Little Things

In a huge city like Cairo and a weird country like Egypt, there are lots of little incidents, accidents and other -cents that make me smile, raise eybrows or just roll my eyes. This is one I saw yesterday on my way to Salima for a very nice prawn-rice-dhal meal. On the Brazil street there's a small kiosk that sells water, magazines and second hand books. Slightly off the kiosk two black clad army conscripts (most likely from the delta or the Red Sea coast) were leafing through a fashion magazine somehow obtained from the kiosk owner. Their excitement in going back and forward through the pages reminded me of 15 year olds sneaking a peek at the Playboys on station kiosks. 

Something similar but more much funny (the above was just recognisable) was cycling past a coffee house on the road from the ferry to the German House on the Westbank in Luxor. They have small teevees with a grainy, wobbly reception. Usually the TV is merely background noise amongst all the other background noises. In this case, everyone was glued to the tube. Shishas (the hooka water pipes) were left smoldering, tea and coffee was getting cold but on the screen, in one of the many music/video shows they have in the Near East, Madonna was performing her song from the last Pierce Brosnan Bond. You know, the one in which she is clad in leather, be it sparsely, and singing and dancing as Madonna does. I looked back at this spectacle and almost drove off the road....