Admittedly I’m in a grumpy mood today: I always am after a bad night’s sleep.

But, but BUT, I wasn’t last week when I went shopping and I was superbly pissed off then too.

I walked into La Senza at our local hypermarket/shopping centre. It was about 9.30am and there were seven guys in their twenties, two of whom were clearly behind the tills, the rest were just hanging out, chatting with the two female floor assistants. Of the guys there, four were clearly watching me as I perused the lingerie. One of the girls came to follow me around and smooth out anything I even breathed on.

I hate that. I don’t care if they do it when I’ve left the shop, but following me and straightening every, single hanger while I’m there, like I’m ruining their display of hanging garments, which is there so that people like me come and look and then, presumably, buy, drives me nuts. Team it with some sexually repressed spectators and, La Senza, there’s not a hope in hell of me getting out my credit card.

So, I left the shop last week without buying. Not before quick glance at the two guys who were still watching me, then the two cashiers, then the guys sitting around the changing rooms with the other floor assistant and saying, in Arabic, loud enough for them to hear, “So, this is where all the guys come to hang out?” and walking out.

Today I went in just to see if it was different. Instead of seven, there were five guys.

I just don’t get it. It’s lingerie. It’s a conservative society. Women are covered up to protect their modesty, and so as not to titillate men, but lingerie stores have men working the tills? I know that there are bra stalls in markets and women pick their bras in full view of everybody, not just the male stall holder, but this is (for Egypt) an upmarket, expensive store.

It’s not just La Senza. A few shops away is Women’s Secret. They have a female floor assistant with a man on the till. The same with Nike Woman. Is it that Egyptian women cannot count and so cannot be trusted with tills? Nope. Perhaps it’s the patriarchial society. I don’t know. I don’t CARE! I don’t want some guy folding my bras, checking out if I might need another size (what the hell does he know about how bras fit?!) by asking and taking a quick ‘glance’.

Egyptian women are smart. They are also really nice and friendly. I would have probably bought something in all three stores today had there not been men checking out what I was going to be wearing for Mr S (and him alone). Egyptian men are also smart, but there are plenty of other retail ‘experiences’ that talented men can work at, there is no reason for them to be pawing my panties!

No, this isn’t some cheap attempt at temporarily upping my viewer stats.

Summer is whacking Cairo now. Usually we wait until mid June, early July for days in the 40C range, but this year the onslaught began early May. One Summer ritual which remains constant though is the influx of Gulfies (Saudis and Emeraties) from their baking countries. Imagine, coming to Cairo mid Summer to escape the heat!

To satisfy the invasion of walking Dinars and Riyals, advertising and entertainment lucratively turns due East. Tastes are a little different to what Egyptian’s deem attractive and are immediately identifiable. Even belly dancing has its own style in the Gulf (lots of Heavy- Metal-type-long-hair circular-head-banging — sans greasy hair!).

I’ll keep sharing as long as I can. (Ooooh, don’t say I don’t spoil you!).

PS Cherry Tart – cos I’m making another as I type.

Ask any Egyptian right now what’s on their mind and the chances are that the ever rising cost of living will be foremost in their thoughts (for more, read this).

The government announced on Labour Day (1 May) that it was going to up public sector salaries by 30% – an interesting figure given that the official rate of inflation is somewhere in the teens, but unofficially everybody knows it’s, hmm…30%.

So there were a few days of rejoicing coupled with queries about where this extra money was going to come from.

A few days later it has became all too clear: 30% increase in the price of cigarettes, removal of tax-free status for private schools and 35-47% fuel increases. The last one is the biggie.

The whole world is suffering the problem of increased commodity prices, but Egypt has far more people living on or around the ‘bread-line’ than most other places. A large swathe of society cannot absorb these rises in the way that the majority of the developed world can i.e. grumbling about having less spare cash at the end of the month. These people have no spare cash at the beginning of the month, never mind the end.

There are plenty of forecasts of doom and gloom out there about Egypt’s future. What I haven’t seen these predictions take account of is the natural resourcefulness of Egypt’s people. Many will suffer and I don’t mean to down play that, however, humans are great at finding work-arounds and I have to say that Egyptians are absolutely superb at this. So while health and safety is an unheard of luxury, money-saving devices and ideas are likely to be making an appearance sometime soon.

On a completely different thread, is the Grand Hyatt’s decision to go ‘dry’. It is a large 5 star hotel in central Cairo with Saudi ownership. Rumours abound about why the owner/chief shareholder decided to take this route with some newspapers citing his personal religious beliefs, some saying it was the result of a dispute with top management and others saying that in the competitive summer market for tourists from his native land and the Emirates it was a marketing strategy. The result is that the story has made all the newspapers in Cairo with further talks about the Ministry of Tourism downgrading the hotel to 4 star status or even that the Hyatt will pull out of this hotel.

Meanwhile, H&M is apparently going to open in Cairo on 5 June. Whatever the state of the economy, this place is going to be packed out. Fashionistas won’t know what to do with themselves: a foreign brand with fashionable clothes at equal to and cheaper than Egyptian brand prices. It’s pretty amazing really. Three years ago I still had to go out of the country to buy clothes (unless I wanted Versace and the like – not really affordable on an NGO’s salary!) and now there are: Next, Evans, Accessorize, Karen Millen, French Connection, Mango, Top Shop is coming and there are more that I can’t remember right now. Not bad for three years!

Lastly, to follow up from this – we did change the clocks! Apparently some other countries in the region didn’t and next year Egypt won’t either.

I just popped out to get some shopping at a local mall and see the new shops. I heard some time ago there were going to be some new foreign shops, but didn’t pay much attention at the time. Well, shiver me timbers, they are here. From the British High Street direct to Cairo, so far we have La Senza, Esprit and Accessorize. Opening soon are Next, Body Shop, Evans and Top Shop!

It has been by far the most surreal experience of my life. Cairo is carved into my brain as being many things, but a place with access to half-way decent shops, it certainly isn’t. When I first came here, you couldn’t even get a Mars Bar, never mind a pair of knickers that weren’t made with cheap, gaudy synthetic fabric and fat elastic. If you needed a new pair of jeans and didn’t fancy acid wash (in 2000) it required a flight home. If you needed some jumpers that weren’t directly from the 70s seventies (or eighties if you were super lucky), it required a flight home. If you needed socks that wouldn’t set your feet on fire the minute they rubbed against the inside of your shoe or were three sizes too big, it required a flight home. One of the things that made wealthy people instantly recognisable was their foreign clothes, marked by a quality that just couldn’t be found here. Favourite conversations were, “What a lovely [insert here any apparel], where did you get it?” with the response, “Oh, this? In [insert name of European or North American country]“. It didn’t matter if the thing came from Walmart or Matalan, the fact that it was purchased overseas gave it huge kudos and by extension the wearer, who must be fashionable if they were shopping overseas.

This has all but ended. In other areas of town Mango, Esprit, Virgin Megastores have been open for a while with loads of others reserving stores too. At the upper end the boutiques have been importing for a while and the new Four Seasons has an extensive designer label offering.

So, having tripped over my jaw as I entered the mall, I stumbled in a daze of British High Street-hits-my-Egyptian-backyard stupor through the rest of my shopping. In fact, so punch drunk was I that I forgot half of the things I went there for and now can’t remember half of what I saw.

It all came to a Hatton end when turning the corner of an aisle, I found extra products in the metre and a half wide organic section. What were they? No, surely not. Just after I’ve trained Mr S into picking them up when he’s on work trips to Paris..rice cakes. Rice cakes. ORGANIC RICE CAKES! I still can’t believe that I found them. Not only that, but they had more than one variety. I think about four. Four? This is Egypt! And different formats too…swoon.

So spaced-out was I that I barely noticed the four teenage boys following me around.