Yellow and Blue

I spent most of the day navigating Cairo trying to get my qualifications 'stamped'. The university won't accept them until the British Embassy stamps them so that was my first destination. The taxi driver I hailed outside my flat didn't have a fucking clue where the embassy was, but I predicted this and had already printed out a map for him to attempt to follow. After a one-hour waste of time at the embassy (they won't stamp certificates until the British Council stamps them, of course) I had a short journey to the council in a taxi where the driver managed to fiddle with his meter and treble the fare.

In the three hour wait for the council to prepare their stamp, I decided to have a wee wander around the downtown area to see if I could find a solitary 100m stretch of pavement in this charmless cess-pit of a city that I could enjoy walking along whilst taking photos. I couldn't, and so eventually gave up and decided to go home via the metro which is very good, if a little smelly and cramped. I spotted this bin at the Maadi station. When lining up the shot, a window opened to my left where a charming gentleman with a badge made a loud 'hissss hissss' noise (the Egyptian equivalent of 'Excuse me, sir') followed by "No. No. Hisss. No No." Undeterred, I took it anyway, though the slight harassment meant I forgot to change the 1600 ISO setting I had it on for some reason. Still, the image worked out quite well considering.

One Caramel Frescato and quick surf of blip later...

The next two hours were spent with in a taxi in rush hour traffic with a brief stop-off at the British Council to pick up my new and improved gold-stickered certificates. The Arabs do love their gold. I shall try and remember to blip the sticker sometime; it really is very impressive, and it only cost £6. The next stage is to get it photocopied and stamped at the British Embassy who will charge £25 for the service. £25 for a couple of photocopies is pretty unreasonable, I think. I have decided that I do not like the British Embassy: it's a bit like going to Argos, but without the customer service. I dread to think what would happen if I actually needed these people in the event of a crisis, especially if that crisis were to inconveniently happen after 1pm when they close for the day.

I now have a pretty bad headache from the noise and pollution I have been subjected to for the last six hours, which I plan to alleviate with a nice single malt and season six of The Sopranos.


---> Video - Tourettes of the horn