I don't know what else can be home delivered in Australia, apart from groceries from the big stores such as Coles and Woolworths. I think even in Mackay it is possible to have groceries home delivered and if you can't get to the shops for whatever reason that's another very convenient thing. I never tried it but if I had broken my leg or some such I'm sure I would have given it serious thought.
However in Australia, no, wait - I'm generalising which I shouldn't do. So, in Mackay, there is very little apart from pizza that can be home delivered. Not even milk.
But in Egypt? EVERYTHING is home delivered! All the fast food places - the pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC - they home deliver. Restaurants home deliver. Pet shops home deliver (not sure about actual pets, but food and litter definitely). The Metro grocery chain home delivers, and no I haven't used the facility but it's available on the web. If you need it, they will deliver it.
But in Hurghada this comes with a few problems. The first, and obvious one, is the language. Obviously, not speaking arabic when talking to someone whose English is a bit limited can cause misunderstandings. The other problem is that there are no actual addresses. It's like rural - really really rural - Australia. I remember my mother and step-father living waaaaaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere and driving (a very long way) to visit them. My directions included things like turn at the third large tree on the left past the big termite mound. (Before you point out that directions were not quite that vague mum, I know but I can't remember the exact ones you gave. But they were very similar!)
So, back to Hurghada. Without an actual address directions given must include things like turn right at the sign and the first left and it's past the laundry or something like that. This can cause confusion for the delivery man and usually there is a phone call from him as almost every delivery person gets lost.
There is a restaurant here called Summerland. I quite like this place, the food is good and the prices are very cheap. I get vegetable soup, stuffed cabbage leaves, grilled chicken, various rice dishes including one called fattah, and molokheyyah which is the leaves of the jute plant made into a soup. It is packed full of nutrition and I have developed a fondness for it, despite it sometimes having a rather explosive effect on the digestive system. They also make spaghetti bolognaise which gamer son - suspicious of unfamiliar food since birth - eats with enjoyment. There are many other items available on the menu and I eat from there regularly.
The delivery man always, always gets lost. Then the last time they delivered I found out another problem with home delivery here. Someone waylaid my delivery man downstairs and took my food (paid for it but still stole my food!). Delivery man apparently didn't feel the need to check this was the correct customer - I am on the fifth floor not the ground floor! - but happily took the money and went back to the restaurant. A phone call asking where is my food later, a half hearted apology (Oh someone else got your food! He was hungry.) and I had to wait for the order to be cooked again and finally delivered.
But the time I was most grateful for home delivery was when I became very sick with Pharaohs Revenge. Well I think it was that, but I was much sicker than I have been before. There is a medication here called Antinal, which is a local medication for the stomach upsets experienced mostly by foreigners. The box says it is an antiseptic, the web says it is an antibiotic. I don't know what it is but I know that it works like magic. Local medication for local bugs. Anyway I had very little Antinal left when I got sick. I didn't just have the diarrhoea people experience, I also had nausea and vomiting. This was my problem, I couldn't keep the medication down long enough to have any effect on the bug.
I was so weak that I couldn't even walk the distance from the bedroom to the lounge room without:
a) feeling sick
b) needing to throw up
c) needing to use the toilet
d) feeling light headed and faint
e) needing to sit down with heart pounding
f) all of the above
Mostly it was option f). So I was in no condition to go to the pharmacy for medication. But never fear, the pharmacy DELIVERS! The delivery man came with Antinal and some sort of pills to stop the nausea and instructions for taking them. I was never more pleased to see a delivery man at the door. The medication worked and I was vastly improved by the next day. It took a week to recover from that one though.
It's surprising, to me at any rate, how quickly you get used to home delivery of whatever you need. I don't even think about it any more. It made me think about celebrities (and I'm talking about people who have become wealthy and well known but are not necessarily anything to actually celebrate) and their lifestyles. You're not following me? Well, when a normal person becomes a celebrity there must at first be amazement and excitement experienced at having all these people who are there simply to fulfil whatever the celebrity requires.
I would assume that the average person who finds him or herself a celebrity for whatever reason would at first be surprised by how easy it is to get things done. To have a person available to do it for him or her, whatever it is. To ask for something and have it brought. But then he or she would get used to it, take it for granted and perhaps without even noticing become a Beyonce or J-Lo and start making outrageous demands. Perhaps start walking around with a lackey holding an umbrella over their precious head. Maybe that is how it goes for a lot of people. Sadly, there are people with a massive sense of entitlement who will always take advantage of others and expect preferential or even fawning treatment. But maybe a lot of people just have it grow on them and don't even really notice how much they are taking for granted.
Just a thought, but I wonder, how difficult is it to retain joy at being alive, or to be thrilled to finally get something you've worked for, for so long, if everything is just given to you when you ask. How long does it take to become jaded? And if you are in that position of having everything you want, whenever you want it, how do you stop yourself from becoming empty and jaded?
Dominos Pizza Mackay:
Hurghada Delivery vehicle:
Molokheyyah:
And don't forget:
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