I’m not exaggerating when I say it was an existential dilemma. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Okay, okay – a lot. But even if it wasn’t a serious problem, at least it was seriously a problem.

We thought we had everything lined up. The sippy cup was all packed. The wine was ready to go. The desert was waiting patiently, as deserts often do, and we knew exactly where to find the camel. But then we realized one thing stood between us, and riding a camel through the desert, while drinking wine from a sippy cup. A corkscrew. Or, to be more precise, the fact that we didn’t have a corkscrew.

As so often happens, Jamal came to our rescue. We outlined our problem in the starkest terms possible. He paused for a moment, then said “no problem”. Even though it was Friday morning, the shops in Aqaba were open, and moments later we found ourselves in the wine store discussing the ideal corkscrew to un-cork camel riding wine. At least I think that’s what we were discussing. This was all in Arabic, which I don’t speak, so I can’t be certain. But I do know that we soon found ourselves in possession of an amazingly deluxe corkscrew.

You have probably seen corkscrews like this before. They are usually kept in the “you can’t afford this” section. Instead of a price tag, you’ll find an empty space that implies “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it”. So my initial reaction was that this might be just a tad overkill. I hesitantly asked just how much it had cost. I was told it was free, which left me at a loss for words. Please note – this doesn’t often happen.

Needless to say, it worked flawlessly.

I’m not sure if the wine tasted any better as a result. After all, it’s rather difficult to taste wine at all when you are expending all your energy extracting it from the sippy cup. But I can report that opening the wine was truly a pleasure.

Just in case you have missed my earlier reports, and are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, this should make everything clear.