camels

The prettiest of camels hmmm












And I thought I had funny legs

mothers day flower

I never knew my mum , but I still enjoyed the blogs , particularly sap thanks Joan for the meanings of mothers day, todays blog has nothing to do with mothers day its just something I have been meaning to put on for a while. I am stuck in today. and need something to do,

In 1991 I was diagnosed with three slipped discs, that affected the nervous system apparently the spine houses the main bodies nervous system and they got trapped thus effecting my posture even the use of my arms and legs. One cannot describe the excruciating pain that it caused , with help from the doctor and once a week therapy I recovered my walk and stance but I could not lift any thing and had to take Ibroprufen 400 to stop the pain,( sometimes I still do) , so that put an end to my days as a builder. Too cut a long story, because it does not Rain here in Luxor Egypt I came here to Live free from pain and no arthritis I still have problems with lifting things and back pain if I over do my walks,

My first venture in Egypt was a hotel not actually what I wanted but I was conned into it, full story is on the justliars blogspot unless you have a spare few hours do not go there, 3 years later this is still in the courts, and I have to get on with my life. So what does one do after retiring from a very active life, first I started writing my memoirs of my childhood,
Going for long walks each day to keep a little fit then I started combining the walks with blogging,

Then I started blogging on how I was conned and this opened a whole new world. myegypt .co.uk was my only web site at the time named after the hotel and a means of getting customers to stay in my hotel. And no way was I going to blog my problems on my web site and all my family finding out I had been swindled out of my money.
Looking at blogs and seeing photos of different things. Gave me a new lease of life I could go anywhere I wanted on my computer at that time I had a laptop, all it was meant for was contact e-mails etc to my family. I had hundreds of photos of things I had seen in Egypt mainly the pharaonic tombs and temples etc, all on disc. and I started my first photo blog. Then I had a virus that wiped out my laptop . so I actually built my own pc first I had a small computer outlet here in Luxor build me a computer then I dismantled the whole thing and put in new hard drives and all the parafinailia that one needed to have a some what decent working pc. Then I started to put my cds on but not before I made sure I had a good anti virus etc, then I found all my cds where infected with the virus. What now? I had one blog up and running. myegypt tours I had another blog called cons in Egypt that told the story of corruption here in Egypt. The police actually asked if I would take it down , or it may harm your case, not knowing they are the cause of corruption in my case, most of the photos of the tombs and temples are from a re visit. Plus many new visits,
Then I started Birding birdinginegypt, I was blogging so much for people too see I was using my blog space up in a month so Ended up with splitting the blogs birds butterflies, bugs, dragonflies, plants then there was my daily life photos around luxor. I then found out every photo I put on was duplicated on every blog. I nice trick google have of getting us to buy more space for our sites, picasa web blogging is a bad one for regular bloggers, it also makes albums of every photo that is put on the computer. Ie 50 shots taken 49 deleted to put the best shot on the blog. But all go into the album, so 5o times more space is used up, needless to say I do not use picassa for blogging any more. They also made it very hard to delete albums as it meant loosing photos on the blogs, sounds complicated? Yes it is ! and they purposely made it complicated.
Not Only have I self taught the computer but thanks to word perfect, I have relatively got over my dyslexia,
Then there is the fact of being a Welshman and a spoken user of the welsh language.
The funny side of things is a natural thing for me, for instance,
the word plant, in Welsh is; children, so when I see a sign like, Heavy plant crossing the road, I naturally think of fat children crossing the road ,
some of the things they say here in Egypt many words are in the welsh language, but of course have completely different meaning, like twpha, apple. But in welsh it’s a funnel. And like wise things in English
how many meanings for light, in Welsh one. Its either, uscafn: light in weight, galau: day light, can I have a light. Gai tan, but of course we would say cai tan asgwelwch un tha. may I have a light please,
A flyer is a circular, no not a round thing, a piece of paper to say there is an event on , so I think the flyer could not take off because the flyer had a flyer that said the flight had been cancelled.
I tend to write as I think. like! I do not think, oh" the dog has left a stool on the pavement .
to me a stool is a 3 legged seat, I would use while milking the cows on the farm as a foster child.
and the dog would shit in the yard, there is no offence meant . we have turned the whole of the english langauge into other meaning words, and some offensive at that, like the word gay. to be
offering fun and gaiety; "a gala ball after the inauguration"; "a festive (or festal) occasion"; "gay and exciting night life"; "a merry evening"
Today it means,
someone who practices homosexuality; having a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex
Synonyms: homosexual, homo



quite opposte to its original meaning.
given to social pleasures often including dissipation; "led a gay Bohemian life"; "a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies"
So I would rather stick to words in my head even if it does offend some, I see life through my camera only reason for that is to share with those of you who have the same illness I have, and are less fortunate than I .

I know what it means to be stuck indoors, or to a wheel chair, being able to use my legs and my hands is such a blessing . I have some pain today my own fault as I over did the walk again yesterday, days like today are far and few between and I can look forward to taking more photos. So please enjoy my life sharing photos from Egypt. those of you who have mums share your life with your mum , tell her you love her, tomorrow my be too late, happy mums day to you all

summer is here and so is the heat

It was a real smoke filled valley this morning could only see the balloons as they fired up to gain height, then the sun came up caught a glimpse of the moon before that to disappeared in the sun of the day.
















































































.






















































































































Todays temperature in the balcony shade

Allin a mornings walk

After last evenings photos in the dusk, of the new hatch my day started off by going on the roof too see the new chick in daylight. as soon as I opened the pigeon loft door they all panicked and flew over my head to get out so all I had left of twenty birds is what you see. the 4 day old chicks are in the second top row nest box. and the 1/2 day old is in the cardboard box to my right.

Most of the nests have eggs in them so I will take a couple of shots and leave

Two 4 day old, its hard to believe they grow like this in 4 days but the landlord said 4 days putting 4 fingers up. I almost put 2 fingers up to say no way, especially after seeing the size of the hatchling.

ooh what big eyes you have

Even from this shot in 12 hours the feathers are starting to grow what a hand full seems quite content sitting in the palm of my hand. maybe I should feed it so when it opens its eyes it will know me as its parent. did that with a gosling once. but that was hatched in an incubator I left a new hatch in for 12 hours it came out of the egg 12 hours early and because it could not stand upright in the incubator it formed bow legs. so it was my baby for two days while I straightened them up with elastic band wrapped around its knee joints, that duckling thought I was its parent for the rest of its growing up life.

The tailors busy at work in the street as I leave my flat, today's walk was a lets see where I go, usually I know where I want to go for a walk, My time is my own and I never make plans from one day to another. to me that's not living, its like; oh I am supposed to be at so and so and at so and so time,

first corner is an area where the donkey and horse cart drivers wait for the days work some sit here all day just waiting hoping someone is wanting a fridge or whatever moving from one place to another. I get ; need a taxi mister, meaning can I take you somewhere, no thank I have perfectly good legs, and that is always my answer, they ask in the hope that one day maybe I will say yes please my legs no good today,

at this point my intention was today's blog is going to be about the working donkey, but things change depends on what is around the next corner.

This is what gets me here in Egypt , there is no planning in anything they do. there is no health and safety
if you want to build just build, some time during the construction or maybe every day during construction depends on how rich you are , the police will come to make sure all is going to plan with the help of backsheesh. They do not call it corruption not allowed where police are involved. . so I look upon it as paying local tax direct to the police force. and why not its much cheaper than lets say Wales, first we need planning permission that's an expense, then there is payment due on the valuation on how much the project will cost to build. can not pull the wool over their eyes on this and say maybe 100 pounds . the valuer works for the council who is going to get as much from the project as possible , so who are realy the corrupt.
my tax in the uk was almost half my wage, my council property tax on my home is 1400 per year.
the only problem here is that there are no rules as to building private dwellings , so you end up with! look in the photo see how high the front step is from the road , reason? when the make new roads here they do not take the old tarmacadam off they put another layer on top every house I was told had a step into the home before 1970s the reason again was before the high dam stopped the flooding of the Nile. so from that I gather that when the nile was high the streets had water on them yes , well where did the sewage go, what sewage? so we come on to the next Question, that has already been answered, why are the old houses, the ones that people once loved, below road level. some up to 2 foot down.

.

Breakfast! no not yet its too early come back in twelve months no step up to have breakfast,

Next time the road is tarmacadam there will be a few more step down into properties,

Can not resist taking shots of these once loved houses, with their balconies.

I wonder if there are thieves in Luxor? yes there are;- and victims are very reluctant to go to the police to report thefts, they are questioned as to how could you afford a bike etc,

the steel workers alley,

The rubbish bin alley

Setting up shop her is no problem the Egyptians have a Joke, why cant they play football? because someone has set up shop on the corner,

Time for my cuppa this is a good corner to get accidents there are seven streets merging into one, the main street is dog legged and supposed to be one way but motor bikes, bikes and donkeys drivers seem to have no knowledge of this,

I wonder how they got all them crisps in the bag without crunching them or did it fall over when he had to brake for the donkey,

Ah well" sigh" when I have my camera at the ready no one obliges me with an accident.

The butcher has been busy making bones of things ,

A brush made from the date palm,

and now we are leaving Luxor center here is tuesday market area

.

every one is busy today

.

4 heads and only one tale.

.

fully air conditioned meat carrier,

no work for the old cadgers! big smile for the camera had to explain I wanted a photo of the alleyway. ha ha,

Someones one time dream villa strange how they spend all the money on building and that's it until it falls down, same with the old houses with the balconies not seen one of them with a new lick of paint.

And another one time beautiful house

One thing that does not need maintenance are these beautiful trees that bloom for 9 months of the year

A load of hashish ( clover grass)on its way for the working Carriage horses in town,

A new mosque

Sun bread rising,

.

Just as I was about to turn back for home because My back was starting to play up one of the bee-eaters buzzed passed just above my head, and landed on a wire some 100yds away. thats like showing a red rag to a bull, and there was me thinking they had left on their migratory path. now I do not like this area of luxor first there is a dumping ground to the end of this road and last time I was here I had to cover my face

.

Where there's muck there's brass, an old Yorkshire saying, certainly applies here in Egypt,

getting on this lane it looked OK at first the canal had been cleaned but as I traveled on the smell was starting to get overpowering. then I saw a flock maybe 20 bee-eaters heading of up the lane

And it was a matter of determination to go ahead .Then The reason for the awful smell came to view. A dead horse was dumped in the bed of the canal. i was going to get closer to see if there was some flies i could photo, but this carcass was putrid a real stinker, so I rushed passed the area just beyond was the bee eaters on the wires. but too close to the carcass to stop.

.

I have the Adam's family to cope with in a minute and another reason why I did not want to come to this area. but another glimpse of the bee eaters made my mind up to go for it.

Today blog is part of the birding blog

the European Bee-eater, Merops apiaster in flight, it took 20 shots to get a decent in flight photo here it is just about to turn around heading back to land on a wire. more on the bee-eater on http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/2010/05/european-bee-eater-merops-apiaster-and.html