Our nothing special but oh so busy weekend

Where did the weekend go? Well, it was busy indeed. Friday morning we had a big American breakfast that Courtney made. Biscuits and gravy with poached eggs, fried smoked turkey (to substitute bacon), and freshly made corn bread. Yummy! Then we went over to the CAC to play baseball with our neighbor and his kids. The kids and the daddies played catch and practiced batting, while Abraham crawled all over the lawn, and I ran around the track.

After a couple of hours of sports we all went straight over to the new Mexican restaurant on 233. We’ve been wanting to try it out for a while. A real Mexican restaurant in Maadi?! How excited we had been, and how disappointed we got. The corn chips were good, as was the salsa, and the freshly made tortillas were amazing, but that was pretty much it. We had to wait for a very, very long time just to order, because apparently the owner’s staff had called in sick AND he had received a big order just before we got there, PLUS he didn’t have anything readymade or even prepared, so he had to make everything from scratch. When we finally got to order, almost an hour after we got there, it took another whole hour before we actually got our food, and what we received did not impress me much. The boys, who had been waiting so patiently, got three soft tacos each, with cheese, chicken, and friend onion inside. That’s all there was on the plate. 40 LE (almost $10!). What a shame. The rest of our food was all right. Not great, not bad; just OK.

In any case, I’m glad we finally tried it, because we had been building up to it for a while. Although I was disappointed, we decided we might be giving the poor restaurant owner from Texas another chance later on, after he has figured out how to run his business.

After lunch the boys went out to Wadi Degla with our downstairs neighbors for an hour, while we did things around the house. As soon as they got back, we headed over to the Maadi House for tennis, and, in the kids’ case, playing with their friends. After a good match, we met up with some other AUCians for a drink, and it was almost eight when we got back, five kids in tow.

Saturday we hung out around the house most of the day, but the boys had all their neighbor friends over, so it was nothing but quiet. I made snacks, and then almost immediately the kids wanted lunch so I made them noodles, then I suggested and set up games, and served them drinks. Abraham was, as always when there are kids here, in heaven. I managed to throw together a chili and salsa for dinner, and then we went over to the Maadi House for tennis. The boys had a lesson while Courtney & I played. After tennis we came back home and had chili, salsa, chips, coriander rice, and freshly made corn bread, along with a bottle of wine, with our neighbors across the hall. After dinner the kids watched a movie, I cleaned up the kitchen, and we hung out and chatted. It was a very nice evening – and weekend. Nothing spectacular, but busy indeed.