Incredible Egypt - Cairo

In December and January, my dad and I spent some time in Egypt. He'd been to the odd beach resort there before and I'd popped by Cairo for work a while ago, but it was time to go explore the ancient civilisation.

We did a lot of walking - around the Islamic areas visiting some mosques and bazaars especially. And there are a lot of mosques in Cairo, most of which are very impressive, some of which also have great views over Cairo. We also visited the museum, where there are endless piles of artefacts. Walking around the museum, you pass sarcophagus after sarcophagus, stone sculpture after stone sculpture, and upstairs plenty of mummies in the side-section (which had some interesting descriptions and really made me in awe of the technique of mummification). The museum could be much better, but it could also be worse. A new museum is under construction and should be ready within a year so we'll have to go back and visit another time. Also upstairs was the Tutankhamen exhibit with all the contents from the tomb, including the famous golden mask that was placed over the body. It really is quite stunning, though photos of it are forbidden.

Cairo traffic is pretty bad but we mostly walked, with the odd subway ride and some taxis too. Few restaurants served alcohol , but they did alow you to bring alcohol in if you wanted to. The leafy parts of Cairo are pleasent, and there are some nice little cafes hidden in strange places. Many of the nice old buildings have been somewhat abandoned unfortunately. It is a very dusty city without much green, and not a place where there are many places to go for a run. We did find one Palace that was quiet and green and was worth a good look around, even though it is not used. The architecture was incredible; so was that of some of the Churches and even the synagogue (a church that was converted into a synagogue actually).

We did an evening watching the pyramid light show which really was not worth it, whether you pay a lot to watch it up close, or watch from a hotel balcony nearby (it is also cold in the evenings in Cairo at this time of year). Visiting the actual pyramids themselves during the daytime of course was special. Standing on the steps of these absolutely enormous entities is just incredible. The mind boggles at why anyone would think it necessary to build these things that have no practical purpose (the symbolic nature of a pharaoh being powerful, living in the after life and having all those around see their power don't seem very practical reasons to me). We went inside some of the smaller ones that are mostly below ground, and one of the bigger ones - quite exciting climbing in these tiny tunnels, and trying not to think of the millions of tons of rocks above you that could cave in (though probably won't since they hadn't for the previous 5,000 years)!

It is certainly pretty touristy and there are a lot of people inside, outside and on the lower steps of the pyramids. A lot do take camel rides into the desert (we mostly walked, but did hop on a camel for a few minutes). It is quite something to see and just stand in awe of, and imagine how they could have ebeen built nowadays, let alone back then with just boats and wooden rollers, and lots of people to move all the rocks.

Whilst in Cairo we ate at a variety of different places, including the odd 5-star hotel since they had football on, and we thought they would have some heating (though they generally didn't). We also had some more local food on the streets, but I think we really needed a local to help us have the best culinary experience there. Probably some of the best food was in some more modern, boutique restaurants that we went to.

Work and life at the end of 2019

The China trip last September was the beginning of a very hectic few months until the end of the year. There was time for Leah to have a birthday party at a horse riding stables with a bunch of friends taking it in turn to play games and ride horses which went well, as we just avoided the heavy rain storm (and had only 1 or 2 kids in tears at periods during the party). Leah's completely horse and unicorn obsessed so all toys, clothes, cakes are themed with one or the other. She's become much more sociable, very talkative (including singing, especially in German) though is still prone to a few outbursts every now and again when she can't get what she wants. She's lost several teeth, and recently begun swimming on her own. Maybe the last thing before she is independent is to cycle without stabilisers, so we need to work on that now the dry season is upon us.

Kenya has a very wet long rains season (April-July) and also very went short rains season (October-November), and it has continued to rain on and off even in the dry seasons, which is generally good in preventing droughts and food shortages, but also causes floods and landslides which also kills unfortunately. Still it is also good for the economy (not least in boosting hydro power generation). It doesn't mean the chaos with the dams (a lot of which aren't built/finished due to corruption) or piped water supply improves whatsoever unfortunately. And in some senses might make water pollution worse in the rivers with trash washing into it.

In October I made a short trip to Zurich which is a complete contrast to Nairobi. A highly efficient public transport system (with a ticket system partly based on trust, as is common in Europe), a spotless city, lots of high-end buildings and cars, very expensive hotels etc. We held our annual Mobile Broadband Forum there which i was involved in. In November there was also a short work trip to AfricaCom. I didn't see much of Cape Town, having been there a couple of times before, but it was a successful trip and a chance, just like Zurich to see colleagues that are otherwise only on email or phone calls. 

There was also a short trip to the beach on the Kenyan coast (literally just a night or two), though it was partly washed out by rain, and required be to return by Mombasa airport and the Likoni Ferry (shortly after another vehicle had come off the ferry sadly)--flying directly to the little Ukunda airstrip is so much easier!

Hannah has really taken up swimming properly, practicing at least three times a week and winning her first inter-school competition last October; she is also getting much better at Tennis which is good. Her real passion remains art (today it was drawing clothes), and Leah and her continue to enjoy nothing more than getting dressed up and dancing at home to some music (they've worked out the Google Home speaker that we have very quickly). 

The end of the year also, of course, included the traditional bonfire night and fireworks at one of the British Schools in Nairobi that is generally fun (and only somewhat of a panic since i had about 5 kids i was supposed to be watching over), and the annual St Martin's Day at the German School. 

There was a rush of events at the end of the year, which are a key part of my job: speaking at, organizing or supporting, both internal events organized by us and other third-party events. All went well, probably better than could be expected and when we look back at the year work-wise it was successful, despite some headwinds. All that hard work has paid off, and 2020 is poised to be much better as a lot of projects were just being set-up in 2019 and will really kick off in 2020.

My feeble attempts to blog in order to sort of diarise my (and my family's) life for future reference, and compose and share thoughts on interesting things happening with work and life have not done well in 2019. The New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to improve on that!