Finally....I got my driving license

I can't get a Egypt driving license directly with my Singapore license. They only allowed some nationalities to have it without the need to go thru a theory and practical test.

So I went for the test. At first they want me to take theory test, abit panic lah, can't remember what are the difference between these signs:

- A blue background circle with a slash

- A blue background circle with a cross

- A white background circle with a slash

Today on the way to Alamein, I saw one sign having a camel drawn on it. This one I know lah, watch out for camel shit ahead right!?

Anyway, they later said no need theory test, because I look very clever and they don't want to waster their time.

Then I went on to take the driving test. The circuit is like the one in Singapore, but I have to enter the circuit from a back alley because they blocked the front entrance. When I queue up my car to wait for my turn, a horse was eating hay beside me. My colleague told me I can buy the horse for around 3000 LE.

Back to the circuit, I a bit kan chiong lah, the lane is so small, it's difficult to negotiate my 4WD around the corner! Then while we were queing, the woman infront of me forget to put on seat belt! Kena warning from officer but don't know she still pass or not. Then the guy behind me kena warning also, because he was talking...on his mobile phone while taking a driving test!

It's indeed an endless fun and amusement living in Egypt.

Then it's my turn, I think the only thing they want to test is my parallel parking...I don't know why. I abit panic, because the parking space a Kancil also can sweat trying to go in lah!

I salute the driving skill of Egyptian. Eventhough they seems to drive recklessly and give no regards to any traffic rules, they are still a more skillful driver compared to most Singaporean drivers!

We once took a black and white street cab, the driver drove like F1 Hamilton on ecstasy, we have many scary moment and the driver was able to avoid all the accidents last minute. I think that's the only time I had cold sweat taking a cab in the hot summer. I actually don't mind the other driver who turn on the Arabic pop music that can be heard 5km away, at least our hearing recovered after we get out from the cab.

So back to my test, I don't think I park my 4WD fully inside the box, because I know if I move abit more forward, I will hit the cone, abit more backward, also kena cone. Before I try to re-align the car any further, the officer yelled to me and say ok! Pass!....don't ask me why...I think he never see anyone manage to squeeze a 4WD inside the box until that day...that's why he let me pass lor.

There you go, they issued the license on the spot and it's valid for 10 years.

I still wonder why the other day a cabby still manage to pick up passenger, with one punctured tyre.

-VINcE

Khan Al Khalili

2 weeks ago we went to Khan Al Khalili to do some souvenier shopping. That was also the first time we try metered taxi, which has air con and proper door handles! The taxi fare is about the same as the black and white, older than my grandfather but yet still fast and reckless cab.

Some photo we took inside the restaurant at Khalili before we start to shop.

Can shop, smile big big!

Aiyoyo, money not enough

hmm! I don't care!

.......Shen ah, jiu jiu wo ba!

The old man who started the restaurant...

Ready, get set....go go go ! She can shop faster than Usain Bolt.

Local craft shop

This is how it looks like...the shopping street in Khalili. This section mostly sell gold.

We bargained hard, slash the price to around 50%. I think we are still paying too much, next time we should try 80%.

Beside asking me whether I am from China, most of the shop owner like to call me "Lucky man!" I wonder why they think I am lucky, I mean, my wife spent away my money and I never tiok the 8million TOTO what.

-VINcE

Alone and at Alamein again

I am going to stay here for 4 days, to do some follow up on the audit before I go back Singapore on 3 Sept.

Four new hire I found at Alamein machine shop...looks like they have been left behind by their mothers....PiPi is so lucky.

My dinner prepared by in house chef, looks yummy hor?

Eve is now in Singapore and we are just bored and start the staring at each other see who blink first game

-VINcE

PiPi went to see Vet

PiPi went to the vet. He is not sick, we just want to check him in to the pet boarding house while we are away.

He was protesting hard and keep crying along the way, CRY BABY!!

The vet did a general check on him and gave him a thumbs up. He is very healthty (and naughty ^^). PiPi even got his own health card now!

PiPi's health card, look, he is 2.45kg now!

A random photo of PiPi with cheeky expression as usual

-VINcE

Friday is rest day..we chiong!!!

OK let me intro to you: The Egypt's Metro aka Singapore's MRT.. But pls minus the parts where we can have Air-con, better chairs, Less people and Not that stuffy in Singapore. I miss our MRT... Egypt's is too old school.

While we tried to pass the time while waiting for the metro, we posed for pictures for our blog.. I had to tied up my hair up, as it is too hot to let it down!!!

And Here, my darling in his new haircut. Which I must said very good, and he must thanks me, because I researched alot of Info from the egypt forums to get where is the best Hair salon. And it is worth every cent!!! Today there is a sales guy from a shop tell him his haircut look very good, and where he cut it and how much?? See darling must trusted your wife advices when it comes to these things.

We are having dinner at the Shopping centre, Arkadia Mall, we are able to find seats that is directly facing the Nile River.

After shopping in that lousy mall, we gave up. There is nothing worth buying and nothing caught our fancy. So we decided to go somewhere to listen to live music and have a drink and chat. So I suggested Hard Rock Cafe at the Grand Hyatt. There we had some salad, cheese cake, red wine and beer.

My dear drinking a bottle of beer and I had finished my glass of red and ordered another, my Fav.. Long Island Tea.

This is very entertaining the whole HRC crews are dancing YMCA. We like it very much!!

Happy news today::: Pipi know how to use the toilet bowl to do is pee pee. And I rewarded him with half a chicken hotdog... pipi is a good boy. Sayang u!!

An "intensely" contested Sleeping King/Queen competion is ongoing.

It is a hot summer afternoon.

The air con is humming, injecting the arena with the much needed comfort.

The calmness fused with the air, the silent duel has lasted longer than expected.

.......it's not going to end anytime soon, I'm afraid so.

...and the winner will get to keep this mice I found on the street of Maadi.

-VINcE

Why....

Why:

1. Expat has to pay extra cab fare and get yelled at even if we pay fairly.
2. Everyone has to ask where I come from. I already told you I come from Mars.
3. You yelled again when I was not interested to buy your cold drinks....I have weak stomach you know?
4. I never see you wash the cup after that uncle gulp down your drink and you offer the same cup to me.
5. You have to pick up the biscuit you accidentally drop onto the dirty floor, put it back to the bag and sell it to me. Didn't you notice that you are looking at a horrified Chinese man?
6. I must pay extra monthly fees to bawaab
7. Must you make me think lowly of you after I found out that you double charged me on the monthly fees
8. My ADSL line has been activated for 3 months and I still don't get any signal
9. Every time I call your technical support about the problem and you tell me not to worry it will work the next day.
10. The next day my ADSL still dead
11. The pedestrian pavement is always clustered with rubbish
12. You dig so many holes on the pavement and leave those bricks scattered around
13. Must you build so many advertisement boards on the pavement that leave me no space to get thru to the other side

-VINcE......tell me why.

What a Cat can do....

....after I had my 4th supper of the night
....sharpened my claws
....finished my urgent business
....digging bunch of tissue paper out from the bin and slashes them into pieces
....ambushed mummy but she seems to know where I hide everytime
....give daddy a bite but he keep knocking my head everytime I try to show some love
....haiz, he seems to be angry with me, ignored me and go to read his book
....I even try to act cute by seating next to him and give him my kawa-ee look
....and he still wanna act cool
....maybe I can try switching TV channels to irritate him...I know he hates channel switching
....and turn the volume to full blast...he sure hates it!!!
..............
.........
....
Oh shit....I actually doze off before I manage to turn on the TV...and daddy caught me red handed. Siao liao, tomorrow sure no yummy cat food for breakfast liao.

Random Update

It's been quite awhile since we wrote something on our blog. Miraculously..time seems to be propelled by a pair of wings.

ADSL at our apartment is down at the moment, we are trying very hard to get it fixed (you need extra calories intake to handle the frustration of setting things right here). Our neighbour Rosy has gone back to Spain so the option of connecting to her ADSL line is out as well..

I am still chuckling whenever I heard this from the Egypt tourism advertisement on CNN :

" Egypt offers you their most precious treasure , THE SUN ".

Most of the Egyptian that I spoke to didn't seems to aligned to that statement, they dislike the heat during summer and prefer winter. July's weather is hot but still bearable. I heard that the August heat is the most punishing, we shall see.

I am actually quite fascinated by what Egypt can really offer me, aside from the SUN and some annoyances. I would say so far I am enjoying the life here and I didn't miss Singapore that much!

There is still so much for me to explore in Egypt. We shall be more active travelling around when the summer is over and the weather is more accommodating.

We are expecting a few groups of friends to visit us, we will try to travel with them whenever my work schedule permits...Red Sea, Mt Sinai, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, the desert.

We also has the luxury to visit the neighbouring country across Mediterranean Sea..The Europe..Spain, France, England, Turkey...it's going to be fun!

Here's the official website of Egyptian Tourist Authority: Here here here....

Some photos:

We went to Wagamama restaurant at CityStar for our dinner. I supposed it's a Japanese restaurant even though their menu is not convincing enough.

Chicken Ramen. Eve ordered this and was surprised to see the ramen was served in dry. Haha, she didn't read properly....as usual lah :p

This is my soupy ramen! The soup was quite standard and the rest was just barely edible. I only ate 1 piece of the meat and the rest "ta bao" as a supper for PiPi.

My company laptop is less than 6-months old, and start to give shit. Strangely though, it has stopped giving shit for 2 weeks now. I suspect it got something to do with the electrostatic charges. Due to the dry weather, static shock is actually quite common here. During the winter, I actually developed a minor phobia whenever I want to wash my hand :"Shock...shock...and more shock."

PiPi is growing healthily and exponentially. He was last weighted yesterday at 1.75kg, gaining 150g in just a week time.

He's the sleeping champion in the house, and also a whining king. He will whine and whine whenever he is hungry. He also want a bite of everything that we eat... Spoilt child!

-VINcE

Really Noti Pipi

Yes I backed these, this afternoon. I wanted to try if my baking skill is still intact, not bad on the outside. I had a taste on one of the muffin. Yum Yum. Very nice. But the way it is Blueberry muffin, double yummy...

Careless Evelyn left the tray of delicious blueberry muffins on the table. And this give pipi a chance to grab a bite or two. See he ate 2 of them.... so angry with him and myself. Hubby said maybe he is trying to show some support to me, But I think he is just curious to try anything that is edible.

Ok here is the Killer, trying to look innocent and cute with the head and eyes.

Pipi's thinking: Not me, not me, it is not my fault. It is their fault, they seduced me.