Egypt Moving Froward - The Event

The event was sponsored by local businesses including Flats in Luxor. We were proud to support the initiative from local Egyptians. It was a really professional do.

Part of the sponsorship deal was some t-shirts so I persuaded the kids to wear them. My mobile sandwich boards. They thought it was a big treat although the smallest size I had was large so these were like dresses lol


Part of the area was devoted to local crafts and goods.



Personally I was pleased to see two young ladies doing the presentation. Egypt isn't just little old ladies in black but articulate, clever and bright young ladies.


Dr Abdel Halim Nur El-Din gave the opening speech. In Arabic, English and Dutch!!


But she was the star of the day


This is a line up of the organisers


Local music opened the acts


And the crowd happily clapped along


There were five sufi dancers or whirling dervish on stage. All their acts were just slightly different.


My step kids were complete mesmerised


the finale


We were very pleased with the turn out


This was the view from MacDonalds, what a fantastic back drop to any event.

What a good natured, friendly and fun event. My step kids summed it up perfectly "That was fun, can we do it again tomorrow".

Airline News Feb 19-25

Qatar Airways has officially revealed further changes to its route network for the IATA Summer 2011 season. The main highlights are as follows:

SYZ - new twice weekly nonstop flights to be launched effective June 5th using an A 321. These services shall be gradually increased to 5 times per week.

MAN - frequencies increased from daily to double daily nonstop flights using an A 332.

KHI - capacity increased from daily A 320 to daily A 332 effective May 1st.

FRA - capacity increased from 10 weekly A 332s to 6 weekly B 772LRs + 4 weekly A 332s.

TUN - capacity reduced from 5 weekly A 332s to 5 weekly A 320s.

SEZ - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily nonstop flights using an A 320.


Etihad Airways has revealed on the GDS that it shall be increasing its flights to PEK-Beijing, China from July 2nd 2011 onwards. Currently EY operate 5 weekly nonstop flights on the AUH-PEK sector using an A 332, however from July these shall be increased to daily services using the same aircraft type.


Oman Air has officially announced further changes to its route network for the IATA Summer 2011 season as the carrier continues to receive more aircraft to fuel its rapid expansion. The main highlights are as follows:

CMB - frequencies increased from 5 to 6 times per week using an A 333.

DAR - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily nonstop flights using a B 738.

MLE - frequencies increased from 5 to 6 times per week using an A 333.


Vietnam Airlines has officially announced many capacity and frequency increases to its Far East Asian network for the IATA Summer 2011 season from its secondary HANOI hub. The main highlights are as follows:

PEK - frequencies increased from 3 to 4 weekly nonstop flights using an A 321.

BKK - frequencies increased from daily from double daily nonstop flights using an A 321.

SIN - frequencies increased from daily to 11 weekly nonstop flights using an A 321.


According to the media in Sri Lanka, the national carrier i.e. Sri Lankan Airlines is reportedly in discussions with Boeing to purchase at least a 8-10 Boeing 777s to replace its fleet of Airbus A 340-300s as well to cater for future growth. Though Boeing has been pitching its largest B 773ER to UL, this aircraft type is deemed to be a bit too big for any of UL's worldwide routes hence it is expected that the carrier might opt for the Boeing 777-200ER which would seat approximately 330 passengers in a comfortable 2 class configuration.


Egypt Air has officially announced that in order to cut back on costs for 2011 due to a heavy toll that the on going Egyptian political crisis is having on its current flights and for the foreseeable future, it will be leasing out nearly 40% of its fleet to interested airlines for up to a year. The planes it is keen to dry or wet lease out are A 333s, A 332s and B 773ERs along with few A 321s, E170s and B 738s.


Lufthansa has officially disclosed the configuration details of its new Boeing 747-800s that are scheduled to be delivered soon to the carrier. It will seat a total of 386 passengers only with the layout being 8 first class + 80 business class and 298 in economy class. No initial long haul routes have been mentioned by LH but it is expected that JFK, Tokyo and Singapore would be the first recipients.


United Airlines has officially disclosed many capacity adjustments to its European service from the on set of the IATA Summer 2011 season. The main highlights are as follows:

IAD/CDG - frequencies increased from daily to double daily flights using a B 772ER + B 757 each daily respectively.

IAD/AMS - capacity reduced from daily B 772ER to daily B 757.

EWR/ZRH - capacity increased from daily B 762ER to daily B 763ER.

March dates for your diary

2 March: Lisburn Historical Society. Lisburn Linen Centre and Museum. The Flight of the Earls and the Ulster Planatation, with Roddy Hegarty. 7.30. Details 028 9262 1332.

8 March: Downpatrick Library, co Down. Genealogy for the over 50s – A Family History Course for Beginners , with Brian Watson. 10 week course for beginners. Tuesdays 2-4pm. Booking essential. Free. 028 4461 1448.

Saturday 12 March: Dublin City Library & Archive, 138 Pearse St. Family History Day. 9.30-3.30. Billed as being aimed at beginner genealogists, but topics are rather more advanced than that suggests. Booking essential. (0)1 674 4806. dublinpubliclibraries@dublincity.ie

Saturday 12 March: Coatbridge Irish Festival, Buchanan Centre, Main St, Coatbridge, Scotland. How to use the Internet to research your Irish ancestors, with Chris Paton. Aimed at those new to Irish genealogy. 1pm. Free.

Sunday 20 March: Museum of Ireland, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Mayo. 2.30-3.30. The 1901/1911 Census of Ireland, with Catriona Crowe of the National Archives. Booking essential at www.museum.ie.

Wednesday 23 March: Ayrshire Federation of Family History Societies, Session House, St. Columba's Church, Largs, Scotland. Irish Resources Online., with Chris Paton. 7.30pm. Free. Details at www.asafhs.co.uk/events

Thursday 24 March: Kerry Archaeological & Historical Society, Tralee Library. Medieval Nunneries. Lecture by Tracey Collins. 7.30pm. www.kerryhistory.ie.

Wednesday 30 March: Linen Hall Library, Belfast. Presbyterian Historical Society. Church Records for Family History, with Valerie Adams. 1pm. Free. Places Limited. www.linenhall.com.

Party Time

We are alll getting quite excited about tomorrows event at Luxor Temple organised by Egypt Moving Forward. A big celebreation and more planned. i am taking the kids and we will be wearing out sponsors t-shorts. Yes Falts in Luxor is s a sponser. we felt it was such a good event and organised by local Egyptian

Party Time - Egypt Moving forward

We are all getting quite excited about tomorrows event at Luxor Temple organised by Egypt Moving Forward group. A big celebration and more planned. I am taking the kids of the family along and we will be wearing out sponsors t-shorts. Yes Flats in Luxor is a sponsor so look out for us and say hellow. We felt it was such a good event for Luxor and as it was organised by local Egyptians it deserved everyone helping.

So be there at Luxor temple at 3pm

China drops death penalty for 13 nonviolent crimes

BEIJING (AP) — China dropped the death penalty Friday for more than a dozen nonviolent crimes and banned capital punishment for offenders over the age of 75 in a bid to rein in abuses in the justice system.

China executes more people every year than any other country and critics say too many crimes are punishable by death.

Thirteen economic, nonviolent offenses will be removed from the list of 68 crimes punishable by the death penalty, said Lang Sheng, who heads the legal committee of the Standing Committee to the National People's Congress, China's legislature. The 13 crimes include forging and selling invoices to avoid taxes and smuggling cultural relics and precious metals such as gold out of the country.

The move would not bring down the number of people executed because it targets crimes that have rarely, if ever, had capital punishment applied to them, said Joshua Rosenzweig, research manager for the U.S.-based human rights group Dui Hua Foundation.

Capital punishment can still be used to punish other economic crimes such as corruption.

"The big obstacle, I think, is corruption. Because there still is a very strong sense that corrupt officials must die, among the Chinese population at large," Rosenzweig said. "The revulsion for that offense is so strong that there would be a potential political cost to eliminating the death penalty for corruption."

Legal authorities have sought to stamp out abuses of the death penalty, particularly by demanding that all death sentences be reviewed by the nation's supreme court. They have called also for the penalty to be imposed only in the most extreme cases, although the punishment has wide public support in China.

Source: AP, February 25, 2011

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Egyptian Tourism on the BBC

The BBC Radio 4 program You and Yours ran an article about Egypt Moving Forward the event being organised on Saturday to promote tourism in Luxor. It is the first item on the program, there is a trailer at 19 seconds and the main article at 1:25. Also at 24:21 they read out an email I sent in

You and Yours