It's all about the crack...

Or is it?

* before I start this blog entry i just want to remind everyione that Jenny is the best non-native speaker i know, and i am not taking the piss!

You don't often see Jenny stuck for words but I have the pleasure to report that it has actually happened (at least once in my life time, although unfortunately it may never happen again- I live in hope!) During an amazing trip to Egypt which was choc full of adventure, misadventure , shisha and habibi this one episode stuck in my mind for the pure linguistic craziness of it all.

The Scene: Somewhere in a taxi in a desert

The players: China, myself and Roarie/Ruairi (pronounced 'rory', a nice ''Irish country boy'')

The Background: We had the great fortune of meeting a friend of a friend as we boarded the train to Luxor (the afore mentioned Ruairi), ''yes!'' we thought, a male companion, that should make our life in Egypt easier (this would be the only context in which i would ever think being in the company of a male would make life easier). As we were speeding through the desert we begin to pump Ruairi for information about Dahab , the legendary back-packer heaven which was to be the next and final stop on our crazy tour (N.B I didn't get to swan off to Kenya afterwards). Ruairi was expounding the virtues of Dahab whilst sitting in the front seat of the taxi but as he began to talk about Dahab and the night life I had a horrible feeling that I knew what he was going to say, and of course he did...

The Words: Exact quote - ''go to Dahab, the Crack there's great''. To anyone familiar with Irish Gaelic ''the crack'', spelt 'craic' will simply mean 'fun' or as Wikipedia puts it:

'fun, enjoyment, abandonment, or lighthearted mischief, sometimes in the context of drinking' And (I s***t you not) the comment that all drug dealers have been waiting for: 'Crack is good for your health in Ireland'.

As Ruairi recommended the crack/craic in Dahab I turned to Jenny as she tried to compute the fact that this guy, who we were stuck with in the desert, was in all likelyhood a crack fiend; the look on her face was priceless and I have a new found respect for Gaelic and the mass confusion it can cause when China, England and Ireland meet in Egypt...habibi to that!