THE ADVOCATE 339
VOL. 78 PART 3 MAY 2020
LIVING IN SELF-IMPOSED QUARANTINE:
DAY 12*
By Tony Wilson, Q.C.
I’m not supposed to be home yet. I’m not even supposed to be in
Canada. I’m supposed to be in Petra, Wadi Rum and other exotic
locations in Jordan on the second half of a tour called “Classical
Egypt and Jordan”. We flew to Cairo on March 5 for the first half of
our trip, at a time when the NHL and the NBA still had regularly scheduled
games, airlines were still flying all over the world (except China and Iran)
and the world was awash with toilet paper. So our small group of Aussies
(and us) visited the pyramids. We took a rickety Egyptian sleeper car train
to Luxor. We took a cruise down the Nile for three days on a riverboat filled
with elderly Germans where everyone on board remarkably looked and
sounded like Goldfinger. We stopped at the Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Abu
Simbel and other temples.
But there was an underlying level of stress magnified by daily Internet
news and text messages from home about how the COVID-19 pandemic was
quickly spreading around the world. It wasn’t a pandemic before we left. It
suddenly became one when we were in Luxor.
The tombs in the Valley of the Kings were empty. My wife and I visited
King Tut’s tomb without anyone else other than King Tut’s mummified
body. Because we were all alone, and the chance would never come again,
I opened up iTunes on my iPhone and played Steve Martin’s “King Tut”
rather loudly.
Now, if I’d known
They’d line up just to see you,
I’d trade in all my money
And bought me a museum. (King Tut)
Buried with a donkey (Funky Tut)
He’s my favorite honky
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia
King Tut
* This is an update of an article that originally appeared in Canadian Lawyer. It is reprinted here with permission.