Having experienced toning in the Great Pyramid, the effects of ABBA on a warped cassette was, though joyful, a stark contrast.
The Chinese restaurant had been highly recommended by the boatman and his wife; it had only just opened, and the idea of eating Chinese food in Luxor was intriguing. The owner was extremely eager to please and, when we had finally found his new venture in the basement of a hotel he rushed ahead to clear the table of white plaster fragments that had fallen from the ceiling as a reult of building works upstairs.
For his own reasons, he had chosen to play ABBA's Greatest Hits in his Chinese restaurant in Egypt and, possibly because he was unfamiliar with western music, had not noticed that his tape was extremely warped. Maybe he thought it was supposed to sound that way.
Throughout the meal which was, it seemed, freshly cooked for us, his only customers, the tape played on a loop while we fell about laughing, under the stern gaze of our waiter. He was probably under orders to be available for our every request and he took his job very seriously, standing directly opposite me and watching me like a hawk. We tried to make it clear that we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves, especially the food, as we laughed our way through the ordeal of zealous hospitality.
Without the music, the waiter may have seemed intimidating; the plaster falling from the ceiling may have made us wonder more about the actual stability of the building for, no matter how wonderful it tastes, man cannot live by bread alone! However, after such excitement, it was good to be in an ancient temple the next day, experiencing music of a more meditative quality!
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