The title of this section may appear as though i am ticking off the months of my time in Egypt on a calendar like a prison sentence. I'm not, but i have to keep reminding myself how long i've actually been here as it has passed so quickly that i have this terrible fear that my time here will finish just as i discover what i came here to find.

It was to be a 12 months of escapism, a chance to re-evaluate my life, a mission of self discovery. I wanted to remember the person that i was before i went to London. Was i just subdued or had i actually changed irrepariably and would i be able to find those elements of my personality which had been lost, would i even want to. I also wanted to develop my mind through a challenge unlike anything i had experienced previously. There was a torrent of questions going through my mind.

And now? A major differnce in my attitude since i first arrived in Cairo is that in the second half of the year I have adapted myself and my role in this job to suit my needs, where as, in the first half of the year (I now realise )that i was trying to adapt myself to a pattern that i thought i should fit.

I have accepted inevitalbe parts of my character and changed others. I have begun to focus on the heart of Egypt rather than just on the success of my work and i think that this will probabaly be evident in the rest of my writing.