Posted by on Jan 1, 2017 in Blog, Culture, Travel |

Happy  New Year !

A quick recap on what went down in a medium sized nutshell for Ruby TV and me.

2015 finished with a first but definitely not last trip to Cairo for the Cairo International Film Festival with actress buddy Mouni Boullam- highlights including dining at the restaurant of Tarik Sharif after the Omar Sharif  tribute (and with the poster girl of the festival being Tarik’s late mother -actress Faten Hamana) hosted by Tarik and with a tight circle of festival celebs including Claudia Cardinale (!);  a trip to the Pyramids for a camel ride and a tap; interviewing the famous Cairokee band leader Amir Eid for Get Lost magazine; teaching tap to the Cairo kids at DanZone studios and hanging out with the most fabulous, fun and soul warming Nana Loza- my 100 year old grandma-esque (mother in law of my Aunt!). Oh and 3am piano jams with Aymen, a TV presenter from Alexandria (and getting thrown wads of money but a young, drunk Saudi Arabian who thought we were for hire- wasn’t sure to be offended or flattered, but we kept playing and kept the cash).  http://thebigbus.com.au/2016/01/20/things-to-see-and-do-in-cairo/

Then Algeria. Intense, beautiful, difficult, rich, complex and the snakes and ladders game that I’ve become to know it to be. The snakes will be featured in my upcoming novel, 50 shades of black (I’m kinda kidding). The ladders include meeting great media peeps including Lilia from Canal Algérie and Peter and Obama from Dzair English News but many more, hanging with the film circle at the Mediterranean Film Fest in Annaba (and swimming off the pollution from Paris, Cairo and Algiers) and meeting the gorgeous dynamic young local women  including Sisi, Nyny and my stunning cousin Wissem . A quick trip to Guelma for Shakespearian charades, and being invited to Constantine Film Festival and meeting some locals then onwards to a tv set for an interview and tap in Tlemcen with Canal Algérie.

More trials and tribulations followed in the land of rodwa inchallah and the frustration of trying to do the business side of things led me to change my name temporarily to Ruby Rodwa (tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow). A refreshing burst was a fun interview with Yacine  Merabet on morning news-  dubbed in Algerian but here’s the original interview with sound in English  and Amina Boumazza from Inty Magazine who wrote lovely things about me in her girl power Algerian ezine  inty mag then meeting a neighbour from Paris, the Algerian/ French gogetta Djamilla at a conference that I was invited to talk at then forgotten when the communications minister turned up in a puff of smoke. 

There was next a whirlwind trip from my own cousin  in communications, Linda Boukabou, where business was nearly booming, then more trials and a bad and almost deadly dose of bronchitis which I survived thanks to strangers and friends including make up artist/ stylist Souad, a choreographer friend Tarik, who I later wrote about in The Africa Report,  a bookshop babe and her wonderful street wise chef husband who put me up, a Canal Algérie producer,  another producer /friend called Natalie, an open optometrist, some others and a Kabyle  on a motorbike who helped out after an earth tremor that shook me up and soon became a trusty partner in crime (well photography and travelling). I rediscovered the expansive seaside town of Oran that I later wrote about here and met and jammed with the legendary guitarist Lotfi Attar from Raina Rai in his home studio in Sidi Bel Abbès.

I put on necessary weight thanks to the couscous of my Kabyle sister Rachida and her mother in law with Kabyle home cooking ‘etch etch etch’ (eat eat eat) and  had guitar/tap jams while on the upside down couscous tray.

But I had a car accident (bruises no brakes) and it was anyway time to track back to France. In Paris, tap jams were had with our Paris Tap Crew, articles were written and there were necessary trips to the Pyrenees and Bordeaux for country chill and writing with my French family, bike riding then back in Paris where  I penned a guide and designed four themed walks for National Geographic (out soon!) and made a clip with my group Le Shuffle Project with friend and videographer Olivia Rutherford.

We had some great gigs with guests such as tap masters Roxane Butterfly and Tamango, Didi Keiter (with whom I’d started weekly djembé lessons!), Tayeb Latoufi from the Sahara Social Club to continue the Algerian artistic collaborations and I published my first articles in French, in collaboration with my wonderful Coco and some bits and bobs for other mags and sites including The Big Bus, Flight Centre, The Travel Associates and The Africa Report.

France got freezing so it was time to take off to the southern hemisphere via Dubai Film Festival for a concert of Cheb Khaled, a film with Algerian actress Adila Bendimerad and a catch up with Dave from Pilote Media/ RubyTV 🙂

Now, Sydney is stunning and I’m recharging with eucalyptus air, bounding kangaroo energy, river dances, new choreographies, jazz jams, salty swims, dramatic thunder storms, sunny smiles and secret home recipes with healing herbal sauces.

Happy New Year and look forward to sharing adventures in the flesh or virtually in various countries. Here’s to more tap, more music, more delicious meals, more meditative magic and more exciting travels close or far from home, wherever you are.

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