Shade, noise, focus

Woke up with a sore neck. Must have slept funny.

Larissa and I popped along to City Centre this morning to see (for the second time in my case) the excellent True Grit. I say popped along; despite going to the earliest show, the traffic was awful, but we knew beforehand that would be the case and decided that it was worth it to see a decent movie (only just worth it, in my opinion). Once there, we were met with the unexpected pleasantness of a near empty cinema. At one stage a mobile phone chatterer actually stepped outside when I glared at him. Amazing. There was a distractingly noticable hiss in the speakers throughout the entire film, but there wasn't much I could do about that, and saw it as due punishment for going to the cinema in Egypt in the first place.

Bought a nice shiny new pair of Ray-Bans after the film.

Later, a trip to Al-Azhar park was cut short by the quite extraordinary rudeness we experienced as the locals stared, pointed and giggled at us making us feel like exhibits in a zoo. I can't remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable in this city. I'm used to a certain degree of slack-jawed staring, but this was particularly bad. We shall not go there again on a Saturday afternoon, that's for sure. I hate it when Cairo tries to suck the will to live right out of you. (It's bloody good at it, let me assure you.)

Anyway, things are a lot more relaxed now we're back home, kettle boiled, and with a couple of episodes of The West Wing to enjoy.