A couple of developments to add
Finally 2013/14 preview has come out so I can at least see how much I will be spending on the tour part of my trip and that the tour date I was wanting is actually available.
None of tour details have changed and extras are still the same.
Have more ideas for the last few days in Cairo too. Discovered a few weeks ado that the area in Egypt between Cairo and Luxor has re-opened after many years of being off limits to tourists due to civil unrest.
I have now discovered a couple of full day tours.
The First a trip to (all 16 hours of it) Tell El Amarna, El Menya and Beni Hassan which would be great to do. 
The second is a day tour to Fayoum Oasis which is slightly shorter than the first but is still about 12 hours long.
Decided is I did one of the tours, perhaps the first longer one, on the Saturday after my tour finishes and do the second on the Monday before I leave as I would get back a few hours earlier and have a few more sleeping hours before my long flights home. 
This would leave me with only Sunday to fill, as I would be going to church in the morning I could fill in the rest of the day exploring Gezira Island where my last hotel is situated.

Am rather glad that I discovered these two day tours though as it will be great to visit another part of the country I have not seen. And Tell El Amarna has always been fascinating to me as that is where Tutankhamen was born when his father Akhenaten was Pharaoh.
Fayoum is my second choice as it looks like I could have some great photo ops here with waterfalls, water wheels, lakes and ancient ruins.
Even better both tours include lunch which means that would be one meal I wouldn't have to worry about both days.


Fayoum Oasis

By cynic zagor (Zorbey Tunçer) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 Te El Amarna

By en:User:Markh (English Wikipedia) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, my passport has arrived. Unfortunately the same can not be said about the new Insight Vacations 2013/14 brochures which I had originally been told by my travel agent were due out at the start of this month. Now apparently they are not due out until the end of August start of September, so I still am unable to officially book my tour. As they say patience is a virtue, but is the waiting for this hard or what!!!
Have also been following the news in Egypt. Is good to see at the moment that the country is not appearing in the news too much. Hopefully things will continue that way now that their Presidential elections are over and done with. 
I have seen a few reports saying that Mursi wanted to stabilise the country enabling tourism to increase again, hopefully it does. Just not too much that I can't get onto the tour I want!! lol
Have a new Egypt map and Cairo road atlas on order at present from book depository in the UK.  Cairo atlas I hope will be of help to me on my final days in Cairo after tour has finished. Am hoping that I will be able to locate things and places I want to do during this time especially on Gezira Island where the Marriott hotel is located.

Anyway as I don't really have much else to ass at the moment shall add a bit more of my artwork.

 Gold Mask of Tutankhamen

This famous gold mask was made from two sheets of gold joined together by heating and hammering.
It is inlaid with obsidian and Quartz (the eyes) and lapis lazuli (brows and stripes on Nemes) and coloured glass.
The mask is 39.30cm wide, 50cm high and weighs about 10kg.

 lid from painted chest

painted ivory plaque from the lid of a chest showing Tutankhamen being offered flowers by his queen Ankhesenamen in a garden

 Detail from back of gold throne

The gold throne is a mixture of the two periods during Tutankhamen's reign. The early part of his reign under his fathers God Aten is shown by the rays of Aten that can be seen between Tutankhamen and his queen and the relaxed poses they are shown in. Their names are also shown in their Aten forms and in their more recognized Amun (Amen) forms from the later part of Tutankhamen's reign.