Morning routine

Morning routine

For those of you wondering what it’s like living in Cairo, I thought I would narrate the events of this morning, to give you an idea.

6:30 a.m. I am up for some reason, even though I went to sleep late and didn’t sleep much at all the night before. Perhaps some random street noise woke me up, or a prayer call? Hmmm…guess I will just lie here for a while and try to get a few more hours sleep.

7:30 a.m. Why is this bed so uncomfortable? Must switch mattress with foam mattress in other room. This mattress is completely shot, I am now trying to curl up on a decent 18-inch wide section on the far left side of the bed. Will get this done today.

8:40 a.m. OK, I am waking up. Opening the shutters, pretty nice day out there. I can see a pretty tree, but the backyards of all the buildings near me are filled with old bricks, slabs of concrete, some basic trash, and other random building materials.

8:50 a.m. Making coffee, American style. I have two bags of Starbucks coffee left, which I cherish and ration out like I’m in the war. A few weeks ago, I broke the glass pitcher part of the coffee maker so now I just stand there while the thing is brewing and stick a knife under the drip contraption so that the coffee can drain into a mug. This is a very imperfect system that ends with significant sludge at the bottom of my cup. I tried to order a new pot…they were going to deliver it….don’t know what happened with that. Must follow up with that this week.

8:55 a.m. I open the cabinet to get some sugar for the coffee. Holy shit! There are more ants than I’ve ever seen in there. They found a way into the Tupperware container filled with sugar and are swarming everywhere. There are more ants than sugar and lots of ants that look as though they have gorged themselves to death. Luckily, they are really small, easy to kill ants, though. I throw all sugar into the garbage and clean out the cabinet. They appear to be entering through a hole in the cabinet where it meets the wall. Must try to tape that up.

9:30 a.m. Checking email. DSL works, thank god.

10:00 a.m. Get phone call on the landline. Yesterday, the line was completely dead, but today for some reason it seems to be working. It’s the engineer from the phone company, asking if he still needs to come. No, I tell him, the phone line appears to be working now. Strange.

10:15 a.m. Watering plants on patio. Most have more or less survived my five days out of the country, but some of them just are not making it out there. A thick layer of dust covers the patio. OK, if you saw it, you would call it dirt, not dust. Anyway, its what's in the air here. Must see if cleaning lady can come tomorrow.

10:30 a.m. Bawab (building super/doorman kind of guy) rings bell. Everything ok with the phone? Yes, I tell him. Thank you.

10:35 a.m. I realize full extent of the amount of stuff I have left behind in my hostel in Israel. I rushed out of there hoping to get to the Temple Mount before my flight yesterday. Lost: one pair of awesome prescription sunglasses; one cheap pair of headphones; one half-empty container of special antibiotic face pads to counteract effects of pollution on skin.

10:40 a.m. I decide to do some laundry, maybe that will go well. Machine appears to be working. Yay!

10:45 a.m. One more look in cabinet. Ants are back, looking for something to eat. I put everything on a different shelf, spray too much Raid and close the kitchen door.

11:00 a.m. Time to go to work! What was it I had to do today? OK, will just throw some stuff in a bag and get going. Hmm...I'm hungry. Must get some lunch.