The awards will a-begin in a-FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE a-minutes!

So last week saw my first ever black tie work-related event as our contractors sponsored a table at the National Business Awards south east regional final. It was at the Park Lane Hilton, with that Katy Dearham off the telly and the voiceover man from the weakest link... the mind boggles as to what they do for the national ceremony.

There is something very surreal about voiceovers with dinner. Likewise about being the only female on a table of eight random men, all representing different enterprises including software, police data and, err, turning cremated remains into diamonds...(they won a prize - a reasonably elegant trophy with small circles within a hoop).

That said there were some very charming and interesting people, widely worked and travelled. We had an interesting debate about the profit motive, which my neighbour viewed as about success not money - to me that's somewhat missing the point that it defines success as money, but we agreed to differ. On the bright side, my admission of my connections with tax did not result in a lynching, and I was declared to have the best hair of the evening, at least for a tax person - always a good result when not actually entered for any awards. My colleague actually had to present a prize, an ordeal full of bright lights, opening of envelopes and giant close ups of his face on a big screen, not to mention photo opportunities. I was happy to applaud politely, and toast the winners with the rather good free wine. Enterprise is a wonderful thing.

Egypt overwhelms

So, having said I had loads to talk about after our Egyptian holiday I then got writer's block - the truth is I just can't begin to capture it. There was so much there that it's fused into a single big blob in my head. I've said to a few people since we got back that I had no idea how many monuments there were, or the scale of them. The only comparison I've been able to think of is if Stonehenge appeared every few miles along the Thames... and was covered in astonishing carvings. Not to mention the 63 tombs or rooms so far in the Valley of the Kings and all the more 'minor' stuff that they don't bother dragging the tourists to or that's drowned under lake Nasser.

In a way it was wonderful to get so close to the monuments, and I can see what a huge task it would be to protect them all fully, but it was also alarming to see the darkening on places where tourists and guides touch the carving to point something out. The most depressing thing I saw was a blob of gum on one carved block at Philae temple - unbelievable philistinism. At least some of the tomb paintings are behind sheets of perspex.
It was also troubling that, although I am sure archaologists and egyptologists the world over are working on cataloging and interpreting the miles and miles of carvings and paintings on the temples and tombs there was very little evidence of any such systematic process. Aside from some book shops in Cairo, it's hard to get any record besides some very shoddy tourist guides and postcards, although doubtless amazon could oblige.

The thought that the bright colours still visible in many tombs would also have covered the temples is truly staggering - I can't think of a building that would create such an impact, or at least not in the same way.

Fun fact of the day - there were seven cleopatras. The one we all know about was the last.