A Different View
Sharm has charm and sun – and camels for all shapes
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As pursuits for generously proportioned Irishmen with something bordering on a phobia about the sun go, riding a bony camel in 45 degree heat across the Sinai desert probably takes some beating.
But when in Rome and all that – or in this case Egypt – and thankfully in the absence of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I found myself astride this unfortunate beast like a larger version of Laurence of Arabia about to conquer the Gulf of Aqaba.
There must be dozens of reasons why Egypt would be the wrong holiday destination for me – I’m not mad about heat and I never sunbathe for a start – but most of all, why would you holiday in one of the world’s hotspots, both climatically and politically?
And yet I enjoyed it more than words can say; we felt supremely safe from the moment we arrived – to the point that you never even thought about it – and we’re finally reached an age where we have enough cop-on to realise that only mad dogs and sun worshipping English men go out in the midday sun.
Egypt makes headlines for many reasons just now – and some of them are the wrong ones – but the coastal resort of Sharm El Sheikh is, in every sense, an oasis.
The country itself is vast but 90 million Egyptians live on just six per cent of the land; there are three million Bedouins and 27 tribes in a country steeped in culture and history – although it must be said that Sharm would not be top of your list for history…this is a sun holiday destination.
Clinging to the south east coast of the Sinai peninsula, a land mass that is otherwise a desert, it was developed entirely to cater for the tourist, and particularly those with an interest in diving – or at least in snorkelling to experience the multitude of multi-coloured fish that live in the coral beds which provide this region’s biggest attraction.
If you love guaranteed sunshine and you’re at your best in temperatures of around 40 degrees, this is the place for you.
But even if, like me, you don’t, then rest assured that Sharm could only be more air conditioned if they erected giant wind machines on the streets – and even in the absence of those cold windmills, the evenings still are balmingly comfortable with all of the shops, pubs and nightclubs you could ever need doing a roaring trade into the small hours of the morning.
We stayed at the Ghazala Gardens Hotel – a resort with enough to keep you fully occupied even if you never exited its grand front doors.
The food was varied with seven restaurants on site offering European dishes or specialist eateries with Italian pizza or Mexican fajitas, a variety of fish dishes and all of the fresh, crisp salad your little heart could desire.
The rooms were spacious, luxurious and fully air-conditioned; the staff were ultra-friendly and yet reserved – and with the all inclusive package that most tourists opted for, you could eat and drink as much as you wanted without worrying about the incurring cost.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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