Jenyfer Matthews

After every long trip away from home, I always go through a process of settling back in that can only be described of as nesting. I not only unpack and put everything away, but I feel the need to clean everything too. I guess I could compare it to an animal marking its territory, only with a fresher scent!

I hired the maid of a neighbor to come in and water my plants while I was away. She did her job – a little too well. Many of my indoor plants were floating in stinky water when I returned. Apparently she didn’t fully comprehend the subtle nuances of my instructions “water inside plants once a week or as necessary“. I thought that was pretty clear. It never occurred to me to ask her (or my neighbor) if she was any good with plants. It was just watering for goodness sake. Guess I know better now!

(Thank goodness I don’t have any pets!!!)

I only lost a couple of indoor plants – one of which was a favorite unfortunately – and a couple of the less heat tolerant outside plants. It could have been much worse. I spent some time cleaning them up yesterday and it might just be my imagination, but they already look happier.

The rest of my apartment is going to take a little longer to sort out!

The sage continues.

A friend of mine recommended a jeweler who works with gemstones to me so I made a visit to that shop yesterday, before going back to see the shop guy who made the ring for me. The gemstone shop people were very helpful and professional and said that yes, the stones in the ring were indeed garnets, but that the settings themselves were sloppy. I already knew that and agreed – that was one reason I was going back to see the shop guy who had made the ring for me. When they changed the stones from pink to garnets, they were not particularly careful about the settings and a couple of them were really messy. One stone was even set in further than the three others.

I went directly over to the shop where I had the ring made and he was all smiles when I walked in, thinking that I was finally going to pay my balance and our transaction would be at an end. He wasn’t smiling when I explained what I wanted next. His response to my pointing out that there were a couple of jagged bits around the settings of two stones was to get out a file and file them off. When I pointed out that one of the stones was in fact mashed in more than the others he said it was more secure that way. I had to point out that it looked bad and that I didn’t want it that way very forcefully before he would agree to take it back to the workshop. And it wasn’t easy to convince him when he was fiddling with the charms in his display case and doing all he could to not look at me.

Have you ever heard of the horror movie The Ring? The movie had nothing to do with jewelry, but I think that the title and genre are appropriate to this situation.

I recently took on a commission to make two twin sized quilts for an acquaintance of mine. We talked about colors and patterns and I measured the mattresses. We did not however communicate properly on how she expected and desired the quilts to fit the bed. Normally a quilt either meets the bottom of the pillow with a bit of overhang at the foot or it comes up and covers the pillow. When I delivered the first quilt, it was too short. She wanted it to come up under the pillow and have overhang at the top of the mattress, which is not a standard measurement.

Do you know what I did? I took it back and started over. The second quilt was also too small but was still at a stage where I could adjust so I took it apart and made it right. If I whined a bit privately, that’s between me and my sounding boards.

I have no idea what to expect when I go back to the shop next. What I hope is that the one setting has been fixed so that it looks like the other three. What I expect is that he will have smashed down the other three. If that is what he’s done, I may have to smash his face! I certainly won’t waste any more time on this. I wonder what he thinks the outcome of this is going to be? I still want this ring enough to go through with this transaction until he proves to me that he just can’t do what I want. But the way that he is conducting himself, I certainly won’t go back to him again and I won’t recommend him to anyone I know.

And I hope that I’ve put him off taking special orders too. He just needs to stick to his factory pieces!

I spent much of my weekend on the floor putting together a zigsaw puzzle of a moose applique wall hanging. Summer Serenity my foot – and my aching back! This pattern was made up by a sadist who is even now laughing her butt off as countless quilters weep in frustration over the gazillion of little jagged pieces she decided to require. True enough, there is a huge map to help with placement – but you can’t see the map once the larger background pieces are down. It truly is a labor of love and a test of patience. But if you (and you know who you are) decide you want a wolf or a bear wall hanging, you’re on your own! [Smooch!]

I stopped in the jewelry store on Friday night after having dinner with some friends. The ring was ready. At first glance it came out much better than I expected. It looked much the same and the quality of the workmanship was pretty good. Except that the stones were wrong. I asked for garnets and they had put in what looked like pink glass. When I questioned it, the shop owner said he’d fix it. But it of course it made me wonder why on earth they hadn’t done it correctly in the first place. Did they think I wouldn’t notice?

One of the major irritations of living in Egypt is always having to be suspicious of every transaction. Egypt is the land of fraud. Someone is always trying to pull a fast one on you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to call my credit card company to okay a transaction because it originated in Egypt. If you live here, it really is worth trying to build a bit of a personal relationship with a shop keeper so that they realize that the potential for repeat business is worth much more than a one time scam. If you are just visiting, view every transaction with suspicion and you can still expect to be ripped off.

The shop owner blamed the factory. He also claimed that we hurt his feelings with our “accusations”. I was left with a bad feeling myself. Was he trying to fool me, or had he too been duped? Thing is though, at the end of the day it is still his responsibility to look at the item before he passes it on to the customer. Because had I not spoken up, I know he would have happily taken my money for garnets and given me pink glass.

I left the ring with him to fix and he told me that when it came back, I could take it to any other jeweler I like to have it checked out. He managed to have it done overnight! When I went back to see it, the ring looked great. But I wasn’t willing to take it at face value (fool me once…) He let me take it with me and I immediately took it to a more upscale jeweler down the street.

The second jeweler couldn’t say whether the stones were real one way or another based just on looking at it. He didn’t have the equipment – or even a jeweler’s loop. So now I get to live with the ring a day or two and see if it turns my finger green. And in the absence of such an obvious sign of trouble, then I get to decide if I want to take that leap of faith and just believe.

(Also, I want my warm and fuzzy feelings about this ring back!)

Last night I had a dream that a giant raven had stolen my cell phone and though I could hear the phone ringing from time to time, I was unable to locate the raven and retrieve my phone. I kind of think that the raven represents the shop keeper and that the phone is my feeling of not getting my message across…

I went this morning to collect some odds and ends from some good friends who are retiring and leaving Egypt for good. We met on a weekend trip we took as part of a tour when we first arrived but our friendship really took root on a different weekend trip the following year. A twelve hour bus trip will either help you create lasting bonds or bring homicidal urges to the surface!

I really really hate saying goodbye to people. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do that this morning. But their impending departure made me start thinking about the nature of friendship.

I have one friend from when I was 12 years old, and one more from when I was 14. I have friends who I rarely hear from, but when we are together again we pick up right where we left off and it’s as if we were never apart. I have friends with whom I touch base often but haven’t seen in more than a decade. I even have a few dear online friends I’ve never met in person!

Making friends as an adult isn’t always an easy process. Life becomes busy – you don’t always have the luxury of making friends with those who share your interests so much as those with whom you share an office. Since I have had children, I’ve made friends with the mothers of children my own children are friends with. If I’m lucky, they are people that I will remain friends with even if the kids fall out!

Living abroad puts a new wrinkle on making friends. Often you bond quickly with people because you are both out of your own familiar environment. And I think there is also an unconscious idea that if you like someone you better just get down to business because one or the other of you will leave soon! I’ve made some wonderful friends with people who I might never have met otherwise – some of whom are from my home state! While I love making friends of people from far flung places, it does also increase the chances that once we both leave wherever we are when we meet, that’ll be goodbye forever.

I suppose what it all boils down to is that friendship is precious. I would love to think that I will always have all the friends I hold dear in my life forever, but I know that life is not that way. So instead, I will do my best to appreciate and nurture the ones that I do have and hope that one day our paths will cross again.

When the weather heats up in Cairo, there are few more pleasant pastimes than taking a felucca ride on the Nile – which is what I did with some girlfriends last weekend.

(click any image to enlarge)

A felucca on the Nile and the skyline of Cairo.

It’s not all pleasure sailing – some people are making their living.

And some are starting a new life together. One photographer was taking a picture of us, taking a picture of them!






Our felucca captain.

Sunset on the Nile.

I never get tired of sailing on the Nile, and every time I get out there I wonder why I don’t go more often.

There were times when I wondered if I would make it, but in the end I accomplished all that was on my to-do list yesterday. Cleaning the children’s room alone took me two hours.

I had a lot of time to think as I cleaned. Here are some random thoughts on house work:

* It’s not much fun

* Painting may be easier than washing walls

* If you haven’t moved your washing machine to clean under it in three years, you are in for a nasty surprise

* Unless you live alone, the moment you have one task done, another will be created for you

It’s a never ending job, but all in all, I guess I’d rather my house be reasonably clean than not. Fingers crossed we won’t have another sandstorm for a while…

PS – I’m taking the night off of cooking – and the rest of the weekend too if I can manage it

Yesterday was the first day I’ve had to myself since I got back from Qatar last week and what did I do? I spent the entire day cleaning.

My house has been slowing falling apart for the last week while I was traveling and then was busy working, but a two day sandstorm just topped things off. I have lovely French doors and windows all over my house, which are a pleasure to behold in normal circumstances but might as well not be there for all the good they do to keep the dust out during a sandstorm. Actually, that’s not totally true – they help a little. I’ve gone out and left them open only to have a sandstorm hit and that was much worse.

The sky was blue this morning (yeah!) so after I put the kids on the school bus and had breakfast, I got to work dusting, vacuuming, washing windows, doing laundry, and mopping. I even hosed off our (very) large balcony. All in all I was hard at it for about four hours and I got the kitchen, living room, dining room, and master bedroom done – roughly half our apartment. (I told you it was bad!) There was a layer of micro-fine dust coating everything. I hate to think of how much is caught in the curtains (washing those is a project for another day – after sandstorm season has passed!) I could have really used a face mask, or at least a bandanna, as I went about my duties.

Today? I’m tackling the kids’ room (that alone will take me most of the morning!), the computer room, and the bathroom. I also plan to make some banana bread and a lasagna. I am woman, hear me roar.

Or maybe that’s just the vacuum cleaner…

Since moving abroad nearly ten years ago, I haven’t worked outside the home – instead I had two babies to keep me busy. Now that they are old enough to be in school all day, it seemed like a good time to explore some options to keep my resume alive. Which is how I started working as a substitute at a neighborhood school library.

I started in January and since then, it’s been a day here, a day there. But since last week, I’ve worked five days and I have six more days scheduled this month already so far.

It’s not so much that it’s a demanding job, but when I’m there I’m not at home and when I’m not at home, a whole lot of stuff goes undone. I can’t grocery shop at my usual time, I can’t do the laundry – or any of the other hundreds of chores that go along with keeping a house with two small children in residence tidy. (Note: I live in one of the dirtiest cities on Earth and we’ve had a two day sand storm this week. Guess how much dust and grit is coating my home right now??) Homework, dinner, and bath time is a mad rush. If I’m lucky I can collapse on the couch by about 8:30 – and have an hour of chat with my husband before we both crawl off to bed.

As I said, it’s not a demanding job, but I guess I’ve become spoiled in my decade at home. I don’t like having my routine disrupted, I don’t like seeing clutter and mess all over the house, and I really don’t like not having more time to myself. I haven’t written anything new in months and I have a long list of quilting projects I need to complete in the next little while.

Yet I know that other people deal with FULL TIME jobs on top of having a family to take care of AND still find time to write. I am in awe. It makes me wonder – do they never sleep? Because that is perhaps the only way I could find any peace and quiet to do any writing or anything else.

Yesterday was Coptic Easter, which makes today the celebration of Sham el Nessim – translated as “smell the breeze” – the first day of spring.

Egyptians celebrate by having picnics and eating a variety of traditional foods including salted fish, green onions, lettuce, and dyed eggs.

Sham el Nessim seems as good a reason as any to have a picnic, though I don’t think I’ll be able to convince my children to eat green onions or dried salted fish! Being outside to enjoy the weather will have to do.

What’s on your schedule for today? Any signs of spring in your part of the world?

My family joined in with several other families we know and went to a resort in Ain Suhkna, on the Red Sea, for the weekend. I wasn’t expecting much frankly – I’ve stayed in some real dives in some very nice places in Egypt – but I have to say that this place was a very pleasant surprise. The rooms were a nice size and more importantly, clean! But who wanted to stay in the room when there was a beach, multiple large swimming pools, a playground, and seven tennis courts on the grounds? The only time we spent in our rooms we were sleeping!

(Click any image to enlarge)

A view from the beach

A view of the resort from a jetty built into the water

A line of ships waiting to pass through the Suez Canal

The first two days we were there, it clouded up in the afternoons and got cooler. It even attempted to rain a couple of times.

Luckily for us, this is about as much rain as I’ve ever seen in Egypt at one time!

Who needed sand toys when there were sea creatures to play with? These jelly fish look pretty serious to me, but in fact were pretty harmless. The children were picking them up and tossing them like frisbees!

We did encourage the kids to let this lovely starfish go back into the water.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I would have been happy to stay a few more days! Since it’s only an hour and half away, I’m already scheming on when we can go back again…