Back to Cairo

There is a saying in Egypt that anyone who has drunk from the Nile, is fated to return to the Nile again.. I didn't quite drink from the Nile (if I had I might have been permanently unable to go anywhere), but yes, did wet my feet on a number of occassions and left with a wrench when we had to!

But it would appear that even getting your feet wet, works just as well!! After a gap of two years, we are heading back to Cairo, with a sense of excitement and anticipation on our part, and, a lot of trepidation on part of friends and family who are not quite sure whether they should commiserate with us or congratulate us, lol!

My folks are clearly worried, some close friends even wanted to know if we had completely lost it, other polite ones murmured a congratulation after a brief shocked silence (:-)) and some, who are adventurous like us, promised to visit us soon!

I for one, am quite excited! Egypt is going through tumultous change - how often does one get to be part of, and, see history in making? I am keen to see if there is really a difference in Cairo before and after Mubarak.

As for Cairo being dangerous, if you have lived in Cairo, and spent time amongst the Egyptians, you would realise that Egyptians are by nature not violent people. Excitable yes, emotional, absolutely, but violent? No! I think in the history of revolutions, relatively peaceful revolutions like the Egyptian one, can be counted on fingertips.

So my bags are packed, am ready to go....

My food blog

In all my journeys / travels, the one constant has been the search for interesting food - both in terms of taste, and, novelty value.. and I have come from a long way from young vegetarian tastebuds to a much travelled, seasoned and hopefully a tad knowledeable palate!

At a friend's suggestion, decided to start writing another blog on food, though this time, I thought I would try and use Wordpress instead of Blogger..so far the experience has been decent though I suspect I haven't used half the features of Wordpress as I have not with Blogger!

But here it is - Eat-cetera, my ramblings about food!

http://eatceteraeatcetera.wordpress.com/

April 9 : a day to remember?

April 9 may well be a day that would be remembered by Egyptians, not just for the firing on protestors in Tahrir Square, but perhaps for the beginings of what might be yet another form of dictatorship - how benign,only time will tell..

Egypt's Military Court sentencing a blogger to 3 years imprisionment for daring to criticise the military is a tad harsh and seems to go against the spirit of the revolution and the freedom from Mubarak's rule that they ostensibly supported..if anything, it just ties in what Wikileaks had "leaked/ exposed" a few weeks ago- that the army head honchos had agreed to Mubarak's shoot orders, it was just the rank and file that rebelled! Imprisioning the blogger is a gross violation of a right to freedom of expression which is at odd variance with the ideals of the revolution that the army purportedly supported! If this continues, it would be interesting to see how the army's rank and file reacts this time!

Would it be that Egyptians have simply got rid of the dictator and not the dictatorship.

Early days ahead, and maybe, one should give the army benefit of doubt to see if the elections actually take place and power is indeed handed over to the people. It tough times ahead for Egypt and my prayers go out to you.. wish you well old friend!