The British Community Association’s (BCA) Queen’s Birthday Ball, held in the grounds of the British Embassy on Friday evening, was a contemporary party. But it evoked a colonial past that may have been a snapshot from the Windsor’s own family photo album.
A gaiety prevailed on the lawns of the British Ambassador’s majestic residence, that surely is the envy of rival embassies, which Noel Barber may have been describing in his popular novel, “A Woman of Cairo .
“Cairo evolved around parties, no one in the world ever had such a wonderful youth as those of us who lived in Cairo in those days.
And though for many dancing the night away to the 70s & 80s classic rock of The Rift Band, youth may have been a stretch, but not for Jodie Llewellyn and Bobbie Palin, who in another era would have been debutantes shipped out to Cairo to find diplomatic husbands.
Both Jodie and Bobbie are visiting and they sparkled as they moved amongst the 582 guests selling raffle tickets to raise money for the leper colony in Cairo. Bobbie’s mother, Lesley Bailey – Secretary of the BCA, Heliopolis Branch – was the Ball’s chief organiser and obviously savvy to the ways of relieving men of their cash.
Jodie and Bobbie knew their business too, as the evenings raffle sales collected some LE 41,000. Overall, the evening was projected to raise in excess of LE 200,000 that will help support the Coptic nuns who work with those Egyptians suffering from leporsay and also a number of childrens’ hospitals.
Bailey was keen to point out that the BCA never makes their charitable donations in cash.
“We only provide medical equipment and supplies, such as blankets. Never cash.
I guess cash can be siphoned off as it passes along the bureaucratic chain, so it makes much more sense to provide tangible items that have an obvious purpose.
“Cairo was as much a village as the West End of London was to the British, but in Cairo there was really only one village hugging the Nile. Like any other village it was filled with intrigue and gossip, writes Barber in “A Woman of Cairo .
And not much has changed, as the ladies of Maadi sipped the Australian chardonnay with their Zamalek counterparts and their men-folk hugged one of the two bars divulging news and discussing skirts.
It is amazing how ga ga men and women alike get when a Scottish man arrives in a kilt, something to do with a joke about Big Macs I believe.
Purchasing Power Parity is what the economists call it. The British magazine, The Economist, has stopped publishing their Big Mac index which compared the cost of a standard local item, the Big Mac, against that country’s currency, as an indicator of the its buying power. But when they did, life in Cairo was still as Barber’s novel described it -cheap.
“We all labored under the happy delusion that our life in Cairo would never end. In many ways pleasures were cheap.
In fact the Egyptian Lira still stretches a long way today. The cost of a ticket to Friday’s Ball was LE 550. This included a very tasty five course meal, an open bar, imported wine, entertainment and a late night supper of British bangers, from the German butcher in Maadi. Which got me thinking, why doesn’t Egypt market itself as a niche wedding destination?
If you were ever married, or more to the point, if you have ever footed the bill for family and friends to feast through the night, then you’ll know your hand is never out of your pocket.
This is why the British and Irish are always flying off to European destinations to get hitched. Romantic Italy is one of the most popular destinations because it offers value for money, regular sunshine and a relaxed holiday lifestyle.
A great business opportunity for a wedding planner, I would say. Along with medical tourism; quality dentists and plastic surgeons are all available in Cairo at prices a fraction of European treatments, one could build a significant business.
But in tourism it is all about branding, so I am thinking something retro, 1920s Great Gatsby style, colonial striped blazers, cotton sweaters and tennis racquets.
“Why not an Egyptian wedding? The advertising campaign could ask, with the tag line reading – “A High Class Time for the Big Mac Price .
Or “A woman of Cairo and a bride for life.