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CAIRO - UNABLE TO REPAIR THE CAR

21.08.2015
When I appeared at Peugeot Giza in the morning they explained me that our agreement from yesterday wasn't good any more. They didn't have "special tools" for Partner (whatever that should mean) so they sent me to the importer Wagih Abaza. A real Peugeot repairing factory, but unfortunately they wanted to repair visual distortions instead of the real reason of all the problems, the hook that had been pulled out at Wadi Ram and consequently pushed the mask and front light backwards. They wanted to repair (actually to bent) the bonnet, left mud guard and left light so that they would adapt to the bent frame. But the decisive for pulling out of the workshop was that I couldn't assist the five hour repairing procedure, I actually shouldn't have at all approached the car for that time.

I waited for the price of longer front springs for two hours, then we went for a test drive (I thought we went to another place to find the proper part and its price) on which they were listening if the shock-absorbers are in bad condition. But the only thing in bad condition was our communication (their English or my Arabic, as you prefer).

But also traffic conditions are bad; the worse are not all the vehicles from buses to donkeys that criss-cross the streets, the worse are pedestrians that are just "splitting" across the streets with five-lane traffic. If I stay with no clutch or no brakes, that will happen in Cairo. Apart of this, the injury I got when horse-riding in Dahab on a bad saddle and in jeans, hasn't healed yet and this makes cluch-pressing a real martyrdom. Sometimes I just feel like switching long lights on and pressing the horn and the accelerator all the way down.

Now I am with Sandra in the Blue Net internet cafe (I just can't get rid of them, they've tracked me down again) but can't wait to get a camomile tea, and then a hammer into my hands and lay under the car by myself again.

Next year will be better. I wish you a nice new year's eve!