Flying solo

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THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Egypt to replace long list of fees with single unified tax

Good morning, friends, and a happy long weekend to you all. After an abridged week with an unabridged news cycle, we’re looking forward to winding down with cooler weather for the next couple of days.

Our city has a thousand corners waiting for the one thing most of us rarely give ourselves — time alone to discover them. In the rush of family obligations, work deadlines, and social commitments, we’ve forgotten the simple pleasure of experiencing the world at our own pace. This guide isn’t about escaping the city to reconnect with yourself, it’s about finding yourself within it.

PSA-

We’ll all be losing an hour of sleep tonight as daylight saving time returns. Our timezone will shift to GMT+3 from GMT+2 at midnight— meaning the official time will jump from 12am to 1am on Friday, 25 April.

The public and private sectors will will be off on Thursday, 1 May in observance of Labor Day.

LAST WEEK IN 3 MINS-

TAX-

The government is preparing to roll out a fresh set of reforms to simplify procedures for investors and position Egypt as a more attractive destination for local and foreign investors. The state is currently surveying fees imposed by 67 administrative bodies with the goal of consolidating and reducing them.

The government is planning to replace many of the various fees charged by different entities with a single unified additional tax on net income. This additional tax on net-income is expected to come in at around 2-3%. It aims to streamline the tax system while reducing the administrative burden on businesses. A digital platform will also be launched to consolidate fee and tax collection under two or three entities, with all payments funneled through the new system to simplify compliance and increase efficiency.

ECONOMY-

IMF raises Egypt growth forecast: The International Monetary Fund now sees Egypt’s growth coming in at a 3.8% y-o-y clip this fiscal year, up 0.2 percentage points from its January forecast. Its projection for the coming fiscal year was also up, likewise coming in 0.2 percentage points higher from its previous projection to 4.3% y-o-y.

AROUND THE WORLD IN SEVEN DAYS-

Backtracking was a common theme this week, with US President Donald Trump denying plans to sack US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (and hinting at lower tariffs on China), Elon Musk saying he’ll take a step back from the US government to focus on Tesla, and Russian President Vladimir Putin saying he is prepared to halt his invasion of certain parts of Ukraine.

US stock futures reacted positively to Trump’s shift in tone on both Powell and China, rallying on the news as the USD also pared some of its losses following an earlier slump on Monday.

MEANWHILE- Obituaries for Pope Francis, who died at 88 due to a stroke and cardiac arrest a day after Easter Sunday, poured in, with many looking at his role in reforming the Catholic Church. Focus is also turning to who will succeed him among his 252 cardinals.

☀️ THE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND-

Temperatures will be stable throughout this long weekend, with the mercury on Thursday peaking at 28°C throughout the day with a nadir of 17°C. Mornings on Friday and Saturday are both just one degree warmer at 29°C, with the same low of 17°C at night, according to our favorite weather app.

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND-

Tamer Ashour on the ZED stage. Get ready to see Tamer Ashour on the big stage at ZED Park in Sheikh Zayed City tomorrow at 8pm. Tickets are available on Tazkarti.

Society of Play + Al Zomra = Easter Breeze. Head to Uptown Cairo on Saturday, 26 April at 12pm to celebrate Easter with outdoor picnics, grill stations, egg painting, pottery, musical activities, and a golden egg hunt. You can reserve your spot on TicketsMarché.

Multidisciplinary artist Hossam Abou Elela’s More Than Just A Word exhibition at Nout Gallery in Zamalek. The exhibit will be open daily to the public until Wednesday, 30 April, from 12pm to 7pm. Entrance to the gallery is unpaid.

HAPPENING NEXT WEEKEND-

Have you hopped on the latest game night craze? Boom Room is hosting a night of strategy and competition as the Skrew Official Tournament kicks off on Friday, 2 May. Tickets are available on Ticketsmarché.

The king of latin pop lands in Egypt. Grammy-winning global superstar Enrique Eglesias will be performing at Rixos Radamis, Sharm El Sheikh on Saturday, 3 May. Tickets to the concert are exclusive to guests at Rixos Radamis and Rixos Premium Seagate hotels and resorts.

The guide to finding joy in your own company

Living in Cairo means we’re rarely truly alone — the city’s sleepless energy and 23 mn neighbors make sure of that. But carving out intentional time with yourself lets you reconnect with your own thoughts and interests while you experience the city’s rhythms entirely on your own terms.

Whether you’re using this solo time for reflection, creative inspiration, or simply a break from your social circles, Cairo offers endless possibilities for taking yourself out on a date.

MORNING DATES-

#1- BREAKFAST BY THE NILE: Head to tried and true restaurants or cafés who have made a home of the Nile like Tea Garden at Semiramis Intercontinental, or Zitouni at the Four Seasons. Grab a table with a view, bring along that book you’ve been meaning to finish, and savor a hearty breakfast or your morning coffee while you watch the city wake up.

#2- AZHAR PARK MORNING WALK: Most Cairenes are guilty of rarely visiting Azhar Park. Make your way there early to beat the heat and the crowds to the peaceful gardens overlooking the city. The morning light makes for beautiful photos of the Citadel, and the calm gives you space to clear your mind before a busy day.

REDISCOVER THE CITY-

#1- WE THE PHARAOHS: Born and bred locals often avoid museums thinking they’re just tourist traps. But weekday mornings at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, or the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo offer awe-inspiring spaces to reconnect with and contemplate our heritage.

#2- OLD CAIRO SIDE STREETS: Skip the crowds and explore the smaller workshops and storefronts down the side streets. Wander through Al Darb Al Ahmar district where local craftspeople still practice traditional trades. The architecture here is stunning, and without someone rushing you along or vying for your attention, you can time the time to notice details you’ve walked past a hundred times.

BREAK A SWEAT-

#1- CYCLING THE QUIETER CAIRO: Rent a bike from Bike Yard or Yala 3agala early on Friday morning when traffic is minimal and explore parts of the neighbourhood you usually rush through. The quieter streets of Maadi and Garden City offer pleasant routes with minimal traffic stress. We recommend Mostafa Kamel Street in Maadi, which is relatively wider than the streets around it and lined with flowering trees this time of year. It’s a completely different perspective of the city at a slower pace.

#2- TAKE A LAP AROUND THE CLUB: If you have a membership to Gezira Club, the Shooting Club, Kode, or know someone who does, walk the track to escape the street noise and get some steps in. Go for a morning jog or a leisurely walk followed by a quiet breakfast at the club café. You’ll feel like you’ve stepped out of Cairo without leaving the city center.

GRAB A BITE-

#1- NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD TOUR: Create your own walking food tour of your own neighborhood or popular (and walkable) foodie destinations like Korba or Zamalek. Look up cafés, bakeries, and other well-rated spots around you and map out a walk that hits them up. When you’re alone, you can take your time to savor each bite without having to keep up with conversation.

#2- OLD CAIRO CAFÉ CRAWL: Spend an afternoon between historic cafés in Islamic Cairo. Start at El Fishawy for the atmosphere alongside your morning coffee, then to Naguib Mahfouz Café for a drink to cool off, and end with a long stroll to El Horeyya to complete the experience. Bring a notebook and channel your inner Mahfouz — these places have inspired writers for generations.

EVENING EXPERIENCES-

#1- SUNSET AT EL MOEZ STREET: We often forget the beauty of El Moez Street when we’re not entertaining visitors. Go around Maghrib prayer time when the ancient streets cool down and the lights come on. Head to one of the many qahwas or the rooftop restaurant at Zeeyara to sip on tea and observe the nightlife unfold.

#2- LOCAL MUSIC NIGHT: Check out El Dammah Theater in Abdeen or Cairo Jazz Club in Mohandiseen for live Egyptian music. Going alone means fully immersing yourself in the music without worrying about your companion enjoying themselves. You might even make a few new friends who share your musical taste.

The Monkey and what could have been

? From the terrifying mind of Stephen King, director Oz Perkins returns to cinema with The Monkey — a blend of horror, dark comedy, and gratuitous violence adapted from a short story of the same name, about a cursed toy monkey that brings misfortune to whoever possesses it.

Where it all began: Twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery as a child and Theo James as an adult) accidentally discover among the possessions of their mysteriously disappeared father a strange toy monkey with an attached drum, ready to strike. As the brothers inspect it, they find that it is possessed by an evil spirit that instantly kills anyone it chooses.

After the controversial Longlegs, Perkins’ new horror falls short of its predecessor despite its promising potential. Instead of Longlegs ’ expertly crafted dread, the focus of The Monkey seemed to be filming as many bloody scenes as possible, and coming up with increasingly inventive ways to be killed — at the expense of the story’s emotional dimension. Nevertheless, the cast — especially James and the young Convery — do their best to compensate for the film’s shortcomings by fleshing out their character and focusing on the central dilemma: “Death is inevitable, so why does it still take us by surprise?” This concept comes to a head in the final scene, an uncharacteristically good ending for the horror genre.

Disclaimer: The film contains graphic scenes of violence and gore, which may not be suitable for some age groups.

WHERE TO WATCH- The Monkey is in theaters in VOX Cinemas at City Center Almaza and Mall of Egypt, Citystars, Scene Cinemas at Cairo Festival City and District 5, Zawya Cinema, and Cima Arkan. You can find the trailer on YouTube (watch, runtime: 2:12).

Science with a punchline

? Your brain is a mess — and that’s okay. In The Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To, neuroscientist and comedian Dean Burnett takes readers on a hilarious deep-dive into the brain’s many flaws — from why we remember things that didn’t happen to why we’re bad at multi-tasking but still convinced we’re not? Burnett has an answer for all that — and delivers it with delightful irreverence. It’s science, but with punchlines.

Each chapter peels back the layers of brain function, from memory mishaps to emotional overreactions, to the many ways our grey matter can trip us up — all while reminding us that the brain is more “barely competent miracle” than finely tuned machine.

Burnett argues that the brain, while powerful, is wired more for survival than logic, which explains everything from fuzzy memories to irrational fears. Most of our daily glitches, he suggests, aren’t bugs, but outdated features that once helped us navigate a very different world.

This one’s for fans of science that don’t take themselves too seriously (and for anyone who’s ever walked into a room and immediately forgotten why they’re there).

WHERE TO FIND IT- The Idiot Brain is available on Amazon.

The most delicious ful cart you can find in Maadi

? Lahta opened its doors in Maadi late last year, quickly earning its place among the roster of lovers of Egyptian breakfast. What sets Lahta apart is its commitment to authentic street-food flavors with restaurant-quality cleanliness — something most people would think was impossible to find in one place. While their menu includes various items for any time of the day, we reviewed their breakfast offerings so you can spend your weekend right.

The star of the show — the ful. You can’t go wrong with any option you choose, but we recommend their regular and spicy versions of the traditionally spiced dish, as well as the pickled lemon variety. Both spiced versions were delicious — buttery in flavor with a creamy texture that melts in your mouth. The pickled lemon version was surprising — the tang of the lemon added a bright dimension of flavor that made the dish even more impressive.

With over 20 varieties of taamiyya, Lahta goes way beyond the basics. Options range from classic and stuffed versions to creative variations with cream cheese, pastrami, and their special “ein el katkoot” taamiyya — boiled eggs with a taamiyya dough shell that is then fried. The regular falafel hits all the right notes — satisfyingly crispy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside, and spiced to perfection. The cream cheese was our favorite — so good that we had to order seconds.

Their egg selection is impressive — we tried both the fried and boiled options to cover our bases. The bastirma omelet was decent but didn’t quite match the mastery of the other offerings. The scrambled eggs are worth an order, but the real standout were the boiled eggs — thinly sliced and dressed with oil, tahini, and spices.

Don’t skip the fries — they deserve special mention despite being a simple side dish. The flavor and crunch are textbook — with the hallmark crispy outside and fluffy inside. While the mashed potatoes were smooth and buttery, the flavor was fairly average in comparison.

Round out your meal with their fresh salads and pickles — we enjoyed the baladi salad, pickled eggplant, and seasoned tomatoes. Both their baladi and shami breads are consistently made fresh throughout the day. And don’t forget to finish it all off with tea or coffee.

? Per person: EGP 150-250

? Outdoor seating: Yes

? Alcohol: No

? Accessibility friendly: No

Oblivion Remastered is a triumphant return to Cyrodiil

? After nearly two decades, Bethesda shadow-dropped what many Elder Scrolls fans have been clamoring for: Oblivion Remastered. This ground-up remake of the beloved 2006 RPG classic has already proven to be an instant hit, dominating sales charts and drawing in hundreds of thousands of concurrent players within hours of release.

The most immediately striking aspect of Oblivion Remastered is its dramatic visual overhaul. The leap from the 2006 Gamebryo engine graphics to the Unreal Engine 5 transforms Cyrodiil into a lush, vibrant fantasy realm that stands proudly alongside modern titles. Running at 4K resolution with up to 60fps (uncapped on PC), the remaster features ray tracing, enhanced lighting effects, and completely rebuilt models for every spell, item, and character in the game. At 125GB — compared to the original’s 4.6GB — the massive file size reflects the scope of these visual improvements.

Virtuous and Bethesda deserve credit for understanding which elements needed modernization and which deserved preservation. Combat — long a weak point in Elder Scrolls games — receives meaningful improvements without reinventing the wheel. Weapons now feature unique attack animations and combos, while enemies react convincingly to where they’re struck. It’s still recognizably Oblivion combat, just significantly less janky.

The notoriously clunky stealth system has also (mercifully) been overhauled to provide clearer feedback, borrowing Skyrim’s gradually opening/closing eye indicator instead of the binary completely hidden/completely visible approach of the original. Perhaps more crucially, Oblivion’s infamous leveling system — which could punish players for not maximizing attribute gains — has been redesigned with a more intuitive Virtue Points approach. Players still need to understand how skills affect character progression, but the system no longer feels like it’s actively working against them.

The UI improvements alone might justify the price for longtime fans. Gone are the microscopic inventory lists and confusing menu navigation, replaced with a cleaner interface that maintains the original’s storybook aesthetic while displaying more information at once.

What’s remarkable is the preservation of the bizarre charm that made the original so endearing. The stilted NPC conversations, awkward character animations, and occasionally absurd quest logic remain intact, but they’re complemented by expanded voice acting and subtle quality-of-life improvements.

It’s not all perfect. Performance hiccups still exist, particularly in the open world where stuttering and pop-in can break immersion. On Steam Deck, these issues become more pronounced, though it remains playable with compromised graphics settings. But none of these issues can’t be fixed with an early patch, and for longtime fans, it’s a nostalgic homecoming with quality-of-life improvements that make returning to Cyrodiil a pleasure rather than a chore. And for newcomers who cut their teeth on Skyrim, it’s an accessible entry point to experience one of the most influential RPGs of all time.

? Rating: 9/10 on Steam

⌛ Hours of gameplay: 20 hours on a speedrun, up to 100 for a completionist playthrough

? Replay value: 5/10 without mods

? Platforms: Steam for PC and Steam Deck, PlayStation, and Xbox

? Price: USD 34.99 for the standard version ans USD 39.99 for the deluxe version on Steam, USD 49.99 for the standard version, USD 59.99 for the deluxe version on PlayStation and Xbox

A science-fueled drive

? Every episode could change your life — literally. Dr. Peter Attia is the host of science-based The Drive podcast, where he discusses anything health, from performance, nutrition, longevity, sleep, and mental and emotional well-being. Unlike most self-care podcasts, the podcast offers in-depth exploration and understanding of complex topics, backed by solid research and statistics.

In Longevity 101, Attia introduces the core principle of lifespan, healthspan, and the marginal decade — while simultaneously discussing death, the key causes behind it, and ways to provide them to expand one’s lifetime in a healthy way. Although the topic of this episode is something we all think about almost everyday, it’s rare to find someone discuss it so openly, and support it with meticulous research — which Attia manages to do flawlessly.

From theory to practice: Apart from in-depth analysis, Attia makes sure to follow conversations with actionable advice to his listeners to actually make use of the information and start taking steps towards changing their lifestyles for the better.

High-quality guests bring conversation to another level: In most episodes, Attia invites field experts to discuss their areas of specialization. Conversations take place with full intellectual honesty and transparency, but without the medical jargon, making the topics accessible to the average layman.

Choose your episode based on whether you’re stuck in traffic or curled up on the sofa — the podcast’s durations range from as little as 15 mins up to 2 hours — suitable for any type of drive, and a productive way to make use of your downtime.

WHERE TO LISTEN- The Peter Attia Drive is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

APRIL

6-30 April (Sunday-Wednesday): More Than Just A Word art exhibit at Nout Gallery in Zamalek.

8-30 April (Tuesday-Wednesday): Faces of the Margin art exhibition.

25 April (Friday): Tamer Ashour concert at ZED Park, Sheikh Zayed.

MAY

2 May (Friday): Skrew Official Tournament at the Boom Room.

3 May (Saturday): Enrique Eglesias at the Rixos Radamis in Sharm El Sheikh.

8-18 May (Thursday-Sunday): Cairo Photo Week in Downtown Cairo and District 5.

9 April (Friday): The Grand Show: Omar Khairat at Qubba Palace.

10 May (Saturday): Egypt Coffee Festival at Kamelizer.

21-31 May (Wednesday-Saturday): Disney On Ice at Cairo International Stadium.

23 May (Friday): Project Meem at Cairo Festival City.

30 May (Friday): Adam Port at the New Administrative Capital’s Green River.

OCTOBER

16-24 October (Thursday-Friday): Gouna Film Festival.

30 October - 22 November (Thursday-Saturday): Forever is Now at the Great Pyramids of Giza.

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Egypt to replace long list of fees with single unified tax

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