Those who have been worried by the recent news of our ill health will be much pleased that we are now fully recovered from the trials of food borne illness and are now as healthy as bulls (or cows).

We are just emerging from the Egyptian holiday season. It did make for a very quiet time at work because, while I was “shoulder to the wheel”, just about everyone else was away and taking it easy. Cairo was a very easy place to move about in during this period – the traffic was generally light, delays few and the pollution levels fairly low.

During the past week we have enjoyed some delightful days with bright blue skies and crisp airs. We have also had some bleak weather with clouds and winds and a sort of “bone-chilling” cold that is very unlike what one would expect of the Middle East.

We took advantage of one of those clear days to visit, or perhaps more accurately, to “make a pilgrimage” to, the Giza pyramids. We had made the visit in December 2005 and did the full tourist deal then, walking about the plateau and venturing into one pyramid, but we were there early in the morning and a dense fog made visibility difficult. So this time we went in the middle of a beautiful day and saw the ancient miracles in clear air.

Oddly, for mine, the pyramids are not much up close. The effect is achieved from the distance. Certainly it is one of life’s little pleasures to actually touch a pyramid, but having done that it remains only to marvel at their size and age. So we felt like rebellious tourists in being unique in not actually going through the turnstiles this time. And we did have the expertise to know that the very best view is obtained from the upper floors of the Giza Pizza Hut and KFC, so our pilgrimage included a Colonel Sanders approach.

Cathy celebrated her birthday early in the week, so we had a night out. Still smarting from our lack of results from top restaurants and nervous about another bout, we initially went for a tea at the Conrad on the Corniche, but realising that I had stayed there for a week last May and lived to tell the tale, we opted for dinner at a table for two overlooking the Nile. Afterwards, we strolled down the Nile to the Ramses Hilton and its associated shopping mall. We took tea at the Hilton at another table overlooking the Nile and then wandered on to the Nile Hilton before returning home.

We also did some other walking on the long weekend and visited the Grand Hyatt on Rhoda Island on one day and the Four Seasons on the Corniche on another (there are a number of Four Seasons Hotels in Cairo). So we had more or less done a five star “pub crawl”. This is, in itself, interesting to us because it highlights the contrasts and contradictions that are Cairo.

Our most recent day of walking saw us take a new tack and we caught the metro to Mohamed Naguib station, one stop beyond the busy “Sadat” on the main Tahrir Square, just near the Egyptian Museum. The plan was to “cruise” back down towards the Nile through the downtown shopping streets. But – we left our book of maps at home and headed off in the wrong direction (again!) eventually striking the Nile a mile or so downstream of where we intended and missing the shopping areas.

A note on navigation in Cairo. A number of phenomena work against us. There are few cross roads or parallel streets, rather the roads curve and veer off in odd directions – main roads "morph" into minor roads. Street signs are either in Arabic or say little unless you are in the heart of things where you already know the score. The streets are narrow and bordered by tall buildings so the landmarks that are visible are few. This day was cloudy so the sun was not so obvious, but worse, this is the northern hemisphere and the winter sun oscillates the southern sky, something that I am not used to. So north, south, east and west never seem to be where they are supposed to be. And when asked which way the Nile is flowing it always seems natural to assume the wrong way. Upper Egypt is actually south of Lower Egypt and the Nile flows “uphill” to the north and to the Mediterranean.

But the beauty of being lost is that you get to go to places that you would never dream of going otherwise. Such was our “flight” from Mohamed Naguib station. We walked for around an hour and a half down streets where tourists and expats no doubt never venture and in doing so we saw the real Cairo as it is for the locals. There is an absolute absence of any shops that sell anything to tourists and shops and stalls that provide the locals with their needs. So food stalls and bakeries abound and the shops are much more practical and stock the essentials of life.

This contrasts discordantly with the other Cairo in the lobbies of five star hotels – places where the bulk of Cairenes would (or could) never venture. There are also plenty of clubs where the well-off locals are members and where they can relax in their upper or middle class microenvironments. But in Cairo, reality is never far away, and bazaars and carpet factories coexist with the luxury of world class hotels. The shadows of these tall and elegant buildings, clad with marble and glass, pass strangely over the Cairo that more accurately represents the living arrangements for the main part of Cairo and for the vast bulk of Cairenes.

After living for a couple of months here, I think I am now more aware that when I leave in a few weeks time there will be a lot that I do not understand about Egypt, but I am also conscious that my understanding of this unique place has grown tremendously in that time. It has been a blessing to be able to spend a significant period here – a period that means I can be more than a tourist (but still be a tourist!!).