House rules
I am still experimenting blog-wise. I'm also having some difficulties with the layout as the right side of my page keeps sliding down instead of remaining on top next to the most recent posted message. But those minor bugs won't deter my initiative.
I mentioned in an earlier message that the idea of the blog came to me when I decided to share pictures with old friends from my school days. This I will start doing today. But beyond the photographs, this blog will also feature some of my points of interest. These - in no particular - order include:
- travel
- music: jazz in particular, but also blues, classical music, some forms of world music, French singers/poets such as Brassens, Barbara, Reggiani, Ferré, and Brel (the latter being Belgian...)
- history
- wine tasting
- comic books (first and foremost Hergé/Tintin, but also a few other Belgian writers/artists such as Jacobs, Shuitten and Peeters)
- sports cars old and new
- design
- advertising
- literature (both french and english)
- cinema
- tennis
- lanscaping
- and whatever new discoveries I make
And now some house rules I'd like to share with you:
- I will not post my e-mail on this site - I get my fair share of junk mail already. My potential readers are friends - they know how to reach me.
- I will write in both english and french.
- I will not mention anybody's full name, but will use either the first or family name. Those who know the people I'm writing about will recognize them anyway. The others don't have to know.
- I will not publish jokes.
- I won't necessarily write evey day. In fact, I'm sure I won't.
- If my friends get too bored reading me, it's because they're not sending me their own stories, news and pictures to publish.
Below, is the first of the series of pictures which started this blog project. The photograph was taken in May 1955.
The teacher was Mr. Ramzi. We're about six years old and many of the fellows in the picture attended this school till they went to university. The school is called "Collège de la Salle" and when time permits, I never miss an opportunity to visit its large grounds and chapel whenever I go to Cairo.
Fifty years later, I still see occasionally some of the guys in the picture: Awad, Habib, Malouf, Eid, Hajjar and Saada. My 50 classmates now live in no less than 12 different countries and probably less than a quarter of them are still living in Cairo. By the way, I'm at the extreme right of the top row. Here's a close-up...