The Significant 7

It was the end of typical school day and my hope of a significant 7 shot was fading with the sunlight and my nervousness was rising with the honking of the Cairo horns during rush hour. 

I left school and jumped in a taxi. 'The funduk Marriott in Zamalek, please,' I said. Its grand surroundings have provided me with blips before and I knew I'd get 'something'.  The traffic was bad, even worse than usual. I remembered it would be because of the Pope's upcoming visit. We crossed the Nile on the 15th of May bridge.  Instead of the usual crazy racing in and out of lanes on 26th July street we were crawling along. I leaned back into my seat a little as I took in the familiar sight of the bookseller and his Cairo classics laid out on the dusty street. Then the little fruit shop with the oranges and lemons piled up high like pyramids.  Next was the Egyptian Auntie Ann restaurant, which always makes me remember my own Scottish Auntie Ann.  Diwan's bookshop appeared on the corner, where Bb and I have spent many an afternoon browsing and buying. The cubby hole next door that houses the tiny wrinkled man who irons out the creases in other people's galabayas - how does he keep them off the dusty streets? I wondered.  In the cracked door mirror I saw a flower-seller taking advantage of his captive audience and double checked that it wasn't one of our usual young boys and hoped they were all safe. The police have been cleaning up Zamalek for the Pope's visit and they might have been cleaned up with other things deemed unsightly.  I love the diversity and grittiness of 26th July and realised that I didn't need the grandeur of the Marriott Hotel for this blip milestone.  I wanted something representing the Cairo we know and have grown to love. I flicked open my ipad and started to take 'taxi grab' shots, just like I've done most days in Cairo during our long visits over the last six years.  And here's the result, and one I feel more at ease with: an old lady shouting something in Arabic, a man sitting around for goodness knows how long in the same spot, another responding in goodness knows what way to the old lady and a young lad, perhaps still hopeful of a bright future, engrossed in his mobile. A future that he and all Cairenes deserve. 

People is what it's all about the world over and it's what it's all about here on blip too.  I've made some lovely friends here, some of whom I've met and some of whom I've still to meet.  Thank you all for dropping by and for sharing this journey.  Here's to the next 7 years!