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Om Kulthoum is again the toast of Paris. In an exquisitely tasteful exhibition at the Institute of the Arab World, the Nightingale of the Nile is pulling in the crowds as she did back in the 1960s. In November 1967, the International Herald Tribune reported: “The fans went hysterical at Paris’s Olympic Music Hall – …
Just 28 days opened, the El Sokhna Movenpick, is positioning itself to take a hefty share of Cairo’s domestic tourist market, as it faces off with the Stella Di Mare, the established heavyweight resort on the Gulf of Suez. Ein Sokhna offers Cairenes the easiest escape. Even from 6th of October City, it took only …
The British Community Association (BCA) held their annual black tie ball on the lawn of the British Ambassador’s residence in Garden City on Friday, celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s II birthday and raising tens of thousands of Egyptian pounds for charity in the process. As Cairo’s British schools put up the shutters for the summer and parents …
Summer time has finally rolled round. The Queen’s Birthday Ball will be held at the British Embassy on Friday, the baby stroller is boxed up and the credit card is about to take a flogging. It has been a mighty year with the arrival of Max, preparing for the move to Sixth of October city …
Euro 2008, arguably the world’s most important football tournament, kicked off on Saturday night, and possibly the best place to watch throughout June is at Champions Sports Bar on the roof of Zamalek’s Cairo Marriott Hotel. Previously known as a summer cinema called Almaz, the Marriott roof amphitheatre will show the football on the cinema …
On Friday night, Cairo’s New Zealand community, a couple of pussy cats (see photo) and various hangers-on, convened at the Cairo Rugby Club under the patronage of HE Rene Wilson, New Zealand’s ambassador in Cairo, to officially launch an emergency plan in the advent of an evacuation. The New Zealand Embassy asked five responsible members …
Firstly, my editor, Smokin’ Joe Fahim, said I must congratulate Manchester United and all their Cairo fans on a stunning upset against Chelsea last Wednesday in Moscow and apologize to boot. So, to all those who even care about some secondary city in England’s north east where hairdressing is the fastest growing industry, I apologize …
Tonight’s Champions League Final in Moscow will practically be a home game for English football team Chelsea, as the West London millionaires take on football’s favorite global brand, Manchester United. I hear London calling, so I am barracking for the Russian-owned, Jewish-managed Chelski – as they’re affectionately known to the fans at Stamford Bridge, in …
Cairo expatriates have reported an alarmingly high rate of TSIs – Taxi Shouting Incidents – this week, as they come face to face with the frustration felt by Black ‘n’ White cab drivers over rising gas costs. TSIs are on the rise across Cairo, already known for its traffic volatility and passionate drivers. In a …
Downtown Cairo is set to see a sizeable increase in the doughnut effect in 2009 as three notable institutions are allegedly closing their doors for renovation or deserting the Central Business District for the city’s outskirts. The doughnut effect ripped the heart out of many of the smaller American cities in the 1970s when government …
At 5 am on Friday morning, April, I attended the dawn memorial service at the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Coptic Cairo for the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) who died in 1915 during a campaign to topple the last vestiges of a decaying Ottoman Empire. The eight month campaign …
Bread is indeed scarce in Egypt. I had to ask twice for extra bread at the CityStars branch of Casper and Gambini’s on Friday, and even then it didn’t arrive. Metro market in Zamalek is often out of brown toast. Why brown sliced bread is called brown toast is a unique use of the language. …
Photography is the basic human art form; it is part of being human. We didn’t learn to point and shoot, cameras just come naturally. It is as though we learned the skills by osmosis in the womb. The knowledge just seeped in somehow.Digital cameras didn’t impair that learning. Humans made the switch without missing a …
When I was a bachelor, I entertained all comers on Houseboat 28. Then, with my partner for life, the marital home was a Zamalek apartment. Now as a family man, I am moving again. I am heading out to the Sixth of October for fresh air, a lawn and barbeques. The reaction from friends has …
An Emo Scream rock band called Your Prince Harming is headlining a gig at Rio on the Maadi corniche this Thursday to help raise money for cancer research. “Set the Stage on Fire will feature five Cairo bands in a club built for music, with a Nile breeze that will just add to the cool! …
It was inevitable really, that sooner or later I would be writing about coffee, since I am addicted to my own milky sweet brew, which delivers that much needed shot of caffeine each morning. There is a correlation I believe between Egypt’s economic boom and the neighborhood espresso machine. Java, I hypothesize, may well be …
When an Egyptian rugby XV led the Vodafone Expatriates 12-3 on Friday night at Victory College, it appeared that a moment of history was to tick over on those celebrated fields. The representative Egyptian XV was made up of players from both Cairo and Alexandria’s Rugby Clubs, and this match was a seminal moment in …
Cairo’s newest expatriate arrived during the week. Max Carrigan has had his first black ‘n’ white taxi incident, dipped into the Nile Hilton pool and lunched on the Marriott terrace. Though I think my baby boy, at just seven weeks, is still a little young for the Cairo Expat Meet and Greet Club on Tuesday …
A former Scottish science teacher, who called Zamalek home for years, has spent big money on setting up a celestial telescope below Mt. Sinai, which uses GPS tracking and an inbuilt computer to lock onto some 30,000 planets and stars that ignite Egypt’s skies. It took Mr Gordon Wilkinson two months to get the 8-inch …
Diving the World War II wreck of the SS Thistlegorm in the Gulf of Suez over the weekend was an adventure. When the British supply ship comes into view 30 meters below the surface, you get a whiff of what it must be like to discover a page of history. The quantity and variety of …
There was a palpable energy this week on the streets of Cairo, as the African Cup of Nations climaxed. Cairenes fizzed like champagne and no place did the cork dent the ceiling more than in Harry’s Pub on Thursday night. All of Zamalek seemed to be at Harry’s for the football game. The old Marriott …
You know you are a Cairene when you leave the airport and sign your name as Donald Duck in that book administered by a lonesome policeman, who records your vehicle registration and destination. I mean really, what is that register of vehicles leaving Cairo Airport all about? There must be hundreds of those dusty journals …
My eyes welled with emotion on Friday night under the splendidly restored ceiling of the Ghuriya, adjacent to the footbridge in Khan El-Khalili, as I watched Freshwater perform their catalogue of songs that evoked the colors, sounds and spirit of Australia. Cairo doesn’t see too many class international acts, so like the romantic “Clancy of …
A 20-year-old Egyptian model was a runner-up in the 15th annual Top Model of the World contest held in Hurghada over the weekend. Lobna Amin was edged out by a former Miss Germany from a competitive field of 41 young women all vying for the crown, a $10,000 cash prize, and a ?50,000 modelling contract. …
Christmas is a time for divorce. Well, it is in the UK anyway. Divorce lawyers say that their first day back to work after the Christian holiday is the busiest time of the year. The Egyptian Copts preface their Christmas celebration with 43 days of fasting, not 43 days of racking up credit card debt, …
Last weekend was my last weekend of freedom. It was my last lie in because, at last, I am going to be a dad on Wednesday. “Your life will never be the same again, is a line I have been hearing a lot recently. Sure, it hasn’t been the same since I moved to Egypt. …
As this is my fifth year in Cairo, it is about time I attempt to learn the language. To learn some Arabic is my resolution for 2008. But what is in store for the other 6.25 billion humans in 2008?I have made a few “educated guesses of my own, and gleaned the wisdom of media …
Sharm El-Sheikh scuba divers have been adding to the coral reef’s unique experience by exposing their buttocks to passengers on glass bottom boats. Peering into the reef looking for exotic sea creatures, passengers are seeing more barnacles and sea cucumbers than they bargained for. Such sparring is the scuba industry s way of protesting the …
The New Zealand Embassy is officially open for business. And to celebrate, the Ambassador hosted a coming out party in a former Khedive palace, attended by Prime Minister Helen Clark, Maori warriors and Zamalek’s diplomatic caste. Warrior may be somewhat romantic for the London-based dancers and diplomatic caste rather too imperial, though party I think …
I thought I would never say this, but after spending my first weekend in Sharm El-Sheikh for over three years, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not such a bad place after all. Once upon a time I found it all too tacky. A soulless artificial environment, occupied by aimless tourists and annoying …