Link to the Youth Club House ( below 30 yrs old) < http://www.smouhac lub.com/images/alb umsss/manteket_el_ shabab/index.htm > Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #904)
Link to the Olympic Swimming Pool (there are smaller pools: for kids 3-5 yrs, 5-10 yrs, 10-15 yrs): < http://www.smouhac lub.com/images/alb umsss/pool/index.h tm > Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #903)
Link to the Main Club House: < http://www.smouhac lub.com/images/alb umsss/club_house/i ndex.htm > Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #902)
Here is the Link to the Map of the Club with English used in titles: < http://www.smouhac lub.com/index.php? option=com_content &task=view &id=119&It emid=128 > Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #901)
Advice: Go directly to < http://www.smouhac lub.com/images/alb umsss/frosia/index .htm > It has the nicest pictures. Frosia in Arabic means: Horse Riding the "Son of God" who took those pictures is so stupid that in 15 pictures he didn't care for showing one, even one, Horse with or without a Rider!!!!!!!! He/She showed the stables with windows shut, horses inside yu should assume that!!!! My loveliest time at the Horse's Corner is when I have a walk through the stables and massage the head of the horses I feel as calm and peaceful as I prefer them to be. I avoid the restless ones. They are reminders of the Violence in Wars. (Monday Oct 6 | post #900)
Guide to See the Club's "Album of Pictures": On the right of the Home page, yes below the picture of the Club's Chairman of the Board; Mohamed Farag Amer, a Business Tycoon, (Egyptian version of Britain's Al Faied), yu will find a column/scrolled down in green, the last partition in green (before the brown partition) is the Album of Pictures, double click, yu will get into the Album, yu will find the Map with English titles for the Club's main places, click on the English writing then keep clicking on the pictures that will show up, double click will elarge yr choice of pictures. Enjoy Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #899)
If yu would like to have a look at the club in which I daily have my Running Exercise, Here is the Link to its Homepage: < http://www.smouhac lub.com/ > Regretfully; I didnt see options for Language but yu may get what yu wish to look at from the pictures. The Home page still has one of its pictures showing a paper version of the Holy Quran. It says (in Arabic): Ramadan Kareem, A Contest for the Members in Reciting the Holy Quran( off-the-heart ). Still, in our Egyptian society with tremendous westernization going on, those who can recite the Holy Quran - off the heart - ( can tell the entire Holy Book out of/depending on their memory cells) - are highly respected and usually people ask them for advice in religous matters. Enjoy (Monday Oct 6 | post #898)
Ramadan Kareem 6 th Day after End of Ramadan's Fasting: Just finished my early morning Running exercise at the Country Club (Smouha Social/Sporting Club). I can say, only this morning and after Running the last few days; I managed to return back to my Running fitness after Ramadan's Fasting/No Running during the Holy Month. I even broke the last record of time taken during Running the Horse track before Ramadan. This Morning Record according to my Stop watch is: 14:26:75 Before Ramadan was: 14:57:58 Much better record after fasting the Holy Month. I hope this record could be maintained, if not brocken for the better. Amen (Monday Oct 6 | post #896)
Both yr post and also Lenai's post are articullately written, I may describe them as sophisticated self-analysis. Rare to find such daring/revealing posts, usually the Net is wasted in posts of the War-Zone style. My Respect to both of yu. (Saturday Oct 4 | post #894)
That Link above can let yu have an airial view of the country club named: Smouha Club It used to be out of the city limits when it was established in the 1940s but now has been circled by with residential areas, malls, and a new private university named Pharos. < http://wikimapia.o rg/1957013/ar/Gree n-Plaza-H... > Go a little NorthWest from Green Plaza, cross the Nile Canal with the Highway passing over a Bridge then yo will be able to see the Club. Enjoy (Saturday Oct 4 | post #886)
If yu are interested in seeing a picture of the Green Plaza plus an airial viewing of that part of Alexandria that has the Green Plaza, here is the Link: < http://wikimapia.o rg/1957013/ar/Gree n-Plaza-Hilton-Hot el-Mall > BytheWay: I live a walking distance from the Green Plaza. (Saturday Oct 4 | post #884)
Correction: " I suggested the Green Plaza: where there is "Hilton" Hotel, and there are more than a dozen Coffeeshops of all styles: western plus local, Fast Food Chains, classy Retaurants, indoor & outdoor Carnival games, Shopping Mall called " Alpha Market ", Beatiques for casual and formal wear, Gift shops, small-sized suits of Banks providing the quite enough services, Theater & Conference Center. " I forgot to add: 6 Movie Theaters showing a variety of recent Egyptian & American Movies, usually 4 Egyptian & 2 American. To Be Continued Stay with us (Saturday Oct 4 | post #883)
Ramadan Kareem 3 rd Day of the Breakfast Feast: ( Continued ) On the 2 nd Day of the Feast I called my Sisters to arrange for a get-to-gether on the 3 rd day. I suggested the Green Plaza: where there is "Hilton" Hotel, and there are more than a dozen Coffeeshops of all styles: western plus local, Fast Food Chains, classy Retaurants, indoor & outdoor Carnival games, Shopping Mall called " Alpha Market ", Beatiques for casual and formal wear, Gift shops, small-sized suits of Banks providing the quite enough services, Theater & Conference Center. Sisters approved my suggestion as all of us live close to that Green Plaza, in other words, we don't have to get into heavy & crowded traffic if we have to drive to get to places outside of central Alexandria. I was expecting a crowded Green Plaza but evidently "crowded " is not enough to describe what was there on the 3 rd Day of the Feast! Again, not only Alexandrians were there but also rural Egyptians came in using buses, microbuses, train, and yes their cars too. Yu can tell who are from rural Egypt from what they wear. Good to have them in such nice places, I wish if there coming over to Alexandria motivate them to have their towns/villages shape up a little. We can have their overcrowdness as bearable but I wish if their presence mean they get more modernized/civiliz ed. As long as I will pay, I chose Pitzza Queen as a place to have our Dinner. I & Dear Wife had to wait inside the Green Plaza half an hour until all Sisters, Nephews & Niece came in. At the Pitzza Queen, there were seats outside the airconditioned place for the waiting customers. A guy was standing like the marines do at the outer door of the place with a piece of paper and a pen. I gave him my name, I was # 6 on his waiting list. 2 of the nephews had a walk while the rest of us had seated and unnecessarily waiting for a table. It was crowded inside there with families. Eventually; I heard my Name. We got in and the 2 Guys came in shortly after that. It was Pay for One get One Free. We ordered One /each so we had extra One / each. Sister told me that I can order for part of us as the extra can make it up for the rest of us. I rather insisted on One per Each as I was seeking them to carry/take the extra to/for their husbands and also one nephew who didn't show up. It won't be as the fresh but at least they can taste what we did have as a Dinner. Then, I selected the CoffeShop I am used to, it's outdoor, with trees making a nice shadow at day time but it was already in the evening so the trees were not as impressive to look at as in the day time. Sisters loved the place, older sister showed me her favorite one but after seeing and served at my favorite Coffeshop inside Green Plaza she told me she will have mine when she will come over to the Plaza. She said something about a Mosque she uses when she spends her time in the Plaza but I forgot to ask her where is that Mosque?! Most propably, it is only one Booth, size of one Room. I know they Businessman who owns the Plaza, He is very famous for being a Miser person, I don't expect him to "waste" a few square inches for having a Mosque, but curiously enough I will ask Dear Sister about the size of that Mosque. It could be just a part of Corridor with carpets on during Prayer times then carpets taken away right after the Prayers are done, I won't be surprised if that will be her answer. To Be Continued Stay with us (Saturday Oct 4 | post #882)
Ramadan Kareem 3 rd Day of the Breakfast Feast: Early Morning: Temp in my study room is in upper 70s F / 20s C with no airconditioning on, just having my windows open all the time. Had Running rituals resumed after a month of fasting/praying; nice to dress with a t-sleeveless T-shirt, a short, then have the very efficient/comforta ble Addidas running shoes. baseball hat, and a towel on shoulders, icy water bottle in hand, stop-watch on my left wrest, then head to my car. Left Dear Wife still sleeping at home. The Country Club at 7:30 AM was barely opening its gates, a few workers were still on their way to their posts, a few security personnel were there, almost no other members were there but me. I don't get discouraged in a situation like this. I like to have my Running exercise without interruptions, quietness is equivalent to more concentration on what I do. But in an indoor swimming pool in Texas City, winter of 1978, I was the only user of that swimming pool with a Life Guard sitting high on a wood seat over the pool's water. She was young and pretty Texan woman. I don't recall that I did much swimming exercises as I had planned but talking to her was much much nicer than anything else. She was wearing very shorty short revealing 2 knocking thighs she wasn't aware of how they melted me! Only on that particular day, quietness during Exercises wasn't favored by me! Breakfast with Dear Wife: on both 1 st & 2 nd Days of the Feast, I ignored the Feasts' cookies on our dinning table. I said to Dear Wife on 3 rd Day's morning: Time for our Feast's cookies. She instantly accepted my suggestion in a way that tells she was waiting to hear me saying it. She got her China-ware, things to serve Tea that I only see once/year, yes in the mornings of the breakfast meals. After getting done with that Breakfast with Feast's cookies, she returns the China-ware to a big wardrobe that we call " Neish ". I really don't know any Arabic meaning of that name/thing that occupy a considerable space of our living room, it is a wood wardrobe with glass doors that reveal the China-ware of its inside. Any American name for a similar thing? Usually, A mother keep her China-ware intact until her daughter(s) get married. On the daughter's wedding preparations, the mother offer her daughter part of the China-ware. Some of the Mothers don't keep anything of their China-ware, yes offering their daughter(s) all they have. As we were not blessed with kids, I suggested to Dear Wife if she was supposed to offer her Dearest Niece part of our China-ware, I was expecting Dear Wife to say: Oh Dear Princess (Code Name I was calling that lovely girl with) How I forgot that? Princess was wedded early day of last July. Instead; Dear Wife looked furiosly at me and I then knew that I tresspassed into her very private posessions that I don't have the right to interfere in its destiny. Or more accurately I can say: I - unintentionally - touched a sensitive nerve. (Saturday Oct 4 | post #881)
Ramadan Kareem 2 nd Day of the Breakfast Feast, Alexandria, Egypt I & Dear Wife decided to have our Breakfast at the country club. We managed to have my favorite " Falafel " sandwishes plus a dish of pickles (Falafel= powedered beans mixed with green vegetables, garlic, red hot pepper, then fried in oil) from a famous Food Chain ( Gad )main place in downtown. Streets were relaxing with scattered traffic, so heading to downtown to buy our Breakfast meal then get back to the country club wasn't a wrong decision. A few members were there inside the country club at close to 10 AM when we got in. We had a table at a food/drinks corner at the northwestern part of the club where yu can smell the sea breeze still fresh without the regular heat/pollutants from the car engines when the traffic gets to its normal/regular crowdness. I ate with an apetitite of a man who hadn't eaten for a Month! Falafel is a very Egyptian meal, spicy and its odor makes yu hungry even if yu have just finished from a double cheese-burger! Yu just wish to have a bite if yr stomach is full from that double CheeseBurger. As we finished from our meal, I ordered Turkish Coffee & Dear Wife ordered her favorite minted Tea. Dear Wife said to me: Call that Pretty waitress that is sitting over there. I looked in the direction to see how that girl's face look so Dear Wife considered as Pretty? Well, not that Pretty according to my own standards. As the girl noticed that I wish to tell her my Order, she came in closer to where I sit. Still, not that Pretty but she had a very innocent plus nice smile when she talks, newly hired I guess. I began my talk with: Ied Saied ( Happy Feast ) then asked: what's yr name? Maaha, she answered. Maaha in Arabic means the wide eyes, and her eyes were beautifully Arabian dark. Nice name, then I told her our Order. In the evening we were to have a gettogether with the inLaws at Dear Wife's Mom residence far East of Alex. They had a Birthday Cake for Dear Wife's nephew, son of her only brother. Candles, fireworks, singing Happy Birthday to yu Mohammed in both Arabic & English, soft drinks were served, and the youngest Sister inLaw insisted that she who will fix a Nestcaffee especially for me, yu know it takes time to turn it into a homogenous paste with sugar before yu pour in water then cream. As I expected, on our way back home, instead of typical 20 minutes driving through Alex Coastal Highway in winter time, yesterday evening had me slow driving same distance in 2 hours!!! Car plates tell vaccationists came from Cairo, Damanhour, Tanta, Zagazik, Port Saied, Suez, Assuit, and yes, from Lybia! The Lybians used to have an Egyptian woman as a second wife. Meaning, a Lybian man especially the less educated and those living in rural/beduin areas (not city dealers), get married to local woman, have a big family, then in middle age comes to Alexandria as a vaccationist or visiting a clinic/hospital then returning back to Lybia with Egyptian woman as his second wife. So, this is what used to happen when every Lybian was considered a " rich man " by our Egyptian Standards, I don't think Lybia is the same as it used to be before it wasted most of its resources in adolescent adventourous external Political affairs. To be Continued Stay with us (Friday Oct 3 | post #827)
