Cairo West Magazine June 2013 | Page 6

Editor’ s Note

Dear Reader,
The promise of summer is here, it’ s what we’ ve been looking forward to, the moment of feeling the sea salt drying on our skin in the sun, to wearing our favorite summer clothes, to not having to wear much make-up and wondering if it’ s not too late to take up tennis again, its these things that make the promise of summer so resonant. Ultimately our yearning for summer shows how much we’ re all craving freedom, warmth, and a simpler life. It’ s moments we connect with in summer, our ideas of holidays, of stepping away from school, work, and our lives. There have been so far, five perfect summers in my life:
1. The summer of 1987 in Holland, with my parents, living in a cottage in the middle of a Maastricht forest, playing board games in the attic, and picking strawberries from fields with my sister. 2. The summer of 2001. I had just moved to Munich to commence my university internship, I spent that entire summer hiking the mountains of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and swimming in the lakes nearby with new found friends. 3. The summer of 2003 while on my honeymoon in Greece. We’ d booked one of those packages where the hotel was included for free. We ditched the hotel, hired a scooter, discovered beaches, lay in the sun, me blissfully ignorant of the gravitational pull that would come in the years ahead. How I regret not wearing a bikini for the entire year I was 24! 4. The summer of 2009, it was the last summer I had spent with my mother in London before she passed away. We spent our weekends having picnics in the Fulham parks, I still remember her laughing and the tears that came with that laughter. 5. The summer of 2011, yes I know it was the year of the revolution and it was a tough year for most, yet I had the luxury of being able to escape and spend three months in El-Gouna with my son. For the first time in years I got to read books from cover to cover without being disturbed, watching my son turn a deep chocolate brown from the corner of my eye. Happy Days.
This month, with the end of the school year comes a lot more down time for the kids, for those of you still planning what to do to keep your children busy this summer or what items you need to get, we’ ve compiled an‘ essentials’ feature for you from camps abroad, and in Cairo, to what summer items should be on your list. Also, catch up with this summer essential fashion and beauty products. Don’ t miss our interview with Phaedra, on her upcoming series and her passion for advocating animal rights. There is so much more in our June issue.
Our cover image this month may be the best reflection of the broad appeal our magazine has in Cairo. The cover artwork‘ Care To Explain,’ is the work of competition winner Farah Wali, a student at the British International School in Cairo.
As Evelyn Waugh wrote in his masterpiece Brideshead Revisited,“ I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ ve been happy and then, when I’ m old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.” Waugh understood summer, how precious it was, how much fun you could have in it, and how important it was to make those memories last.
Cover Credit FarahWali-‘ Care to Explain’

Lyd ia Schoond erbeek

Managing Editor LYDIA SCHOONDERBEEK