once upon atime in a line!

How long have you standed in a line inside or outside a bilding to do any thing? And what was the longst duratione you have done that ever? Ten minuets? Half an hour? One hour? Maybe two?

Well, letme break your personal records!!!!!

So, ladies and gentelmen! Now we will celebrate the new world record!!!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMM
TISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

SIX HOURS!!!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ladies and Gentelmen, let's applause to our Herooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, Egyptians, especially in Cairo, are used to this kind of tidious activity. This is supposed to be natural especially if we are talking a bout a big city with more than 20 million residents. An Egyptian journalist described that as " The worst and most brutal punishmint for your sins!"

Three weeks ago, I had to go to the National Records authority to issue a new copy of this:
Egyptian identity card: image removed by BBC Learning English

This is the "The national ID card" which is the most important document in an ordinary Egyptian life. In fact, you can't make a passport, enroll in courses or buy a car without it, and in many cases your identity is denied if you missed yours!

Actually, I had to change some details in my ID in order to issuing other important documents. And that was the very begining of the story.

10.00 am : I reached the national records building. I supposed it was early.......What a stupid thought! Unfortunately, I found an extremely long line of people extended from the basement to the first floor, department of national IDs. So, I have to take my position in that line.Some people told me that they were here from 7.00 am till this moment!!!!!!!!

11.00 am : The line moved slowly and I put my exhausted feet on the stairs towards my destination.

12.00 am : The electrecity cut off suddenly! This meant, with no doubt, many other precious minuets would be wasted just like that!

1.00 pm : The electricity was back.......Thanks God! The line resumed moving with the same slow speed after meaningless stop.

3.00 pm : Finally, I reached the clerk responsible for finishing my papers. But that wasn't the end of the suffering. She, by the way she was a woman, showed me an ugly smile and said, "This is the end of my shift! See you! Good luck!"
.................No comment! Please, don't lough!!!!!

4.00 pm : After another hour of waiting that left me and rest of the people very furious, the other clerk arrived. Me and the people behind me were so exhausted and tired, my blood pressure dropped and I was near to faint, to blame that man or yell on him. He finished my paper and this drama, that seemed to be endless, reached its end!

Finding a bus that drove me home wasn't that difficult and I layed down on my bed on 5.45 pm!!!!!!

Have you ever had similar experience or even dared to do? Tell me, please!!!!!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Rachel.

Hello Rachel,
Thanks alot for your last enteries, especially the last one. They were absolutely useful.

I've read the leaflet and, as you, found it strange to read an expression like " flu friend'. But actually, the statement " Catch it, Bin it, Kill it" is my favourite.

This reminds me with a widely used term in medical books " Typhoid Marry". Marry was a cook used to process meals to many high class families in USA in the third decade of 20th century. Many children and even elderly members of these families died with typhoid that was a fatal bacterial disease at this time. Physicians found typhoid in the samples of food prepared by Marry and, later on, in her blood smear. She had typhoid in her blood but didn't harm her. Nowadays, This term is used to define people like Marry who can spread a dangerous disease, viral or bacterial, unitentionally. In another words, they are called "carriers"

You are right about new situations that give birth to new words. This is also true about Arabic. Anyway, languages are described to be adaptable, I spent more than ten minuets to remember this word. On the other hand, new situations can give " life kiss" to some words that was thought to be burried forever in language books. For example, many English language students, like me, had to deal with words like "terrorism", "tolerance", "mass destruction weapons", "pre-amptive",......etc after 9/11 attacks. During the swine flu crisis, many people I meet and many TV programmes presenters used the word H1N1 in stead of swine flu. I thaught that this word would still forever used only by medical specialists. I was, as usual, wrong.

That's it for now. See you soon, Rachel.

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