OMG! Really? Here? Now?

...I feel like I should dash off and ply him with sheesha and mint tea, or something. Damn. Any idea where abouts he is? Just out of curiousity? Hope he gets to at least go on a faluka on the river, and maybe swing by the pyramids. TOTALLY worth going for coffee/lunch at the Khan El Khaleili restaurant upstairs in the Mena House hotel. If it were any closer to the pyramids, it would be under them. You can sip your coffee and stare out of the window going "Oh. My. God." It's very cool.

Re: curriculum - teaching about people's lives post 1930 is part of the National Curriculum, and the topic of Children's lives in WWII is one of the government-approved schemes of work. Now, I don't know what the Egyptian Government's take on that is - in plenty of bits of the Middle East you wouldn't be allowed to teach it, end of story.

Happy Anniversary, JZ and Hec!

Egad, Fay.

You have parents who are objecting because you aren't teaching HATRED? Bad Fay! Bad!

Sadly, the same attitude exists over here.

To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught....

Fay, he's doing some consulting work for some new university they're building, I guess, but I'm not sure where he's staying. He's been doing these trips off and on for several years, so he's seen the pyramids and all (actually, I have pictures of him on a mule in front of them).

Oooh! Is it the British University in Cairo? Is it? That'd be very exciting!

(...if it were for a school, rather than a Uni, it might even be my future employers...)

Don't know. I'll ask him next time I email him.

Oh, lordy. You know, people tend to have their car radios on pretty loud as they go past our apartment, which is a little annoying, but they only stop at the stop sign and then move on, so no big. But now there's someone out there playing bad rap who's been there for the last five minutes and shows no sign of moving on. Come on, people. Not everyone wants to hear your fucking music! How hard is this concept?

ETA: okay, so he's cleaning his car. And thus has all his doors and windows open and the volume cranked up to maximum. Jesus. How loud does it need to be? You're in the car!

Congratulations DebetEsse! That is wonderful news.

Happy Anniversary, JZ and Hec!

Ack vw and Emily... I am glad things weren't any more scary. I also hope you feel comfortable in your room sooner rather than later, vw.

Fay a racist? Suuuuuuuuure...

Weekends should be about relaxing, right?

I'm watching Indy Time Trials. And though I have managed to get a lot done this weekend, I don't know if I have done enough to justify just sitting here with coffee watching tv.

eta: Helio Castroneves is qualifying now. I can't hear (or, frankly, see) his name without hearing Billytea making him sound neferious and evil. Which, of course, he is in his wee little Brazilian and notevil way.

You know, as we drove home this pm I kept saying things like "Oh my God! They think I'm a racist! Who tortures children! Oh my God!" etc etc ad nauseum. Our conversation rambled around the whole teaching thing and the whole appropriate-to-teach thing and my flatmate said that the new lad at school had better be damned careful, because he's screamingly of the out-and-proud variety - at least when we're out in the pub - and because the year before she and I came out here there was a bloke who got sacked (or maybe just his contract not renewed) because word spread amont the parents that he was not of the straight.

We'd earlier been talking about the whole Jewish thing, and my friend (who was giving us both a lift) said "Honestly, it never even occurs to them that some of the teachers could be Jewish." And, yes, a colleague who's now left was indeed a (non-practicing, married-to-an-Egyptian-Muslim, bringing-up-her-son-Muslim) American Jew. Which the parents evidently didn't quite catch on to.

"Or worse still, a gay Jew," said my friend.

And it struck me, a trifle belatedly, that in addition to my not-entirely-all-that-easy-to-explain GVSP and NC17 HP slash-writing hobby, I'm a bi girl whose grandfather was called Levi. There was a definite note of hysteria to my laughter.

Jesus, Fay...you should forgive the expression. You know you did the right thing, right?

I'm a racist because I don't hate Jews.

t boggles

In mememe news, just when I thought that wedding coming up on Saturday was going to go nice and smooth after all? Well, our church is a very artsy place, especially WRT visual arts. Once or twice a year, some of the artsy types will do a series of panels (usually in chalks on a black panel) on some set theme--Advent, Stations of the Cross, etc. The panels are hung between the windows in the sanctuary, and we treat it a bit like an art gallery.

This year it's a Holy Spirit theme for Pentecost. Which started today. Since I'm not really in the artsy loop, I didn't know until I walked into the church and saw the panels. So while everyone else in the choir was talking about what wonderfully talented artists we had, I was gnashing my teeth thinking of the extra work I'd have to do to clear them out and put them back up for the wedding.

Only I've now discovered I can't. They're not on the simple pully system that supports the banners and cross at the front of the church. It takes pretty much a full working day to install or remove them, and they usually have one of the artists do it--they wouldn't trust someone like me who's not familiar with the system and doesn't have experience handling the pieces to do it. t cries

It's not like it's tacky or anything--it's the work of working artists or serious hobbyists, so it's all well-executed, and if you know the theme, it's intriguing to see how the different artists interpreted it. But they do look a bit incongruously modern in the elegant and rather unadorned 1920-something sanctuary. And this is a bride who was anxious to know whether the white cloth draped over the cross at the front of the church during Eastertide would still be there. (ETA because she wanted it gone.)

I'm not looking forward to the email I'm about to write. The pastor has offered to back me up with further explanation and calming of the waters if need be, but still....