And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the Glory of Egypt. I'm on a camel called Mickey Mouse, or so the guide told me.
For more pics go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54659588@N00/

Le Caire

As-Salaam-aleykum from Cairo or Le Caire, as my carte d'embarquement read last night on Air France 503. I went to the Pyramids today and there is only one word to sum it up: MAGIC! I climbed down about 200 feet downslope and then 200 feet upslope into the funerary chamber at Khafere's Pyramid (the middle one.) The Sphinx was awesome too and I got to ride a camel called Mickey Mouse! :-) Oh lord, I fell into that tourist trap but it was worth it.:-) The people are really friendly and love Indians. I went Papyrus and perfume shopping today and ate some heavenly baba ghanough and hummus. Off to Luxor tomorrow! More to come.

A L'Egypte

Ah how time flies. My last entry was on October 15, 2007.
I had a blast in the Bahamas. Great island, great people, great food, gooooorgeous beach and the most amazing spa ever. I went for a different treatment every day. I got the hot stone massage one day, the aromatherapy the next but the best was the massage in a tent on the beach. I could so get used to this Caribbean every October lifestyle.

Well, Passepartout has had no rest this year, has he? Argentina in January, Italy in March, the Bahamas in October and now, this Sunday, the glory of EGYPT!!!

This is a dream come true. I am spending 3 days in Cairo and 3 days in Luxor. I am also staying at the same hotel as Agatha Christie in Luxor-the Sofitel Winter Pavillion Palace. :-) How very Death on the Nile.

A la Plage!

Well,
I am off to the Bahamas on Sunday for a week of parking my ass on a beach and doing nothing. :-) My vacations this year have been hectic and this one is just to completely detox and relax. The next vacation in Dec to Cairo will be hectic since I'm trying to cram everything into one week. Here is the initial itinerary:
Dec 2, 1700 hrs: Leave Dulles
Dec 3, 0655 hrs: Arrive Paris
Dec 3, 0800 hrs: Clear customs, hop on RER to Le Marais for a pain au chocolat and a cafe creme.
Dec 3, 1400 hrs: Depart Paris
Dec 3, 1900 hrs: Arrive Cairo
Dec 6-7: Luxor, Valley of the Kings
Dec 9 depart Cairo 0700
Dec 9 Arrive Dulles 1900
Dec 10 0330 up for work! :-( Oy Vey!

Cousin Becky pokes fun at ourselves by bestowing upon us the moniker of Cousin Clarice. We love it!
Monday was a gooorgeous day. Sunday was a blast with Adams Morgan Day and stint at bingo. Rather tired on Monday morning, I decided to Cooper it down to Rehoboth and Fenwick Island. The drive down was perfect-John Lennon, the Scissor Sisters, and me all in the little Coopie hurtling across the bay and I was in Rehoboth in 2 hours 45 flat. I lolled about on the beach like a beached whale and then drove down to Fenwick Island, which was near deserted. Just the way I liked it. I got some realy R and R in and then Coopered it back home ready for a new crazy week at work.

Here are the lyrics to Hello Bonjour by Michael Franti. I love his message. I wish we could all listen to him:

I don't need a passport
to walk on this earth,
Anywhere I go cause I was made of this earth
I'm born of this earth,
I breath of this earth,
and even with the pain I believe in this earth, So
I wake Up every mornin and Im steppin on the floor,
I wake up every mornin and Im stepping out the door
I got faith in the sky,
faith in the one,
faith in the people rockin underneath the sun
Cause every bit of land is a holy land and
every drop of water is a holy water and
every single child is a son or a daughter of the one Earth mama and the one Earth papa, So
dont tell a man that he cant come here cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair, And
dont tell a woman that she cant go there because she prays a little different to a God up there
You say youre a Christian
cause God made you
you say youre a Muslim
cause god made you
You say youre a Hindu and the next man a Jew
Then we all kill each other
cause God told us to NAH!

-Hello, hello!
-Bonjour, bonjour!
-Hola, hola!
-Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!

As the good man said "WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT."

My new favorite song is "Hello Bonjour" by Michael Franti. It's very one world-y and very cute :)

Bathroom Wrongdoing

So, eh, Laarryy. You're a FUCKING HYPOCRITE !!!!! Good LAWD, man! "Senator Denies Bathroom Wrongdoing" scream the headlines.

This is the problem with the Republicans. I don't care which way you swing but when you're a hypocrite, you deserve to be exposed. Ted Haggard, Newt Gingrich, Mark Foley, David Vitter, and now Larry Craig. FOR SHAME!!!!!! Holier than thou, these people live in the most fragile glass houses and throw boulders. God Bless the Idaho Statesman! :-) True journalism, for once. Maybe the WaPo can learn a little something from our friends out west, like REAL JOURNALISM!!!

I've had a busier weekend than Paris Hilton with a gallon of Jack. Oy vey! I realized this weekend how much I miss living in Dupont. WAAHHHHHH! I want my Dupont. Anyhoo, Friday ended with a party at David's gorgeous old house in Mount Pleasant where we got quite tipsy on Sangria. :-) In attendance at the party were people from India, Spain, the U.S., Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Namibia, the U.K., and Germany. That's what I LOVE about D.C.-the international flavor of the city. So we were all just drinking Sangria out on the porch talking politics and getting tipsy.
Saturday night was the bon voyage party for Jai's 'rents who are going back to India. Thrown in with the above mix were some Argentinians and Brazilians. Add to that a rooftop in Adams Morgan with a view of the National Cathederal and a hot tub and you have bliss. After that is was off to Cobalt and dancing till 3. Oy, my damn knees still hurt. I'm getting old.
I barely had enough time to sleep when it was up again and out the door to celebrate Jamaica's 45th Anniversary of Independence from Blighty at the Organization of American States. The Red Stripe beer was free and the curried goat was yummy. The MC was fucking hilarious. :-)
Then, I got home, showered, and off to Gtown for Chris' 30th Bday at Bangkok Joe's. Some cheesecake at chez danoises and home to bed to be up for ops this morning. Ah bliss! I love les weekends.

The Washington Summer aka Potomac Swamp Soup starts tomorrow. Why do you think Congress goes on "recess" in August? The damn city is a humid, putrid swamp. The humidity was so bad last night that it created a soupy haze for most of the evening. Usually when it rains, it cools off. Not in D.C. When it rains here it gets more humid in the summer.
All things considered, summer in D.C. still has some redeeming qualities. It will be easier to get reservations to restaurant week and most of the annoying Hummers with Texas license plates are out of town or out of sight and not clogging up Georgetown. I am so tired of looking at gas guzzling SUV's with Texas plates and W o4 stickers on them. I can't wait for the new administration to come in 2009 so we can at least get rid of these fucking monstrosities.
I had the day off yesterday so I went to Dupont and read my Economist and then shopped at the Farmers' Market. Farmer Dan makes the best pierogies in the world.
I finally finished my team project for the MBA. I find business school easier than I thought I would. I guess that's a good thing. I'm flirting with law school. Dunno. Should I, shouldn't I? In a perfect world I'd get my PhD. in History and teach Cold War History on the college level. I'd sit there in my tweed jacket and pipe (unlit, of course) and throw papers back at the students screaming "Kissinger has two s's, you fool." LOL.

They ask me who I support. I say Obama. I think Obama has a great chance of winning the nomination and the White House in 2008. I like his life story, I like his vision, and, best of all, I like his messages of hope for the future. Obama will bring a clean slate to the White House. Clinton is sullied by her 8 years there as First Lady.
However, things being as they are, I think the best ticket will be a Clinton/Obama one. This will trounce the Republicans in November next year. To use a cliche, it is a ticket whose time has come. CLINTON/OBAMA 2008. RAH RAH RAH!!!!

Traipsing around the internet, for one often engages in that unspeakable vice on a Sunday afternoon, we happened upon the following little gift for the inner Brit in all of us:

Henry Poole.

What a lark! That would sadly be only for weekend wear and for declaring war against the sheep farmer over yonder. I do like his bespoke suits, though the price tag is well out of my range!

With all that money you can't spell?

"I apologize to the pap for a stunt that was done 4 months ago regarding an umbrella," Spears said in a statement posted Wednesday on her Web site. "I was preparing my character for a roll (sic) in a movie where the husband never plays his part so they switch places accidentally. I take all my rolls very seriously and got a little carried away. Unfortunately I didn't get the part."
This was the statement posted by Spears on her website according to CNN. You would think with all that money she would learn how to spell. She definitely is on a "roll." Checking her website today, the spelling has been corrected.

I watched Larry King with Isaiah Washington this week and saw his pitiful explanations on why he is not homophobic. Then he has the audacity to suggest that racism was the reason he was fired. Umm, no, asshole. You were fired because you're a cheap little bigot and the way you made those comments the second time was totally uncalled for. He was rightly fired from the show and should not be allowed to work again. There is no place for comments like that and he should be made an example of to show others that if you use language like that you're out of a job.

I had a perfect day yesterday. I did my Sunday morning ritual of having a cuppa coffee at the Dupont Starbucks and reading my Sunday Post and then getting my weekly fix of goat cheese from Farmer Dan. I love shopping from Farmer Dan because we always end up talking about traveling around the world. Yesterday we talked about Morocco. Fun! :-) Must put that on the list. :-)

So, the plan we (as in the Royal we) made for 2007 is coming along just fine. We decided to go to Buenos Aires and Rome, which we did and we also decided to go to Beijing and one other undisclosed location. Well, we are contemplating Morocco or Spain for the week of Dec 2 thru Dec 9, 2007. Hmm, which one should we choose? Decisions decisions. :-)

Probably the Coolest Guy in the World

OK, STOP THE PRESSES!!! I want to be this guy when I grow up. Such a cool life! :-)

NO FUCKING JUSTICE

Paris Hilton served less than a week and now she is under house arrest because of some medical condition? Yeah, like what? She misses her fucking Louis Vuitton pillows? There is no justice!! I say throw her in the Chateau D'if! Off with her head.

In other news, my favotire Woodstein, my little Macaca, was in the Washington Post today for a quick second. I was shedding tears of pride and joy for my little boo for finally being published in the WaPo.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. William Jefferson was just indicted today but he hasn't been convicted. I am disgusted with the Democrats. Why don't they just kick him out?

I love the Grooming Lounge. I love the oak paneling, the service, and the modern-day Reform Club atmosphere of it all. It feels like I'm getting a haircut in a law office. I love the old fashioned smell of strong cologne and after shave.
Ever since I took up the desk job I have been investing in nice things to complete the corporate whore look, a look which I love and enjoy! I bought some gorgeous ties from Daddy and Son Camiceria and some spread collar shirts from Nordstrom. Why, oh, why can't I find reasonable priced spread collar shirts here? The only good ones are Faconnable and there's no way in hell I'm spending $125 on a shirt! I got some nice shoes from Kenneth Cole to complete the look.
There is still so much to be said for dressing well in this day and age of dressing down. There is nothing like a good conservative pinstripe suit, good black shoes, a white spread collar shirt, and a good stiff bold tie that is tied in a Windsor knot. Call me old fashioned but it looks smashing! :-)

Lou Dobbs is a wannabe demagogue- nothing more, nothing less. History is littered with examples like him. People like Lou Dobbs single out a vulnerable group of people and incessantly attack them because they know that group can't fight back. Poor old Lou is trying to pander to what Nixon used to call the Silent Majority thinking that if he keeps on with is racist and xenophobic rants, they will rise up against undocumented workers. What is dangerous is that there are people who are stupid enough to believe his drivel and act on it. Lou Dobbs, the Minutemen and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) have formed a dangerous triumvirate that, if left unchecked, can turn into a juggernaut that will create more divisions in the country-something we can really do without. Also, Lou Dobbs and his sorry little foot soldiers like Kitty Pilgrim, who both insist on calling the PRC Communist China in every sentence, are nothing but rabble rousers. Yes, the PRC is communist but they're trying to start another Red Scare because Dobbs suffers from what most of the current administration suffers-Cold War Hangover. They want to go back to a time when everyone was so afraid of communism that they didn't care about how deep the military industrial complex invaded their lives and their privacy.
Lou Dobbs and his foot soldiers remind me of the media tactics used by the Nazis. The Nazis used the same media tactics in newsreels and posters to demean Jews and other people they considered "undesirable." Lou Dobbs needs to stop and be stopped. FOR SHAME!!!!

I've loved the Gipsy Kings since I heard them in India in 1992. Their music is haunting and crosses all borders. I stumbled on this awesome video on youtube.com. It is a video of Gipsy Kings and Ziggy Marley doing "One Love." I say we all sing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AxCm9TvlVP4&mode=related&search=

Well, it's been a few weeks and I am ready to wax about Rome. After spending hours at that airline purgatory called JFK, off I went hurtling across the Pond and plopping down in Rome. A half an hour later I was at Termini with a startled look and WOWWWWW there it was-Roman ruins!
Checking into the hotel, my room was about 150 sq feet. I got lost, like I normally do in any new city, and wound up on the Via Veneto and walked over to the Spanish Steps. *Enid Blyton alert* After tea and scones at Babbington's I went to the Trevi Fountain and then stood in line for two hours outside the Museii Vaticani and then an additional hour inside just to get to the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot describe the detail and the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I then mailed the obligatory postcards from the Vatican with the Vatican postmark and walked along the mighty Tiber to an enoteca or wine bar. I love Roman enotecas. You walk in have a glass or two of spumanti or chianti and then you're out and about again. :-)
Ed came in on Wednesday the 21 and we went exlporing some more. There are so many Romes to see. There is Ancient Rome, Renaissance Rome and modern Rome with its smart cars and Minis and fashionably dressed people.
The food was great. Pizza, pasta and gelati but also the Indian and Ethiopian food was amazing.
The bars and clubs were phenomenal. There was one right next to the Colisseum so when we stumbled out we stumbled past the Colisseum. Monte Testaccio is a great neighborhood. My favorite clubs were Alibi and Mucca Assassina at Qube.
The best day was Sunday when we walked around Trastevere and relaxed in the Campo de Fiori with its musicians playing American standards while we sipped cold Birra Moretti. :-)
I love Rome but it still comes a close second to Paris. :-) Rome is grand, Paris is seductive. :-)

Allors! La Macacarie est commence! My fabulous boo, Maryland Macaca, has entered the slugfest that comes about when the north/south divide is discussed. I only have one thing to add:
Hindi is not the official language of India. There are (the last time I checked) 18 official languages of which English is one. When people speak to me in Hindi in the U.S. I reply in Hindi, but with a Tom Alter accent (Tom Alter is a white Indian actor who used to get the generic evil British/European guy roles in some Hindi movies in the 80s and 90s) which seems to piss people off to no end and stops them from irritatingly insisting that Hindi is the official language.

My take on the Hindi thing: I don't give a flying fuck. I'm in America now and can manage English on a good day. Nothing good ever came out of regionalism one way or the other. I say we all hold hands and sing the following:

I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves
I'd like to teach the world to singIn perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
"Ah, peace throughout the land"
(That's the song I hear)
I'd like to teach the world to sing (that the world sings today)
In perfect harmony(Lead singer and background singers singing simultaneously)
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
Id like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves



PACE!!!

Um, we did WHAT???? Oy vey, indeed! Step in the right direction? Maybe, maybe not.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041000852.html

OMG I want to be this guy. So cool, he flies almost all of United's inaugural flights for kicks. He did a brutal 38 hours doing Dulles-Beijing and then turned around and did Beijing-Dulles. Yowww.

Roma was a dream come true. Check out the pics:

Roma, March 19-26, 2005.

Fuck a Duck! The planes are all delayed. I hope tomorrow's flights are OK and there's no fucking snowstorm. I hate changing planes! :-)

IT'S THE IDES OF MARCH, THE IDES OF MARCH! BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!
On this day, the Ides of March 44BC, Julius Ceasar was stabbed, fatally.
ET TU, BRUTUS?
I tried to synchronize my trip so I could be in Rome for the Ides of March but I couldn't get the time off. :-( Allors. I'm off to Roma on Sunday!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

The Batty Maccaca has suggested that one must publish one's favorite spots to reside on our little blue dot so here goes:

#5 London, UK-Jolly ol'England. God Save the Queens. Great city, great ethnic food, great markets on Portobello Road, great pubs (shout out for the Prince of Wales on Old Brompton Road), great mix of people, great history, Great Britain!
#4 Copenhagen, Denmark-Great people, great history, cute homes, hyggelig (loosely translates as cozyness), Great Danes!
#3 Paris-Ah Paris, je t'aime. What else to say? I'd run off here in a hearbeat and live in Le Marais and spend hours on the Ile-Ste.-Louis painting in my beret!
#2 Washington, D.C.-Home sweet home. Love you boo, great city lousy politicians, great museums, great ethnic food, great monuments, Dupont Circle!
#1 San Francisco-went there in 2002 and fell madly in love with it. The fog rolling in over Golden Gate Bridge, priceless. Great people, open minds, easy access to wine country.

Honorable mentions for places to run off to when I've had my midlife crisis/40 year heart attack/nervous breakdown

#5 Reykjavik, Iceland-Fun people, ice ice and more ice. Pickled Ram's testicles and putrid shark meat to boot!
#4 Buenos Aires, Argentina-no one will find me here, all the steak to eat and chimichurri sauce, balconies galore for singing "Don't Cry for me Argentina."
#3 Pacific Beach, CA-Surfs up!
#2- Torrey Pines, CA- Turquoise beaches, beach bummery.
#1- Helsingoer, Denmark-Quiet contemplation with Hamlet.

Well, I only have one entry up about Buenos Aires and I am too lazy to update and do all the photo adding thingamabob to it so if you want to see all my B.A. pics and their respective explanations, check out my flickr site at http://flickr.com/photos/54659588@N00.

Allors, so I have started a new position at work. I now have my first desk job in 4 years. I am excited but need the aid and assistance from a small little coffee company from Seattle because desk jobs sometimes lull me into oblivion. Anyhoo, the MBA is coming along fine. I did a paper on corporate social responsibility and shat (or is it shitted) all over Milton Friedman's bullshit theories.

I'm off to the Eternal City next Sunday and will spend my birthday at the Vatican, like the good little Catholic I am, even though I am heathen! :-) What a difference between birthday 30 and 31. 30 was filled with more wanton debauchery than one man should be entitled to handle and 31 is spent in quiet piety on the steps of Saint Peter's Basilica. Hmmm.

Before I forget:

REST IN PEACE MR. HUMPHRIES!!!!

He's probably taking an "inside leg" at the Grace Brothers' Store in the sky! :-)

De Washington a Buenos Aires

Going in an out of consciousness after a heavy night of booze courtesy of the boyz and the Navy, I made a decision on my 30th Birthday last year that I was going to see the world once I moved back into the nunnery. So, after the Christmas rush I bought a package to Buenos Aires and found myself cramped in seat 15E at the bulkhead on United 847 at 9 p.m. on January 28, 2007. A push and a tug and off I went hurtling across the equator into balmy Sur America, Argentina, y Buenos Aires.

Flying United is interesting. I am convinced that unless you fly upper deck 747, the economy section of any plane of any airline is pretty much a sardine can. Air France has better looking flight attendants and Christian LaCroix cravats but that's the only difference. The chicken is still made of rubber whether it is served as poulet on Air France Tempo or as "CHICKEN" on United Economy Plus. Before the flight, I ran into our erstwhile partner-in-crime, the esteemed Mrs. Chopra, who had been bumped off 5 flights to Boston and was still on the waitlist for the 6th one. So we perched ourselves, somewhat precariously, on a couple of barstools at the wine bar outside gate C5 and had a few flights of wine. We then went our separate ways jetting off in opposite directions-she for the wintry confines of Harvard Yard and me for the summery pampas of L'Argentina.

So there I was flying somewhere over North Carolina when the flight attendant with gout and four chins started down the aisle screaming "BEEF" or "CHICKEN". I got the beef. Any resemblance between United's beef and that meat that comes from things that go moo is purely a coincidence. I also had to pay $5 for a small bottle of wine. Honey, why don't you charge me $25 for the freakin' seatbelts?

The movies were good-The Last King of Scotland, the Queen.

After much hurtling, a smooth landing, passport stamp collecting (oooh another one), I got into a remise and into Buenos Aires. My first impression was WOW, it's just like Paris. They have an obelisk too, you just can't take an elevator to the top. I checked into my lovely room at the Kempinski Park Chateau and went exploring. Wow, it's just like Paris. The streets and the houses in Recoleta are just like, well, Paris. I spent the first morning exploring my gorgeous neighborhood.

My first impression was that B.A. is full of beautiful people. Everyone is tanned, looks gorgeous, and have 28 inch waists. Oy vey, this was going to be a fun week. I walked down Talcahuano, across Avenida Santa Fe, right on Avenida Cordoba, and right on Montevideo back to the hotel. Cute little neighborhood, lovely parks, and my first Argentine experience with stuff from the guidebook-a paseaperro. Passeaperros are people who are professional dog walkers. They walk upto 10-15 dogs at any one given time.

Off it was then for a spot of lunch at a parilla, not an authentic one, as I later found out but great nevertheless. The parilla man said "De donde vos? (where are you from)" and I said "Estados Unidos" and he was pleasantly surprised that someone would travel from the U.S. to B.A. on vacation. Then it was a trek to Recoleta Cemetery and I had saved that for the next day but I sat in a cafe, ordered "un cafe cortado" and listened as the mime played La Cumparsita in the park. They do it for the tourists, but HELL'S BELLS, MARGE, I am a tourist. My trip to Paris was complete only when the accordioniste played La Vie En Rose, and my trip to B.A. was complete when I heard La Cumparsita or Por Una Cabeza (The Scent of a Woman Tango song) played at the street corner or in the park.
One rests after such hard work so I took a long nap. Up at the PM and I was off exploring again, this time on upper Avenida Santa Fe. I walked into Cafe Olmo at Santa Fe and Puyrredon and enjoyed a whole bottle of Malbec and two cortados. Nothing better after a long flight than a bottle of Malbec and some coffee to balance it out. I came back to the hotel and dozed off watching Gran Hermano (Big Brother) 2007.

Bridget Jones, Here I Come

Well, weight 185lbs, ciggys 0, alcohol units 1.5

Must get back on treadmill, must loose 15 lbs before flying off to Buenos Aires!! :-)

Well, I haven't blogged since October and I thought whether or not I should blog because of some hypothetical situation I might face in the future and I decided-DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL SPEED AHEAD!!! :-)

So, the Dems won, the Reds got their asses kicked. I finished my first semester in the MBA program with a B (YAY me) and am about to start semester 2.

I'm flying south-waaaay down south for the winter. I'm off to Buenos Aires for a week in Jan-Feb.

Happy New Year, all. I spent New Year's Eve with les garcons at their Chesapeake Manor. Ah bliss. It was so nice and peaceful.