Last week

The whole last week has been a busy and strange one............

Oh- I had it confirmed .... as a foreign dancer I am ONLY allowed to work in ONE VENUE. Which is frustrating as an artist anyway- but especially when you are working enough to 'maybe' pay the rent, and not much else. Bloody stupid system. I can see why so many of the foreign dancers get married just to get an Egyptian passport!

I had an audition in a nice place last week (no more details -sorry!!!)... I was really nervous, and felt i didn't do anywhere near my best, but they liked me.... or so they appeared- but not yet heard anything thing... so , we'll see.........

Valentines day here is HUGE!!!! every shop window is FULL of huge hearts and flowers- Cairo is painted red! What I found more strange was that EVERYONE wishes you happy valentines!!! from my cleaner, to the manager, to friends... all of them! They call it 'Eid el Hob' - meaning 'festival of love', and its TOTALLY over the top. Saying that- I did have a lovely day- so I am not complaining!!!

An annoying thing I have decided about Cairo- maybe the most annoying thing is, when you ask someone to do something- even if you are really specific about what it is you want...

they do exactly what THEY think is better for you................................

from the choice of colour to paint your nails, to the music the band play for you to dance, to what clothes/rooms need cleaned or left....... EVERYONE thinks they know better. When you are sick, they ALL have the 'only' solution or cure. It's hard to get angry at them cos you know they were really only trying to help, and only trying to get it right... but the concept of following a request to the letter just isn't known about here!!! GRRRRRR

Thats all for now- off to work now (on Nile Pharoah tonight, then Golden mon 18th, tues 19th and wed 20th) and then I fly home to Edinburgh for 2 weeks on the 21st- wow- still SOOOO much to do before now and then!