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.