VOILA!!!! After two days and many rest periods I have managed to get my house cleaned. Spent yesterday working in the kitchen - went through the cupboard - what passes for a cupboard here - only complaint I have is that there are no shelves - so stuff just gets piled up and lost - that I keep my spices in. Took me a good 2.5 hours to work my way through it - find out what I have - pitched a fair bit of stuff - grieves me to have to do that - but the onion salt was a solid block - infested with moths - don't ask me - I do not know how it happened. A couple of my other salt spices were also hard - so I pitched them - have learned a valuable lesson - Tupperware spice containers do not keep out the humidity. So now will have to 'save' any spice jars or little jars I get, they do seem to do the trick. Had two bags of goodies on the countertop - one I had purchased and the other was a donation from Sharon. Finally got it together and went through both of them and put the 'treasures' away. Was able to consolidate some of the things - always a bonus. Also did a load of laundry.

Today I got up and had some watermelon - then got busy and finished clearing off one of the countertops and the table - would be so nice to have book shelves to put things in - but so far I have not been fortunate enough to get Aymn to get them made - I think I am going to have to bit the bullet and find a carpenter on my own - will ask some of the ladies that I know - and get the book cases and a TV stand made - would be nice to have the chest of drawers that the TV resides on back in the spare bedroom. Would also like to get busy and get a chest of drawers for my bedroom - don't know if I can find one to match - may end up getting it made as well. Need to spend some time searching for that money tree as well. After I finished clearing off the table and the counter top I did up the dishes from yesterday then put them all away and proceeded to dirty more - made a salad for breakfast - made enough for lunch as well - and had mushrooms, onions and an egg as well as salad for dessert - I know salad for breakfast sounds weird - but I have gotten used to having it - as Aymn always wants a salad for every meal - and it is even good for me. Then I also got ambitious and made some tuna salad so I can have salad and tuna salad for lunch. Also got busy and washed up some grapes and put them in the fridge - mid afternoon snack. I cut up the last piece of the watermelons that I brought back from Marsa Matrouh - best watermelons I have had since I arrived in Egypt. They do not force them to grow - just plant them and then water them when necessary - they were sooooo sweet - yum. I am hoping I can continue with eating better. Even managed to remember to take my pills - multivitamin, iron and calcium. After doing up the breakfast dishes I washed the kitchen floor and then swept the rest of the floors - okay I admit - I did not sweep the spare bedroom or the computer room - maybe tomorrow.

Talked for a short bit with Suzanne - she is in town for a week - getting uniforms made for her two youngest for school. She will be here for a week or so. Planning on spending iftar on the first day of Ramadan with Mom - I will tag along - sure hope Mom's elevator is working - do not really relish the thought of climbing 10 flights of stairs - but I can do it - have had to do it before - must admit it just enforces the knowledge of how out of shape I am. Asked Suzanne if she could find a plumber for me - the drainage in the bathroom is not draining as it should - when I was clothes I have a flood and also when I shower - so it needs to be worked on - as well the toilet is leaking - have been after Aymn for a couple of months to get it done - but .... so will ask Suzanne for help. Also asked her to find someone to come and cut down the glass for the windows. Needs to be done before winter hits - and I am afraid it is coming - sooner rather than later. Will be nice to get those two jobs out of the job jar - not that I have one - but I should.

This past Thursday I took Mom to see about her pension - Aymn had arranged for me to do it on Wednesday but I already had plans - he did not tell her that the plans had changed. I felt like a real schmuck when he called her and she was sitting waiting for me to come and take her - ARGH. So took her on Thursday - had to wait for an hour - no big deal - sat in the car with the a/c going - dragged Sharon along for company - so we sat and visited. Mom was very grateful - felt bad because she had to take the stairs as her elevator was not working - had suggested to Aymn that we wait until the elevator was working - but if she did not look after it by a certain date the money would have been sent back to Cairo - so off we went. I am hoping that Aymn will arrange to have the pension deposited to Mom's bank account and then she will not have to make any more of these trips - would be so much easier for her.

Wednesday - Sharon, Aymn and I went to Carrefour to buy a freezer. They did not have a big enough one - I want one with at least five drawers. The freezers here are like upright ones in the west - but instead of just having shelves there are drawers - I am hoping I will not 'lose' as many things as I did in the chest freezer I had in Canada. They said they will get a new shipment next Wednesday so I will go then - and they have free delivery - so on Thursday I will have a freezer. Then I am going to get a couple cases of mangoes and freeze it so I can have mango smoothies in the winter. YUM. Only challenge I will have will be to find unsweetened juices - but I think for mango I can just add some water.

Aymn headed to Libya Wednesday night - arrived at the border early Thursday morning to find the border was closed to all Egyptian foot traffic - in other words the only Egyptians allowed into the country are the truck drivers that are delivering goods to Libya for Ramadan - and I guess if an Egyptian is married to a Libyan then they can enter. So he is hanging around the border hoping this will be resolved shortly.

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening weeding one of the flower beds. It was a real mess - the quack grass was choking out the plants - so I had much fun weeding. I find it frustrating that I had no input into the planning of the garden - if I had I would have insisted that the beds be no deeper than I could easily reach across. I do not have much of a head for heights - and getting up into the bed to weed was not my favourite thing to do - but it is done. Now there are just two more to do - they are not nearly as bad - but will need to get on them or they will end up just as bad. I am very stiff and sore from all the clambering about - bending over, crawling on my hands and knees and pulling the danged weeds out. My muscles are complaining. I either need to do this on a regular basis or never. I am leaning towards never, but ....

And that is how I have spent my last week or so.

Tomorrow (the 8th) Miles will be playing football in the final AFL championship. Wishing I could be there - but I cannot - I think he is just as glad that I am not as I think I still embarrass him - although since they are playing at McMahon Stadium in Calgary I do not think he would be able to hear my yelling and cheering on the field. They are playing against a team from Edmonton. Hope all goes well. He is still working at Green Drop - waiting for his end of season bonus - he is their top producer - not sure what his plans are for after the season. Time will tell.

And on that note I shall say TTFN.