It’s now two weeks since we packed up everything and moved across oceans to North Africa; more specifically, Egypt.  Even more accurately, Hurghada.

We’ve been non-stop (apart from 2 days on the beach) sorting out the apartment.

A new, comfortable bed was the main priority, so being up and ready to go at 9am we wandered down the Exchange, which was closed.  We continued to downtown to see our friend Saad who works in a coffee shop.  It was closed.  Continuing on down bazaar street we went to Happy Land for a rest and a beer.  It was closed.  Ok, I know a bed shop on Nasr Street, not too far away.  Closed.

Oh bugger, let’s wander around the corner for 10 minutes, they’ll probably open at 10am.  Oh look, there are some beds!  Italian mattresses in that tiny hole-in-the-wall shop.  The beds seemed comfortable and the prices reasonable, so we headed off to the bank to get some cash.  By the time we returned they were bringing a pickup truck to get the bed back to the apartment.

“We’ll follow your car”.
”We don’t have a car”.
We crowded into the front cab of the truck and headed home, where we joyfully installed the bed. Mission accomplished.

We’ve also been to Spinneys Supermarket in Senzo Mall where we picked up various essentials for the house and have been out a few times with Amgad who has been awesome in helping us out with shopping and tradesmen.

We didn’t have hot water for 48 hours due to the hot water heater electrifying the taps when turned on and generally not working otherwise and so when Amgad arranged for a plumber and electrician to fix all that Corinne was overjoyed and jumped straight into the shower, purring like a kitten.

The owner had installed air conditioning and began saying he wanted 2500 LE for it.  It took a few days but I finally sat down with him and Amgad and we negotiated a deal where I paid him 1000 for the air conditioning and said we would leave the unit if we left the flat.  Amgad later told him that the 1000 LE was just a deposit – he’s a star!

We’ve obtained a Hurghada Red Privilege Card which gives discount to various restaurants and services in Hurghada but, more importantly, free access to Color Beach – a local beach which has been spruced up and is absolutely lovely.  Two days have been spent chilling down there so far.

The past two days have been spent (mostly by Corinne) scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom.  Floor to ceiling.  It wasn’t clean.

Today, we will be mostly doing bugger all for the rest of the day.