Jenyfer Matthews

Halloween was a a weekend-long event in my part of the world, kicking off with a Halloween party at the children’s school on Thursday night. Why Thursday? Because Thursday is our “Friday”, the last day of the work/school week, and also because the big American school in our neighborhood did their Halloween extravaganza on Friday night.

The costumes came out really well, if I say so myself. The ninja hood is made from a plain white tshirt with the sleeves stitched behind the head! I got tons of compliments on my pirate costume too. Do you think it was the eye patch or the fact that I actually had on some mascara for a change?!

Halloween itself was pretty quiet – at least in our part of the neighborhood. Apparently there was some trouble around the American school after their Halloween fair. My son’s soccer coach, who lives quite close by the school, told me that there were hundreds of teenagers milling around on her street throwing eggs and tomatoes at cars, buildings, and people – including the policemen that were there! – and that they knocked down a power pole as well! Someone else told me that last year the “revelry” included overturning a car. The Halloween fair at the American school is a closed event – students and family only – and from reports I’ve heard, the troublemakers were mostly Egyptian adolescents who knew that the fair was going on and just came to hang around. One Scottish acquaintance I have said that it happens every year and she thought that the bad behavior / “tricks” was just an “American thing”. I hastily denied that! Sure, there is some mischief that gets done on Halloween, but I’ve never seen or been part of a mob scene like that in America! And I’m sure if anything like that developed, the police would do more than just shield themselves from the egg-throwing.

Saturday afternoon, all the people in my building got together and had a party in our shared garden followed by trick-or-treating after dark. This time my daughter was the ninja warrior – a blue belt, the most dreaded of all! (she claimed the black belt was too small) My son couldn’t be bothered to go and change out of his soccer uniform from his game in the morning so he claimed he was dressed up as a soccer player – which in fact he was!

All in all, I’m happy that October is finished. I’m hoping that November might be a tad less hectic. But if you haven’t had enough of Halloween and have a few hours to kill, check out this Halloween bowling game. Don’t blame me if you don’t get anything else done today…

I live in an average sort of apartment building in what was once considered the one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Cairo. Once upon a time, the housing primarily consisted of single family “villas” and everyone had yards.

Those days are all but gone. Today, land is at a premium and landowners would rather knock down the old homes to put up ugly apartment buildings (like the one pictured below) where they can charge rent to as many families as they can fit into the space. Few have any yard space to speak of. Some buildings are nicer than others of course, but there are a whole lot that look like this on the outside.

(click any image to enlarge)

There are still a few of the lovely old villas left here and there, like this one

or this one, which was recently restored

or this one, which isn’t looking as carefully maintained but is still pretty

There are even more magnificent examples downtown where the French influence is quite obvious. But many of the villas are just falling down. From what I understand, it costs a fortune to maintain them (and to rent them) and many landowners would prefer to tear down the existing building and build something cheaper, collecting rent from many families rather than try to rent a single space for more.

It seems a shame to tear down these lovely old buildings, some of which must be close to 200 years old, to put up an ugly concrete apartment building. But I suppose that in a place where their own history is so rich, a couple hundred years just doesn’t really signify when other historical sites are thousands of years old.

I was out walking the other day when I saw a new apartment building being constructed, overshadowing the villa standing next to it. The buildings here are often built very close together, but this seemed ridiculous.

Not sure I’d like being overlooked that way myself.

But wait – it sure would be handy if you needed to borrow some sugar or your TV was on the fritz. Just lean step out onto your balcony and lean across!

I can’t help but wonder what they were thinking when they started this project. Does the same guy own all the land and this is his idea of a compromise? Or are there two different land owners? Is the owner of the apartment building simply trying to force the villa owner to back down by making living in / renting out the villa totally impossible? It doesn’t look as if anyone is living in either place at present, but I’m going to keep my eye on this one.

Just fascinating!

getting the message across. You don’t have to read Arabic (or at all) to understand this warning:

No, I don’t smoke – these packs just caught my eye in the store the other day. Never have I regretted not having a camera phone more. Then I noticed that the street was littered with empty cigarette packs. Yes – I picked up trash for you guys, just so I could scan it and show it to you here. What I wouldn’t do for you.

And judging by how many packs there were to choose from, I’m guessing that this warning isn’t working.

There are many things about living in Egypt that are frustrating – like when the water pressure is too low to shower for three days straight or having a birthday card that was send from the US two weeks ago never show up (thanks Mr. Postman) But then there are things like the above that just make me laugh. And lately I’ve been seeing many such things. So stay tuned…

The temperatures have dropped in Cairo, and it’s cool enough at night now that we’ve been able to turn off the (incredibly loud) room air conditioner we have in our bedroom in favor of opening a window. However, cool breezes are not the only thing wafting in through the open window.

Along with the breezes comes smoke.

This is the time of year in Egypt when the farmers begin to burn the chaff from their crops, which creates an acrid layer of smog. Some mornings when I look out of the window the visibility is nearly nil. When my children first noticed it, they thought it was fog. I only wish it were.

Soon it will be cold enough that many people will begin to burn wood to stay warm as well. All this in addition to the exhaust of millions of cars on the roads here in Cairo and it’s no wonder my eyes burn and are often stuck shut in the morning.

Keeping the windows closed does no good. The windows are so poorly sealed that the smoke seeps in around the cracks. Even if they had the best seal in the world, we have to go outside sometime.

My daughter suffers more than all of us with a perpetually stuffy nose. She likes to say she’s allergic to Egypt. In a way she’s right. She’d likely be sensitive to any place with a lot of dust, but Egypt has been by far the worst place yet for her. Left unchecked, she develops nasty ear infections. If anything will cut our stay here short, it will be air quality.

It was just one thing after another this weekend!

Thursday our water was out for much of the day so I couldn’t do any laundry. Doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but here’s the thing: I have a small European-style front loader. It doesn’t hold much. To keep up with the laundry generated by a family of four — and one small boy who brings in enough dirt for the rest of us put together — I normally do two loads a day. However, no water, no laundry. At least it was coming up to a weekend so I didn’t have to worry about hand washing school uniforms!

Our water came back early evening on Thursday but on Friday morning, out internet was down. Thank goodness for automatic scheduled posting on WordPress! I was too busy to worry too much about the internet though. I spent most of Friday morning in the kitchen preparing dinner since we were going to be out all afternoon (birthday party) and evening (tennis) and making the sorbet for my husband’s birthday on Saturday. In between doing loads of laundry that is.

Saturday morning we had two soccer games at 8am, after which I came home and made brownies for hubby’s birthday lunch party before we all went out to eat. Came home to do presents and dessert. Here’s where things sort of fell apart.

Let me just say that manic multitasking and birthday prep don’t mix. First of all, the brownies were a bit dry That might have been overlooked with the sorbet on the side, but it didn’t work out that way. See, I missed a step on the sorbet while I was out at the birthday party. So instead of fluffy sorbet, I had a solid block of frozen berry puree. Poor hubby – no cheesecake, dry brownies, and no sorbet!

All was not lost with the sorbet though – I partially thawed it and then stuck it in the food processor to whip it as instructed in the recipe. We were able to eat it on its own after dinner and it was very yummy. Tonight I might even get it right and pair it with the remaining brownies.

It’s a new week now and my water is on and my internet is up (if slow) and I have a little break in the action before I have to gear up for hosting my son’s birthday party on Friday. I was buying supplies for his party this morning and guess what I found in the store? Sour cream. Two days too late.

It’s a conspiracy I tell you.

At least Mr. Matthews got a nice birthday present though. I bought it back in May at the Blue Souk in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It almost killed me to wait to give it to him. He loves it

I don’t know what it is – there has been sour cream available on an almost continual basis all year, but the minute I need to make a cheesecake, it all disappears!! That’s Cairo for you. I went to three different grocery stores this morning with no luck. There are a few more places I could try but with tennis lessons, soccer games, and two birthday parties on schedule for the weekend – in addition to the man’s birthday – I just don’t have the time to look anywhere else. There is a swanky bakery in the neighborhood that has NY style cheesecake to die for, but it’s $$$ and way bigger than we need to have around the house. So I’m falling back on plan B.

Homemade strawberry sorbet and brownies. Not such a big sacrifice really!

I went to Curves yesterday and did my water aerobics this morning so I’m taking the weekend off. I probably won’t be able to move anyway!

Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow when N.D. Hansen-Hill will be here with an excerpt of her fantasy book The Hollowing. Norah is a prolific writer and has a huge backlist so if you like her writing, you’re really in luck!

Time to celebrate – the kids are back in school! Now that I’m not subject to constant demands for food or entertainment (in stereo) I can finally get down to work on polishing my latest manuscript for submission to the agents and editors I met at the conference.

Not to say I don’t still have lots of other things to distract me. My husband and my son have birthdays this month, a week apart, hubby first. Thank goodness I already have his present! I bought it way back in May when I was in Dubai and I can’t wait to give it to him. (Pictures later!) The only thing other thing I need to do for his birthday is track down the ingredients for a cheesecake and then actually make it. At least I hope it’s that simple. Last year I ended up walking around for more than an hour, checking every grocery in the neighborhood before I finally found the last container of sour cream anywhere in a square mile radius.

Next week is the boy’s birthday – which means hosting a party. Anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time already knows how much birthday parties stress me out. I’m trying not to let this one get to me too much but it’s hard. There have already been a ton of party invitations sent out – for other people’s parties! I have to get ours out tomorrow, lest all his friends get booked up. He’s requested to have the party in our back garden – which is well and good except now I have to think up some sort of entertainment for a pack of 5 & 6 year old boys. I’m considering renting a bouncy castle. I think if I get a smallish one it will be reasonably priced – worth at least as much as my sanity, right?

If all that wasn’t enough (on top of our on going sports activities), the children have started in on me about their Halloween costumes. First they wanted to be Scooby Doo, now they have switched to mummies. My daughter suggested we could wrap her up in toilet paper. I jumped on that idea because Scooby Doo costumes are scarce in Egypt but toilet paper we’ve got. I can probably even do better than toilet paper. Since my husband wasn’t impressed with the toilet paper suggestion at all, I’ve taken it as a personal challenge to come up with some great mummy costumes for them.

So that’s what’s going on with me this month. Progress reports as progress occurs…

I am the soccer mom. No, really – it’s official. I am the Team Mom for both of my children’s soccer teams. I even have the t-shirts to prove it.

It’s not really that big a deal – mostly just coordinating the after-game snack schedule and arranging for a coach gift at the end of the season. But it does compound my snack neurosis to some degree.

If you thought I worried too much about what to bring for a snack when I was just a regular mom, think about how much worse it is now that I am the Team Mom. It’s kind of ridiculous.

For me, it’s always a struggle between popularity with the children and plain old practicality. They play early in the morning so the mom in me says that nutritional breakfast items / fruit is a much more healthy and appropriate offering. The lazy side of me looks at the easy to buy and distribute packages of cookies / chips and longs.

One benefit of being Team Mom is that I am going first – get my duty out of the way. But I also feel as if I need to plan a snack that will set a good example for all the other snacks to follow this season. In the end I decided to forgo the cookies and make apple muffins and pair that with some fruit. Probably bananas.

I know that some other mom is going to come along later in the season with a cooler of soda and bags of chips, but it can’t be helped. My conscience will be clear.

I said no more pictures, but I lied. A friend invited my husband and I along on a felucca ride (otherwise known as a sailboat) on the Nile over the weekend. Every time I go out on a felucca, I think I ought to go more often. Can you blame me?

Time is a funny thing. Sometimes it d-r-a-g-s and sometimes it just flies by. My summer vacation has gone by much too quickly and today I’m on my way home.

Going home is bittersweet. On the one hand, I am looking forward to being in my own home again, in my own environment, and not living out of a suitcase. But living in Egypt isn’t always easy and truth be told, I’m not super enthusiastic about going back. Neither are my children. They’ve really bonded with their grandparents this year. To the point where they were threatening to revolt and just stay behind – see ya next year, Mom.

On the other hand, I’ve been so busy doing other things this summer that I haven’t done anything “productive” at all. My creative juices, kind of dry at the end of June, are totally flowing again. I have several ideas for new quilts and lots of ideas for writing. Once I get over the jetlag, I’ll have lots to keep me occupied in the coming year. Yes, in my mind, September and not January starts the new year.

So right about now, I’m flying somewhere high overhead on my way home. Keep commenting on Elizabeth Jenning’s Friday Feature – I’ll announce the winner to my weekend contest when I get home. See you soon…