Another busy weekend in Cairo coming to an end

It’s Saturday night, the last few hours of the weekend, and I’m sitting in my favorite chair with my feet up – laptop in my lap – feeling the very last of my energy leaving my body. We had a low-key weekend, yet quite active, with several interesting encounters and conversations.

Thursday evening we had dinner at our friends from Toronto’s house. They have two children, older than ours, and a large male Siamese cat that reminds me, inevitably, of my Siamese cat that I was practically inseparable from most of my childhood. An evening with these friends will always be good fun; not only have they’ve lived here in Cairo for a long time now, and tutor us in the art of expat Cairo living, but they’re also very interesting people with a lot of exciting stories and opinions, never afraid to speak their minds.

Friday I went to Al Rehab, as reported earlier, and apart from getting a lot of homeschooling inspiration and encouragement, I also enjoyed spending a bit of quality time with friends, old and new. It was great catching up. In the evening my husband & I watched two episodes of a newly found enjoyment of ours; the West Wing. We knew about this show but never really watched it before, however since a friend lent us season one on DVD, we’re hooked.

Saturday morning was another soccer morning, our second to last one (Thank God!), and I talked to a couple of parents of children on my boys’ teams I had yet to properly meet. Afterwards the boys and I spent a few hours at the Maadi House, where we met up with a newly arrived family – or at least part of it – from Texas. It was interesting to meet some new faces - I had a good time - and I was, as always, impressed by Ms. Four’s – who also happened to be there – very sharp and perceptive analysis and conclusions about Cairo expat living. When asked for advice by newcomers here, I feel like I ramble a lot, while Ms. Four gives the best advice and insights. I had brought our swimsuits but in the end we didn’t go in the pool because I thought it was too cold. Looking at the Google weather information I now see that it was around 26°C in Cairo today, which – if it was in Sweden – instantly would prompt any healthy Swede to visit swimming and recreational facilities wearing as little clothing as possible, but somehow, here today, it seemed cold. Maybe it’s the dust clouds Ms. Four talks about in her blog, or maybe I’m getting too used to the weather.

In addition to all this, I managed to straighten out our house a bit, wash most of the baby clothes we have as well as do all our laundry, bake cookies and shortbread, make a couple of nice dinners, practice my song for our choir recital, work for a few hours, and spend time with the boys, as well as all the other things one does. Now I am, though, nearly exhausted. I’m going to get the boys out of their bath, get them to bed, and if I still have energy left, make a cup of tea and enjoy my shortbread in front of another episode of The West Wing. Tomorrow’s the beginning of another working week!