The Gurly Life

A few more bits about the trip

I counted that I took 12 plane rides on this trip, as follows: LAX --> London --> Rome --> Cairo --> Luxor; then, Aswan --> Abu Simbel --> Aswan --> Cairo --> Rome --> Catania --> Rome --> London --> LAX. Each "-->" is a plane ride. No luggage was left behind, but just in case I had spare undies in my carry-on. Frankly, with that heat I could only wear clothes half a day tops before having to throw them in the hamper (I did 3 laundries while I was away).

I'm still waiting for the photos my dad took, he's having technical difficulties, such as his computer deleting stuff so it's unclear at this point what will be saved and blogged. Meanwhile, I can start playing with my photos and making some Flickr sets, though you've seen a good chunk of the pics.

Here are some pics from the boat:

This was my cabin. The curtains are closed, unlike on the nice link for the boat, because it was 115F outside.

Since this was a cruise, after all, we got the towel "animals" a couple of times. One of them was this elephant - cute, right?

The next night, this dude welcomed me back to my cabin, which scared the beejebus out of me.

That stupid dummy is lucky I wasn't holding a baseball bat in one hand otherwise the towel dummy would have gotten it! Yeah! No, seriously, it was creepy as all get out, and it totally scared me. I had to take it apart immediately.

Here's the view from the little porch outside my cabin.

On the third night we had Egyptian night, where we all wore native clothes, ate native foods, and then danced like idiots in our little dresses. Here's the group shot:

So I guess this year I might have a costume for Halloween, except that these clothes are designed to be worn in extreme heat, not in the dead of winter, so don't count on it.

Below is my dad, a la Lawrence of Arabia.

He soon discovered that he had to hitch up his skirt to make it up the stairs.
I think my work here is done.

A sniggly snag that worked out

Sometimes, things that appear to be a huge pain the ass, things that are conspiring to ruin your whole entire vacation, turn out to be ok, maybe even blessings in disguise. Sometimes, clouds turn out to be the silver lining.

I explain.

My upcoming trip to Europe and Egypt has been planned to the last minute. Planes were booked, people were mobilized, everything was set. Then the Egypt people, 2 weeks before the Egypt trip (it's a Nile cruise from Luxor to Cairo) said, oh sorry, the boat has been cancelled (?) but you can go on another boat on different dates.

I was all, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY MONTHS AHEAD OF TIME I HAD TO PLAN TO MAKE THIS ALL WORK? Grrrr. [shakes fist angrily]

One of the dates the Egypt people suggested could not work because I would have had to move my return trip, and that was not possible (per the airline, who almost laughed at me when I asked, but were too polite to actually physically guffaw).

The original plan was: London, Barcelona, Egypt, fly home. Hang out with cousin on dad's side Raffy and her family in London, then hang out with cousin on mom's side Giuseppe and a couple of other cousins in Barcelona, then Egypt with my dad. The new plan basically messed up Barcelona. I huffed and puffed and declared I was pissed, but then decided that Barcelona had to eat it.

Instead, the new plan looks like this: London (and I get an extra day there), Egypt with dad, Sicily with cousins and other family members over Giuseppe's birthday weekend. In this scenario, I get to see not just my cousins who were getting together in Barcelona, but also aunts and uncles and my very old grandmother -- 105 and counting.

So one plan was scrapped, at some inconvenience and expense to me and my dad, as it turned out, but another plan was put in place that ensures that I see more of my family. Perhaps the universe doesn't give a shit about my money and convenience, but demands that I go hang out with my family.

Who am I to argue?

Joy of Love Day 8: A Gift From The Heart

Today's Joy of Love project is to photograph a gift from the heart. A gift someone you love gave you that made a difference. The lesson is to play with the manual setting on the camera. This would have presented a challenge, had it not been for my visit to DC last October, where I played with the manual setting a lot, especially for the night shots. Not that I have it down pat, obvy, but it is not a big scary hurdle to get over - it's more like something I can use more practice in.

I chose a gift from my dad for today's pic. To be sure, I get amazing gifts from both my parents, and my friends, and my family. The gifts are sometimes small, like a frog pen, sometimes large, like my Nikon D80, which I've been using throughout this project and increasingly over the last 3 years I've had it. The Nikon, by the way, was also a gift from my dad, who I remind each and every time I mention it that it's his own stupid fault that he got me started on this whole photography thing, and that he should just be grateful that I never took to sailing - that kind of hobby can ruin a man. He should also be grateful that the days of negatives and dark rooms are pretty much behind us, this hobby could have cost him a lot more.

But, back to today's photo. This is my bike. From about March/April through October/November, I take it to the beach and go for rides with my excellent friends Willow and Adam, and sometimes Todd and Kristen too. Each time I'm on that bike it feels like we're kids again. This past summer it languished almost unused because we had such shitty cold weather. The two weeks when it was warm I pedaled up and down the beach like it was going out of style. I am looking forward to a hot summer and lots of bike rides this year.

This is the jpeg photo, unedited, because I don't have time today. If I manage it later, I'll repost it edited.