Sunday, April 4, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
7 weeks to go...
...but it is getting tougher every day! I get tired very quickly and prefer sitting, wherever I am, cannot go for long walks anymore, I am short of breath (mostly at nights though) and I am not looking forward to sleeping anymore! There is only one position (on the left side) I can sleep in, but this is beginning to feel uncomfortable as well, causing cramp in my left leg and a stiff neck. Luckily only one night visit to the toilet is enough but getting out of bed and walking up there takes so long I usually am fully awake before I get into bed again. But can't complain too much: I do fall asleep and finish my 8 or 9 hour sleep! And I did not gain too much weight so far, only 9 kilo's which is average...
One of luxuries of being an expat in Cairo is that maids are quiet cheap; my cleaner comes every day from 9 till 2, and her salary is only 150 euro's per month. In Turkey I used to pay my cleaner 30 euro's per day!!!
So with her around, cleaning, ironing, doing laundry, tidying up the bedroom, tidying up Femke's toys, doing dishes and sometimes cut vegetables so that my cooking doesn't take so long to prepare.. my life as a pregnant housewife is quiet easy.
But I guess the biggest advantage at the moment is that Femke goes to nursery from 8.15 till 15.30, 3 days a weeks. Sorry to say, but entertaining a 2,5 yrs old while being 7+ months pregnant is sometimes hard, so with her only around full time the 2 other days (weekends with her father around is much easier for me) is do-able (for now).
My due date is 8th of May, but I am thinking of planning a c-section on the 3rd of May, if everything goes well of course. A friend also had planned a c-section, but her water broke the night before so she had an emergency c-section after all!
Advantage of a planned date is that it will be more relaxing and practical for our family; Femke can go to nursery that day, and Arthur will pick her up in the afternoon, I will already be with the new baby in the hospital room. Also this way we don't need to worry about getting stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital, or that my doctor is not available, or Arthur is busy at work.
We have chosen a name for the baby, and a flight is booked for my mother, she will stay with us 2 weeks after the birth.
End of May, after my mother has left, we will hire a part-time nanny, who can help out on weekdays after nursery time, and on the 2 other days Femke is at home.
Well, we'll see how that works out, I am not looking forward to have another person around me, but almost all friends here in Cairo strongly advice me to hire a nanny.
I am sure friends in the Netherlands might think this is exaggerating but they have family, neighbors and friends nearby to help out!!!
Anyway, we will welcome our first visitor to Cairo this weekend, friend Francisca (always a loyal visitor during our stay in Izmir) will stay 5 days! Jippie...
One of luxuries of being an expat in Cairo is that maids are quiet cheap; my cleaner comes every day from 9 till 2, and her salary is only 150 euro's per month. In Turkey I used to pay my cleaner 30 euro's per day!!!
So with her around, cleaning, ironing, doing laundry, tidying up the bedroom, tidying up Femke's toys, doing dishes and sometimes cut vegetables so that my cooking doesn't take so long to prepare.. my life as a pregnant housewife is quiet easy.
But I guess the biggest advantage at the moment is that Femke goes to nursery from 8.15 till 15.30, 3 days a weeks. Sorry to say, but entertaining a 2,5 yrs old while being 7+ months pregnant is sometimes hard, so with her only around full time the 2 other days (weekends with her father around is much easier for me) is do-able (for now).
My due date is 8th of May, but I am thinking of planning a c-section on the 3rd of May, if everything goes well of course. A friend also had planned a c-section, but her water broke the night before so she had an emergency c-section after all!
Advantage of a planned date is that it will be more relaxing and practical for our family; Femke can go to nursery that day, and Arthur will pick her up in the afternoon, I will already be with the new baby in the hospital room. Also this way we don't need to worry about getting stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital, or that my doctor is not available, or Arthur is busy at work.
We have chosen a name for the baby, and a flight is booked for my mother, she will stay with us 2 weeks after the birth.
End of May, after my mother has left, we will hire a part-time nanny, who can help out on weekdays after nursery time, and on the 2 other days Femke is at home.
Well, we'll see how that works out, I am not looking forward to have another person around me, but almost all friends here in Cairo strongly advice me to hire a nanny.
I am sure friends in the Netherlands might think this is exaggerating but they have family, neighbors and friends nearby to help out!!!
Anyway, we will welcome our first visitor to Cairo this weekend, friend Francisca (always a loyal visitor during our stay in Izmir) will stay 5 days! Jippie...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Two weeks in Sri Lanka
We're back from our holidays. As we are quite nearby Asia, we managed to arrange a two week holiday in Sri Lanka on short term. Perfect! Very green country, good food and sweet people. So a good holiday with five days at the beach, two sight seeing in capital Colombo and one in fisherman’s town Negombo.
Quite some travelling, but Sri Lanka is not a huge country and the greener parts are even smaller. Also the infrastructure is quite good, so we managed to hop around by train or bus quite easily.
Unfortunately we could not handle the hills of Ela anymore. This as Femke gave the impression that she could handle 3,5 hours by car / bus /train, but no more!. And as Ella was a 5,5 hours drive (and from there another 8! to the South!), we agreed to leave this for our pension days ;)
We went to Unawatuna for our beach time, about 15 min from Galle, a town with many Dutch influences...
Colombo was a bit disappointing as it has been never developed due to the war, but we did see some nice temples and the war memorial is worth visiting. Also the bazaar with small shops is always a treat. Also we spent time with an elephant, always time well spent if you’re hopping along with Femke J
Negombo is a charming fisherman town, very authentic without high buildings.
The 3,5 hour train ride to Kandy was stunning, slowly we went further up the green mountains. Kandy is the Sri Lanka capital of old. By train we clutched along the mountains and small railway stations. As we were in the back of the train, the wagon jerked so many times that Mer’s water almost broke ;) But Kandy was absolutely worth it, very green, very charming. .In Kandy we decided to hire a car with driver for a whole day of sight seeing. We went to a tea factory, a herbal garden and made an elephant ride... Femke is still talking about that! In the centre there is a beautiful, large botanic garden, really amazing what trees and plants they had collected there in a period of hundred years..
And the tea factory… well, we certainly asked our questions there. As an interesting fact; the process of making the tea only differs between green (mainly; not fermented) and brown (fermented, so stronger) tea. The taste differs mainly with the blend of spices you add.
Check out our 'best of Sri Lanka' by clicking on the presentation link below:
Quite some travelling, but Sri Lanka is not a huge country and the greener parts are even smaller. Also the infrastructure is quite good, so we managed to hop around by train or bus quite easily.
Unfortunately we could not handle the hills of Ela anymore. This as Femke gave the impression that she could handle 3,5 hours by car / bus /train, but no more!. And as Ella was a 5,5 hours drive (and from there another 8! to the South!), we agreed to leave this for our pension days ;)
We went to Unawatuna for our beach time, about 15 min from Galle, a town with many Dutch influences...
Colombo was a bit disappointing as it has been never developed due to the war, but we did see some nice temples and the war memorial is worth visiting. Also the bazaar with small shops is always a treat. Also we spent time with an elephant, always time well spent if you’re hopping along with Femke J
Negombo is a charming fisherman town, very authentic without high buildings.
The 3,5 hour train ride to Kandy was stunning, slowly we went further up the green mountains. Kandy is the Sri Lanka capital of old. By train we clutched along the mountains and small railway stations. As we were in the back of the train, the wagon jerked so many times that Mer’s water almost broke ;) But Kandy was absolutely worth it, very green, very charming. .In Kandy we decided to hire a car with driver for a whole day of sight seeing. We went to a tea factory, a herbal garden and made an elephant ride... Femke is still talking about that! In the centre there is a beautiful, large botanic garden, really amazing what trees and plants they had collected there in a period of hundred years..
And the tea factory… well, we certainly asked our questions there. As an interesting fact; the process of making the tea only differs between green (mainly; not fermented) and brown (fermented, so stronger) tea. The taste differs mainly with the blend of spices you add.
Check out our 'best of Sri Lanka' by clicking on the presentation link below:
Monday, January 25, 2010
The pyramids - finally!
Last Friday (in Egypt weekend has started then) we decided it was finally time to visit the pyramids of Cheops., after having lived in Cairo for 5 months now...
Our driver Yahye came with us, it was only a 15 min drive from our house, can you imagine how close they are? Arthur passes them everyday (desperately trying to take pictures, but alas..). Of course the city moves closer and closer to the deserts surrounding the pyramids. But also this has its charms.
As you can see on the this picture you can see the city from the Pyramids grounds
I was amazed to experience the ticket office, it seemed time had stood still here sometime in the sixties.. Although the roads up to the entrance are fine, police checks are done to search for bombs etc, the ticket office was dark and men in (leather) black tried to withhold as much info as they could. No shop or stance with refreshments in sight, so if anybody is up for a career that combines ice, tea and coffee.. this is the place to go!
So, Yahya (don't ask, Arabic names are written in Latin differently continuously) could park the car a bit further and did not need to buy a ticket, which is what we used to have in Turkey in the past also (Arthur always was pushing his knowledge of Turkish to the limits just to sound like a Turk at the ticket booth, to get a lower price of course... the depths this man is willing to travel for money ;) respect).
When we entered the area YeahYeah requested our tickets and for a reason, we were immediately harassed by a man who wanted to see our tickets to talk us into him guiding for us 'at no cost of course, you're free to give later if you want to'. Good trick! Didn't see that one coming, the minute you give him your tickets, you'll be in for a little discussion.
Anyways. Camels, horses, strong wind and good sun made for a perfect environment to see the pyramids. Its amazing. Standing there in front of these imposing buildings really only leads to a status of awe. Especially the Sphinx is a masterpiece, looking like a woman though in the past donned with a beard! That fell off. Ok!
Dus. Perfect two hours spent, also us oYeah willfully and with huge joy chased Femke for two straight hours giving us the chance to walk around a bit, definite worth the visit.
Our driver Yahye came with us, it was only a 15 min drive from our house, can you imagine how close they are? Arthur passes them everyday (desperately trying to take pictures, but alas..). Of course the city moves closer and closer to the deserts surrounding the pyramids. But also this has its charms.
As you can see on the this picture you can see the city from the Pyramids grounds
I was amazed to experience the ticket office, it seemed time had stood still here sometime in the sixties.. Although the roads up to the entrance are fine, police checks are done to search for bombs etc, the ticket office was dark and men in (leather) black tried to withhold as much info as they could. No shop or stance with refreshments in sight, so if anybody is up for a career that combines ice, tea and coffee.. this is the place to go!
So, Yahya (don't ask, Arabic names are written in Latin differently continuously) could park the car a bit further and did not need to buy a ticket, which is what we used to have in Turkey in the past also (Arthur always was pushing his knowledge of Turkish to the limits just to sound like a Turk at the ticket booth, to get a lower price of course... the depths this man is willing to travel for money ;) respect).
When we entered the area YeahYeah requested our tickets and for a reason, we were immediately harassed by a man who wanted to see our tickets to talk us into him guiding for us 'at no cost of course, you're free to give later if you want to'. Good trick! Didn't see that one coming, the minute you give him your tickets, you'll be in for a little discussion.
Anyways. Camels, horses, strong wind and good sun made for a perfect environment to see the pyramids. Its amazing. Standing there in front of these imposing buildings really only leads to a status of awe. Especially the Sphinx is a masterpiece, looking like a woman though in the past donned with a beard! That fell off. Ok!
Dus. Perfect two hours spent, also us oYeah willfully and with huge joy chased Femke for two straight hours giving us the chance to walk around a bit, definite worth the visit.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Dubai Experience- Jan 2010
Arthur monthly visits Dubai for work and mid January I decided to join him. We had 4,5 days to explore Dubai, let the good times roll! Our family, especially Di Mama's, were very excited about our trip, haha, actually everyone we know in the Netherlands is more interested to learn about Dubai than Cairo. It appeals as Dubai is doing a great job promoting itself on CNN, travel programs, with world's largest this/fastest that/ladida. Soww.. is it worth it?
I think that is a 'yes indeed' indeed.
Its not Disney world as you'd expect. But a well organized, clean city where the government is travelling length to make sure you are enjoying your stay.
Also January was a good time to travel as temperatures are OK, in the mid twenties, there are (very low) lowseason prices and hardly any tourists can be seen.
Femke and I traveled alone to Dubai on Wednesday. The flight was 3,5 hours, quite longer than I would have thought it would be, and the time difference with Egypt is +2 hours. When we arrived at the airport, the stroller was waiting by my side: Femke now weighs 13 kilo's and with my pregnant situation I can't hold Femke in my arms longer than a few minutes!
Interesting to see all these customs officials in their white cloaks, Kandura they are called, and the Guthra their headscarf. Most popular colors of the headscarf are white or red and white checks. Then Egal, a black rope is used to tie the scarf on the head. See here what I mean...
Arthur picked me up at the airport and soon we were heading in a new and clean taxi to our hotel... One cannot help comparing everything to Cairo! Taxi drivers in Dubai are usually from India or Pakistan and speak very well English. Actually; only 10% of Dubai are Emirati, the rest of the people mainly are Indian/Pakistani/other working in construction/service industry or enjoying these constructions/services (Europeans, Iranians & Arabians mostly).
Nice trip. It looks like what I expect Florida to be. Even at the beach I felt as if I could lounge for a bit and later take my surfboard out to do some 'sharky dippin'' (one takes a shark..). Very relaxing, nice week out from Cairo and actually I'm considering to accompany Arthur again in March :)
Highlights:
= The fountain light and music show at the Dubai Mall, Femke is still shouting at her highest notes when she sees the video's
= The boat ride at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel / souk, great souk, amazing what they build here, very relaxed.
= Mercato shopping mall, because of the Venetian style architecture. All other malls looked quiet futuristic
= Beautiful beaches, there are public ones and private ones; the latter have more shade as there are trees planted on the beach, and beds and umbrellas available.
= The waterfall at the Mall of the Emirates
Check out other pics in the presentation slide below...
It was a strange experience though, to see this wealthy city where everything looks perfect, like in fairy tale from the future. Also good to see how modern and tolerant many cultures live together there. Travelling and sight seeing is comfortable, one sees hardly the poor and ugly and dirty side (of which can be found in Cairo everywhere), it is like a large suburb where all cars are new and clean, and people are rich, many restaurants and shops available. Tourists seem to like that for a change, its not cheap for a tourist here, but its not crazily expensive either (think London/Paris/New York)
It was a nice contrast to our next holiday destination early February, to Sri Lanka!
I think that is a 'yes indeed' indeed.
Its not Disney world as you'd expect. But a well organized, clean city where the government is travelling length to make sure you are enjoying your stay.
Also January was a good time to travel as temperatures are OK, in the mid twenties, there are (very low) lowseason prices and hardly any tourists can be seen.
Femke and I traveled alone to Dubai on Wednesday. The flight was 3,5 hours, quite longer than I would have thought it would be, and the time difference with Egypt is +2 hours. When we arrived at the airport, the stroller was waiting by my side: Femke now weighs 13 kilo's and with my pregnant situation I can't hold Femke in my arms longer than a few minutes!
Interesting to see all these customs officials in their white cloaks, Kandura they are called, and the Guthra their headscarf. Most popular colors of the headscarf are white or red and white checks. Then Egal, a black rope is used to tie the scarf on the head. See here what I mean...
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
Arthur picked me up at the airport and soon we were heading in a new and clean taxi to our hotel... One cannot help comparing everything to Cairo! Taxi drivers in Dubai are usually from India or Pakistan and speak very well English. Actually; only 10% of Dubai are Emirati, the rest of the people mainly are Indian/Pakistani/other working in construction/service industry or enjoying these constructions/services (Europeans, Iranians & Arabians mostly).
Nice trip. It looks like what I expect Florida to be. Even at the beach I felt as if I could lounge for a bit and later take my surfboard out to do some 'sharky dippin'' (one takes a shark..). Very relaxing, nice week out from Cairo and actually I'm considering to accompany Arthur again in March :)
Highlights:
= The fountain light and music show at the Dubai Mall, Femke is still shouting at her highest notes when she sees the video's
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
= The boat ride at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel / souk, great souk, amazing what they build here, very relaxed.
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
= Mercato shopping mall, because of the Venetian style architecture. All other malls looked quiet futuristic
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
= Beautiful beaches, there are public ones and private ones; the latter have more shade as there are trees planted on the beach, and beds and umbrellas available.
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
= The waterfall at the Mall of the Emirates
 |
| From Dubai jan 2010 |
Check out other pics in the presentation slide below...
It was a strange experience though, to see this wealthy city where everything looks perfect, like in fairy tale from the future. Also good to see how modern and tolerant many cultures live together there. Travelling and sight seeing is comfortable, one sees hardly the poor and ugly and dirty side (of which can be found in Cairo everywhere), it is like a large suburb where all cars are new and clean, and people are rich, many restaurants and shops available. Tourists seem to like that for a change, its not cheap for a tourist here, but its not crazily expensive either (think London/Paris/New York)
It was a nice contrast to our next holiday destination early February, to Sri Lanka!
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