4 a.m. I fly into Cairo, hop in a taxi and 30 mins. later I’m letting myself into my apt. – “Home at last, cup of choc and I’m off to bed!” says I to myself……..well, uh…nooo! What is that smell? I drop my bags and follow my nose……”WTF?!” Before my astonished eyes – my…
My mother used to say that nobody except myself would ask people for what he/she wanted at the wrong time – but somewhere else I got the belief that “if you don’t ask, you don’t get, so what have you got to lose by asking?” With that thought in mind, I headed off to see…
Retirement, forced retirement, unemployment in a country experiencing economic disaster, losing a business, physical incapacity, old-age resulting in deteriorating physical mobility, imprisonment, losing children or family whether because they have grown up, moved away or lost through divorce etc. – it strikes me that for a person with an active mind accustomed to leading an…
The good days can be wonderful but the “bad” days can drive you nuts. There are days – like today – when trying to get something done is like wading through mud, have you ever tried it? When I was young I used to have what I came to interpret as “frustration” dreams (no, not…
“Do you speak Arabic?” I am often asked…….from now on my answer will be “just enough to cause a riot if I want!” One thing that sends my blood pressure up is when someone jumps a queue I am standing in. Now, if the person is in a terrible hurry (even if I am also)…
What is reality? If you are a fan of the “Matrix” films maybe you think it is just possible we are part of a BIGGER, muucch bigger “mind” or “consciousness”? Maybe, just maybe these bodies we believe we are in – we are not really in them at all? We are just using them to…
Christian Bible begins with the words “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We could spend lifetimes trying to understand these words alone – Words creates our World. We have long heard the phrases “the power of the pen” and “the pen is mightier than…
Vaseline’s facebook Page is now offering an application that lightens skin colour. When I went to Egypt I could not believe the amount of advertising on TV, billboards, chemists, etc. for ‘Fair and Lovely,’ a skin-whitening product. It went hand in hand with Egyptians telling me every day that my skin was so lovely. I…
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”….until recently I only thought of this saying in the context of the fury of a woman being ‘dumped’ by a man. On looking it up I found the full phrase to be “Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a Fury, like a…
Has the habit of personal dishonesty in Egypt gone too far? Is it ruining Egypt’s international reputation? Habitual lying from top to bottom of society
Main Photo above: MEN AT WORK across the road from Mara House at the moment…they are digging the foundations for a building, which might take from 1 year to 20 years to complete. Watching paint dry and watching people at work in Egypt—sometimes there’s not much difference between the two for the watcher. Depending on…
I never dreamed of running a hotel — until a 1980s TV show planted the seed. That spark became Mara House Luxor, where I now welcome guests and share Egypt’s magic.