Happy St Patrick’s Day!!

Today is a very special day, not only for all the Irish out there but also for all our friends who like to read about our travels, adventures, mis-adventures, daily grind and just the general goings-ons with us way over here in Cairo, Egypt. Today is the day we’ve decided to catch you up on the last few months and get up to date on our blog. Kind of like finding a Pot of Gold!!

Our latest adventure was the St Patrick’s Day party. I think Cairo is the least green place we have ever seen and I’m not sure they’ve even heard of St Patrick. (Hard to imagine hmm?) Today being Saturday, which is more like your Sunday, since everyone goes back to work tomorrow, we had a St Patrick’s Day party at our flat on Thursday, giving everyone the weekend to recover. How kind of us huh? After a bit of a disappointing Halloween with no ghoulish get-together, we decided we’d have to take on the St. Patrick’s party ourselves.

Anyone who knows Nancy, knows this was no fly-by-night, last minute event. As I said, the idea was sparked in early November with the serious planning beginning shortly after the New Year and intensifying continuously right up to the minute guests were due to arrive. We made several forays into the markets to find something, anything, that was the right color green with which we could fashion some decorations and found nothing. We returned from Germany over the first part of Christmas break with Shamrock napkins and we brought a few things back with us from the US when we returned from our all-too-brief visit in February. Nancy was able to find some green paper and we fashioned some shamrocks and made some banners to help get everyone in a festive mood. Oh and of course we hung our Irish flag. Our final decorations we put up just hours before the party were green balloons with shamrocks on them. Laura, who was a huge help before the party, blew up all those balloons and had the brilliant idea of hanging some from the ceiling. It really added a lot to the party atmosphere.

Green beer was asking too much in an almost alcohol free country so we had to settle for beer in green cans and bottles. We mixed up a green punch which everyone seemed to enjoy so much that we mixed it up four times that night. Food was another thing that needed to be sorted out. Nancy had the idea of serving corned beef quesadillas. Try finding corned beef in Cairo!! But Nancy being Nancy was not to be denied and was able to find someone who offered to make some for her. Thanks Mark!! They were delicious!! I made some sugar cookies iced with homemade green icing all from scratch (thanks Mom!) and some green chocolate chip cookies (thanks Nestle!). Green Vegetable platter with avocado dip, Sambousak, prawn crackers, cashews and almonds were also on offer. We couldn’t find any crescent roll pastry so Nancy improvised and made her infamous chicken ring anyway. Even without the crescent roll it was a huge hit! Nancy had the fantastic idea of using the small shamrock shaped cookie cutter to cut the cheese into cute little shamrocks! Adorable, someone asked me if they could eat them or if they were just decorative! Guests also brought a ton of other foods, snacks, drinks, and desserts which were all very helpful and rounded out the food and helped make the party a huge success. Special thanks must go to Nancy’s fellow teacher, Nan, who has Maadi House privileges and was able to supply us a whole case of Guinness as well as a few other hard to get spirits!! You made a few people very happy! And a friend who was able to secure us several packages of BACON for which I am eternally grateful.

Needless to say that although we spent a fair amount of time trying to make this party a fun evening for everyone it would not have been possible without the help of everyone who attended. In fact, we were so overwhelmed by the sense of community that helped make it a success. Everyone was so helpful and went out of their way to ask if there was anything they could do or if we needed anything else. Dave, next door donated the use of his dining table and chairs, some wine and beer glasses, ice, and avocado dip, Kim & Rebecca upstairs made an appetizer and donated a super-cooler that still had ice in it two days later! Need to get one of those! Julian upstairs who donated her cooler, ice and a bottle of Jameson’s whiskey! Kathy upstairs stopped by bringing the punch bowl with some pre-mixed punch and some rum! MJ upstairs who donated some dip and silverware. Laura for the use of her stereo and iPod which allowed us to enjoy the music and dance well into the wee hours of the morning! Verna for the use of her disco ball which gave the place ambiance and atmosphere and put everyone in the dancing mood! A HUGE thank you to everyone who attended and helped us pull this off.

How many people fit in our small kitchen?
Limbo using Christmas garland.

New friends Tim and Wendy.

Andy is all excited, Carmen his "young lady friend" is finally here to stay!

The Keevy's

Richie and Laura

Mark maker of the corned beef.

Maybe 40 people fit...

Sarah being dipped by Jamie
The last few standing...