Last thurseday i was sitting with tom gara and having a chat about Alexander where one of our freinds refused to call him the great, anyway we talked about when Alexander reached India and faced an army made of elephants covered with golden armors and an army of monkey that used to steal the weapons of the soldiers at night then Alexander though he reached "the end ofthe world " and that was hell where there are huge golden creatures and small cursed men .

Nowadays there are many conceps that doesn't exist any more such as the " the end of the world" and in all anciant cultures it was always mentioned in a way or another the end of the world. i think humans needs such a concept as we don't understand the concept of infinity and every thing should have a beging and an end , so we replaced the concept of the end of the world with the concept of heaven and hell which can still be acceptable by the majority of the world, May be one day this concept won't be accepted anymore i wonder what will we replace it with ?

Closer and Closer to a Holocaust,

A recent count for Iraqi deaths since the war started, shows that around 600000 Iraq Person died, and if you look at this number it is almost quarter of the number of the people who died in the Holocaust, Under Saddam regime there was lots of killing but Saddam never came close to this number . this war wasn't right and Iraqi people are paying the price of this decision.

What is more Important
Every day I commmute from central Cairo (Zamalek) to eastren edge of cairo (Heliopolis) distance wise it is not very big but know cairo traffic it take on average about 35 minutes , but at least twice a week someone important will be passing buy and they will block the street for 20 or 30 minutes,then the streets gets really congested and it can add tot he trip up to 45 minutes and you can see every one late to work ,when i mean every obe i assumat at least 10000 people . so 10000 people that are late for 45minutes i guese they sum up to years of working hours that are worth millions of pounds,I wonder why don't they use choppers to move around and make every ones life easier.

Valentin's Day In Egypt
I don't think valentin's day is celebrated any where more thanit is celebrated in Egypt. on the 14th of february you wake up in the morning you see all shop windows have red hearts and and all florists are panicing and useing the stores next to them to stor flowers which are mainly red roses, the prices of roses increase by around 1000%. and all the scooter in the streets of cairo are not elivering food anymore but deliverying flowers, Also the gift industry booms i think Valentin's day in egypt is equivilent to christmass in the west when it comes to gifts, malls are crowded and gift shops specially perfumes and watches are filled with young people. the weird thing is this valentin'es day thing is new to Egypt and it is booming every year i think if it keps increasing with the same rate , in 10 yeares it will be a day off or people will have to dress red to work or even the Egyptian goverment will let couples stay in the same hotel room .

Time to think.
I went to London for new years and a couple of days after new years,I went there with no plans what so ever my only plan was to relax and forget every thing , and for the first time for a year exactly, I had time to think !!Being alone in a different country you get lots of time alone I think that is the beauty of traveling . For a year I was in a vicious circle of work wake up at 9 finish at 9 drive for an hour to get home and have dinner and watch the news and sleep . For a whole year I didn't do anything other than that . Even week ends I usually have to work , or to do regular errands like take the car to be serviced or go to pay bills go to a company gathering,,,,,,,,,,the first time I started to think is when I woke up next day I arrived and had nothing to do . I got into the tube and I was on the tube and I ve nothing to do so I started thinking about life and about where I am and what am I doing and lots of random thing . And belief it or not it felt weird it felt weird to think but it was weird in a very nice way that gave me a thrill. And I started taking the chance to think whenever of possible,in the tube or while waiting for food or while walking in the streets cursing at the rain even while I am getting drunk. And the end of the trip I decided that life can pass without realizing .a year of my life passed without realizing how did it pass.

A couple of yesr ago I read an article in some international magazine it might have been the economist, about how important are bawabs(Door men) in Egypt,the writer went on and on that if you are in good terms your life can be much easier as the bawab will do every thing for you starting parking your car for you till feeding your cat when your travelling. I was like... I agree bawabs are important but not important enough to be on the economist, But few days ago I had a meeting so woke up in the morning had a shower and got into my suit.........and of course as murphy said anything that may go wrong will go wrong . so I can't find my shoes I keep loking around and i can't find my shoes so I decided to go buy shoes but it was 8 am and of course i couldn't find a single shoe place opened. on my quest to find shoes and save my meeting i was escorted by Bawab so he can give me directions and short cuts to all shoe shops around. but the quest was a faliure and faliur is something egyptian babwbs don't know the bawab looked at me and told me" Mr. Yasser what is your shoe size?"I gave him my size so he smiled and replyed that his wedding is in to day and has bought new shoes for this occasion , and he actually gave me his shoes which turn to be very nice and sparkling new.
And I went to my meeting that day and bawabs gained my the respect and i decided they are deffenitly worth some economist recognition.

Don't know where to go?
I want to go somehwere for new years i reallt need a break and i havn't left Egypt for more than a year now. it is averyhard decision not because thereis alot of options or anything, it's becasue i won't have a chance to travel for a long time afterwards coz of work so it HAS TO BE FUN and also the VISA process factor don't leave me wiht much options . I am considering
Istanbul
Belgrade
Bangkok
Beirut
& Prague
have to make a decsison soon.