Our annual family holiday in December 2007 was different ---- special ---- because we've all been away from each other towards the latter half of the year (2 in Singapore, 2 in Middle East, 1 in USA

So it was not only a family reunion, but a family retreat .....away from the busyness of activities and attention-seeking people, away from the normal attractions of internet, TV and even friends.

We went to Egypt.

If you ask the kids, the one word to describe the trip is awesome!

It was a time to bring to life whatever we had learned in our history classes about the ancient civilization. And to realise what we imagined in theory might not be true in reality. Eg it was people who loved the king and dedicated their life to building the pyramid for him. They were not slaves who dutifully built the 108 (the number changes with different tour guides!) pyramids!

We even bought a 'family tree' papyrus design with our family names written in hieroglyphics. I had always thought it was a picture language good for then, not now!

And to sail down the Nile River was a .....wow!

In Cairo, I thought it would be nice for the kids to experience some of the Egyptian culture---- we all smoked the "shisha" (water-pipe). We may not look professional, but at least we tried to enjoy what is their 'national pastime'!

We were hassled by people selling their goods. But even that was interesting because they were on shore throwing the goods on to the deck of the ship and when the deal was made, we threw the money back to the shore!

And the experience of travelling on the roads was frightening but incredible. Drivers sound their horns constantly, they don't follow any road lanes and they drive so close to each other that no one takes offence when a car hits the side mirror of another vehicle. Can you imagine that? Now being back in Qatar makes the speeding drivers here seem very civilized ---- at least Qataris keep to their lanes!

But what touched me most was the friendliness of the young girls and boys. Perhaps a Chinese face is alien to them? They would come up and smile or shake our hands in the shopping places and even along the roads. In fact once when our driver was horning this young lad for being in his way, the lad looked angry but when he saw us, he broke into a cheery smile!

Well....while I look at the pictures we took in Egypt, what was most memorable was that as a family, we had time to laugh, to talk, to dream together for 2008. We had a retreat and now we advance into the new year .....re-filled, re-freshed, re-fired!