Hello, Assalem Aleykum!

The adventures continue, both domestic and further afield. Mummy and her friend, Jill have been to stay, as has Don, an ex-client and now friend, and his two delightful boys, Alessandro and Niccolo. The animals have had their own mini-excitements, and Alberto has had two rather large ones - oo-err Missus!

Let's get the work out of the way first... The yoga classes continue to potter along, with three regular people, and a few ad hoc additions of tourists or locals who can be bothered to come along! The problem with Dahab is that you become so laid back that getting to a yoga class can seem like just a little bit too much of an effort!!! Alberto comes every time, along with Nicolas, a lovely french guy, and Elena, a beautiful russian woman who is married to an Egyptian here. I have had much more interest and enquiries though, so what with the 50 flyers that I've distributed around town to hotels, dive centres and camps, and the business cards I'm handing out, hopefully things will start to grow. We did the class on the roof for the first time on Monday - the sense of space and openness is incredible - and the sea breeze wafting over your skin during the relaxation is just magical. I have received the photos from the photo shoot and there are some are some really great ones in there. One of the things that struck me when I went through them, is that from all the people that came along to help, there were no two people from the same country - nations represented, all with 'dix points'!, were Spain, Austria, Singapore, the US, France, Russia, the UK. How cool!!! I love the diversity and variety in life here...

Mummy and her friend Jill were very low-maintenance, being absolutely contented to sit by the pool in their hotel, which meant I got to swim and chill out there, which was great! We did venture out on a trip on Tuesday though - a visit to St Catherine's Monastery, the oldest monastery in christendom, right next to Mount Sinai, followed by a bedouin lunch in the desert and then four hours of off-roading through the endless expanses of sand and mountains, taking in a desert well, where we were visited by a wild camel - so cool! - some amazing rock formations, a huge sanddune and some tombs from the Nabatein tribe from 300 BC!!! Pretty cool. The size, space and openness of the desert does something to the mind - I feel so free and tiny when I'm out there, everything takes on a different perspective and I can't help but feel that there is a 'greater power' when I see such majesty in nature. At the end of the day we all returned to Dahab, a bit wind-swept and very very thirsty! Unfortunately Mummy didn't drink enough once we got back and was in bed for the next two days with dehydration and a funny tummy, but she made a speedy recovery in time for their flight on Saturday evening. Again, it was very sad and emotional saying goodbye after such a wonderful but short time together again.

I also spent some time with Don and his boys. The best bit was a camel trip up into a wadi (valley) south of Dahab. Apart from being pretty uncomfortable, it was a lot of fun and the boys loved it. We went up to a bedouin tent, where we had dinner underneath the stars. I have never seen quite so many stars - it was so beautiful and peaceful. Niccolo, who is just seven, fell asleep before dinner was served, so the rest of us enjoyed some delicious food before taking a star-lit walk through a small canyon behind the tent. Thankfully we had a jeep ride home as I'm not sure my bum would have appreciated another 90 minutes on a camel!!!

The German vets, who operated on George to remove the tumour from him mouth when I first got here, were back in town and I decided to get my kittens done, and get an EU passport for Noura and Emma in case I ever want to return.... (not an imminent option at the moment, I must admit!!). So, one morning Alberto and I got up at 6am to go kitten catching. I also wanted to catch the wild mother cats to put an end to their endless rounds of pregnancies - for their health, as much to prevent a complete cat infestation in my garden!!! The kittens proved no problem, but the wild cats were another matter. The friendly one I managed to catch and get in the box four times - and four times she managed to escape, which really pissed me off. And the black cat went to attack me when I was within one metre of her, so I decided to leave it!! Her claws and teeth looked rather scary! So, we took a box full of kittens over to my friend Nicky's house, where the vets had set up an make-shift operating studio in the garden. As well as my six beautiful babies, were another five kittens belonging to various people, and a gnarly old tom cat with a huge open wound on his neck, which Nicky said he'd had for over six months. I got totally roped into things, playing veterinary nurse to all the various operations going on - my jobs varying from holding gnarly tom's head still while the dead skin and flesh was cut away from his neck and the various layers all sewn back together (I now know that I'm not that squeemish!), to disinfecting vets' hands, sticking needles into kittens for saline infusions after their ops, and plucking and shaving their teeny weeny bollocks pre-op!!! Rather disconcertingly my female kittens kept waking up mid-op - apparently the dosage they were being given is more than enough to keep fat German adult cats asleep for the duration, but my tough little desert kitties are made of stronger stuff and so needed up to four times the normal amount of anaesthetic! Thankfully they all returned home safely and spent a day or so recovering in the spare room in the house to keep them away from Noura's well-meant, but probably painful attempts at 'playing' - which involves her grabbing them by the leg or tail and dragging them round the garden!

One of Alberto's friends, Sandor, was in Dahab for a very short time looking for work - unfortunately he got a better offer from a dive shop in Sharm and has left again. As well as being incredibly cool and lovely, he also has an AWESOME voice and writes his own songs - so we spent two very mellow evenings in the garden sitting round the fire, with candles and a few beers, with Sandor playing his guitar and singing. So bohemian, dahhling! A lovely girl from the US, Kelly, also came over and fell in love with my kittens. She's looking for a place with her boyfriend and once they get settled they're probably going to take a couple of the kittens to reduce the size of my family, although it'll break my heart to see any of them go! On the subject of leaving, Adel finally goes to Dubai on 15th June. We have remained good friends since splitting up and I'm going to miss him, but am glad he's going and will be getting on with building up the business he's been dreaming of for a long time.

And on to Alberto... His first adventure is of the female kind. He got very drunk at a party a few days ago and brought a young lady back to the house! I won't be totally indiscrete about what went on, but I was cheeky enough to hang around in the morning to make sure I found out who it was - I think she was mortified - an Aussie chick I've met a few times. She thought I'd left, but I was just hiding in my room until she came out!!! Alberto is now known fondly as the blonde tart - blonde because he's totally dizzy (he's actually accrued more blonde points than me already this month - those of you who know me well, will understand that this is quite an achievement!!) and a tart because, well, I haven't been naughty in MY house yet, and I've been living here over two months now!! His second adventure is a lot more serious. As well as training to be a diving instructor, he also does quite a lot of free-diving - you take a big breath in and swim down as far as you can without scuba gear. He went diving last Monday and came out complaining of a metallic taste in his mouth, was coughing loads and was incredibly tired. Then three days later he went again, and had the same symptoms, although this time he was coughing up blood! I've finally persuaded him to go to the diving doctor in Sharm and he's been diagnosed with a pulmonary oedema and possible liver problems as a result! Not good, and bed rest is advised - although not of the kind he was getting up to at the beginning of the week, I'm sure!!! I'm loving living with him, we get on incredibly well, have the same sense of humour and are pretty much laughing from the minute we get up until we go to bed. While he's absolutely gorgeous and lovely, I don't want to spoil what is a really great living atmosphere by changing it in any way, so I'm perfectly happy with the status quo! Anyway, I've attached some photos for you all as I know the build-up has got a lot of you guessing... He and I do yoga together every morning - this picture was taken while we were trying to meditate, but Noura had other ideas. And no, he's not naked, it just looks like he is! What with this, and the pic of me and Tristan, you'll all be thinking I've set up a nudist colony in the middle of a Muslim country!!! Not a bad idea considering my flat mates, but, alas, no....

I've booked my first visit back to the UK - arriving on 30th June for a couple of weeks - and have definite mixed feelings about it. I'm really excited about seeing everyone, but know I'm going to miss everything, everyone, including the animals, here dreadfully! But I've got a wedding to look forward to as well as work - ironically, since leaving the UK I've had five enquiries for new business on the PR front!! Strange how the Universe provides...

Anyway, time to go. Enjoy the photos of the desert - and Alberto! I'm off to do some more work on my yoga website, which seems to just be going on, and on, and on.... I must be nearly there by now! Enshallah just a week or so more...

Lots of love to you all

xxxx

Sara