Pork diner

Last time my wife came over from the uk  she brought me a nice piece of pork. so what"  I hear you say"    we cannot get fresh pork meat in Egypt it was hard before, but since the cull after the swine fly epidemic its not available here now. this  piece is also the first bit of my favorite meat in seven years.  so greedy ol me waited for her highness to go back   so I could devour the lot,

its not really like that but she did say no point in bringing meat  all the way here when I can get plenty in Wales.

 first I cut the  joint and stuffed garlic cloves into the meat. sliced up an onion based the joint with 1/2 pint of water. prepared the potatoes and obragine based them in a little sunflower oil.

and stuck them in the oven at gas marked 200. half way through the cook  I took out the garlic cloves and basted the joint in honey,  pity there was no cracklin  on the joint,

 once cooked I sliced half the meat and served with apple sauce.    and tasty it was too.

today I served the other half in thin slices and made  mashed potatoes carrots and peas, 

boring sunsets

sundown  19.4.10    for the past 4 days the sundown has been exactly the same boring

the moon is a bit bigger and directly above me 

then the grecos come out to play seems one of the little guys has lost the end of its tail.

Leaving the nest

The old house opposite the allyway of my flat this is used as a wharehouse fot the furniture painters. the building was left to 2 brothers who both do the same thing strange but we are in Egypt no rhyme or reason ? this building apart from being used as a wharehouse and paint shop is realy being let to rot and decay, like a lot of the buildings here in egypt as long as its up its ok if it falls down they build another, and its a shame to see these pre 1900s houses in such bad repair,
but its a great place for our wildlife birds, grecos, lizards and rats who's Eyes I can see while taking flash photos of the grecos who run all over its walls. below the balcony there is a door arch where we are going to see the fledgeling sparrow leave the nest








































































Ok now I am out what happens next as it takes its first dive into thin air













well done " as the male sparrow keeps an eye on the proceedings


'

Luxor Egypt

Thought the bark on this tree was worth a shot














the moon at sunset directly above me.



















the pink glow of sundown on the planes trail stream














Sunset over the Nile and Luxor Temple ,













As soon as the sun goes down the grecos come out to eat catch flies or whatever they chance to see landing on the wall these are amazing creatures they can traverse an upright wall and ceiling as fast as running on the floor, unlike the skink who have claws these have what seems suction pads . the last photo can be enlarged to see its feet pads.

Dead center of luxor

The walk near Karnak Temple.
I walked from my flat near the temple of Luxor following the new dig for the avenue of the Spinx on arriving at the main road that leads out of Luxor towards the airport i decided to take a short cut to the Nile River and finish the walk to Karnak. then I saw some goats going down a track to the back of the police station, this building is the living quarters for the police rookies. officers take rooms in hotels such as the Wena (luxor hotel) so it looks like the rookies live in squalor like they did at home.














following mummy daddy and kid goat for a short while until they headed off into some derelict building. unable to read Arabic i continued my walk, the piece of stone is a headstone but says its a cemetery so I was informed as I got into the cemetery.














on the path into the main grave area there was a lot of these high walled areas some had doors on not sure if they are there to keep people in or out. maybe the still have tomb robbers here and some folks here have more gold in their mouths than King tut had around his neck.



'











the main grave area and it seemed like I had come to a dead end " excuse the pun"
then I noticed a cactus with a flower on it so headed in the direction to get a photo to add to the
http://egyptplants.blogspot.com/
not sure what the dome building is could be a mausoleum for one of the imams?
















Then I saw the weirdest thing ever, I know the Egyptian only do things if there is a gain in it, hence the dilapidated state of the graveyard;
Here behind the mosque is an entrance, and my way out, but just incase I need some food and refreshment is a breakfast kitchen unit the person who serves has the use of one of the gravestones to stand on to serve his gourmet delight, then out of nowhere like all Egyptians have this canny knack of hiding in wait for a passing tourist, money he said. oh" but I see no bodies.
looking rather puzzled he said this is place for dead people. yes" I said" I gathered that seeing all the headstones, and what is your job here I asked, still looking rather puzzled the guy said falafel. ah you have the food place, and made the known food gesture, could see his face turn to a smile, so I turned on my little Arabic talk. how much,? 20 Jenine. and what will I get for 20
no thank you I said and walked on leaving the poor man totally confused on him missing out on 2 days wages, outside the mosque I saw A guy who I had met some two years ago who could speak some little English. helloo Mustafa, ah and the usual kissing greeting took place like I was some long lost freind returning to maybe put some money in his pocket, I could not remember the guys name I never forget a face but names? one reason is they are all Mohamed, Mustafa or Amed. so saying one of these names gives me a 3 to 1 chance of being right.
as soon as the banter was changing to come to my home have some chai. I was off, no time whats you name again I asked, Ali he said and who are you? I give up. said my goodby's and went on my merry way.















Like me, most locals know my face and treat me as a long lost Friend who may have given them money sometime in the past, In the hope I will give them more.

2009 posts

23 Nov 2009

Nile pollution

Update 22/December/09

now we know why this land was never given a thought or an answer to in my inquiries.
25 FADAN. has been stolen from the farmers and given as A present to Gamel Mubarek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Mubarak
who says he will make a plant nursery to employ 80 people what a laugh. they have already kicked more than that off this land, the Egyptian people know whats going on they say he is going to Build just like he did on Elephantine Island, then sell it off to the likes of Movenpick chain of hotels. But what can we do they say, we can not win this corruption,
Kings Island and other private estates such as the new reclaimed land are growing a new type of high yield rice crop because growing land is scarce. where is the sense when half of luxor agricultural land is now being used for building just out side my home 1 x 1.1/2 kilometers if land has been piped for sewage and water ready to take blocks of flats, all sold at excessive amounts when the government are giving free desert building land not 10 kilometers away in all directions.
literally thousands of unfinished and unsold flats here in Luxor.
Egypt only 2.9 is arrable click on here for stats on egypt
http://s05.flagcounter.com/factbook/eg/auHK
First blogged May 2009.

Pollution of the The Nile in Luxor,

Protected Area (Important Birds Areas of Egypt)

not according to the minister of the environment, Ali Mahmoud

or Dr Samir Fawak. or anyone at the

eeaa@eeaa.gov.eg
Youssef.Fouad@fco.gov.uk

all the mail I send to the above addresses are returned as spam.

and another e mail today 2/8/09 To: Minister Eng.

Maged George Elias Ghattas (Ministry of State for Environment Affairs),

and yet they all have to drink this polluted water from the Nile, The passengers on the cruisers, all in one way or another get an intake of this water. apart from the bottled mineral water. all the water used in the nile delta is from the Nile. (90% of tourists get a tummy upset from Nile water)

This is the area where the cruise boats are moored,in front of the luxor supreme district office on the cornish,the pictures are taken around one of these boats there are 250 on the nile that only go from Luxor to Aswan, thats if they are in working order,
water bottles used as oil containers discarded in the Nile
the little white herons. are emaciated in oil and its plumage turning grey, more than half of these boats never leave the moorings but the engine has to run to keep the pumps working to keep them afloat, and they just belch out pollution from the engines exhaust,

diesel oil spillage is common place most of the pipes feeding Diesel from shore into the boats leak


not only these cruise ships pollute the Nile,
this is only a minor part of nile pollution.

high nile

Click on the photos to Enlarge May/2009

The land I am standing on at this time of year should be flooded.
in the background are the reed beds, that house a lot of the wildlife here,
This is a council vehicle.
When I asked him why was he dumping I was told the police say he can put it here'
and as you can see from this latest load it is all material that will pollute the Nile.

The nile is almost up to the road surface
see the damp patches in the new road. and the lanfill filling the reed beds,

this pollyurathain I suppose will be set fire to later
as it has no value.

Waste and garbage. note the date of the first complaint, 20/5/09

Click on the photos to enlarge.
Update 24/5/09 today all this land is being cleaned . a photo on the first page. I only managed to get one photo, and the police asked me not to take photos .and I was asked to go back after they clean the land.


15/5/09 Today I went to my favourite Quite place by the Nile The chick of the Little Egret was dead where I usually sit And still warm to the touch, no doubt in my mind it died from the pollution of the Nile it was hatched near where the next photos are taken.
As you can see from the paper this load of waste came from the primary school,and yes there has been some refurbishment there recently,And this lot is from someones home. a refurbishing project. .the Little white egret(chick)is a water wader not a swimmer it would be no suprise if it took its first drink in the Nile and died from its polluted content

This is the reed beds being filled in not with soil but all the materials that will pollute the nile when it recedes, home to Herons, kingfishers,moorhen, and an abundance of wild life

This is the old fibreglass that contains asbestos.
and comes from the guvornment buildings that are coming down to make way for the avenue of the sphinx.

The preservation of Egypt lot still have not got back to me they have recieved 3 E-mails, at least you would think they would have the courtesy to acknowledge them. delivering on Sunday along with a cd of the photos I delivered the following letter to the head of Luxor council Dr Samir Fawak.
The following is a transcript for the head of Luxor District Council the photos were taken on thursday 14 may.09 and sat 15th

This is over my concern for the area known as El Gezira & Banana Island,
The landfill and abuse of this land has to stop. I believe there is already a preservation on Nile Land. I,E, land that is filled naturaly by the waters of the Nile'
so why are you making landfill here not only with the debris from the buildings you are taking down for the new look Luxor city but as you will see in the photos it includes plastic waste, fiberglass waste, lime, gypsum plaster boards, From what is said by the local people, the police said that its ok to put garbage and soil from the land of new buildings such as the new cultural centre in el gezira, but for you to know none of this good soil was put in this area, some of the good soil from the new 12 million Pound land of the swimming pool was put there and only enough to make it look like it is soil for growing , growing land needs at least 18" of soil, here we have Maybe 3", that in itself is wrong how will the water stay on the land for 15 days until it is inundated again ( Watered by pump) they will have to water every day?
After I raised my concern of this matter with the ministry of Agriculture here, Mr M Zachry came with me to see what was happening, And he was appauled at the waste he saw in this area, after he left I went to take some more photos, and what I saw I was also appauled at, I already have problems with sleeping. Every night, I wake with this awful smell of burning plasic and the foul smell of garbage burning.Today I asked the man who was burning the plastic , Why ? His answer , I NEED MONEY.
from what I know He will need one hundred fires to make 1 kilo of copper,
please think about the future generations as I see it, I would like my grand children to see what I see, if this continues they will never see the natural life to The Islet of Banana Island,
neither will yours. what will they say? My grandfather killed this land.
and what for,?
because we wanted the tourist to see a new Luxor. the pharoas respected this precious land and they knew that only here by the Nile and oasis areas can we grow food, What is the percentage of arable land here , I believe 3%. so please take and put the rubbish in the other 97%, its not far to desert land, I am not saying its right to do so but at least it will not polute your lifeline, The Nile,
already there are over 250 cruise ships polluting the Nile for the tourists .
soon tourists will not come pollution does not encourage people especially pollution of the Nile, then what will become of the boats and new hotels , land fill?

More serious stuff

And this is the result of polluting the Nile.
the Little white egret(chick)is a water wader not a swimmer
it would be no suprise if it took its first drink in the Nile
and died from its polluted contents.
I have a quiet place where I take a lot of my photos from
no ( twitter huts here)
that is where this chick died and that is why
I am raising my concerns over the pollution of this land.
our wildlife can not speak neither do they understand why
they die from polluted water that they have lived in well
before man came here.

not garbage

Mr 1 Piesta and son.

yet another plastic fire this one hung around
for hours as there was no wind last night


these lazy road cleaners if there is nothing in
the bin for them to sell, they put a lighted
cigarette but in the bin and clear off out of the
area, once the fire has taken hold they come
back waving their arms and blame it on some
passer by , job done no need to load its contents
onto the bin lorry. that seems to dispose of it
down by Banana island.

2/8/09

my p

19 Sep 2009

Reed beds

Date palm from the reed beds


These papyrus reeds are over 2 metres high

can not go far without seeing the cattle egret! a few weeks ago this area of the reed bed was flooded.

Nice and clean

30 Aug 2009

the reed beds

27 Aug 2009

Myegypt Map

the Nile river

26 Aug 2009

The Nubian memorial to the nubian people who lost thier land due to flooding after the Dam now called lake Nasser

The dam was mainly built to house the hydro electric plant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam



All the fishing boats no longer in use.

The old dam

The road to the new dam over the old

22 Aug 2009

sunflower

21 Aug 2009

Under Luxor Bridge

View under the bridge to the east bank

Another Cruiser heading for the Luxor berths.

Catching the wake after the cruiser

A sand haulage barge heading back for another load these boats travel the full length of the Nile in Egypt about 800 kilometres from Aswan to zag-a-zig and onother 100 to Alexandria.

THE boat being hand loaded with building stone near Daraw.

over the bridge

Two Horus eagles each end of the Luxor Bridge


all modes of transport cross over the bridge this is a rag & bone Man

They all have this deformity that makes me think they are asking for money. I hope not here on the bridge I will have to cross over 4 lanes.
It would be no suprise if I saw one of the watch guys so I can buy a cheap rolex. or a scarf,

17 Aug 2009

four eyed spider

14 Aug 2009

Snack Time restaurant

Luxor Temple

Heritage centre 1 year on

30 Jul 2009

heritage centre

Luxor estate agents

.

The advert is in Quite a good place

most of us Expats already have a broblem In this court

After Buying or renting property here and some

from this agency.

spooky luxor

The mind boggles as to how they get
internet from a sewing machine.

This is where the Copts come if they lose anything

they make an offering then lay hands on the crypt

of some young boy who died years ago.

not sure what the baby has lost, maybe the father went missing,

I do not know what will happen to the area once it comes down Making way for the new look Luxor.

Strange thing is if the muslims find anything the say its a gift from God. Insha allah

A big yawn and a new fill for the bubble pipe may

take away the boredom of this Butcher

Luxor Hotel

Another beetle

29 Jul 2009

Luxor Egypt

spiders

One reason I put the smaller subjects on the blog

because its a great programe to enlarge on.

Nile valley hotel

Luxor Temple

26 Jul 2009

Nile cruise