Here By Glimpses Known

If you don’t feel like taking advantage of free water, you can also buy tea, roadside, here in Cairo. Tea is spooned, loose leaf and powder-fine*, into glasses with a generous helping of sugar (two, usually three, spoonfuls is the typical dose in those small glasses unless you ask for none or less) and then the whole is left to settle as it steeps. The last drink is tricky, trying to get the maximum of tea without ending up with a mouthful of dregs.

One thing I absolutely love is seeing how people still use glass glasses and mugs instead of plastic. Cheaper in the long run and sustainable. I’m not sure you can tell but even in the first glimpse I posted, the worker who arrives with his tea is using a glass mug. You often see taxi-, micro bus-, and tuk-tuk drivers with their glasses in hand.

BTW, I’m uploading the picture in large format so that if anyone curious can zoom in and look at the set up: the homemade stove on bricks, the copper teapot... Sorry for the quality; I snapped the pic from a moving vehicle.

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* It is actually labeled "dust tea" on the package.

P.S. I must be feeling parched. I just realized that all of my glimpses thus far either feature or include water or something to drink. :P With today's temperature reaching 40°C/104°F, I don't guess it is any wonder.  And speaking of tea, think I'll have a last cuppa before bed...

You may have noticed...

...that I was back to my absenteeism at the end of last week, not commenting on entries or posting a snippet. One reason was that we were having Internet difficulties and didn't get them straightened up until Monday.  The other was that we went out of town for the weekend. If there is anything that I need to be in the know about, please leave me a comment because I don't think I'll make it back through my flist.

I don't have any "late" snippets to post, my previous week being devoid of any creativity besides cooking and packing.

But I will share a bit about our trip.

( Pics and things this way )

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* I wish they would have played something by Xavier Rudd (link to YouTube video). Every time I listen to Rudd, I am transported to an intimate beach concert, sun setting, fire crackling, cool sand under my feet, waves lapping. And if I'm listening to an album and not just a single song, that beach concert continues, dark deepening while stars whirl overhead and I, by turns, dance or sit clasping my knees to my chest, watching the waves.

** Only J and I got burned; we had enough sense to protect the kids.