Sore!

I refused to become like that guy in the picture, say like 10 years later. Eve likes my rounded belly but I hated it! It's hard to bend down to tie my shoe lace with a big belly blocking the way you know?!

Since my arrival in Cairo, I have limited opportunity to exercise. I didn't get good chance to jog around due to the weather and air pollution. I started to appreciate the jogger friendly environment in Singapore.

Eve has managed to locate a pretty comfort place to exercise: in a gym, with air con some more. We joined the gym a weeks ago and has started our fat burning regime.

My muscles are crying in pain and soreness now. Inner thigh pain, hand pain, shoulder pain.... I even have problem scrubbing my back during shower.

But, like others said "No pain, no gain".....if we continue to push on, eventually we will be looking like the couple in the picture below:

..........but I ain't going to wear a PINK pantie!!!!!!!!!

-VINcE

A kitten's life

"Alamak, I am trapped by this stupid sliding door!"

"The couch is mine now! I will take over the whole house sooner or later..hahah...meowrrrr!!"

The weather is hot.....

.....and hence the cat feels sleepy all the time.

Found a nice cosy space for a quick nap, it's a little too crampy though. But I am too lazy to go find another place. What the heck, I will just sleep with my belly up.

kua si mi kua! I just had a heavy lunch and find it too bloated to lay down for a nap, and now you want to come and disturb me!

-VINcE

Influx of good fortune

Well, as Eve has mentioned, there's up and down living in Egypt. But today I am very happy that our ADSL finally works!

I woke up 5am in the morning, suddenly felt like Albert Einstein after a brief midnight business trip to the loo.

So I went to the living room and start to setup the networking.

It finally works! Don't call me noob anymore ok!

Another good news, I am getting my work Visa soon, very soon. This time for real.

More good news, I managed to "bargain" for another 4WD at a cut throat price! As good as a giveaway buy lah!

Wew, my money plant start to work its magic! hehe

-VINcE

Start to feel How bad it is!!

I read a few actiles that said egyptians are helpful and willing to help. Yes there are but I very sure that the security guard at my apartment is no a kind soul. Last monday, my husband asked the security guard to help us buy LPG tank.

Well, this should not be a problem for him. So he quickly came and change one for us and charged us 50L.E for one tank, that is the same size we used in singapore. And asked my hubby to give him 20L.E for tips. So my hubby gave him.

Haha, something happened yesterday. No more gas to cook. We are so angry with that guard, we paid 70L.E for the tank and it only lasted for 5 days. I never cook alot, Obviously, the AssH guard played some tricks, by giving us a almost empty tank of gas and charge us 70L.E

So my hubby go down to see where can he get a new tank of gas. Then he remember opposite our house there live a China family that open a Chinese restaurant. So he when there to check with them, and they are very helpful they gave us a free full tank and even help us change the gasket.

So yesterday dinner we dun cook, and we go to their restaurant to eat. And for the first time, in 6months my hubby finally eat fish!!! It is very tasty!!

we finished the fish... Yummy!!

What I understand from the lady boss, a full tank cost only 8L.E... See how greedy is the security guards... He charge us 70L.E. The kindhearted lady boss, said next time when our gas finished, just place it at their restaurant and they will help us buy. So nice of them.

Today is dumpling day, they even invite us to go over to celebrate with them, she even make dumplings. Haha we have dumpling to eat. But I miss my mummy make one.

Single woman

I wrote something for my classmate in one of our class mail. I was trying to "terrified" her of the reality that she might only realised after she is too old to find a partner.

I would think eventually when we grow older, life would be more fulfilling if you have a partner by your side, a family.

Here's what I wrote to her:

--------
致丽韵，

好男人的心比较容易碎。
坏男人没良心，无隙可击， 就像老成与无核。
请多小心，小心偷心的男人。

你不耕作，怎知收成。
你不点燃，怎会发光。

岁月，在女人的脸上留下了痕迹。
女人，又为痕迹铺上了粉彩。
一直这样, 年复一年。

直到一天，她铺粉彩的手再也把持不着疯狂蔓延的岁月。
她细研镜中的自己，默然发现，脸上的痕迹，没有故事。

镜子湿了，她也哭了。
--------

老成 = lau seng and 无核 = bo hook. My 2 naughtly male friends...hehe!

Captured!

Captured #1: Hit and run!

The way Egyptian maneuver their vehicle is something shocking and at times funny for me to watch.

Not too long ago, I witnessed a 4WD hit and bumped away an old car to create more parking space. The old car was obviously not on handbrake (or maybe it doens't even has any handbrake). It slided forward for 3 or 4 feet after the bump. o_O"

What I have captured here is a story of how a lady driver tried to parallel "squeezed" her car into the space between a Chevloret Optra and a BMW Sedan.

I used the word "squeeze" and not "park", because it's was so obvious that the space in between these 2 cars was simply too small, unless she can do like what we see in the "Shao Lin Soccer" movie, use "Lu Lai Shen Zhan" to push the car in.

The lady driver tried many time and gave up eventually. The Chevrolet's rear bumper was scratched during her last try.

I asked my Egyptian colleague once, what should we do if we involved in similar incident, he told me "fuck the guy".

.........well, what he meant was you simply shout at each other and then drive away.

It's not like in Singapore whereby you would expect the person at fault to make some compensation. In Egypt, you should come down from your car, shout and curse at the driver at fault like a crazy man and kick the bumper as hard as you can at the same time. Do all this while the driver is still inside the car (if he's at fault lah!)

Don't laugh hor, I didn't make this up, I saw it myself at a busy roundabout. The shouting man was so out of pitch at top of his voice.

Captured #2: Plant in my office room

I asked my company gardener to put some pots of plant inside my office room. I like the money plant on top very much.

I have one old money plant that followed me for about 4 years already. I am not a believer of feng shui or good luck charm, but I somehow like the money plant very much.

I think part of the reason is the "never give up spirit" of the plant, other than the good name. A dying money plant can grow back very fast if you give the plant some water, peel off the drying leave promptly and feed it some sunshine once in awhile.

The gardaner is awarded with a certification from Tree Lovers Club in Maadi recently. So, don't pray pray ok! My gardener got cert one!

Captured #3: Expensive Tropical *Rotten* Fruits!

We went to Carrefour for some late night shopping last Friday. It was so crowded! We sweared to never visit Carrefour again during weekend.

We found some tropical fruits there. Based on the pricing, I guess they are something considered very rare and precious in Egypt.

• Lychee: 15.05LE per pack= SGD4
• Mangosteen: 6 pieces for 29.80LE = SGD 1.30 per piece!
• Rambutan: 14.75LE for than 10 pieces = SGD3.80 a pack of ROTTEN rambutan!

Well, I can start to import tropical fruits to Egypt and make a fortune here.

-VINcE

My first haircut in Egypt!

I have been very relunctant to get my hair trimmed by Egyptian barber, after experiencing the way they fix our apartment. Especially after they fixed the clothes hanger upside down.

My last hair cut was done 5 months ago. It grew longer and longer but I still failed to persuade myself to pay the local barber a visit.

I had trouble comb my long hair to my liking (to look like Jing Cheng Wu), the weather is getting hotter and my wife is nagging almost everyday about my hair. She said I looked like a woman from behind, I thought she was referring to my butt...hehe.

Today, I felt that I might be lucky to get a good haircut (man's gutsy sense), and hence I went to the nearby Ryan Hair Salon. The salon is for man only and the barber is a man also. Female don't cut hair for man here, so no beautiful mei mei lor.

First look at the interior of the salon and it doesn't look like the Malay/Indian barber shop at all! Happy lah!

My barber is Mustafa, speak a little English and I asked him to guess my nationality.

Japan, Thailand, Taiwan(wow!), China, America (hmm...why? I don't look like ang moh leh).....all wrong! Lucky, he is quite good at cutting hair.

I showed him my photo of my short hair, and I told him :"Same Same like Beckham!". hehe...

My sample photo for hair cut

Very heng today, the barber replicated my hair cut quite successfully.

My new hair cut!

Overall, it was a very satisfying visit. Hair wash + hair cut cost me 40LE. As long as they don't mess up my hair, I am happy to pay.

Before I leave the salon, the barber point at my hair on the floor and said :"Your hair many, like what I cut in 1 month!"

Hehe...what a well spent 40LE.

-VINcE

New Family Member!!! Pipi

Super 欠扁 look

My hubby adopted this cat to the family, so he can keep me company. I''d named him Pipi because he is very naughty and like to hide and bite people not like QQ. So I call him Pipi, chinese call 玩皮, english name Rascal.

I''m very innocent!!

We are thinking to send him away, because he is very notti, keep running away from us and bite us. He rather play with the curtains than play with us. He will only look for us when he is hungry.

Go away, I dun like to see you!!!

Ready for action to play the curtains or telephone wires.

Korea Food In Egypt

Well my hubby deiced to reward me for begin so hardworking to mop the whole house. And FYI the I mopped the house 4 times and the floor was so dusty with fine desert sand blown into the house when ever we opened the windows. Well just have to mop it every 3 days. Beside mopping the house, I rearrange the house furniture to make it look more spacious. Honesty I dun like all the furniture in the house too European style. We plan to move to another house with better house layout next year. There is 3 bedrooms but only one bathroom.

Ok back to the Korea Food, it surprise me again, they serve authentic Korea food and most importantly, they serve PORK!!!!!!! Muhahaha So there is PORK, yeah!!!! HOLD on, where is the pork from?? Well it is specially air flown from Korea, according to the Lady boss. She is Egyptian and she know how to speck and write Korean. And her hubby is a Korean. So they serve very authentic Korea food and they employed a Korean to be their chef. So the food should be good, but it is not really so great, the Bugogi is jus so-so... the meat are all very tough. Disappointed.