Looking back at April 2011

With construction of the AWOL Centre in full swing it was an interesting though rather hectic start to the month and it has remained hectic to date and shows no sign of abating. With the temperature rising as we head towards summer it was important for us to get a few outside jobs at the villa finished that we just couldn't put off yet again as we had aimed to complete them last year. The wall from the wash room along to the back of the house desperately needed repairing and painting and as it is long, high and very boring we thought it would be nice to paint the top half blue and the bottom sand onto which we would eventually paint a mural but here the norm is to buy white paint and tint it. Small tinting pots that are available everywhere we needed to buy the larger half kilo pots of pure colour and this is what we did but this turned out not to be as easy as it should have been.

April Pictures Click on any picture below to see a larger image or CLICK HERE to take the tour.

Pauline was out with Dr Mohammed in the villages looking after the animals as usual so obviously had the car but being a Monday instead of coming home it was straight to Sindbad's for the AWOL Monday meeting. After finishing the day's quota of head collars I had to go to the AWOL land which is in completely the opposite direction to Luxor and Sindbad's where I usually hold the fort until Pauline arrives.

On my way back into Luxor on our little motorcycle I had made good time so I thought that I would call into the DIY shop in Biadiea for the tint but this proved to be a mistake. All the tints were on the top shelf and the diminutive young lady serving decided to get the half kilo pot of dark blue tint down by knocking it off with a broom handle which would have been okay had she caught it but she didn't and it landed on the edge of a bin of nails and just exploded. Thankfully it was a plastic pot but the wet raw blue tint just went everywhere. It didn't look too bad until she turned to me and though I tried, and I did try so very hard, I couldn't help but guffaw as it was like being served by a smurf.

She was wearing a very dark brown plain galabaya so I considered that the blue was a welcome addition though she didn't see it like that but she wasn't going to be phased and scooped as much of the wet blue mess up as she could putting it into an empty container which she then placed on the counter asking for her three egyptian pounds (just over thirty pence). It was a real mess and was less than a third full so there wasn't enough for what we wanted. I had no option but to ask for a new pot. Believe it or not she did exactly the same again. She was already dripping from the thick blue tint but knocking the next half kilo container off the top shelf with the broom handle she also failed to catch it but thankfully it fell into the tub of nails rather than hitting the edge and didn't shatter so I paid for both and left with one.

I was now late for the AWOL meeting and Cindy was phoning to see if we were going to arrive. Pauline arrived just under an hour after I did and we all had a laugh about the tint. It was eventually worth it as the wall now looks good as you can see in our photos this month. Thankfully we have now stopped our Monday meetings at Sindbad's as it did make the start of the week a very long and tiring day but now with the added demands of building the AWOL Centre combined with never knowing just how long our AWOL day will be it became very difficult to get there on time. We now meet in the more relaxing surroundings of Africa but by arrangement rather than on a specific day.

Sometimes we wonder how we keep up the pace as it has been an amazingly busy month but at least it is now hot and therefore we creak less. If you would like to meet up when you are in Luxor we can usually arrange it as it is nice to meet you and chat about Animal Welfare of Luxor, what there is to see and do here, what it is like to live here and generally just say hi, do Click Here and print off the page that opens which has our phone numbers and also full details of where we can meet. If you have a corner spare in your suitcase please Click Here to see a few items that we would love you to bring over.

Pauline and Graham XX and our zoo xxxxxx

Please click on the link if you would like to e-mail us: teampeg@hotmail.com

Click Here to take our April photos tour.