A year on... El Gouna and not bust!

Well,  it's well over a year ago that I handed in my notice and began the count down to move to Egypt. Well over a year ago that everyone told me they were happy for me, secretly I think they thought I was quite mad. A few actually told me this to my face; however, by then the papers had been given in and the flights had been booked. I had certainly made my mind up.

Ok, it's not quite gone to plan; I'm the first one to admit that. I'm not too sure what I expected when I arrived. I'd moved to a town that I hadn't even visited before, and only knew about three people! I knew that whatever we ended up doing as a business and going head first into a new relationship that it was not necessarily going to be easy. I'd known Dan for three years as a friend, but had only been in a relationship with him for three months before literally dropping everything to be with him on a different continent.

Again I refer you back to the first paragraph. Looking at what I've written it does sound quite mad, quite beyond insane! But all I can say in my defence is that I knew it was right. Something fell into the right place. It was like I finally felt home. A good year later and it still fits, probably better now than ever. I've made myself a home with a fluffy salt-and-peppered haired man, and an even fluffier dog. The both have ways of driving me mad, but I wouldn't change either of them for the world.

Ok, enough of the sentimental tripe. I actually was writing an update... So back to it:

Life out of the fast lane, out of the commute, out of the Politics has been quite strange for me. After eight years of Council Chambers, Highways and Roadworks, dealing with Councillors, MP's and election issues to be able to create my own day really quite left me lost for the first few months. Gaining a routine and sticking to it is quite difficult. It is far too easy to be caught up by the sunshine and lagoons. (It's not all holiday and fun.. I've been diving twice and haven't even learned how to Kite-surf!)

I've spent a lot of time reflecting, almost decompressing from the norms of living the UK way. I'm a lot more relaxed and my anxiety is at an all time low. My CFS and immune system are behaving, and bar a frozen shoulder my body likes living in the desert and heat. It's amazing how your body reacts to the situations you put yourself in. I'm a lot happier and healthier in mind and in body.

We took a break back to the homeland in May, it was heavenly to regain a UK sense of normality and spend time with our loved ones. However, I craved coming back to my new home. For the first time in my life I felt torn between two places. Herne Bay has always and will always be my home, but I've watched it grow and change without me there. It's a very odd experience to see it move on. Not that I had a great impact on where I was living, but I used to walk down the street and see loads of friends and acquaintances, now not so much.

Watching Brexit and the snap General Election was difficult for me. I stayed in the loop but for the first time I truly didn't have an opinion. I wasn't happy on all sides so I stood quietly on the sideline and took note. The one thing I will say is that I'm appalled at just how nasty and vitriolic the world has become. You used to be able to debate, have an opinion and still be able to stay friends, head to the pub for a pint. These days it just doesn't seem possible.

I know I shouldn't really compare, but after living in the Middle East for a while it begins to change your opinion. You see another side of life where, actually you begin to realise just how lucky you truly are. There's a definitive line between rich and poor here, and no benefits to rights to education on the scale of anywhere in the West. People should always fight for the right of what they believe in, but I do sometimes believe that we take things massively out of context.

Anywho, that's me signing off again. I WILL blog more. I've started to write for magazines, and for fun. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy putting down my thoughts and opinions. No time like the present!

Over and out.

Jen

Why I never want to hear the words "Force Majeure" ever again.

This week what have I learned? No matter what language you speak, "Force Majeure" is the same throughout the world.

Finally ZombieBall and Halloweekend have passed. It was a roaring success, yet left such a sweet and sour taste.

Sour you say, why? Well the one thing we didn't counter on being in Egypt and all... was the floods. Thursday 27th of October was, for us, a very, very sad day. Now it's passed I'm begining to feel very sad about it all.

Anyone that works in organisation and planning of events knows that you need to take the highs with the lows. There are normally some giant adrenaline highs pre and during the event, and then successful or not, a major low for the few days afterward. This time it's stuck with me a little longer than what I'd want it to. It doesn't help that my immune system's done it's favourite trick of shutting down on me too, but that's to be expected.

I moved out here in February to see my dreams and concepts come true (and yes, I'm well aware that life isn't THAT easy) but I never thought that post event I'd feel this low. I didn't expect our first event to literally fall apart by the rain. I'd imagined all sorts of scenarios... but the rain? seriously?! But really it's not even the normal time of year IF the floods were to come!

In the scheme of things, Team Submerged got away lightly. Our event nearly was trashed by the fact that most visitors, even from Hurghada couldn't make it down on the roads. They closed off the main road from Cairo, Ras Gharib just 150km away from El Gouna and unfortuntely that really affected everything that we did.

Our poor sponsors and artists took over thirty hours to do a normal five hour trek. Within that time they experienced Mother Nature at full fury; flash floods, camping on top of petrol stations whilst watching people swimming through the mud and seeing others lose thier dear possessions, whether it be thier car or thier home, or worse, thier lives.

Don't get me wrong...we made it through and put on a damn good event. Everyone rallied around each other and helped. It was mental. Our massive set up was put up within 9 hours instead of the planned 48! We worked overtime to ensure that once the doors opened, everything was rightly where it should be.

It went ahead, and yes, ok, we didn't quite get where we wanted to be. I'll be the first to admit that. However we made exactly the impact that we wanted. It proved exactly what I wanted to show. There were so many positives to come away with... the crowds that did make it absolutely loved the design, the party and the concept and had a fantastic night. That's the bit that keeps me very happy despite the sadness.

What I did learn was that working with hundreds of children the day after a large adult's event is... interesting. An hour's sleep after three days of hell only to try and organise 350+ kids on a beach, plus all of thier parents was a success, but not without a few "head in hands" moments. Part of the day was ruined by the post-flood experience so once again it was a rush around to get everything done on top of the groundwork needed within the actual event.

We have a few post-wash up plans on how to improve next year, but for now I feel the need for a little headspace before diving into the next planning. I'm totally lying... I'm already on to the next one as I write!

All I can say is that last weekend we showed what we were made of and then some. If those are the odds that life want to throw against us and we can come out the other end smiling and at least slightly successful... bring it on! (Yes, I know I'm tempting fate with that statement.) I work in a great team, with amazing people from both the location, local companies and community all round. I cannot thank many enough for pulling out all the stops on what was one crazy weekend.

I'm so proud to have done what I've done, I don't regret a single moment. Leaving the UK was the right choice, and I'm even luckier that I get to work with my partner in business and personal life and I wouldn't change it for the world.

In the meantime I'm sparing my thoughts to those poor people in Ras Gharib and further afield. Life can suck, bigtime.

Team Submerged, Halloweekend, ZombieBall and BEYOND!

When I first left for Egypt, I jokingly sat down with the rest of the BayPromoTeam and laughed. "By the way Gerald, would you mind if I created an El Gouna PromoTeam? " - At the time it was purely in jest. (To my good fortune he also told me to crack on...) Little did I know that actually, this was a genuine possibility.

El Gouna isn't unlike Herne Bay, both on the seaside with a beautiful coastline and plenty of activities for locals and visitors. Swap your London weekend visitors for Cairo peeps and Bob's your Uncle.. Red Sea Riviera vs Kentish Riviera! Admittedly the types of residents differ, but considering I'm on a different continent it's not particularly surprising. I loved being part of something bigger, the events that I helped form and work at changed my outlook on life and what I want to be doing. I've always had a warm fuzzy feeling watching people smile and enjoy themselves.

A few months ago I was chatting with Dan on how they don't really seem to have events here. Well they do, but not really anything that brings community together. There's events for the tourists, the all inclusive and then there's events put on by the mainstay locals; such as Hoda from the Clubhouse (Highly recommended by the way!) I just sat there one day and thought why the hell not? Kids love Halloween. Adults love Halloween.. let's do this! Therefore the next thing I know, Halloweekend and ZombieBall were born and we've been working our butts off ever since! The team has grown and now between four of us, we're making this happen!

Admittedly, Submerged Egypt isn't exactly the El Gouna PromoTeam, but we've got the same form of basis. We're an event company who will eventually put money back into the area with the formation of an NGO to help the local children.

Orascom and El Gouna themselves have been  amazing with helping us with our vision and day by day we're getting there. On Friday 28th October, we have a marina music festival in the Abu Tig Marina for early evening, followed by the ZombieBall 2016 taking place in the New Marina till early hours of the morning. Then the next day, Saturday 29th October we have a full afternoon of events for families including a new World Record event to form the Largest Human formation of a Pumpkin, a free Abu Tig or Treat walk around the marina for kids and then finishing off with a street disco for all.

Back to why we're doing this all... there's a serious amount of underprivileged children here who have no idea how to swim, let alone know what the Red Sea is about and how we should be looking after the corals and marine life. Our aim is to create an academy of sorts, education through the medium of water sports and conservation. From this, we want to ensure that the Red Sea is looked after for the future. Children who'd never normally get the chance.. will have big opportunities to learn to swim, to scuba dive and to kite surf their way into the future. There's one hell of a lot of potential talent for future sportspersons. Why not start when they are young and let them enjoy themselves?!

So yes.. these are happening.. spread the word because this is a big thing for me. I want my town to be proud to know that from the little acorn that was BayPromoTeam just five years ago has not only become so very successful in putting Herne Bay on the map.. it's spread to another country where I'm hoping that that warm fuzzy feeling, those smiles and enjoyment will be repeated again and again by others.

www.zombieballegypt.com

www.halloweekendfestival.com

www.baypromoteam.co.uk

#zombiesarecoming #zombieballegypt2016 #elgouna #hernebay #baypromoteam #mygouna #spookygouna

Blog time... A little late!

Ok, five months in and it's pretty apparent just how terrible I am at keeping a blog. I don't really have an excuse as such.. More a case of I've been too busy enjoying life for a change.

What can I say? Life is grand. I never expected to be here doing what I'm doing but I wouldn't change it for the world. Especially now seeing what the world is up to. When I first got here I found myself checking the news daily, just to keep up with what's going on.. Now I look at it with upset and disgust. I laugh at why everyone questioned me moving to the Middle East, when really pretty much the rest of the world is the same, if not more dangerous.

What have I accomplished here so far? Well, other than the obvious.. Relaxing, making friends and making a life for myself... I'm doing pretty much fine. I miss my family and friends, but other than that I can't really think of much. I've learned to take some time for myself and grow a little. Life is short and finally I feel I've hit my groove, it's only taken thirty years.

Gouna is full of similar types, many Egyptians who have escaped the rat race of Cairo, lots of multinational ex pats who have decided that life is better in the sun. There's a nice mix of people who like to work and get stuck in whilst still retaining the theme of being able to relax. Gouna is pretty much a business hub, you have the best of both worlds.

I'm volunteering at the cat shelter once a week just to get my animal kicks. Dan and I miss having animals but we can't get one in our apartment... So at least I get a little animal joy still!

So yeah on another note.... ZombieBall has been launched for This Halloween. Yes, The ZombieBall. BayPromoTeam inspired me.. So much that Halloweekend has been born out of it. I joked with them before I left that the GounaPromoTeam might happen, little did I realise that in a certain form.. It would do so. I hoping that this is my way forward, I've alwa ys loved events and planning so I might as well stick to what I enjoy the most. Also have some mega plans for 2017, but kicking it off slowly and getting it right... Watch this space!

Guess that's the update for now. To all friends and family.. You're always welcome to visit. It's hard to explain how lovely life really is here until you visit 😌😉

My first update

I just managed to delete a whole blog update. Well that sucks!

A week later and I'm here. We've settled into our new place, a beautiful one bed apartment that overlooks a Lagoon. It's a 10 min walk to downtown and I cannot complain (although I might do when the summer months kick in). The sun shines every morning, up to a cool 30c, the evenings are a little chilly but by UK standards.. It's summer already! Very happy with our choice, as we walked up to the block to view i had a gut feeling that this was the apartment for us. I was right. I was also mega shocked to find out that El Gouna has broadband... Yes, fibre broadband. So now Dan and I can work from home, Skype the whole lot! Go us! 

The first few nights we got bitten to death by mosquitos though. I swear if I ever get a chance to be reincarnated I'll come back as a mozzie; they have such happy little bloodsucking lives around here! RAID and OFF! Have become my new best friends. We're slowly getting them under control, they're crafty little buggers, they get through anywhere!

El Gouna itself is quite simply stunning. It's vastly different to everywhere else that I've visited in Egypt, it's like driving into a completely different country bar the sand.. You can never get rid of the sand.

The marinas and downtown remind me of being somewhere in the med. Coffee houses and meetings take place around the edge of the marina. There's supermarkets and shops amongst tonnes of different restaurants. I had the most awesome Chinese last night. Yes, Chinese takeaway in Egypt.. It's weird, I know!

 

So yeah, first week down. Tonnes of meetings, moving into our house, meeting new people, a day trip to Hurghada... Which is a bit different to here to say the least. It's been a busy one! I haven't even managed to get into the swimming pool yet. Jenfail.

Hoping to get back in the water this week. I've got my eye on some kitesurfing and paddle boarding too.. Just because I can, and well.. It's Egypt why work with no play?!

Jen.  

New Beginnings

Right so that's it... After about four years of empty threats I've finally gone and done it.

My notice is handed in. My bags are (half) packed and I'm heading for sunnier climates very shortly. 

When I say sunnier climates, you all know I mean Egypt. Yes, Egypt. The place where everyone in the UK is claiming that is dangerous.  Believe me when I say that it's really not.

I'm quite sure I've got more chance of something happening to me in London when I visit. I've been motoring along the M20 at rush hour for well over the last year, day in and day out for work. I've seen tonnes of fatal crashes along the monotonous drive of every day life.

Not to be negative, but if my name is on the bullet at least it should be somewhere I am happy and doing something that I love rather than on a cold and wet UK motorway.

I'm not going to update this blog because I think the world wants to know what's going on, however, for the family and friends who know me and want to follow my new path and update on where I am; this is where I shall lead you to.

I shall also try and not bore you all to death with diving photos!!!



I'll be back in the next few months for a fleeting visit any who so it's not exactly like you're getting rid of me permanently.

See you all on the sunny side.

Jen

My friend Jim

A year ago I lost one of my closest friends. He was my adopted Granddad and I loved him very much.

I always knew Jim played an integral part of my life over the last five years, but I didn’t quite realise just how much until he wasn’t there anymore.

He’s the man who gave me my office role at the Conservatives. Former Council leader himself and a very well known, likeable person with a Black Country sense of humour that never went away. Within weeks of working in the office we’d become firm friends. He knew how low my self-confidence had been from being out of full time work for a year, and also being crushed by a former bully of a boss. He mentored me and showed me how to adapt to a very random office job; taking every challenge in my stride.

 

He also suffered from Lupus, which again gave us both a mutual understanding as he knew how I suffered with my M.E. We’d forever be discussing how many “spoons” we had left, chat about the world and politics… he’d come out with silly sayings like “She’s all fur coat and no knickers” and tell me stories about his life and experiences and how much he loved his wife, Joy.

 We came to a quick understanding of my weak points; my dyslexia and my passionate loathing of minuting meetings. To the point he’d specifically make sure he’d come in the office a day after to write them up with me. . (I still bloody hate taking minutes now, and I make sure everyone knows about it!)   I used to tease him and call him the Grammar Nazi, which is hilarious as I’ve seemed to have adopted the nickname at my own work now. I think he’d be proud of me for that. I’m the one people come to proof read their work. Never once did I dream that this would happen! It was all down to him.

 

He taught me to trust my instincts and to not take any hassle. We dealt with some difficult people over the years and he showed me how to work with and not against anything that came in my path.

He threw me in at the deep end at election time.. from Office Secretary to Agent in the space of a few days. However, I’m quite sure he did it knowing that I could swim. He gave me back a confidence that at the time was very much needed. He was always there to support and give advice so long as I’d had a big hug and made him his cup of tea in his over-sized Wolves Mug first. (I would say I learned something about Football. Unfortunately the only thing Jim managed to teach me is that the Wolves are orange and black. I like orange, and I love Wolves therefore I remember.)

 

I think of him every day, and regularly come across decisions in work, or home and think to myself “what would Jim say or do?”. Normally I sit and grin afterward, knowing full too well he’d be telling me off, or teasing me. But no matter what, he was always there to support me.

 

He’s still a constant influence in my life and I’m very sure he always will be. The most loveliest part is that I find that whenever I meet someone who knew him, they say the same thing

You're missed Jim. x