21 - 27 March 2002
Issue No.578
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578 |
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Change of season
As the weather warms, Inji El-Kashef finds fresh escapes
With every change of season something strange happens to me -- well strange things happen to me all the time anyway so why not with the change of season as well? The difference in temperature, and its effect on the quality of the light, the shape of the clouds, the colours, and the smell in the air, all throw me on a roller coaster ride that jolts me to different periods of my life like a time machine. I see the four o'clock sun and I remember almost breaking my neck as a child doing a cartwheel in the ugliest pair of green corduroy shorts ; I see the five o'clock sun and I remember my traumatic years as an adolescent with a bad haircut; I see the sunset and for some obscure reason I remember leaving the dentist's clinic when I was 11 feeling proud that though my jaw felt like cardboard I was going to take the bus back home al by myself and open the door with my key. Such is the effect of weather changes on me. Thank heavens we only have two seasons in Egypt.
In an attempt to escape from all the ghosts of the past I grabbed my son and headed to Ain Sukhna with some friends. It was a chilly morning and we did not expect swimming weather so we armed ourselves with cigarettes, money and a few good tapes and made for Stella di Mare. It is a little tricky to spot this resort as the road is rather stingy on signs but we managed and considered ourselves lucky to be spending the day there. It is a beautifully constructed little oasis with very pleasant architecture, an excellent beach and one of the best swimming pools I have ever seen. One look at that pool and we were exchanging sneers of resentment for having advised each other against swimming costumes. After sitting on the beach fully dressed for a couple of hours we could not handle the shame anymore, confirming to each other that we looked exactly like those people we had been judging all our lives as ridiculous in their jeans and shirts under the sun. What had the world done to us? In an attempt to save what remained of our image we escaped to the Italian restaurant.
It was an open buffet situation that we had chosen, and we were not to regret our decision for a second. The salad bar was extensive and covered most expected areas like Russian salad, Caesar salad, crudites, tuna salad, pasta salad, cabbage salad, cold cuts, dressings, pickles; perhaps a little scarce on seafood but still entirely satisfactory. For main dishes we had a pasta bar with choice of sauce, beef in butter sauce, sautéed liver with green peppers, chicken breasts with tomato sauce and soup. The food was all good, and fresh, though I must admit some vegetables may not have been a bad idea. We were eager to finish quickly, however, in order to attack the delicious- looking desserts, where the winner undoubtedly was the English Truffle, followed by the pomegranate tart. We were in there for hours, going back and forth with heaps of sweets exchanging the shame of sitting fully clothed on the beach with that of eating like pigs. Five-star price bill taken care of, we headed back under the sun and put our jackets on pretending to be terribly cold. Come on, this is no weather for swimming costumes.
Stella di Mare, Ain Sukhna, Cairo- Hurghada desert road
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