The Nile At Cairo

This is looking south towards 6th October Bridge. The building to the left of frame is the present Ritz-Carlton Hotel (formerly the landmark Nile Hilton) which backs onto Tahrir Square.

It's a pleasant scene on this first day of spring with temperatures touching 36c. Beyond the picture postcard view there are many challenging realities including the state of emergency that is in place, the continuing mourning for the murdered Palm Sunday Copts and today's battle for survival of the sleeping pavement boy featured in my yesterday's blip. I wonder what he's up to today.

As I drove along 26th July Street this morning a young flower seller knocked on my window. He knows me as a friend of 'our' Yasheen. I signalled through the glass that I was in a hurry to the airport and couldn't buy anything. When we stopped at the next set of lights a hundred metres on, there was another knock on my window and the same boy insisted I lower it. He thrust a short, single rose through the open space, smiled like a crescent moon, touched my shoulder and then scampered off through the lanes of traffic behind.

So, one of my Cairo roses is nestling in my breast pocket just now (the other is still in our flat here) and I'll take it all the way to Barcelona tonight. Maybe it will survive to be my blip of tomorrow.