Boxing Day in Denial

Today was Greek Day. I plainly don't mean souvlaki, ouzo, plate-smashing and dolmades, though that holds it's own appeal. We visited 2 Greek temples - Kom Ombo before lunch, and then Edfu after the sun sunk.

Kom Ombo appealed to me a LOT, as it was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek. He looked suspiciously like Schnappi, but less cute, and more bitey. They found a wodge of mummified crocodiles and in their endless entrepreneurial ways have built a crocodile museum to show them off, which we didn't visit, unfortunately. They mummified vast quantities of ibis birds for someone else's tomb (recall: low) - literally 100s of thousands - THAT must have been quite a find for Indiana Jones. In The Mind of Kate, the finder of all things is Indy. Sorry Mr Carter, but Dr Jones gets the credit.

Back on the boat, I went to do more Ronsealing of myself, only to discover that my mother was MIA. I went to look for her, only to hear enthusiastic and familiar laughter emanating from the tiny ship's clothes shop. I peeked in to see her dressed in a galabiyya (technically a man's full-length robe) with an equally as enthusiastic egyptian draping a scarf fringed with tinkling gold disks around her head and waist. She looked as guilty as if I'd found her opening her Xmas presents early. I logic-ed her out of the robe and back into the sunshine. When would she ever wear it? 125 Egyptian pounds? Shapeless mass of a dress? We were having an Egyptian soiree later, but STILL!

At 6pm-ish we moored at Edfu, and avoided the skeletal-and manged-horse-drawn-carriages and jumped into a stable-smelling minibus to Edfu temple: also Greek-styley. It was built around 200 BC, but in the style of 2000 years earlier, and built in the honour of Horus, the falcon-headed God, son of Osiris. It was b-looody impressive. Again, the priests had taken exception to loads of things and scratched them out, so there were tons of yeti-like characters. Ahmed, our guide, again felt the need to go off-piste in his lectures, and explained Hyroglyphs for the n-th time, while all stood and listened patiently despite being ITCHING to explore in peace and quiet. Seeing a temple in the dark - though impossible to photograph without a tripod - is a very different experience. Again I spent my time humming the Raiders of the Lost Ark muzak and pretending to have a whip. Nice! 

Back on boat for fud, and they'd snuck wheat into something so I was Man Down and skipped the Egyptian soiree in favour of a cracking headache. Mom went along, and returned at around 11pmish, sticking only her head around the bedroom door. Instantly suspicious. When the rest of her rounded the corner, it was swathed in a navy blue, embroidered galabiyya. Can I not leave this woman unattended for one minute without her frittering away my inheritance?! DisGRACE! She looked fabulous and I have instant galabiyya-envy, as now out of out 20 of us, only 3 have not succumbed. There's a pact for everyone to wear theirs on New Year's Eve, so guess who is going shopping later...

Today is the 27th, and thus far has been spent snoozing in the sun, moored at Luxor. We sailed through Esna Lock last night, with tannoy announcements, crashing into other boats and the lock not working...all of which I slept through.

Thanks for emails, and also the odd comment - which of the anonymous commenters told me that my new perfume was Smell'o'Dead People? Thaaaaanks for that!

Musty focus on generating my melanoma. Also, must not lie next to Dr Andrew when sun-bathing.

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