Hail

yes- thats right
we had HAILSTONES in Cairo on thursday last week.....! and rain like I've never seen- despite living all my life in Scotland (well- until Egypt that is!)

It was the night of the celebrations for the prophets birthday... so it was going to be crowded in the streets anyway- but a bit of rain, ok, a LOT of rain, and HAIL... (did i mention HAIL!) then the streets become locked. The problem is the lack of drainage which means the roads turn into stream or puddles...! Seemingly thats only the 2nd time in 16 years that they have had any type of white stuff fall from the sky. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't actually held a melting ice pellet in my hand... unfortunatly I was sitting in a taxi at the time... who's windows wouldn't close... which is why the hail landed on my lap! seemingly the staff at Mena Hotel hotel were out taking photos of the grass inthe grounds, because it turned white.. I very rare occurance here!

I've had some great nights at work... with audiences ranging from entire groups of egyptian woman (a LOT of fun) to a group of japanese who looked on stony eyed throughout the whole show and then joyously danced with me as I went round to do the photos... to a crowd of Indians who also sat looking miserable the entire performance... but never took their eyes off me and were up dancing and loving it by the end. Cultural differences are so strange , for example, Last night, just before going on stage I got the 'oh Lorna, you've got fat!'.............. the LAST thing a girl needs to hear before stepping onto stage. Even though she then insisted she meant it in a good way(???!!!) I wasn't amused! hmmm anyway- i then went on to do 2 of my best shows ever i suspect... so maybe it was my way of saying ... 'something not very nice' to the girl who had said that to me!

Yesterday i did a photo shoot for Pharonics costumes again... a lot of fun, just me, and 2 other local dancers. looking forward to those pictures coming out online (although since the website is barred from Egypt to protect the costume designs.. I wil have to rely on you guys telling me when you see the website changed!!!!)

Today i taught 5 lovely Australian women (part of the Silk Caravan troupe). We had a good time and covered everything from arms to shimmys to saaidi to oh you name it- it was mentioned...! Now I'm off the Eman Zaki's to see if my new costumes are going to be ready before I travel (hope so because I want to wear them to the Halfa in Edinburgh on 18th March!). Then i have 2 sails at work (so anything between 2-4 shows) and the Australians are coming along to cheer for me! Looking forward to that- love dancing for friends!

Busy life, busy days...

...and looking forward to seeing everyone on Scotland very soon (workshops; 6th Edinburgh, 13th Dundee and 21st Glasgow. Hafla in Edinburgh 18th)

PS- that was written this afternoon... now i am back home, after costume shops (very excited about my new ones!) and after getting a taxi to work, being told that the 1st sail of the night is cancelled- GRRRR- so had to get taxi all the way home again or wait in the cold for nearly 3 hours! welcome to the downside of Cairo life ( one of them!)