The Bunnie Blog
Living and Diving in Sharm el Sheikh
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So… what do you do in Sharm if you don’t dive?? Actually if you are here on holiday, there is quite a lot… you can go quad biking in the desert, climb Mount Sinai and watch the sunrise, visit St Catherine’s Monastery and see the burning bush (or one like it!) and of course you can have dinner in the desert under the stars with your very own astronomist to guide you through the wonders of the heavens. However if you live here and have done all that (or not, as the case may be), then the best bet is to find somewhere cool to chill out. Especially this week as the temperature shot up to 42ºC. So we had a few days off, during which we watched tons of videos in our nice cool, comfy apartment (we are lucky we have both aircon and a great view), and visited a few nice restaurants and bars where we could keep cool and share a chilly beer. Today for me, was time to go back to work, so I was on the beach doing Discover Scuba Diving. Unfortunately two of our students didn’t even make it to the water… we cannot stress enough the importance of drinking enough water.. dehydration tends to kick in a day in arrears, so if you spend one day drinking mostly beer and about half a litre of water, the next day you are going to seriously suffer. Ooops. Unfortunately not everyone realises this when they arrive, and of course being on holiday you want to have a drink or two (check my own comments in the previous paragraph). It is just vital that that beer is counterbalanced with heaps of water. Anwyay back to the diving… we had our little group of divers briefed up and kitted up, and I took my two off to go through their initial paces. Just a couple of skills before heading out for a little dive. Sadly despite many attempts, the guy just couldn’t take to it. Having never snorkelled before it was all a novelty, and for him it was not a nice novelty. So despite being very brave and attempting to breathe with his face in the water several times, he opted to head back to shore. Maybe another time… The other student, flew through her skills and went on to do the open water dive. We had a great time, an eagle ray, plenty of puffer fish, parrot fish and clown fish. Then right at the end we saw a giant titan triggerfish and a big napoleon wrasse. Not bad for her first dive eh? I did find it quite amusing that the trigger fish was getting a bit aggressive with the snorklers feeding it (fish feeding is illegal here and so disruptive to the fish). He didn’t do any harm, but again confirms another reason why we don’t feed fish here… they can start to associate swimmers with food… not always the best idea. Anyway, a good day was had by all.. and after a 50 minute dive we headed back to the dive centre to log the dive, look at photos and chat about our sightings. |
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So I have just finished reading the book by cat whisperer Vicky Halls. Not that Boo (the cat) seems particularly stressed or anything, although she is a bit on the odd side. I have come to the conclusion that she is basically a bit of a scaredy cat hehe. But the book was very interesting, makes you think about things a bit more from a cat’s point of view, and realise that just because there are no active fights going on, doesn’t mean to say that all is complete harmony. Cats use intimidation on each other and can play power games with each other especially if you have too many living in one home. I was also a bit relieved to hear that Boo’s muteness is not such a bad thing either. Having said that she has been known to make the odd squeak more recently.
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I haven’t really mentioned the cats n kittens around our place in recent weeks, so I thought a little update was in order.
We still have Boo our resident cat, who has now grown up from a tiny ball of fluff two years ago, into an impressive big, lady cat, with healthy, glossy fur and a quite bizzare but cute personality. Because Tigger always meowed for her, she never really developed a voice of her own, and even now, she barely squeaks. In fact will often open her mouth with a silent meaow unless she is distressed enough to force out the squeak.
Whilst we don’t have any other cats living with us, we have plenty of fluffy neighbours, and to our own detriment, we are a bit on the soft side, so occasionally have lapsed into a bit of sneaky feeding of the strays… ooops! Much to Boo’s displeasure.
There were a few kittens last year, who became orphaned and then adopted by their grandma who had a batch of her own babies… poor thing would be laid out with seven kittens attached to her belly! These kittens have now grown up a bit, and guess what yes.. two of them have given birth!!! Eeek! And again in a sad repetition of fate, the mother of three of them was knocked over a couple of weeks ago, so we have three orphan Tigger lookalikes hanging around their auntie who has just brought a batch of her own into the world (two tiny ginger toms and a patchy black, ginger and white girlie). No doubt she too will give in and end up feeding all six of them.
I can’t help but find them cuter than cute as they stagger around finding their feet in the big bad world. I haven’t succumbed to feeding them yet, and I am sure that their mum finds enough in and around the rubbish for that. What I will say though is that I would rather have a few neighbourhood kitties than some residential rats… eeek!
So the day finally came when we decided to get Betty (the mother of our kittens) spayed. Two kittens really are enough, and the cat population of Hadaba really doesn’t need any more additions… cruel though it seems.
Having said that, when the time actually came last week to drag the poor lady down to the vet, I felt like a completely evil and twisted butcherer. As it happened, it turned out that she was already up the duff, having got frisky with a boy cat barely weeks after giving birth, and we would have been host to another four babies had we left it a couple of weeks longer!
Thankfully all went well, and after a few gruesome days watching her struggle onto her feet and scowl at us from under the couch, she has kind of returned to her normal self a touch. I don’t think she quite entirely trusts me yet, but I guess that is to be expected.
Of course the kittens are oblivious to their mother’s trauma and have ended up with a few swift swipes from her for trying to interfere where they are not wanted.
Thursday, April 27th, 2006
OK, so we all knew it was going to happen, but when it did, it was a little bit of a shock.
The kittens have finally managed to clamber up onto the wall of the balcony and for sure will soon be jumping off and discovering the world at large, just like their mum. However the jump is a pretty big one, and I am not on the ground floor, so room for error is minimal!
So… inevitably 2 days after our first nailbiting moment as we witnessed tiny Tigger up on the balcony wall, I got woken up by some distressed kitten mewling coming from somewhere other than the balcony! Yes, there he was sat on our stairs somewhat shocked to find himself there. Mum was wandering around equally disturbed, but he is now just a little too big for her to carry him and jump back up at the same time. Hence the mewling… to bring in the human cavalry.
Thankfully in true cat-like fashion, he had landed on his feet, come to no harm and will no doubt be doing it again, but maybe in a little while, once he is a little stronger.
Those of you who have been following my blog for some time will be familiar with the tale of our adopted pregnant kitty… see the blog archive. Weeell after her hormonal moment with me, she did eventually disappear to an apartment across the road and gave birth to two very cute kittens (judging by the size of her we were expecting at least 6!). She then turned up at our flats all lean, svelte and calm managing amazingly to rekindle my trust.
It didn’t take her long, but as soon as her little ones were big enough, she turned up on my balcony with my new neighbours. Yes I have kittens living on my balcony… and very cute they have been too. Thankfully I have had advice a plenty from friends here well versed in kitten care, and they are turning out to be quite a robust little team.
Not quite sure what I am going to do with them as they grow up however…
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