The new flat

Mr. Four, Bug, Giggle, my cousin K (visiting from Texas), and I went to visit our new apartment tonight. Actually, it’s still someone else’s old apartment. The woman living there was super friendly and accommodating and was quite happy to have us pop over on the spur of the moment so we could see the place. She’s moving out by the end of June, so the house was apparently a bit chaotic (to parents of two little boys, it looked rather orderly).

Anyway, enough rambling. I am delighted with the new space! The flat occupies the ground floor of a building, and it has two patios, one on each end. The front of the apartment is one large room, the dining area and living room. The wall to the patio is actually all windows, so it lets in a good amount of light considering the patio outside is walled.

The kitchen is a decent size, a separate room, but at least with a window over the sink and a good amount of counter space and cupboards.

The flat has three bedrooms, all pretty big. The best part is that two of the bedrooms, on the back of the flat, also have walls of windows overlooking the second patio. And there’s enough privacy from the wall around the patio that we probably won’t need to close the curtains except for darkness. One of the bedrooms is the master (with its own bathroom!) and the other will be for the boys, with more space than their current room, which means they’ll have storage for books and some toys in there.

Also, the third bedroom is big enough to hold a double bed, which means you people can actually come visit now. Outside this bedroom is a second full bath, which is a great improvement over our current 1.5 baths.

Each bedroom has a real closet. And, here’s the real shocker: there’s a linen closet! And, a separate room just for the washing machine and storage!

Right outside the apartment door is a nice yard perfect for the kids and for the pup. Neither patio opens onto the yard. The patios are pretty big, as far as patios go. They are paved with square stones but the outside of each patio has a narrow garden, and the family has some lovely flowering trees and bushes that give some nice color. Actually, the walls are so high around the patios that the place is really private, especially for the ground floor.

My employer usually keeps the furniture in the same apartments unless major repairs are needed. So we checked out the new pieces, and I actually kinda like it. Our current furniture is pretty functional but not especially attractive. The stuff in our new flat is old enough that it actually seems kinda cool. A bit funky almost.

Oh, and did I mention the marble fireplace? I’m not sure we’ll use it, but it’s pretty. And not nearly as fancy as that sounds.

Anyway, I realize the details aren’t essential and probably don’t make much sense. The whole place is probably somewhere around 1500 square feet or so. The big gains for us are the outside space plus more storage space. And the layout seems to work well. And the location really is fantastic.

In sum: hurray!

Pupdate 2: Puppy in the Neighborhood

The puppy is still here and doing well. He’s growing fast, straight up, I think, as his legs appear longer and lankier every day. He could eat a horse (but mostly sticks to puppy food and rawhide). Most importantly, we’re seeing more of the puppy in him. Sometimes he runs around in crazy circles, and other times he likes to nibble on the edge of shoes, which, so far, is mostly cute because he can’t really do any damage yet.

He’s not a big tail wagger, and he’s still pretty mellow, so he’s more like puppy-lite.

Having the pup around has changed some of our patterns. Most days, after dinner, the boys and I take the puppy downstairs to the patches of lawn in front of our building. We tried walking him a couple of times, but he’s still too young to walk well on the leash, and the streets here are tough for leash training. So we’re content, for now, with the (so-called) garden.

Hanging out in the front of the building has meant that I’ve met more of my neighbors. And the boys have befriended a family from a few buildings down. The dad is a neighborhood bowab (a doorman/superintendent combo), and when they kids aren’t in school, they just hang out. So they like seeing my kids too.

They range in age from 3 to 12 years, four kids all together, all very friendly and very respectful. The boys particularly love O, who is 7, though originally I took him for 5 as he’s smaller than Giggle. Even without more than a few common words, they play great together.

We had the four kids all up to our apartment one night last week, and it was the easiest bunch of kids ever. Last weekend, we took three of the kids (O had disappeared with a friend into the neighborhood) and the kids’ mom to our neighborhood club with the pool. The mom, who does speak some English, said it was a huge treat because the kids usually don’t get to go anywhere.

The family is from Luxor in southern/Upper Egypt. They own two apartments down there, which are for the boys when they get married. The older daughter is 12, a very nice girl, and the mom said she’ll get married at age 14. Whoa.

So all this because of the pup. Unfortunately, Mr. Four still doesn’t want to keep him. I do (natch). Especially now that he’s getting stronger and healthier and we’re having more fun with him. But, we we’re looking for a new home for him since I’m not the one at home most of the time.

So that’s the latest on the pup.

Lovely and delicious

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. The food was delicious. Our hostess even made coleslaw when she heard it’s a Thanksgiving tradition in Mr. Four’s family. She also had an amazing array of desserts, including my favorite, chocolate pie. Yum.

Plus, the boys (and I) got to watch the Macy’s parade, as our hosts have Armed Forces Network TV. The best part was that the parade started at 3pm, so we caught the end of it after dinner.

And we had a nice day on Friday, Mr. Four’s birthday. He said it was the best he’d had in years (no reflection on me, right?). I spent the morning celebrating his birthday by… getting a facial! I’ve had some terrible skin problems here, and I was convinced it was the pollution until the charming Austrian facialist told me it was coming from “inside,” ie stress. Ah well. Anyway, Friday was the only time I could get an appointment, so Mr. Four played with the boys while this woman cleaned my skin and plucked my eyebrows (ouch!).

On Friday evening, we went to a charming restaurant on the banks of the Nile River, where we ate on the patio and watched feluccas, or sailboats, cruising the Nile. The restaurant, like some others in Cairo, had a kids’ play area (I remarked on that til Mr. Four reminded me it’s standard at McDonald’s). Anyway, the food was good to excellent (Mr. Four really enjoyed his steak), and the desserts were delicious. It was a lovely evening. And the restaurant? T.G.I. Friday’s. And it was filled with Egyptians smoking shisha, basically, big bongs.

Despite the incredible river that runs through this city, it’s not so easy to find a place to enjoy the view, so it was a particular treat, especially since it was a delightfully cool evening.

And Saturday we enjoyed a low key day at home. I had a chance to work on my ($*#%!) novel, which should be done in another few days, and we otherwise putzed around the apartment and neighborhood.

Just tonight Mr. Four and I finished his homemade apple pie. It was also delicious.

And now we’re gearing up for Giggle’s birthday, this Thursday, and his party, this Friday. I’m still looking for ideas on entertaining a bunch of 3-6 year old boys for two hours, so please keep the suggestions coming.

Is that rain? No, it’s just the fan.

I woke up a wee bit homesick today. First, there was the not-rain. Then, I remembered a dream I had where I hiked with my two girls, Ms. Muddy Paws (now with my mom) and Ms. Underfoot (now with a lovely new family who adores her).

Here’s a happy Ms. Muddy Paws in Mr. Four’s old truck, photo courtesy of my mom.

I miss my girls. And I miss rain.

On the up side, tonight we’re going to a Halloween carnival, and the boys’ costumes look fantastic. It’s 2pm here, and they are napping, hopefully for a while. The party starts at 5:30.

Last night Giggle freaked because Mr. Four cut a big hole in Giggle’s costume, to make it wearable. So I went online to show Giggle Halloween costumes, and we even found some YouTube videos of kids trick-or-treating. I’m not sure he gets it, but he knows he’ll wear his costume and somehow this all relates to candy.

Bug is very excited.

Now I’m off to glue and paint a cardboard top hat. Think it’ll dry in a few hours?