11th June Egypt VII

BALLOON FLIGHT PREPARATION ?

We crossed the waters of the Nile by boat with the onboard gratuity of an early morning coffee. This was possibly a mistake on top of an even earlier pot of coffee from room service, given the well known diuretic properties of the ground bean.
The group piled into another minibus and we sped off, narrowly avoiding mule drawn bowsers of drinking water. On through the awakening West Bank until we caught sight of the waiting balloons like enormous swollen bladders in the sky.
As we passed the twin Collossi of Memnon and the toilets it became obvious there was no rest stop in the tight schedule. Bumping to a halt on the dusty ground, there were no bushes due to the complete lack of precipitation so I shuffled off a bit.
However this was entirely futile on account of the tension. The combined effect created by 40 to 50 people milling about, not to mention, the prospect of leaving the ground in a basket next to a couple of tanks of compressed flammable gas.
And all this supported by what looked like a few strands of particularly thin wire rope....


THEN I GOT HIGH....

The pilot of our balloon proudly bears what looks remarkably like a Blue Peter badge pinned on his uniform. The genuine hope is that this isn't his only qualification pertaining to aeronautics? (It later transpired that the BBC had filmed an episode earlier in the year). As we awaited lift-off in the basket, each blast of the burner seemed to have a flame grilling effect on the upper part of the body like a piece of steak...
At last the burly ground crew let go their weight and we were ascending like a lift in a tower block... Soon gliding over mud brick houses and invading other peoples early morning privacy as 20 cameras whirred and bleeped "Look, down there, people still in their beds!" (Pulling a blanket over their heads).
My chief concern during the flight is the flame retardant qualities, if any, of the balloon fabric. Could the nylon just shrivel like a crisp packet in the back of a fire? Secondly, the smell of gas. Could we be engulfed in a fire ball? Then there was, always in the background, the question of how we would ever find a place to land at the mercy of the wind at 1500ft?
In addition there were some minor niggles about power lines and the presence of the other balloons. But the sun rose as normal and there were no english language headlines to be written.


WHY EGYPTIAN MEN CAN BE A BIT MENTAL

Mr Mohammed at the bookshop is 32, has never touched alcohol and never kissed a woman despite being engaged. The required money for setting up home still hasn't
quite been saved. Therefore holding hands is as far as the relationship has been allowed to go. Mr M seems reasonable enough but is deeply perplexed by teenage couples holidaying here and obviously sharing a bed as Boyfriend/Girlfriend?
Mr M. functions as a 32 year old, but due to the constraints of society, family and his own Faith, remains in one respect, somehow trapped at the early teens snogging at parties stage of life. This partly explains why life is easier if women keep fairly well covered up.

Mr Ibrahim is older with a teenage son and also seemed reasonable enough to start with, but since phoning the room and turning up at the hotel has metamorphisised into a full blown stalker...
Isabelle seems to exude some fateful allure for a wide spectrum of Egyptian men..
"..I need to see you again Madam!.."...