As he wakes up, the first thing on his mind is his beloved collection of antiques resting upstairs. He prepares his morning coffee, and heads to the room where he keeps his collection. “I treat them like they’re my children,” laughs Ahmed Abdelsattar, a 67-year-old Egyptian mechanical engineer. A passionate antiques collector, Abdelsattar retired at the age of 62, and was finally free to enjoy the hobbies he once had no time for. From gramophones to ancient radios, Abdelsattar collects antiques and keeps them on a separate floor in his house, dedicated to keeping them safe. Every morning, Abdelsattar arranges, cleans, and sometimes even fixes them if they are broken. He enjoyed mechanical engineering, as a hobby, as his field of study at university, and later as his full-time career. From working at a local engineering company, he later moved to an international firm specialized in the energy industry, for 35 years, until he retired at the age of 62, after a two-year extension from his workplace. As it stands, most Egyptians retire at the age of 60. According to Egyptian law, the retirement age will increase one year from…
