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366 unusual things: days 304 – 308

30th Oct – I’ve watched every 7 Up episode since I was 7, and today I watched the latest, 56 Up.  Michael Apted didn’t plan it this way in the beginning, but thanks to his perseverance, every 7 years I catch up with people I’ve known since I was a child.

31st Oct – There’s a Halloween party for 20 children under way next door.  This is unusual where I live.

1st Nov – Tutoring a student in a college library, we were asked to leave for recess.  The library closed for 15 minutes.  Who made up that rule?

2nd Nov – A tutoring agency asked me to fill in my details on a page entitled “Teachers Backend”.

3rd Nov – In the last two years my neighbour in the Housing flats has had two babies.  The father has taken them away to another town.  She accepts it;  she has no money to get them back or even to go and see them.  Her life is so different from mine.

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Geometry: Andalusian Garden, Cairo

As the Nile flows through Cairo it is divided in two for a short space by Gezira Island.  And on this island there’s a public green space with a geometric layout called the Andalusian Garden.  It was designed by the architect Mahmoud Zulfiqar Bey in 1929 as a gift to his wife, and was originally used as a roller skating rink by members of the royal family.  In 1935 it was opened to the public, and in 1941 when my father was in Cairo during the war he visited this Moorish garden.  The park is now protected by a heritage classification.  Unfortunately the pool in the photo is now dry, but the terraces are still decorated with coloured mosaics which are not evident in this black and white photo, but photos on this blog site show the beautiful colours of the tiles and the excellent design of the garden.

Thank you Ahmad Omar for telling me the name of this garden.  The photo is from my father’s collection which he brought back from Egypt in 1942.

Andalusian Garden, Gezira Island, Cairo, Egypt, 1941