Mont Blanc

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Sea days and See Pyramids

This voyage has already been going on for a week! Hard to believe since I've spent the last 6 days stuck on board. We had 5 sea days on the way to Egypt, broken up by one halfday in port in Gibraltar, for which I was unluckily on port manning. Kind friends ran errands and did shopping for me. One of those sea days we did our first Dixieland set of the voyage, and had a grand and comically overdone unveiling of our new CD. Yes, we made a CD, recorded live from our pub sets and our theatre shows. We had to pay some copyright fees for the songs, so it'll be a while before any of us sees any returns from it, but it is an accomplishment to have finished it. The cover art is caricatures of everyone in the band, done by one of the stage techs. It is pretty cool, and even sounds ok. I found it surreal to listen to it. Anyway or big show is in a few days, hopefully it sells well. In any case I'll be glad to have a copy for myself. Today we arrived in Port Said, Egypt, and I was up early to escort a tour to the Pyramids with a Nile cruise. I had one goal for the Pyramids - to get inside of one. I had a merry runaround trying to accomplish this, as apparently they only sell 150 tickets each morning at 8 or at 1pm. It being 11:30 I was out of luck, and nearly got stuck on the wrong side of the gates when I accidentally exited the area. I smiled my way back in along with playing the clueless tourist. Finally someone told me I could go in one of the small pyramids, the ones just to the side built for the pharoah's mother, daughter, etc. He bribed the security guard for me. Afterwards I knew he'd expect a tip from me. I gave him what I thought was fair, he tried to get more, I escaped. A bit stressful, but mission accomplished! I can now say I've been in a pyramid. It was cool to climb down the shaft and see where the sarcophagus would have been. Afterwards we had lunch in a stunning 5 star hotel, and then had some tea and coffee and a local music performance on the Nile cruise. What a day! As I sailed down the Nile drinking coffee and watching the sun set, it occurred to me that today would be the wrong day for anyone to ask me when I'm going to get a 'real job.' :-)

4 comments:

Alexandre Costa said...

I’m going to buy one CD!
Here’s a thought; You write very well and in a very pleasant discourse. You’ve traveled to lots of places and seen wonderful things and people, met other cultures… you are perceptive and have excellent ideas, you are intelligent, and you’re not into the pop culture. And most important you dream of a "brave new world". A book starts with a dream to change the world. So in résumé you could be a very successful writer. Give it a thought in the coming years. I know it’s not a real job… but someone like you would be bored to death with a real job. :) Who knows it might turn you famous!

Yo Mama said...

Hooray for the dark, dingy interior of the pyramids! I think I would just stay topside!
After reading the other comment, I might add, in some circles, you are already famous! Love you. Mom

gito said...

Please save an autographed CD for me, too. Or is the music already available on the net?!!

Dear ol' Dad said...

I think Alexandre Costa knows what he is talking about!