DAY ONE IN CAIRO

I have come to join my little family who is here holidaying with the "other " grandma ….In Egyptian she is called TATA and in Dutch I am called OMA…. All the cousins are here from Alis side of the family all 7 of them
Amazingly the plane was early, Cairo airport has the longest taxiing from landing to terminal on the planet , not like in Dunedin where you can land, get your luggage exit the terminal and at home having a cup of tea in 20 minutes….The queue at immigration was short today as in 5 miles long and not the usual 15. My son in law was late , or lost … 27 taxi guys asked me if I needed a ride, 15 offered me a cheap hotel option, and two proposals of marriage , one offer of a nice gigigig , all as I waited 20 minutes for Ali to get there. If someone had a beer to sell me they would have done business.

Ali arrives in the pre smashed shabby rental car, the kind you would not notice any difference in if it was involved in a ten car pile up . Comfortingly shabby , I am with Ali on this one rent a cars must be shabby in Cairo , but this one was bliss…all the windows wound up and the AC worked. Not much in Cairo has changed since the revolution , from what I can see , only the streets seem to have more rubbish. Life seems to be going on as usual . In Bahrain where I lived for the past 5 years , totally used to the tanks on the streets now , always expecting the Tyre burners to block major roads as their predictable form of protest. More cop cars on the roads than a Mel Gibson movie comeback.
We arrive at the apartment , my bubbas are jumping for joy to see OMA again , TATA wants me to sleep in her room .. The kids want OMA in with them , thank christ for that , Tata has a very noisy clock that sings a song each time the half and hour come along then very noisily strikes out the numbers. Tata has one of those AZAN clocks that very noisily reminds her when its time to pray 5 times a day … a bed that would make brick feel soft, and a bed of nails seem an attractive proposition to sleep on . Curly cornered carpets that could trip you up in the night and a window right under a mosque's loud speaker that crackles ( i don't think its a bang and olufsen ) And an azan that must be the most out of tune azan in Cairo. ( azan = the guy who sings the call to prayer )
Im in with the kiddywinkles. They joyfully dump all their EID presents on my lap, Aisha, miss 2 and a half has already turned a wanna be Barbie dolly into spare parts….Jannah miss 4 and a half , has made her much bigger dolly into some kind of cheap hussy by reducing her clothing to her panties, and painting black texta on her eyes thinking its Kajal and sticking a diamante clip in its hair. My daughter is waiting for the right opportunity to rid the kids of these possibly carcinogenic dollies that never would have been in any kind of miss world for dollies competition let alone won one.

There never has been a battle of the GRANDMOTHERS in this family , I just obey orders, Tata loves me as much as she loves my daughter , we must be the only two in the family who don't argue with her or feel the need to fight her . I taught my daughter to keep her mouth shut when dominant female is present always , my hat off to her she gets it right. Egyptian women have a reputation for being very demanding . Mostly about nothing serious or important . Men are reactionary.naturally.