Saturday, February 17, 2007

what do dinosaurs and victor hugo's novels have in common according to Mohamed Mbarek?

ok. so im back. although not really cos my blogspot wont update. nevertheless, when it does i should have written something to put in it after all this time.

aha. im in alexandria, egypt. the birth place of my father and the city of my uncle. things are well, seeing the family, getting fed by the family and then getting fed by the families family before getting fed by the family again.

im also staying in a family friends apartment by myself. it just doesnt have a tv so in my off time im left with the awkard choice of cuddling up to a book or actually doing some writing with my bare hands and a pen.

so i sit down at the table in what should be the tv room and attempt reading. however, all i have left in my mobile library is the 3rd chapter of Gadhafi's 'The Green Book' (the social part), or else dare to finish my Brian Greene book on subatomic physics/cosmology. but this i find hard to do, not least because im a frustratingly slow and lazy reader - i havent been a dedicated reader since the 'choose your own adventure' early teenage years. perhaps my vocablarary suffers because of this fact -, but also because i just dont want the revelations to end.

on top of this, strange deep melodies emerge from the street below on time every 10 seconds. sometimes they come from slobber encrusted microphones distorted through decades old boom-boxes, at other times from the mind of abdul-haleem Hafeth (the most famous late Arab singer) but from the hollows of some old, tar drenched throat, more often than not. these siren men and their bewildering melodies attempt to attract residents to buy their wares or take their service, at the expense of my focus and concentration.

so after a brief venture into reading, i put the book down and try writing. but only brief dot points - not too much so i get bored or bogged down but enough so a reread will unlock eons of cascading memories and thoughts. it seems to work. an small example:

Thursday, 15th Feb:They should call the arabic course at uni 'Arabic for navigating mid-east cities and chatting to cabbies 101'. cos thats about it. i get compliments from taxi drivers on my arabic but when i take my new found confidence into a deeper discussion on more indepth topics i am dumbfounded.

regardless that doesnt change the fact that im back at my apartment with no egyptian currency on me cos i forgot my passport when trying to change travellers cheques. perhaps i can rumage up some euros or dollars to pay a cabbie to get me and my passport back to the bank.
i guess i could walk, perhaps even use my ATM card at a bank, but i think ill sit myself down, pass a bit of time writing and wait for my uncle to call and take me into town. am i lazy or merely (and fantastically) smart? On top of all this my coca cola lollies have finished...
***btw. Hisham did end up taking 4 US dollars and enticing a cabbie to take him into town. whether it was because uncle didnt call or of his own initiative remains a mystery.***

ill try some pics now and write some more soon about libya... just tried some pics, no luck. stay tuned for the answer to the title question.
your pal
hisham

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