Painting a Saturday walkabout,

,

A few hours walk around luxor  once I leave the tourist part of luxor  I am back in the real Egypt  unmade streets  in the natural environment of Luxor, where every day is market day

.

This is the area to buy if one needs goods at Egyptian prices  watch the person in front see how much they are charged then buy,

.

,

 Spices  in the local market street are fresh  because its sold all the time  in the tourist market  some spices can be ten years old  standing out in the sun all day.

.

.

geese Muscovy's and ducks  for sale

,

this is a sweet locally made  and a lot of it is sold  when they have the festivals the stalls are mainly this type of sweet  

.

some one must have guests coming for dinner.

.
one of the side streets leading to the new avenue of the sphinx
 '
 This girl wanted to go see her little brother in school, this guard hit her on the arm with his truncheon  then closed the gate refusing her entry. such vicious bastards these guys are given a bit of authority and a uniform.
 its not the first time I have seen this kind of behaviour from guards.
.
This street is twenty ft from the avenue,

looking towards luxor temple already the gardens are being planted.

.

the mud brick wall  and the heritage centre soon to be demolished  unless Samir Faraq has had a change of mind  now the new building is finished in Awameia.

.

The avenue is almost all dug up ready for the finish  to building the path and sphinxes

'

 the last building  has now been demolished, A  mosque was the last building,

'

Just around the corner the infamous yellow line painter has been at work again this time painting the bougainvillea  plant.

,

even the donkey likes following the yellow lines

or is he getting free paint for his tyres.

.

and here it is a brand new contraption to paint yellow lines. the driver and crew are having a sleep in the park that has no entry into it other than climbing over the fence, it even has a guard keeping watch while his co shirkers have forty winks,  the guard has to walk in front of the  paint machine  to move any cars or larger obstructions in its path  

.

A rather well rigged out horse and trailer

.

I am now on the promenade area near the much visited museum this is the are that's is being lowered 3 meters. down to the Nile Waters level from Luxor to Karnak Temples 3 kilometers in length,

'

One wonders what will happen when they dig down 3 meters,  will they make ladders so the tourist can go in the museum.

.

this is the foot bridge they have made so hundreds of visitors can visit the museum.

No one takes any pride in their work this is a photo of some brickwork 200 yards from the museum'

in 12 courses of brickwork they have managed a course of pig.  IE  2 course one side and one the other,

 never mind this is Egypt  and the guys who make it all look good in the end are the painters, good old painters,

.

the skink loves a rough wall  its easier to climb looking for bugs.

.

like this Little white egret  she was after a dragonfly

.

this one is hoping for a fish

.

this one is camera shy and did not want its face on the web.

'

this one is showing me what the oil pollution  in the Nile is doing to its leg joints.

'

for the abruchi wasp spider life goes on catching a few of the flies that come to eat leftovers

.

the fantail cisticola  is busy making its nest

'

and this tiny abruchi has made such a lovely big web

.

then one always gets one guy out to spoil the day, now who wants a sail boat  when there is no wind, or with a guy looking for customers in his underwear,  no thank you not today. not ever,

.

the Kopak tree was looking like it had been painted with yellow streaks. but on closer inspection it is natural.

.

and 2 men with a job for life  painting the curbs in luxor with a 6" roller. unless the fumes from the paint  kill them 

'

the rails outside the rowing club after two months needed a new coat of paint,

umm,  did I say the rails

'

and to cap the day off I went up on the roof  my favourite restaurant in Luxor  not just for the view but the food is rather good  and one must think about his health, what do they say;- an army marches on its belly.

Tuesday market day again

Today I was joined by  a couple from  , Newtown, Powys , Wales, my hometown,

for  a leisurely hour  we strolled around the souk. Dave had left his scarf in the hotel so decided this was  or should be a  cheap place to get another as his brains where being fried by the  morning sun,  there seemed only one stall with men's scarves, so tried to deal for  scarf.   first the stall holder pulled  a white scarf out of its plastic wrapping, that must have been a charge of 5 le, then Dave tried it on made sure it was suitable for his attire, that must have also had a standing charge of 5le,  these scarves are  5le on any other stall in Luxor, but this guy wanted 15le  move on we thought no need to bargain  for half an hour  or the brains would have been fried  by the time we get him down to the proper price of 5 le.  Sheila had already done her bit of haggling and bought herself 2 ladies scarves,  so we moved on slowly through the market, and slowly it was!  had to move with the crowd, and it was crowded with only a narrow passage way through all the sellers who had decided the passage way was a good place to stop and sell whatever they had, today it was ducks in all sizes,  rabbits in all sizes. and geese in all sizes, a few turkeys. and lots of peas and carrots in bags sold in wheelbarrows see my blog on Luxor market nothing has changed only that there are more people selling and more people  buying,   http://nilelife2.blogspot.com/2010/03/market-day-in-luxor-egypt.html,

'
Smaller cabbages but more Cauliflower, lots more cauliflowers

.

today's market also had  more plastic ware;-and woolly jumpers ready for the temperature to drop bellow 30c

Not a good photo but have put it on as there is a tale to tell  ,
one of the geese was being held  by a young lady. and being shown to me. the goose was rather distressed so I decided to give it forty winks, and not by slitting its throat.
just passing a bit of my really useful bits of knowledge on,  that I have accumulated over my life.
I took the gooses head and held it in the palm of my hand just tight enough to hold the head still,  with a finger,  stroke the head from the beak to the back of the head, the goose will watch the finger after a few strokes the goose goes to sleep.   let go of the head and it falls limp as if the goose is dead, this really got the girl worried  and she refused to let me touch the bird again,   I suppose the only thought in her head was  who is going to buy a dead goose,    all meat here must be halal   poultry is killed  in the home  must be seen as killed Halal,  then the goose woke up.  bringing a smile or was it a smirk to the girls face, amused  Dave and Sheila  anyway.

  the heritage centre is nearing completion

The front of the new swimming facilities,

 the pool area is in the process of being built
A pool in the siwa oasis  see the photos on  myegypt web site

'
the new market has opened behind the old luxor hotel.

The new look bread shop opposite the Luxor Temple.

Election time is getting close  and almost every building has these large banners adorning the  facade,

and if all this gives us wind  we have rennie's by the  100000 tablet boxes,

,

Who said there are flies in Egypt,

The lizard