Wednesday 28th September

I had a fairly good night's sleep, but was still reeling from the shock of my Aunt's untimely death.  Safe in the knowledge that she would not have wanted us to travel home, we decided to help my parents as much as we could from Luxor and enlisted the help of some very good friends at home.  That worked out very well in this modern day age of technology, and we decided to carry on and enjoy the holiday as much as we could so, as sad as things were, the 'stiff upper lip' of us Brits was the order of the day!!

Again, we spent the day relaxing at the pool and my friend and I walked out to Aboudi's Bookshop near Mcdonalds to buy postcards and stamps.  It's a super shop now compared to the old one, and still with no hassle and it's fixed prices and pleasant staff.  We didn't encounter much hassle at all apart from the usual shouts from the caleshe and taxi drivers then we met an old friend - felucca captain Shakespeare!!!  Well, he tagged onto us, insisting we join him for a cold drink - all at our expense of course!!  We had a good old natter with him at Sinbad's cafe and he also accompanied us to Aboudi's Bookshop, so we then encountered no hassle whatsoever, but it did of course cost us for the drinks and also a tip!!

Because of the negative experience at the El Kababgy the day before, all four of us headed out for a spot of lunch intending to head for Hamees - but again Shakespeare spotted us and joined us and again it cost us the expense of quenching his thirst and another tip (for what, I don't know!!).  Anyway, he was pleased and at least went home with money in his pocket that night!!

Firstly, we went to The Roof but, as their lunches looked just too much for us, we just had a drink and drank in the view as well as the juice!!  Here's a panoramic photo taken with my new camera

On leaving The Roof, we ended up being taken to Sinbad's cafe (almost next door to Hamees) where the same scenario happened again - obviously no stock at the cafe so it was sent out for, but at least the service was quicker and the beer was cold and refreshing - the Kebabgy had sold us the non-alcoholic beer (Birrell) which is OK but not as good as the real stuff!!  By the way, if you don't like cats, don't eat here as there are loads of them about.  I have no problem with cats, so I was happy as Larry - for those of you that like cats, here's a photo - look away now if you don't like cats!!

Unfortunately hubby had a bad experience with one of the t-shirt vendors who presented him with a 'free' t-shirt.  Oh, but wait, maybe it's the wrong size, come with me and I'll make sure.  A few minutes later back comes hubby with NO t-shirt.  The guy had insisted that he should buy a shirt he didn't like, so the vendor was told in no uncertain terms where he could put his t-shirts and didn't get a sale.  Had he handled it better he might actually have made a sale and been happy!!

After another spot of relaxing at the pool I went for a shower leaving hubby and friends at the pool - I stepped out of the shower to find that there was at least an inch of water on the floor and my flip flops were floating!!  Panic stations!!  I paddled out the door and then came the decision who to phone first - hubby or reception.  Realising hubby wouldn't be able to do anything, I phoned reception and explained as best I could about much water on the floor!!!  Then I phoned hubby - he had difficulty answering his new phone - honestly, if anyone had been watching the antics of me trying to get dried and dressed before maintenance arrived and shouting down the phone trying to get hubby to speak into the phone, they would have been in stitches.  In any case, the maintenance man arrived first and after much banging and clattering with a spanner, he opened the drainage thingy and pulled out what I could only describe as a giant furball!!!  Hubby arrived just after the maintenance man did, but all he could do was laugh!!!

Later that day, at sunset, I wandered off downstairs with my new camera in hand to take some pics and, when the lift doors opened in the foyer, guess who was just checking in?  Yes, Suzie M and her mum and Mr and Mrs KV-Explorer!!!  After much hugging and shaking of hands, I never did get those sunset pictures taken!!

Dean's Bistro was the venue for dinner that night then on the way back we popped into a local cafe (Grand Memphis) at the back door of the Winter Palace and had one of the best mugs of coffee ever - that was our nightly stop for the rest of the holiday, and we decided to give this place a try at lunchtimes.