Hello again Cairo!

A very early start this morning after just a few hours sleep. Bb and I left our house in Barcelona at 5am, landed in Rome 8am, took off for Cairo at 12.00 and touched down in Cairo at 2.50pm - almost 10 hours later. This is the first time we've arrived in Cairo together and it's nice to have him here at the start of my month. We're now in the apartment, been to the supermarket to buy in some basic foodstuffs and once our blips are on (first things first!), we'll probably go out, grab a bite locally and have an early night. The midnight curfew won't bother us tonight. My colleague and flat mate for the month doesn't arrive till Friday night and our course starts on Sunday.

I wasn't sure what to expect on the journey in from the airport, but everything seemed 'calm', there were no tanks on the street, no signs of unrest and our driver said that yes, everything's quiet. It's Eid and even the traffic seems quieter than normal. Tomorrow Bb will witness my settling in routine, which first involves giving things a clean. I sneaked a few cleaning products into our shopping trolley this afternoon! Then unpacking. Then there will be candles, flowers and colour shawls thrown around the room and my bits and bobs of jewellery will add a little sparkle to our lives! It's strange how we've taken to this metropolis of a place and it's starting to feel familiar. Eid Mubarak! PS: Bb bought me a surprise pressie yesterday - one of these little keypads for my ipad mini I mentioned two days ago!