Well I have had a busy few days. Yesterday my friend Sharon came over and I baked peanut butter cookies and whipped shortbread - must remember to put some salt in the whipped shortbread when I make it here in Egypt as the butter I use is unsalted and it sure does make a difference - the cookies are not quite right - dang it all. Then after she left I went downstairs to visit with my SIL Suzanne - Uncle Samir and Aunt Lila were visiting as well as my SIL Gehan and all the kids. Aunt Lila has just been diagnosed with cancer and she is very scared - understandably so. Aymn's kids were at Suzanne's and they did not come to greet me - all of Suzanne's and Gehan's kids did - but not Aymn's - which tells me that my dear cowife has yet to accept our marriage - oh well not much I can do about that - that is her problem - but it does pose problems for Aymn and I do regret that. I feel for his kids as well as they are being drawn into something that is not really any of their concern - but that is how she operates. Anyway - had a good visit and - in shaa allah - Uncle Samir and Aunt Lila will come over for a visit on Thursday. Uncle Samir said he wanted to wait until Aymn was around - and my response was then that he will likely never make it over - they are welcome to come for a visit whether Aymn is in residence or not - so Uncle Samir said they would come over on Thursday. He is a wonderful man - he is Aymn's paternal uncle - and of course Aunt Lila is a wonderful, kind, considerate woman. Just lovely people - I am so very lucky that Aymn's family is so wonderful - I could not ask for a better family. They have accepted me into their family with much love and kindness (with the exception of the cowife and his kids - but that is their loss). After Uncle Samir and Aunt Lila left - Gehan and her husband came up to my flat for a visit - we had a good chat - then Suzanne and Yasmine (Gehan's eldest daughter) came up - they had been out shopping - and they brought me a box of chocolate - just what I do not need - and I do feel badly when they spend their money on buying treats for me - as they do not have a lot of money to spare - and of course I am a lousy eastern guest - when I go to visit my family here I do not take them anything on a regular basis - bad, bad, bad. But they love me anyhow - lucky me. Everybody left around midnight - I tried to call Aymn in Libya - using my new international line (and yes Safa I could have called you - but I do not have your home number - could have called on your cell - but did not think it would be a good time - figured I would wait until after February 6th) - but of course could not get through to Libya - what did I expect a miracle - so I had a shower and crawled into bed.

Woke up today around 7 - and took a chance and called Aymn on my cell phone - which is by my bed - so I did not have to get up - and he asked me to call him on the international line - as it is cheaper - meant I had to get up out of bed - ARGH. Then I was awake and so I stripped my bed and washed the linens - had a shower - got dressed - then watered the garden - unfortunately went a bit overboard and some of the water escaped and landed up draining on some poor man's car on the street - OOPS - oh well such is life - then I hung the laundry out - had washed down the bathroom - and also cleaned the shutters on the south side of the flat. Then I got dressed and left around 9:25 to meet Sharon - we went to Carrefour - I had to return a DVD player that I had purchased - it did not come with any cables, instruction booklet or anything - took it back and surprise surprise they found all those things in a little plastic bag in another box - so got a different DVD player - also got smart and took along a DVD that I had purchased in Canada - just to make sure it would work. Then we had lunch and then we headed off to Rose's place - we had a fun afternoon. Sharon read our Tarot cards - first time I have ever had it done - interesting. Around 6:15 we headed back home - and I brought the laundry in - still have to make the bed. But I got the DVD player hooked up - now I just have to figure out how to operate it - fun and games.

Sounds as if Aymn will not be heading back until tomorrow at the earliest - now why am I not surprised. I have given up expecting him until I see him at the door. I am glad that I have friends and family that I can spend time with and do things with. I need to phone Suzanne and check in with her. Last night she told me that she is going to tell Aymn that I am never home and she is going to set Mahmood (her 13 year old son) to spy on me - LOL.

I need to get busy and download my pictures from my camera - as I am getting error messages - which means some of the pictures are gone - ARGH. Thomas - who was with us this afternoon - informed me that one should never by Sony electronics as they are not very good since they are no longer made in Japan - they have been outsourced and as per usual the quality control bites big time. But I must download the pics and then copy them to a CD - so I do not lose them again - guess I will have to look at getting a new memory chip - I guess they do not last forever and the camera is 1.5 years old. And then if/when I get the pictures unloaded maybe I can upload some of them so you can see things - LOL.

So much to do and so little time - I still do not have my pictures up and will not get around to it tomorrow as I am busy once again - maybe Tuesday - because I am busy again on Wednesday - such a social butterfly - but at least it keeps me out of mischief - yeah right - as if that is at all possible.

Well today is a red letter day - actually I guess it happened sometime late yesterday afternoon - but I FINALLY have international calls on my phone - woo hoo - and of course noone to call - as it is the middle of the day in Canada and everyone is at work - and tried to call Libya and had just as many problems getting through from here as I did when I was in Canada - nice to know that it is just a pain in the butt to call Libya no matter where you are calling from. And today after the prayers - in other words - in the late afternoon the elevator was fixed. Must admit it was kind of nice not having an elevator - not that I enjoyed being cooped up in the apartment - but it is much quieter without the elevator running. Today I had a very quiet day - did up a load of laundry and not much else got done - needed a day like that as I have been out and about almost every day. Do need to spend some time at home and get a few things done - like I need to get my rogues gallery up and running. Miss having the pictures of my family up on the wall. Only problem is hanging the pcitures up as the walls are all concrete - so puts paid to my usual way of affixing them - I usually use push pins - but they just do not work here. Will try to use the putty I bought here and see how long it is before they fall down. Tried it in Libya but when it got to 45C the putty just sort of gave up and the pictures ended up on the floor. And of course some of the pictures need to have nails or more likely screws - like the handprint of Miles as well as the baby plate Mom made for Miles.

Just finished chatting with Aymn - he is in Libya - hoping to head back to Egypt tomorrow night - not going to hold my breath waiting for that one to come about as his plans are 'fluid' at the best of times.

Well it is 11:35 p.m. - past my bedtime - so I guess I best be off and get my beauty sleep - I know, I know - not enough hours in the day for that.

Well here it is - I am finally going to get up and running again.

It has been one heck of a ride since I last blogged. I went to Canada to surprise my dad for his 75th birthday and I managed to pull it off this time. He was very surprised - I do not think I will ever forget the look on his face when he came to the door and saw me - there were actually tears in his eyes. Had a good visit with my folks and then headed back to Calgary - dad was very kind and let me use the Sonata while I was in Calgary - saved me a lot of money - I do appreciate their kindness to me. Had a good visit in Calgary with all my friends and family. My visit with Miles was awesome - as usual his lovely wife was fantastic - she is such a wonderful addition to our family. I appreciate her very much. Went to Edmonton for a couple of days and saw friends and family. Was in Canada for 7 weeks and it is never long enough - leaving to come back to Egypt was really difficult this time around. Christmas was a bit of a bust - there was a family flare up and Miles and Shani decamped at 12:30 a.m. on Christmas day. I stayed behind for a few more days - saw Marian - then I headed out back to Calgary - must admit I do HATE busses - the bus was so packed that it was full to the brim - my right knee did not appreciate the close quarters. Once I got back to Calgary, Miles, Shani and I decorated their little tree (a hand me down from a good friend of mine) and Shani cooked a delicious Christmas dinner. Then for New Years they took me out for a wondreful steak dinner. On January 4th I headed back to Egypt.

Was met at the airport by Mr. Mohammed and his brother (who has a car) as well as my sweet brother in law Mr. Sadee. Only drawback was that there really was not enough room for the four people in the car and my luggage. We were jam packed - but we managed. Got home around 3 a.m. - I had slept most of my way back so was not really very tired - so I spent some time unpacking.

Saturday I phoned Sharon and between downpours we headed to Fathalla to get a few essential groceries that I had to have. Suzanne - my dear sweet sister in law - had stocked a bit of produce for me. It is really great having someone so close that I can trust.

Sunday and Monday were spent relaxing, visiting and getting things in order. Tuesday Aymn was scheduled to arrive back from hajj in Saudi Arabia - he had not deigned to let me know what time he would be arriving. His youngest son - Islam - had told Suzanne that they would be arriving around 11 at night. Tuesday evening saw Suzanne and I heading to visit mom - I had a few things for her - mom and dad had sent a box of chocolates and I had brought her a package of truffles - so wanted to visit with her and get the gifts to her. Imagine my surprise when she told us that Aymn was there - he was in the process of calling me. I was not a happy camper. He had been in town for 9 hours and had not let me know - and then the real kicker - he came out of the bedroom all dressed in white and my stomach just dropped - felt as if I had been sucker punched - nothing like rubbing my face in the fact that I had given up my right to wear white at the temple by marrying him - so needless to say I was not really thrilled. Guess Aymn was not happy with Suzanne - we had gone and visited Aunt Lila - when I got back from Canada I was informed that she had had to have a hysterectomy due to cancer - so I told Suzanne I wanted to visit Lila and see how she was - she is a really sweet lady. Aymn's comment to Suzanne was, "Do you take her everywhere with you?" What a jerk.

He then spent three days with his family - had to as people were coming to visit to congratulate Aymn and Amal on their pilgrimage. He had promised to spend a week with me - he phoned me on Thursday and said he would be by on Friday - I asked him what he was going to do if more people came to visit on Friday night- he said he would not go back home. Well guess what - Friday night came along and he had to go home because Aunt Mehasan had phoned during the day to say she was coming over - and of course there is no way in heck that Amal or the kids would tell her that Aymn was at my place - and she could come to visit him here - so he had to go home - needless to say I was not a happy camper - right back on the roller coaster. He managed to spend four days with me before he had to head back to the family - so much for staying with me for a week. I have decided that I am going to work at not getting upset when he breaks his promise. I need to make myself happy - and that is my goal - and if he is along for the ride fine and if he loses out - then fine as well. I need to get myself happy - need to accept the fact that I cannot count on him for anything and not get bent out of shape about it. Aymn headed back to Libya this past Monday - not sure when he will get back - not holding my breath - have learned that it is not good for my health. He also promised me that he would travel with me the next time I travel to Canada and I know there is no way he will be able to because the kids will be in the thick of final exams and he has to ride roughshod over them to make sure they study. Of course I have not told him yet when I plan on travelling again - figure there is no point in it.

I have finally managed to get through all my emails. When I arrived back in Egypt my computer was out being 'fixed'. Unfortunately it could not be fixed - all my pictures, programs and everything were poof gone - such is life. Have learned a very valuable lesson - will be copying all photos to a CD or something.

When I got back to Egypt I had a good friend from the States come and stay with me for a week. Yesterday I received a bouquet of 13 red roses and a beautiful vase - as a house warming gift from Anne. She left back for the States a week ago this past Monday.

It is so hard to believe that it is already January 25, 2007 - man where has the time gone.

Right now I am just going to do some writing - will try to get up and running with the photos in a few days.

Today my niece and nephew finish their mid term exams - so it will be party time for about two weeks before they are heading back to school. My little niece - Mawada - has already got her results back - she got 25/25 in English - I am so proud of her. She did quite well in all her exams - but her Arabic was not as good as her English mark - oh oh. Mawada spent a night with me - she got to sleep with me as she does not like to sleep on her own - and then we dragged her to Carrefour and she had a blast - we had lunch at McDonalds - she does not like McNuggets - but she enjoyed herself immensely.

Today I had to go out and look after some business - and of course the elevator was out of order - so I had to go down 14 floors and then up 14 floors - made it up as far as 10 and then took a break at Suzanne's place.

Have been trying to get international calls on the phone - went in 10 days ago and were told that in two day the service would be added to the phone - but so far no luck. Not sure what the problem is - but must admit it is frustrating.

I think that takes care of most of the business over the last few months. It is kind of nice to be back up and running.