cairo, was hilarious.

First, we couldn't find it (we booked it on t'interweb, so naturally, the map was wrong). Then when we found it, it looked AWFUL. Then, the lift didn't work, so we took the stairs. And THEN, there was rubbish and POO on the stairs.....

When we finally got there, it was great! Clean, friendly and AMAZING showers!!! We just had to take the leap of faith.


So Cairo was pretty crazy. Lots and lots and LOTS of cars. Especially OLD cars. Great old bangers. Por example, one of the taxis we took (a Darcia) stalled maybe ?8 times in the 10 minutes we were in the car. It quite simply *couldn't* drive in 1st gear. Absolutely HILARIOUS.

Some Fiats and a green LADA!

Old fare meter in the Darcia.

Safest seatbelt in the WORLD!

We popped to the Egyptian Museum (no cameras allowed inside), so no piccys. The museum was amazing. But. The entire time I was walking around, all I could think was, "Why aren't these things where they belong? Why are the cooped up in a stuffy (essentially) warehouse?" I mean, I know why. If they'd been left where they were found, they might be stolen, damaged or maybe even destroyed.. But I dunno, it just seemed like such a shame.

Coptic Cairo was a complete maze of religion and beautiful churches.

Entrance to the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo

Inside the Hanging Church

Alice's mucky post-Coptic Cairo feet

And the Pyramids were breath-taking. Our camels (Moses and Mickey Mouse) were AWESOME, as were our guides.

The Pyramids of Giza.

Pretty self-explanatory..!

Alice shaking hands with the Bedouin "guard" at Sakkara

Pyramid at Dahshur where one can enter and see the burial chambers.

On our last day, we hit the Khan al Kahili market which was cooool. Then headed to a 3D cinema to see "How to Train Your Dragon" which was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIGHLY recommended.

Ugh, we were also informed by a fellow hostel-stayer that the Sound & Light show of the Giza Pyramids was a MUST-SEE when in Cairo.

First, we got the times wrong. The ?manager dude (very very kindly) signed our tickets and allowed us to return the next day (our last day) at the CORRECT time.

THEN. We were late. (Oops.) And.. It was RUBBISH, although the Americans seemed to love it, "Aw man, it was incredible!" OR NOT.


So it was a pretty rubbish way to end the trip, but hey ho, I went camel-riding, saw and TOUCHED the Pyramids of Giza!!!!!

Again, more piccys can be found here!