PICTURES BELOW NOW FIXED!

For the past week I have been enjoying albums by The Cribs, The Rakes, The Blood Arm and The Tears. I have also rediscovered a 21 year old album; Microphonies by Cabaret Voltaire. I bought the tape of this album in 1984 at Heathrow airport as I was flying to Cairo with Romanian Airlines (nearly 24 hours via Sofia but very cheap). One day after leaving England I was sitting on the balcony of my chic flea-bag hotel (£3 a night), sipping on a fake arab coke, listening to Sheffield electronica and watching the day-long-rush-hour chaos on the streets below. That tape hardly left my walkman during the next month as I made my way South devouring every temple and monument. I broke my arm and leg while horse riding at the end of the trip and my walkman was stolen from my bedside at the American hospital in Cairo so I didn't have the pleasure of those crispy sounds while I licked my wounds and recouperated on Crete for a month (and before anyone cries out "Ooo, get Mr Moneybags!", I found it very easy to survive on £5 a day back then). So, today I was walking the dog down by the nature reserve listening to Microphonies for the first time in many years and all these memories from that trip came rushing back making me happy. I love it when that happens.

Here is a picture of me on the roof of Edfu temple. Please pardon my cowboy hat. That big hunk 'o' love with the tache? Don't ask.

I took a camel to see the Aga Khans Mausoleum. How cool is that guy's jacket?

This is how fucked you will look after sleeping (i.e. not sleeping) on a small felucca sailing down to Aswan. How can it be so freakin' hot during the day and so damn cold at night? That's me on the right.