PART SIX :  WHERE WE MEET MOTT, AND GREET A PREVIOUS INHABITANT OF THE BLOG...

So that evening we dressed up and went to the hotel's Meet and Greet do...
Three large trestle type tables full of free alcoholic cocktails and three of the same
full of non-alcoholic cocktails.
Coffee's and tea's available from the swimming pool area's bar.
Just to give you some idea of a holiday-maker's mentality, the alcoholic cocktails
were gone in literally three minutes whilst the non-alcoholic's took about ten minutes.
Haddy had mint tea and I had a straight white coffee.
It got a little noisy which didn't worry us too much, but the sea wind had got up
somewhat and by about ten-thirty we decided to head back to the room because
we're old, and we feel the cold...
It only went on until about 11.30 so I think we coped reasonably well.

And so we're on our second to last day and at 9.30 I'm at the pool while Haddy has
gone back to the room to have a lie-in.
Dunno where all the punters have gone ?
There's only me and three others around the pool.
An hour later and it's gone up to six...
They can't have all gone home, they'd never have been let into the airport the state
some of them were in last night, let alone onto a 'plane.
Oh well, whatever.
It's quiet anyway.
Haddy joins me at about eleven for half an hour and says she'd like to walk around the
hotel and take a few more photo's before we leave.
Ok, fine by me, I'll just go up and change and meet her back down here.
Sorted.
Fifteen minutes later and I'm back and ready, although to be fair, I'm not the most
photogenic person as I tend to squint my eyes into bright sunlight or glare, and there's a fair
bit of that out here.
Right, let's get at it.
We start the other side of our rooms on the roadway down to the beach.
It's on the side that has the children's swimming pool, but it also has a small green area
with a couple of trees, shrubbery around the outside and a bench type seat upon it.
That'll do for starters.
No sooner do we sit and get our bearings than a family group (I think) of birds flutters
down to the edge of the green area.
They're a brownish colour with very long beaks and a grey/black stripey set of tail feathers, and I have no idea what they are?
It looks like Mum bird and a couple of younger ones are staying put, but Dad bird stalks
over to us to say hello.
It's not what I was expecting as usually if you move and you are close to them it scares
them and they fly away.
Not this one however.
He's basically about a yard/metre away from my feet and he just looks up at me, then
continues to stick his beak into the ground in front of him whilst walking around my feet.
Ok, so let's see if I can get a few photo's then.
So I stood up to do so, then crouched down slightly so I was closer to the ground...
He just looks up at me and carries on with what he was doing and I took a few snaps.
Then, when he'd finished what he was doing, he walked back to the other three and they
flew up into one of the roadside trees.
Weird or what ?
It literally seemed as if he came over to greet us and to say hello and welcome us to his patch.
Anyway, getting in front of myself, I posted one of the pic's when I got home to find out
what it was, and it turns out that it was a Hoopoe, which my friend Bob immediately
christened 'Mott'.
Unless you're into 1970's rock music you probably won't get the punning reference but
there was a group named Mott the Hoople (as opposed to Mott the Hoopoe) who had a few
hit records back then, and so Mott, has become in my mind at least, synonymous with our
bird friend that we met in Egypt.
So here's a pic' or two...

                                

                                                                                          

We then took a few more photo's and adjourned for lunch...

And when we'd finished our snack we went out to the outside bar area where we found a free table and dumped our stuff.  Haddy says she'll go in for the drinks, drops her jacket onto the chair and I wait for her to return quite happily sitting there and guess who walks over, jumps up and makes themselves very comfortable on her jacket ?

Well, there's probably only the one that would definitely have the downright cheek and front to do that isn't there ?

Have you got it yet ?

You definitely would had you got a cat in the family...                     

Bloody cheek.  

And it's obviously decided that was the seat it wanted, and he/she was definitely going nowhere fast...

So Haddy returns with the drinks, spots the cat and sits down in the seat next to it.  The cat looks up and then just continues with it's grooming.

Haddy meanwhile, being quite used to cats, is gently asking it to please vacate that particular chair as she doesn't really want cat hair all over her jacket.

The cat meanwhile, just continues with it's grooming for about the next fifteen seconds then stands up upon the chair, looks at Haddy, stretches itself and jumps down from the chair.  Then it walks a couple of yards away, turns around, looks at Haddy again, then turns and walks off, still very much in command of the situation.  And people wonder why the Egyptians used to worship them ?  Seems quite obvious and logical to me.

Honestly, you wouldn't have believed it had you not seen it for yourselves.

I think there should be a word that describes that sort of thing as a dictionary definition, and I subscribe to the word 'Cattitude'.  It should be in every dictionary as a definition of a cat's attitude toward humanity. It's going to do what it wants when it wants to, and you have absolutely no say whatsoever in it's decision. And THAT, is most definitely Cattitude.