Love Actually

Mandy: 4 – 14 June

This visit to Egypt is our thirteenth and our eighth time of staying in our apartment. A visit therefore was way overdue by the girls and guys, to come over and see what has been drawing us back to Egypt all these years.

Seven weeks in to our three month stay, the big day had finally arrived. They were on their way. (smile) We cleaned the apartment all day to pass the hours while our daughters and their significant others made their way to the airport and then flew the 5 1/2 hours to Hurghada for the very first time. In the evening we had arranged to meet them on our own in our local, Meshmesha. We arrived early, got a good table and arranged six chairs around it. (smile) We ordered a beer and sat waiting, ……..excited and ready to welcome them with long awaited hugs and kisses. (Big smile) Their flight was delayed!…….As the minutes and hours passed by, so did friends and one by one they not only filled the four spare chairs we had ready but tables were added and more chairs pulled up close as more and more friends and friends of friends joined us (nervous smile)….. The place was filling up all around us! The momentum felt like a scene from Love Actually when Colin Firth’s character Jamie went to the restaurant to propose to Aurelia…. with her family trailing behind him and locals joining along the way, all following him as he made his way down the narrow streets….. (Our scene being a sitting version) We made small talk with friends, tried to stay focused, discussed broken handles on toilet doors with Jen’s Mother!!! and tried to contain our excitement! Suddenly we saw them walking towards us. It seemed unreal……walking along in what has been our separate world in the sun but wonderfully real at the same time. (Heart skips)

The next ten days flew by as we showed them around, took them on the 1le (10p) battered local buses, shared fun, exciting and “holy crap” rides in the Water Park and had two days out on the boat to experience diving and snorkelling. (Smile) ……..here are a few of the hundreds of photos taken during their short stay….which will not be their last if we have anything to do with it. (heart flutter)

Aymon looking after us and mixing excellent Shishas as always

Love our family (beam)

A day in the WATER PARK

(a treat paid for by the girls and guys for Glen’s Father’s Day and my Birthday)

Thank you for a wonderful day, such fun and many fears faced (gulp!)

Thank you so much Lauren for your patience

in finally getting me to go on what will always be known as the ‘holy crap’ ride!!!

Cheesy Peas 😉

The “Holy Crap” ride

ALL AT SEA

Two days on the Diving World boat

Courtney faced her fears and snorkelled over the reef as we descended on one of our dives

….and without the protection of the over-sized wet suit she wore the first time! (chuckle)

Then the long awaited dives with Lauren six years after passing her PADI course in Brixham!

What a star she was and so relaxed

A stressful moment for me as a mother when my baby takes her regulator out of her mouth,as she descended on her first dive, to pose for the camera!

But it meant that we knew she was happy in the water and so we didn’t need to worry.

Courtney waiting for us, on the top deck, to come up from the dive

Octopus with all of his tentacles intact before they were bitten off in a fight with an Eel as we watched!!!

It was great to have Leanne and Rich join us on the boat for one of the days

The very lovely Gigi guided Lauren on her first days diving

Ahmed buddied up with Lauren and guided her on her second days diving

TOURIST EXCURSION: Sakalla and the Marina

We only had ten days to show the girls and the guys Hurghada, our favourite places to eat, our friends, our neighbours on site and to give them a feel for the area. We knew we could not do all that in the short time they were here if they were to get a lay in and some down time together during what was after all their annual holiday. So we decided not to even try on this visit. No fixed gatherings were arranged or trips booked up ….however no visit to Hurghada as a tourist would be complete without a trip to see the ‘shit and glitter’ shops (as Keith aptly calls them!) so we arranged to meet them and take them to Sakalla one late afternoon. We all hopped on one of our local buses (lacking mot or solid chassis in many cases) and took our chances on the mad streets down to the town ….nothing phased them, the poverty and dirt in the back streets, the plastic palm trees, tourists with braided hair buying watches and belts from the sole traders holding their boards above their heads…. They took it in their stride. We arrived at the Marina and enjoyed the sun setting on the palatial boats, clean harbour walk ways and Papas bar. We sat in there complaining about the price of the beer!! Eating bowls of nuts (not a good idea!) and finished off the evening by me spitting the last mouthful of beer over the table as I realised I was about to swallow a big fly that was cooling down in my glass! (Embarrassed blush)

We walked back through town just to get the atmosphere and to ensure they wouldn’t want to come down again! (Wink) I will not name names but one of the guys kept skipping sideways every few feet, away from the persistent traders who were approaching him, whilst the other was shouting “beep beep beep beep! stop beeping!” at the taxis!! (Chuckle) Other than that, having to avoid deep holes in the road and random rubbish etc didn’t seem to bother them as we made our way back to the relative calm of our El Kawther district.

Standing in line! posing by the boats in the Marina (with The Palace!!!!!! In the back ground – wink)

Another windy day!

I have not even tried to get permission to post photos (or videos!) of the afternoons by our pool!! Or sunbathing in the Water Park etc, for obvious reasons.

Therefore they will remain in our private family album. (Smile)

Suffice to say great fun was had watching Lewis and Courtney doing some sort of exercise routine….(sooo tempted to post those photos!!)

The others watching the very patient Lauren encourage me to face my fear of simply jumping in and then learning to dive in to the pool!!!

And of Lauren making herself laugh as she danced in the deep end!….

You get the idea!…… basically a wonderul ten days……….. Love Actually was all around (cheesy grin!)

Oh……..What did the girls and guys think of Egypt?………….Well as soon as Lewis got home he put this on his Facebook status! Genius!

“Here’s some facts I learned from my recent trip to Egypt:

Upon entering Egyptian airspace you (unbeknownst to yourself) also enter into an unofficial contract which waives all your rights to a solid bowel movement for the duration of your stay.

Egyptians REALLY like honking their car horns!

A life without bacon can scarcely be called a life.

Egyptians never let the word NO repeated a thousand times get in the way of a good sales pitch.

When it comes to drinking Egyptian spirits you may as well drink battery acid as far as your hangover is concerned.”

I think he enjoyed his stay here (chuckle!)