Out of Sight...

...but not out of mind. Here is a selection of some gifts from Cairo that DD presented me with on Christmas Day. The lady portrayed on the notebook is Om Kalsoum whose image appears everywhere in Egypt, and (from Wiki) is known as Kawkab al-Sharq ("Star of the East") in Arabic. More than three decades after her death in 1975, she is still widely regarded as the greatest female singer in Arabic music history. Her stage name, Umm Kulthoum, means 'Mother of Kalthoum' and was the name of one of the Prophet Muhammad's daughters.

A sample of her music...