Egypt: Part II...

The Valley of the Kings remains the stuff of legend with some sixty-plus tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and the world-famous story of Howard Carter's discovery of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb and treasures only adding to the romance.

So to go there when it was not very crowded was a very special experience, and to be one of only three people, alongside the Missus and a mutual friend, in the tomb of the boy pharaoh was astonishing.

You have to pay extra to go into this tomb and in reality the tomb is much smaller and much less well decorated than many of the other tombs in the Valley. But it's the tomb everyone wants to visit and the mummy was in situ and the stone sarcophagus and a gold one were also there so it was a strangely intimate moment at one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.

We also visited three other tombs (as the entry ticket allows), one with stunning hieroglyphic decorations, one cut very deep into the rock and one very big and impressive tomb. And they were all amazing in their own ways.

The Valley of the Kings is a strangely stark yet beguiling place as all the good stuff is hidden in rock-hewn tombs under the ground and, when you start your descent down the corridors and start looking at the wall carvings, you do get the impression that you're involved in some sort of bizarre time travel.

Sadly all cameras are banned from the Valley of the Kings so we couldn't take pictures but it was a simply stunning day. I was so blown away I didn't even give the Collossi of Memnon much of a second glance.

Other Woman News...

The Other Woman's father remains a source of comedy joy.

Suffering from advancing Parkinson's Disease and sometimes needing to use a wheelchair, he occasionally goes into a respite care home in order to give the Other Woman's mum a bit of a break. And while there he does excursions.

And three days ago the Other Woman got the following text message for him:
'One thing I learned today – never go wheelchair ice skating...’

Legend.

Egypt: Part I…

The Missus has always had a fascination with Ancient Egypt and she’s wanted to go and see the pyramids, the temples, the Valley of the Kings, Cairo Museum, and sail on the Nile and Lake Nasser since she was nine.

Unfortunately, every time we planned the holiday something would happen. One year it was a bomb, then last year it was the revolution… but this year we thought ‘Fuck it. We’re going!’ And so we did…

The initial plan was to take a Nile Cruise and fly to Abu Simbel, the huge rock-hewn temple of Ramesses II, then head to Cairo to see the Pyramids and the Cairo Museum.

But then we started to realise just how huge the country is and just how little time we were giving ourselves… so the plan expanded and evolved and we ended up doing a cruise down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan and back again, then getting a car transfer back to Aswan to join a cruise sailing down Laker Nasser, ending up outside Abu Simbel Temple before flying back to Cairo to see the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum.

Not so much of a holiday, more of a logistical challenge…

But it was worth it. We did loads, saw loads and the trip was even better because the country is suffering a dearth of tourism at the moment following the revolution last year.

Tourism remains the main industry in Egypt and the country usually welcomes something like 14million tourists every year but this year it’s estimated that figure won’t even reach 1million. That’s obviously awful for the struggling Egyptian economy but great for us as it felt like we pretty much had the run of the major tourist sites. This was an unexpected bonus.

The people were also lovely and genuinely welcoming and happy to see us. And we never had a sniff of trouble so if you’ve ever fancied doing a trip to Egypt then now is the perfect time to do it.

Me And Mrs Jones...

Prime-time BBC1 comedy gets such a kicking these days that it’s sometimes difficult to remember this is the genre that produced Dad's Army, Black Adder and much-loved John Sullivan series such as Dear John, Citizen Smith and Only Fools And Horses.

True, it also produced the truly awful Only Fools spin-off The Green Green Grass Of Home and, more recently, the fuck awful (or ‘f-awful’ as the kids say these days) Citizen Khan, but that doesn’t mean it’s quite dead yet.

A case in point in Me And Mrs Jones, which kicks off a six-episode run on Friday 12 October. It’s in what’s known as the Outnumbered slot at From Beer To Paternity Towers and this romantic comedy is a similarly classy affair to the hit family drama.

The premise is Sarah Alexander (the blonde woman from Coupling) is a divorced mother of two small girls and one grown-up son who has to balance the needs of her family with the desire to also have a life of her own. Oh... and she falls for the best friend of her twentysomething son, too. Throw in a lovable clot of an ex-husband (played by Neil Morrissey – the one who was not Martin Clunes in Men Behaving Badly) and a single parent with the hots for her, and… you get the picture.

But don't expect crude farce and convoluted set-ups that end in OTT set pieces. It's a much smarter animal than My Hero or My Family. The gags come quietly under the radar rather than announcing themselves five minutes before they enter the room only to finally deliver a weak punchline.

Alexander is very engaging and sympathetic as single mum Gemma and Morrissey is nicely under-stated as her former husband, while there’s also a show-stealing performance from Nathaniel Parker as possible single parent love interest Tom. But it’s the script that is the real star.

Written by Oriane Messina and Fay Rusling, it’s just clever without bragging about it and it manages the balancing act between great lines and genuine comedy without reaching for the gags and losing any form of character integrity. It's a genuinely engaging and smart piece of writing.

It's very good and it deserves to be a hit. Enjoy…