Engineer on a Saturday

7.00 am

Checked on our problematic cooking gas tank left on the balcony, it was still buzzing from gas leaking out. A friend advised to get it exchanged, but it had to stop leaking gas first. With the gas outflow now away from the clothe peg, I hung my laundry and enjoyed the morning breeze.

Got dressed and sipped a cup of instant cappuccino that had every fiber of me missing Costa's fresh brew. I hate instants. Rechecked today's schedule and had second thoughts of skipping Dr. Mohamed Saeed's (extra) ECG class to go to Tahrir to apply my yearly visa. He was going to teach hypertrophy and hypertensive changes in ECG.

"Visa," my housemates supplied helpfully. "You have (obligatory) classes everyday anyway. Might as well skip today's."

And Tahrir it was.

8.40 am

Microbus dropped me near the haunting building of Mugamma' Tahrir. Customary glance at the unnecessary tanks guarding the entrance and proceeded into the building. Last time I stepped foot in this square, the urine stench was much worse. Not sure if this was a good thing or not.

9.15 am

Classmate in front of me was applying visa for his 9-ish month old baby and her passport photo was too cute I was going to melt in a puddle of goo.

I couldn't resist. "Do you have an extra copy of Huda's passport photo? Can I have one?"

9.45 am

Visa applied. Time to go to class... Or not.

Sixth year is a test of priorities and choices, or ninjutsus. We have three (extra) classes at the same time on Saturday;
Dr. Kenawy's clinical surgery
Dr. Heba's clinical Cardiology
Dr. Galal's surgical radiology.

All scheduled for 9.00 am and unless you're fluent in Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, choosing is mandatory. But there's always the last choice of 'none of the above' and at this hour, I was going to be a late nuisance anyway if I grace any one of those classes.

Decided to walk back to Mounira and enjoy whatever there was to enjoy along the Nile.

10.00 am 

Reached Mounira. Stopped by a hardware stall to buy PVC tape to fix our leaking sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. Stopped at another hardware store to buy anticlog treatment for our atherosclerotic kitchen sink drain. Stopped at the grocer. We were out of cooking oil.

Home. Checked on the gas tank on the balcony, still leaking. My room unfortunately reeked of gas it was nauseating. Observed as Kak Milah fixed the leak under the kitchen sink and I administered the anticlog measures for the pipe. Went into the bathroom and fixed the sink there.

We called it us playing engineers, haha.

11.45 am

Off to last class for Dermatology. Noticed some absentees and I understood their distaste of coming to class on a universal weekend to observe some patient's blackheads or fungal infection between the toes.