Monday, November 03, 2008

Never count your chickens




I did spend some of that weekend marvelling at the Pyramids. I even spent a proportion of that weekend IN a Pyramid, to which I would have to say we all make mistakes. I did have the option NOT to go into a Pyramid but go into a Pyramid I did. Truly horrible - hot, claustrophobic, and absolutely airless - but I am glad I did it, if only because that means I will never feel the need to do it again. Apparently when Napoleon was in Cairo he insisted on spending a night alone holed up in the Great Pyramid: He emerged the following morning a quivering wreck and for the first time in my life I can sympathise with the pint sized emperor.

What I did not do however, was spend any part of that weekend at the Cairo museum. This fact being not unrelated to me having spent the best (for which read worst) part of Saturday night being violently sick. Want to lose weight? Forget dieting - just go to Egypt. And for the bulimics and laxative abusers amongst us it will all be second nature anyway. Whilst that deeply unpleasant episode was mercifully short (though not at all sweet), it wiped out my appetite for the entire week and for the first time in my life I have come back from a holiday skinnier than I was when I arrived.

Lots to relate but for now I leave you with a picture of my off spring at the Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, built in the 13th Century BC. Typical of the Egyptians in that not content with building something so awe inspiringly massive in the first place they then decided to move the bloody thing!. We lesser mortals would have decided the whole concept was impossible and gone to the pub instead.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How horrible for you to be so sick! Did you brush your teeth in the water? Eat salad or fruit? Apparently those are the two things most often forgotten about in a country where the water is to be avoided!

That first picture is just gorgeous. The light looks sublime.

Gill said...

I did try to warn you about the dire rear and sickness! I haven't been to the pyramids but my mum went in one and had a panic attack apparently. But I hope you enjoyed your holiday in Egypt despite everything. I loved it there

J.J said...

Hi Jay! Two tiny slices of yellow pepper may have been responsible. Either that or my trip to the loo at the Pyramids where conditions were somewhat worse than one might have desired. Yuk!

Gill, you certainly did warn me! As did my uncle who said he feared that if he unclenched his buttocks he risked flooding The Valley of the Kings! But it was worth it anyway. A truly spectacular country.

©gloop said...

Hang about 13th century BC??? As Sarah Palin will tell you God only created the Earth 4004 years ago??

While we were at the Pyramids we were given the option of going in, but a friend of mine had been a few months before and a bloke actually had a heart attack and died IN THE PYRAMID!!! How weird is that? Poppin' yer clogs in a Pyramid.

*shudder*

J.J said...

Steve, I can only respond that I am praying to the Ancient Egptian Gods that that intellectually challenged woman does not become Vice President today.

I can perfectly well understand anyone having a heart attack inside a Pyramid, but if you had told me that before I went no way would I have gone in either!