Honey do hunk

I am laughing so hard as I upload this post. We are both back at home and struggling to get back into a new routine. Before New Year I had de-caulked the bottom of the shower and made various pointed comments about Teddy repairing the caulk since he now had some time on his hands. It still wasn’t done when we got news of his mum’s death. This morning Teddy got up and got ready to sort the shower in his night shorts and t-shirt. I said that he didn’t have to do that right away but he made an innocent comment about how I had mentioned the ‘honey do’ task frequently. That was it – I burst into tears both at the idea of our new life and the loss of my mother in law. Teddy was perplexed but understanding. We chatted through all my worries, which was mostly about affording health care (we can) and feeling useless about not being able to support him for a change.

We moved past that and I got all the tools ready for him to do the task. In truth, I think he finally decided to do it because he really wanted a proper shower… I went off to get my emissions test and cried in the car because I don’t know how to do these things either. When I came back from Jiffy Lube, he had somehow got the metal enamel paint on his night shorts and onto his bum. I burst out laughing and then tried to remove the paint. We tried mineral spirits, then I used a magic sponge followed by nail varnish remover. He howled with pain which made me laugh more and then I went to get my camera.

He must be incredibly sensitive because I seemed to have really injured him. In the future I will do the ‘honey do’ tasks and he will do the state sticker stuff. He is now behaving like a puppy with his paw raised up in distress. Steroidal cream has been applied and I am sure he will recover eventually but may never forgive me. 🙂

Teddy’s bum burn

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The day the Canadians took over Maadi

When the second Gulf War broke out, we were living in Cairo, Egypt – specifically in a small suburb called Maadi. Many of the consulates were based there, including the Israeli consulate. It was very scary walking past there – Mossad agents look just like they do in TV programs. Westerners and other expats flocked to Maadi for the housing, situation and the Cairo American School.

Despite all the fear of the first few days, I was highly amused by how many Canadian stickers suddenly appeared on local cars. Were they really all Canadian or were they wussy ‘mericans? I stand out like a sore thumb anyway so there was no point in pretending I was anything other than American but I wasn’t stupid enough to shout it from the rooftops.

Even funnier, in my eyes, was that would be terrorists didn’t really care if you were Canadian or American. We all sound the same, don’t we, eh? I did think it was remarkably negligent that the American school had bright yellow school buses that stood out like a target.

On a more serious note, I feel so sad for all the innocent holiday makers that died on the Russian charter plane leaving from Sharm el Sheik. It is a lovely resort on the Red Sea that in happier times was incredibly popular with Israelis, would you believe? Russians and Europeans took advantage of the inexpensive vacations in a beautiful place.

Security is always high in Cairo International Airport but terrorists often look for softer targets which this would have been. RIP.

Letters from Cairo, A Kindle Book by Kerry Duncan