Back online

So, yesterday right after I wrote the last post we were without internet for most of the last 36 hrs...apparently a cable under the Mediterranean that 'brings internet' (I'm sure it's more technical than that..) from Europe was damaged in a storm and wiped out the connection to much of Egypt and the Middle east. It was pretty disruptive for us since during the pre-opening we have to be in constant contact with Corporate in Toronto and our regional office in Dubai.... oh well, it seems to be fixed now!

So, I laughed pretty hard when I read my last post... how naive the Cat of yesterday morning was....filled with hope and confidence about my new broker! I learned quickly that wearing a suit and being from an international firm DOES NOT = professionalism! Yesterday morning was a comedy of errors, but the most shocking/funny incident occurred when we were driving: Mohamed (the broker) was reversing at about 40km/hr, and came too close to a parked car- he scraped his car along the full length of it and caused easily $3000-$4000 CAD damage in body and paint work. Two older men were about 100m down the road and witnessed the entire thing...they started yelling and running towards the car...I suspect that the car either belonged to them, or someone they knew, because even though they were screaming in Arabic, I could tell that they were definitely not happy about something (perhaps it was the way they were pounding on the window!). There was some rapid Arabic between Moh'd and his colleague, and suddenly Moh'd just backed up, did a U-turn and started driving quickly in the opposite direction...the two old men were still screaming and shaking their fists as we drove away. If that wasn't bad enough, neither of them apologized to me (the client!) afterwards...besides a joke about his bad driving later, they barely even acknowledged it. They acted like the whole thing was a perfectly normal...the sad thing is, I think it probably was.

Anyway, despite everything I found a flat that might be okay. I need to think about it a little but it's definitely the best one I've seen so far. It has 3 bedrooms so if I take it I'll have lots of room for visitors (that means YOU!).

Okay I'm going in search of dinner. Miss you all!

C