Egypt Monday

Woke up to a painful left ear.

It’s been blocked for a few days, which I assumed was wax although I had no luck clearing it out with a cotton bud or a bobby pin aka a hair grip. There’s an old adage amongst ENT surgeons that goes, don’t put anything in your ear smaller*  than your elbow, and they may be right. Whatever the pathology is, it’s painful all around my left ear now.

Being married to a GP is incredibly useful at times like these. We’d both brought various antibiotics and I had a tube of antibiotic ointment that a theatre nurse gave me a couple of months ago when only a tiny bit was used in surgery one day. So, I’ve been started on both some cotrimoxazole and the ointment.  Simon is very against telling Wael what’s going on in case he insists I go to see a real doctor. We shall see. Certainly two plastic surgeons and one anaesthetist are not particularly useful in this sort of situation.

It was a very early start this morning, we had to leave the hotel by 4:30 to get to the airport in time for our flight to Luxor. In the end a crash on the road led to a detour which meant we only just made it to our 7:10 flight. The airport was chaotic with tourists, with flights heading to Luxor every five minutes at one point. It’s very nice being able to leave all the travel stress to someone else I must say. One point in favour of a guided tour I guess.

The flight was only an hour long, and we were met by our bus driver for the week Hassan, who drive us to Karnak Temple. This is an enormous temple complex that Wael nicknames the Temple of the Fainting Tourist. With temperatures in the late thirties after an early start, I’m not surprised. Drink sips of water often is his advice.
The pristine state of the artifacts here is just incredible, due mostly to the hot dry climate I’m guessing. You can even see colours on the walls and ceilings.

It was a short bus trip to our home for the next week, the Tosca. It is amazing. After an amazing buffet lunch it was time for a long nap. By the time I woke up we were on the move. I was still feeling sorry for myself with my ear but Simon nagged me to come up to the top deck and I’m glad he did. A dip in the pool was most refreshing.

Weirdly, the local children are very excited to see us, waving and yelling whenever we go past. I can’t imagine Kiwi kids paying any attention to rich people cruising past on boats.

*with thanks to Chris T for his correction to an earlier error, when I stupidly said ‘bigger’