Inside and out

I am trying to be good.

One of the hardest things about the dance scene in Cairo is how perfect you are supposed to be. I guess thats why so many dancers get surgery of one sort or another. Botox is everywhere (and seemingly much cheaper than in the UK) not to mention boob jobs, tummy tucks etc etc........Cairo is the only place in the world where I have had straight men comment on a nice manicure!!!!!!!!!

so last night I decided that I should maybe be making a little more effort. I put hot oil in my hair overnight, lathered pints of moisturising cream all over my body- foot cream, hand cream, you name it, and about 4 coats of moisturiser on my face.....(so sexy- glad I was sleeping alone!!!!), then a dark green face pack when i woke up....(thank god the water wasn't cut today!!!) Now, all of this so far is a big deal to me, I am generally so lazy about such things, although I know maybe to some of you reading this that it is your normal nightly regime!

Then I went to get my nails done (manicure and pedicure) and of course to get the hairs ripped out my eyebrows with bits of thread- its amazing the way they do it- all they need is a long piece of thread, their teeth and nimble fingers...... oh and a bit of sadism thrown in. (Fingers, Toes and Face defuzz all cost 60le- ie less than £6!)

I wont even talk here about the practise of Helowa (pronounced like 'Hell ow a' quite appropriatly!) which involves having a lump of sticky suger substance , a bit like toffee, pressed firmly into your skin then ripped off, with a fraction of the hairs in it that you want removed from said area- so the process has to be repeated over and over again on the same place. ouch. Mind you- unlike wax at least its a cold something place on sore skin rather than hot stuff.... and also- when it gets on yours clothes or nails etc etc it just washes away with water- very easy. Oops- I said I wasn't going to talk about that and I just did. Anyway- a full body 'sweet' (haha nothing sweet about it I tell you) will cost about 90le- a heck of a lot cheaper than a leg wax at home!

All thats left is to get my roots done (dying dark blond to dark brown- the opposite of what I have tried to achieve most of my life until i came to Cairo!!!)But that will have to wait a couple of days!



Then for the inside- I bought tonight (went shopping at 11pm because I realised I had run out of oinions!!!) for 50le (ie for under £5 ) the following;

1kg onions
1kg bananas
1kg apples
1kg oranges
1kg brown rice
1kg couscous
yoghurt

I thought that was a pretty good price considering what you might pay for the same in UK....and all the fruit and veg are local, and in season.......... yummy.

and cooked up lots of good, healthy, veggie food. moroccan aubergine. curried peppers. broccoli and sweetcorn and the rice. Ate a good portion of it too. The rest is in the fridge for tomorrow. I Have still got another big bottle of water to drink before bed too.

So hopefully- assuming I washed all the veg well enough (gave myself horrible food poisening once before from not washing aubergine properly!) then I will feel, and look, the picture of health and vitality by morning............


so the question is this- does all this good behaviour make me any better looking as a bellydancer or indeed make up for the 2 bars of chocolate, the macdonalds and the bacardi that I have also consumed today? ( not to mention the fact that ALL I ate yesterday was cheese and tomato sandwiches and banana sandwiches, oh and chocolate...) ?!!!!!