Water problems in egypt

 

A few water companys got closed due to them selling filtered tap water. So now theres no mineral water for sale in most super markets. Its pretty annoying to always carry a bottle with tap water around. Not to mention that tap water in egypt tastes disgusting.. I started to boil the water we drink which makes it taste at least somewhat better. I miss the german tap water that tastes just like mineral water..

How to make Espresso at home

 

 

 

 

I just love espresso and ive been searching for a´n affordable and good quality espresso machine ever since i came to egypt. Ingermany the quality is great but the price is pretty high for automatic machines. Sending a small manual espresso machine will coast more than the machine itself..

So when i went to carrefour last night and by luck discovered that they have espresso machines now i was more than happy. They didnt have them before and normally i dont even go to the section anymore were the coffe cups etc. are stored.

Anyhow i passed by and found ´manual espresso machines from Pedrini imported from Italy.

They are available for 2 or 6 cups and in several colors like orange, green, violetand black.

I decided to go for the one for 6 cups as 2 cups wouldnt be enough when my father in law or brother in law are here. And since im not a fan of the other coloursi went for the black one.

Price 130Le about 21.5 $

Its about the same price i would pay for it on germany which is great as most of the time items like this are way more expensive here in cairo.

 

I couldnt find good espresso powder in carrefour. They do sell espresso powder from their own brand for 11Le per 250 gr. Its cheap and well thats how it tastes like. not good quality and bad taste!

Il have to get some better espresso powder tonight. Alhamdulillah theres a shop near us that sells espresso powder from lavazza. ill see how that goes.

 

I was a bit unsure how to use the machine as there was no descirption and i never used a manual espresso machine before.

But its actually not soo hard.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Fill the down part 3/4 with cold water

 

2. Put the filter and fill it with espresso powder. When full push the powder gently down with not too much force.

 

 

3. Close the espresso machine by putting the down and the upper part back together.

 

4. Put the espresso machine on the fire. Heat has to be medium. Not too high not too low.

 

5. Wait until steam comes out of the top. I measured the time and it took about 5 min til i turned the fire off. This was for a 6 cups espresso machine though so i dont know how long a 1,2 or 3 cups machine takes.

 

 

 

6. Leave for another 2 minutes before filling the espresso into the cups.

 

7. Fill into cups, Add sugar. Enjoy :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hijab Outfits/ Abaya/ Hijabs

 

Couldnt think of a proper Blog title

 

Anyway Here are some of my fav items

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should..

be working right now
But i dont want to :S
I still have 5 articles to finish until tomorrow and all ive done til now is the research.
Its not a very interesting topic so i keep telling myself ill do it later.
Well ill have to do it anyhow, its for my fav client so i better do it well.

So since i dont wanna work and i dont wanna do housework either im just playing around.
Playing games with my Son
Making useless pictures
Creating collages
drinking lots of coffee

Not a very productive day. Tomorrow will be better inshallah
i dont really feel like cooking either so i just made some fast pasta with creamy sauce and we still have shorba (meat soup) from yesterday. Ill eat some chicken panee and eventually make some veggys. I just have no clue what kinda veggys i should do. We had curry yesterday and i could eat it every day, but my husband wouldnt accept that.
Id make a soup but its too hot for that..so whats left?
I cant make oven veggys as im missing oregano and without that it doesnt taste good at all.
I guess it will be veggys in tomato sauce, easy and fast..perfect fopr a lazy day

Eid Shopping

Eid is over :(

Ii didnt spend Eid visiting Relatives as i wanted to.
But i got to go shopping with my sister in law at Carrefour Maadi.
Its a huge shopping complex with a lot of different shops, cafes, restaurants and of course Carrefour.

The first time we went onthe first day of Eid and i bought the shoes in the pic below for 140Le.
Not really cheap for shoes like that but i have just 1 pair of sandals so i was in need of another pair. The next time we went with my other sister in law and her two girls, last night.
While it was really nice the first, yesterday t was way too crowded.

Carrefour Maadi is always crowded and i prefer to go other places as i hate crowds. But i have to admit the shops there are not bad. Still i prefer mall of Arab or Dandy Mall in 6th of october ( its an area of cairo).

I bought the bag in the picture yesterday and im very happy i found it.
My bags are falling apart and look really bad. So this bag will do, even its pretty small.
I can only fit my mobile, purse, camera and iphone and nothing else.

Alhamdulillah i dont need to carry bottles and other stuff for my Son anymore. I remember that when he was a baby we would carry a lot of stuff when we went out with him.

Now the shoes dont fit to the dress and the baag but its not ment as an outfit. Its just the things i purhcased inthe last week.
 After more than 1 month of no shopping i guess i deserved it :D
 well maybe not but i needed the bad and shoes.. And the dress, well it was Eid after all!
I ll keep it for the next engagement/Dinner party ill go to inshallah.

Any opinions?

Eid Outfit

My Eid Outfit
I know the pic quality sucks :S
My son kept playing in front of me and throing his toys at me :D
You can see the back of his head on the right site of the pic anyhow

Im thinking to wear a jacket over this dress instead of the black carina that i wear to cover my arms.
I kinda feel naked when i wear only carin´s with dresses or shirts :S
But i fear that if i wear a jacket it will destroy the image of the dress and anyhow ill just be visitng family so i can use this time to show off :D

Cleaning marathon

I just finished cleaning the whole flat..more or less
Its not like i planned doing this but when i laid down to sleep i heard some noises that freaked me out, so i got up again to find what it was.
It sounded like someone was in our flat..in the end i didnt find what it was..

Buti couldnt sleep anymore so i started cleaning and didnt stop till now :)
Husband n baby r sound asleep so i can enjoy the clean house for a while before someone starts throwing custard on the floors or dropping juice..
Its really nice to have some time completly alone :)

Anyway alone time is over as i really need to sleep.
Im just waiting my tea to cool down so i can drink it before im off to bed.

I bought my Eid dress today for  atotal of 155Le
about 25 $
not too expensive i guess as most dresses i liked were about 450 Le (74 $) which is simply too much at the moment. After all ill need a new bag and shoes soon.

I might put a pic of the dress here 2morrow if i have time :)

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak to all of you
May Allah give you happiness, peace and health

I have no real idea what ill do this eid.
Probably just visit my mother in law and 2 aunts of my husband.
Sadly my family in law doesnt really celebrate Eid like most familys in egypt.
I would love to exprience a real happy eid with lots of family.
But that wont happen so ill just spend most time at home with my son, doing nothing .

Changing hair colour

I got pretty bored of my hair colour, especially the outghrowing part.
Its like pretty light at the roots and the lengths were still darker.
The colour i used last time gradually washed out even it was supposed to be permanent.

I kinda would like to get my natural colour back but to let the other colour grow out would take a long time as my hair is pretty long.
Now i changed my colour the last time in january and i loved that colour. It was darker than my original colour and made me look different.

The colour i used this time is pretty much the same i used the last time.
But i used the hair dye from another brand. they had the offer to buy 2 for the price of one so i decided to try this brand.
i was about to dye my hair very blonde but my husband didnt like the idea so i went back to a darker tone.
Thats the one i used Palette 5-60 Light chocolate brown
Im pretty satisfied with it as it gave me the tone i wanted and didnt mess up my hair.
2 packages for 36Le (6$) wasnt to expensive either, though i have no idea how much id pay if i get my hair done in a studio. The last i didn that was in germany and i paid 87 $.
I dont go to any studio here in egypt as i dont trust them that much and my hair is pretty precious for me..

 Anyhow my husband told me to dye my hair black. Something i would like to do but i wont do cause its haram.
It seems many people dont know that its haram to dye ur hair black (in islam)

Here are the haith for it:

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said:

“There will be people who will come later (in my Ummah) and apply black dye. They will not even smell the fragrance of paradise.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, 2/578)

In another Hadith the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “…Abstain from using black dye.” (Sahih Muslim)

So no black hair dye for me. but i guess black would make me anyway look pretty sick with my extremly white skin..


This is one of my fav outfits at the moment. Especially the flat shoes are pretty comfortable, to a point that i dsont wanna wear heels anymore. At least for some time ;)

Aura Dion - Geronimo

Yeah I know the title doesn’t fit.. anyways
It’s the song I listen right now

I love it and listen to it the whole night. This song is on repeat in my apartment during the whole night ( trying to ignore the other ppl arguing in the next room..)

It keeps my mood up when everything around me ís just going wrong and i wanna run away..It sounds happy, doesnt it?

These days the electricity here cuts way to often. Always shortly after the Maghreb Adhan.
So when u finally get your energy back u cant do anything as its totally dark!
The water cut too in the evening, so no water to drink, not water 2 wash,..
Dear Egyptian government consider using ur resources for ur people and not selling it to the enemy
I know bitching about it wont make it better, but well being quiet about it just encourages the government to go on with their games.. I guess
My father in law was genuinely shocked when I told him the electricity never cuts in Germany, same goes for water by the way.
I remember that when I was a kid a was hoping for the electricity to cut to have something interesting happening :D
But it never did anyway..

I guess i get what i wanted now..just a little late :)
Nevermind, it could be romantic..if..well it could, but it isnt, at least not in my apartment..anyways

Btw its 3.20 am here in Masr, which means only a few minutes til we start to fast again for the rest of the day.
My lil boy (2) is still wide awake.. *sigh*
I pray that ill get some sleep soon...

Being a mom

Its fajr time once again..
I made many attempts to sleep as i cant work anyway, but obviously it didnt work
My body got used to sleep after fajr and not before.
So i guess 2morrow my sunshine will wake me early and once again i will walk around like a zombie praying that i will be "Nap Time" already!

Yes i  impatiently wait for my son to get tired enough to take his daily Nap.
Its the time i can sleep too and relax.
The rest of the day iam working, cooking, cleaning, washing and serving the baby
My little prince is quite demanding and always orders me to get up, if he wants me to give him something..

So the best way to have some time to work inpeace is to give him a bucket of water and a cup..
It keeps him busy and happy, and it gives me the needed time to do my freelance work

In the last 3days i managed to translate over 11 000 wordsfrom german to english.
Which is pretty good considering that most translators do this in 1 week.
I simply wanna finish this project to get a better paid one..

Being a mom isnt really easy, but it s still great :)

I just wish i will beable to catch some sleep now before the babydecides to get up again..inshallah