Blackberries, Crackberries and baking...

So, when I got here, they gave me a blackberry, but for some reason (ie: I live in Egypt and even simple things seem to take a ridiculously long time!!!) it only started receiving emails this week (...it has just been a GIANT cell phone for the last 4 months!) and so far I HATE it. If you're a salesperson and are on the road, I can see how it would be great to be able to stay connected with the office, but Egypt's weekend is different AND there is a 7 hr time difference to our corporate office in Toronto, so I end up getting emails at all hours of the night and on the weekend. And even if I tell myself I won't look at the email, its pretty hard to ignore the buzzing and flashing red light for long...I guess the nickname Crackberry is well deserved. hmmm that would a real shame if it *accidentally* fell in the Nile or was fed to a camel or something....

Speaking of blackberries...the edible ones are in season here now. Normally I would never pay for them since they are so easy to pick in Victoria, but since strawberry season is done now, I had to find something else to put in my smoothies...

**I am about 99% sure that a bird just flew into my apartment....when I got up to investigate, I couldn't find it anywhere....hopefully it found an open window and got out.....

My parents came back a few days ago, unfortunately, Mum was sick so they had to skip out on a couple of activities with the group and come back to Cairo early, but she's fit as a fiddle now (seriously, where do these expressions come from??!! My fingers just typed it before my brain had even registered how dumb it sounded) and they're seeing King Tut today at the museum and are heading to the red sea for a few nights tomorrow. Yesterday we went to Muhammed Ali's Mosque and the citadel (second time for me).

Most of you know how much I love to bake, and since I now have a kitchen, I went on a mission today to Carrefour, (sort of like wal-mart) to get all the stuff I need to make all my favourite things, but apparently Egypt does not have some fairly key items...I have been searching for weeks for a cookie sheet, and apparently they don't exist here....I know they eat store-bought cookies, and I'm pretty sure some people must bake them at home, but I have no idea what they make them on- the closest thing I could find was a circular pizza pan. The vanilla I usually buy in liquid form was a powder, and baking soda and chocolate chips were nowhere to be found. Despite these setbacks, I am going to try to make banana bread today...I have an easter bunny in the freezer (I learned the hard way that you CANNOT keep chocolate in the cupboard here!) that I am going to cut up in place of chips so I'll keep you posted...

Guess what? Only 38 days till I come home for a visit!

Byeeee :)

C