The November Desert Trip

This is a short clip from the desert trip I made last November of Peter Gaballa getting us unstuck in the Sahara while someone is having a go at him on the radio. The 'hissing' sound you hear that cancels out most of the other audio is Peter letting air out of his tires, he has a system set up to inflate and deflate his tires on the move from the cab of his truck. Pretty nifty.

You can see a few more pictures from this trip at our Picasa page.

AFP: Make bread not war, Egypt president tells army

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has mobilised the army's ovens to deal with the country's massive bread shortages amid rising social unrest, official media reported on Monday.

Mubarak has told the army and the interior ministry, which control bakeries usually used to make bread for the troops, to increase their production in order to "put an end to the bread crisis," Al-Ahram daily said.

Egypt is in the grip of a serious bread crisis brought on by a combination of the rising cost of wheat on world markets and sky-rocketing inflation.

Four people have been killed in fights that broke out in bread queues in recent weeks, a security official told AFP.

Mubarak said that the phenomenon of bread queues "must disappear."

While most bread in Egypt is subsidised, the price of non-subsidised bread has risen by more than 26 percent over the last year.

"Where's the problem?" the official MENA news agency quoted Mubarak as asking. "If it's the production, then it should be increased. If it's the distribution, then new distribution points should be opened."

Twenty percent of Egypt's population of 78 million lives under the poverty line of two dollars a day, with another 20 percent hovering just above. Around four percent of Egyptians live in extreme poverty, the World Bank said.

At least 70 people were killed when bread riots erupted in 1977 after the government tried to reduce subsidies on the staple, of which Egyptians are the world's biggest consumers.

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Doortje is back from Bangkok

Rita, Maher and I, two colleagues I travelled with to Bangkok.

It's Raining!

This is the 3rd time we've any rain to speak of at the house, we even had thunder. And while it was just two thunderclaps this is only the second time we've had thunder in the last six months. The picture is the view of our garden from the computer room.

We're Back

6 months, 2 weeks and 5 days later we have ADSL again. Bout damn time.

Update: Keep scrolling down as we're back dating some entries from before we got ADSL.

Spring Has Sprung

The mango trees are starting to bloom and today Doortje found and rescued this baby chameleon from first the dogs who thought it would be good fun to play with it, then the gardener who needed the trowel she left so we had a general idea where in the garden it was last, and seeing the chameleon he scooped it up and was about to fling it over the wall when Door stopped him, and of course me who almost stepped on it. Then after all that drama a hawk dove out of the sky and snagged it for lunch, Door couldn't believe it.

Guest House

Doortjes sister is coming to visit next week so we set up the guest house today. We spare no expense, that's a 4 person tent!

Desert Driving Course

Doortje and I did a desert driving course together, it was good fun and we both learned quite a lot. One part of the course was going up this dune and learning to come back down safely, which was the undercurrent of the whole course. So what we did was get a good running start and plow into the dune and see how far we could climb before gravity and inertia over took. In the picture on the left I'm in the Land Cruiser to the right, I think I made it the furthers up the dune but Door said someone climbed high later in the day. But the tricky bit is coming back down, safely of course. And if the dune doesn't look very steep in the left picture have a look at the one on the right, Doortje snapped that one before we started back down.

While we were practising getting down the dunes this bunch of Americans out for a weekend camping trip stopped to say hello. That's Turbo with me and the dogs, a friend of Peter Gaballa (below) who is our instructor and guide on my other (and next) desert trip.

INA

Not something we expected to see in down town Cairo. INA is the Croatian national petrol company.

Our Temporary House, And The Road To It

This is the house we are living in until our other house is built. It's nice enough, has a huge water leak and when it rains the water runs off the balcony and into the house and down the stairs. And the road to the house leaves a little to be desired, so yes, we are looking forward to moving into the other place as soon as possible.

Update: This is also the road I ride my bike on to get exercise to stay nice and healthy. You'd be amazed at how long I'm able to hold my breath while pedaling so I don't have to breath in the diesel fumes and dust the trucks kick up, not to mention the stench from the open sewer running next to the road. Yes indeed, nice and healthy.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

This is it, our time is up in Croatia and we are shutting down our blogs while we move from Zagreb to Cairo. No idea when they will be back up as we will have to move house a few time until we get settled into the one Doortje found for us. Also I have no idea what sort of internet access we will have when we do get settled, but we'll post when we can.

brian en doortje

ZenTeren

Got the truck back from ZenTeren today, they installed Old Man Emu springs and shocks and did the biggest, and best I think, service this truck has ever had. Very pleased, they really did a great job. They even installed a new air horn, to me it sounds more like a Ferrari than a truck but it should get the Egyptians attention.

Moving Day

Media Computer Update

We ordered the Zalman HD160XT HTPC Case for Doortjes media computer but it didn't arrive in time so we had to go with our second choice, basically the only other media case we could get in the time we had, a Thermaltake Bach Media Lab. We don't have time to try it out after the build, a big mistake I know, but the movers are coming on Monday morning and we have way to much to do this weekend before they arrive.

Our Pear Tree

Not our tree of course. But a few more weeks and, oh wait, we won't be here in a few more weeks. Never mind.

New Desk and Chair

But without the foot thingy. Sorry about the crap picture.

Our New Plates and Silverware

What to do on a rainy day in Zagreb?

Go back to bed.

earth observatory - Cairo, Egypt

Steeped in a 5,000-year history that encompasses Egyptian Pharaohs, ancient wonders, Roman Emperors, and bloody conquests, Cairo, Egypt, sits on the Nile River about a hundred miles south of the Mediterranean Sea. Cairo boasts a population of 16 million and covers an area of 214 square kilometers (82.6 square miles). The city appears as a large dark brown and purple mass in the center of the image. The bright green regions surrounding the city are farms along the fertile banks of the Nile, which have provided sustenance for residents of the region since before recorded history. Just outside this green swath is the arid and forbidding Sahara Desert.

Though not officially founded until 949 AD, the region surrounding Cairo has an unparalleled history. Roughly 22 kilometers south of central Cairo sits the ancient city of Memphis, founded by the Egyptian ruler Menes after he unified Egypt 5,000 years ago and founded the Egyptian Empire. On the western edge of the city rests the Plateau of Giza, the site of the great pyramids that were built as tombs for the ancient Egyptian pharaohs over 4,000 years ago. Cairo itself was also the home of the Roman fortress where Anthony and Cleopatra sought refuge from Octavius, a seat of power for two Muslim empires, a battleground for the Crusades, and even an English occupied territory.

Today the city faces a challenge unlike any other in its distinguished history. The only arable regions in Egypt are the green floodplains that line the Nile River. This region, however, is also where most new urban development and population expansion is occurring. Researchers in and outside of Egypt fear if this trend continues the country will no longer be able to sustain itself agriculturally.

This image of Cairo was acquired by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+), flying aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. July 23, 2002, marks the 30th anniversary of the Landsat program.

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Furniture Shopping

We bought a new bedroom set today. And Tempru mattresses to go with it.

Time - Does Egypt Have the World's Best Burger?

The head chef at Lucille's Restaurant in Cairo, Egypt shows off their famous hamburger.

Having spent a lot of my journalistic life in Cairo, I'm fond of Egyptian food. The garlic-spiced mashed fava bean dish called ful medames, for instance, which we eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner... Still, I have to admit that when it's lunchtime, I usually head for Lucille's, a humble American-style greasy spoon in the Maadi district of Cairo that may serve the tastiest burger in the world.

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New Computers

I bought a Toshiba Portégé M400-10O Tablet and Doortje decided on a media computer, yet to be built.

Images of Egypt

More here.

Doortje Is Back From Cairo

Doortje returned late last night after a week in Cairo. She has, umm, mixed impressions. The picture above is of the river taken from her hotel room. She has also found us a house which is good news.

We're Back from Estonia

(Rest Stop In Latvia)
I am anyway, Doortje had to go to Cairo this morning. We haven't had time to properly edit and post our pictures, the few we took, so I posted them all at Sharpcast unedited. Hopefully when Doortje is back from Cairo we will have time to sit down together and edit/label them and maybe write a bit of a story about our holiday. But don't hold your breathe.