Of Parties and Partings

After what seems to be an eternity of getting ready and saying goodbye, we’re finally entering the last stretch of our stay in Cairo. The departure is imminent and the farewell parties are in full force!

Kieran was lucky enough to have first go- a collection of his motliest crew convened at our house last Thursday. In fact, this was not strictly speaking a leaving party. We’d decided to bring his birthday forward a few weeks to ensure he actually had some friends to celebrate with. Lots of fun was had on our roof- old games like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” brought back memories of my single- digit birthday parties. Soma even made Kieran a special cake that at least two of the guests recognized as being Thomas the Tank Engine! After a couple of hours, all kids were burned out and had departed. Kieran and Rohan wended their way to bed and Soma flaked out accordingly!

From left: Nina, Kieran and Adam rifle through the party bags.

Next day we were up bright and early- seconds away for round two and this was the big one! At seven that evening, about sixty of Maadi’s finest would descend (or more appropriately ascend, given that the party was on our roof) for our official leaving party. The day sped by- people came with traditional tables and chairs; more people came to set up the lights and the bar; beer, wine and soft drinks arrived in massive quantities and by late afternoon Samir from the Deli had arrived. Now unless you have lived in the Middle East for any length of time you will not truly understand just what a legend a man like Samir is. He is gold dust for the simple reason that HE SELLS PORK SAUSAGES AND PORK CHOPS! To be honest, once the rumour had spread that Samir was both supplying and cooking for our party, the RSVP’s flooded in- so was it us or the pork? Who knows, but by eight that evening our roof terrace was kicking!

The barbecue was as good as had been promised- aided by some lamb pies and prawns that Soma had secured from another “diamond geezer” supplier of ours. Once fed, a few hardy souls set about the one remaining task of finishing off my bar. Over the past few years, I’d amassed a fair sized collection of obscure liquors and spirits, none of which were headed to Tanzania. Unwilling to chuck them down the sink, we chucked them down ourselves instead until…….I woke up the next morning!
Daniel holding an early Chubb attempt at a Long Island Ice Tea- we got it right in the end!

After a Saturday that will go down in history as the forgotten day- Daniel and Janice coming around with some Latte from Café Greco being the only highlight- I woke up Sunday for the start of my last week as Commercial Manager of Sidi Krir.

The day was nothing to write home about- not until my official works leaving do started that evening at the Four Seasons in Garden City. Another hot tip for anyone planning on eating out in Cairo- Aqua is a very stylish, very posh little restaurant on the second floor and well worth a go! Soma and I were joined by my boss, Tom, his wife Barbara and my soon- to- be- ex- colleagues Colin, Sherif, Wafaa and Sayed. After a far more civilized dinner than had been enjoyed on our roof, Tom made the customary, but very generous speech about my contribution (which as is clear from the increasing size of this blog has been somewhat limited as of late!) and presented us with an array of leaving presents. We are now richer to the tune of three very nice Syrian alabaster candle holders, one video camera and a crystal clock- I’ll try to do a fly on the wall video of the move!

Works leaving do at the Cairo Four Seasons. From left: Sayed, Wafaa, me, Barbara, Sherif, Colin, Soma and Tom

Thus are the official leaving parties done. We’ll have friends round this week to say some proper goodbyes of course. I’m not quite sure how it will all pan out. Soma and I aren’t that emotional (read- we’re both cold hearted!) but there are some fine people we’ve met in Maadi that we will miss a lot. Friday in Tanzania will be a working day, not, as has been the case since 2005, spent meeting up in Café Greco with our good friends Viv, Tim, Carol, Paul, Daniel, Janice and an assortment of other fine people.

I’m not sure when the next update will be to this blog. I’m writing this on Monday- the home computers get packed Thursday and that same day I walk out of this office in Dokki leaving this laptop in my ex- to- be office. For now it’s a case of continuing to say bye to Cairo- the next posting will most likely be from a new life in Tanzania. The Msasani Peninsula, Little Scholars, South African wine and right hand drive cars await us!