'Be perfect...'

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Everyone needs and admin day, and I guess I'm no exception over here. Its a bit of a challenge living in one room, and I can only imagine how those poor families in emergency accommodation get by, seeing as there's only me, and I can only really annoy myself.

Still, I did manage to get a good bit done today.

The piece of Scripture I read this morning contained the line, 'Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'  Really Matthew? I mean, I'm doing my best but washing my smalls in the sink hardly equates!

In any event, I managed to get my dry cleaning to my friend Moustafa, down by the antique shops,  before noon. 'Tomorrow, same time?' I inquired. 

'No' he exclaimed. (of course its Eid), so they're off tomorrow.

'This evening at 6,' he smiles. Wow. I'm even more impressed!

The antiques are amazing, with many shops in this area all stocking large ornate furniture and solid marble items. Definitely not the bric-a-brac type stuff one might find at home. Although I imagine one would need an enormous rectory to accommodate them!

In the meantime, its off to do some tidying and organising. I even managed to find a working ATM, after about five tries. I guess the guys that load the ATMs are also off? This was confirmed by a rather frustrated local who said the same thing to me at yet another non-functioning machine.

Apparently, the festival here last four days, from tomorrow through the weekend, until Monday. I believe it's up to 9 days in some countries in the Middle-East!

After a quick lunch of coffee and a croissant it was off to my favourite bookshop cafe, Diwar. It was, as expected, fairly quiet today with the festival, so all good there. There's never any rush anyway and one can browse the books afterwards at leisure.

When I got back to my office, I began to plan a service for the weekend with Bishop Mouneer. I'm assisting, but I'm not sure in what capacity just yet. So I'll prepare a sermon just in case.

It's Pentecost here, as they follow the Orthodox calendar, so I put together something suitable that is about 20 minutes long.

I also looked at next week's readings as I'm leading the services for the next three weeks on Fridays and Sundays. What an enormous  privilege, and last Sunday's service went down really well.

It was back at 6 to pick up my dry cleaning at Moustafa's. Two pants and three shirts - €5. And a sane day service to boot! We are being so ripped off back home! Then Granita for a light dinner.

I managed to get tickets for the Grand Egyptian Museum for tomorrow, on Bishop Mouneer's advice, as it's sure to be quieter. I'm really looking forward to that!!

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