Blog January 7, 2011

I fully intended to blog before the end of the year 2010 but laziness and lack of motivation and being at the beach got in the way!!

So to an update on visitors -Dad arrived on December 15^th and the twins left us on December 17^th and the bikers finally left after 13 nights on December 18^th.

The first lot of bike parts that arrived by DHL were not right and so the contingency plan with parts arriving the following week kicked in. In the meantime Julien detected a problem with the other bike – thought it was gear box and was prepared to strip it to find the problem, BUT with some help it was soon discovered that it was the prop shaft that needed replacing and in the end it was this that held them up. He was able to still keep one bike going during this time period so they were not completely stranded.

Antoine communicated to me that they were feeling bad and felt that they were outstaying their welcome. Having undertaken a long road trip ourselves I realized the precariousness of their situation and was happy to help where I could. For me it was a strange evolution – from strangers arriving the first day and friends leaving 13 days later …. I am JUST old enough to be their Mother – and certainly I felt a level of concern and protection towards them like that of a Mother and I am sure they got fed up with all my questions and nagging !!!

We ended up watching movies together – some choices more prudent than others – White Mischief was not the greatest idea – too much sex and nudity – VERY embarrassing sat watching that with two twenty something’s !!!

Mugabe and The White African was interesting and SO sad … I think their growing up in Africa made the documentary seem more real and likely to them. It was even more poignant that the twins were with us and the movie was set during the time that we lived there. The upshot was that we all felt very depressed by Mugabe’s ‘I will be Hitler 10 fold’ – in fact the bikers asked us to rewind that part as they thought they had misheard!

So when we finally waved ‘au revoir’ NOT ‘Adieu’ (which apparently has the context of forever BUT the English translation is ‘Farewell’) it felt like there was a huge gap in the house especially having seen off the twins the morning before. I don’t think I have ever had so many people around meaning that I had to do a head count at some mealtimes!! I cooked for them a few times and they made a delicious Belgian dinner for us one night and on their last night a Senegalese Chicken dish. Having twittered away in my school girl French for 13 days – I hope my French improved – certainly my tenses did! It was amazing the number of words for which there is no equivalent in French – sometimes we could think of 3 words in English which all had the same meaning in French so the context was not quite right.

So the day they left was Luke’s birthday – I baked a cake and in the afternoon we attended a Christmas party at a friend’s house. The talk was all about the weather in Europe – the delays and cancellations – so many people this side had been affected – flights to Europe and US cancelled and kids coming home from University for the Christmas holidays stranded and delayed all over …. Speculation rife as to whether or not his is the shape of things to come …. The future as we will know it?

The following week I seemed to spend the whole time planning and shopping for food – why oh why do we buy enough food to feed an army or cover a long term siege!! ?? We had Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve at 6PM – turkey and all the trimmings ( I had not cooked such a dinner for 9 years … so enjoyed the planning)

On Christmas Day we went for a walk with 3 other families in the tea estates – plenty resistance from the teens and twenty somethings about having to get up for the event but I think in the end everyone enjoyed the fresh air (it was quite warm actually!) We assembled back at our place for coffee and snacks – Rhodie took exception to all the strange dogs and picked on a male who fought back – very unusual – even more weird was Harry did not bat an eyelid in defence - so maybe Rhodie’s gender neutrality since being spayed has wiped out Harry’s defence mechanisms !!

On Boxing Day we had a house full for – Bring a plate of creatively transformed leftovers for the buffet table …. I was fairly jaded having been up at 2.30AM watching cricket. Life continued like that for a number of days until England won that test to retain The Ashes – what a victory …. We were relieved to get some sleep before the trip to the coast with the test finishing a day early – YES a day early – we really ground those convicts into the ground!!

… so it was then going coastal for a week followed by safari but that’s for another day ……………..

Blog December 6th 2010

… and now just like waiting for a bus 2 come along together … here is another post ….

We were descended on by strangers yesterday (sons of friends of friends along with 2 German travelers who had rescued them)

We have had 2 hairy Belgian bikers sleeping in the maid’s quarters and the German couple in their German registered camper van in our front garden!! Their story is quite amazing and makes our trip from Zimbabwe to Kenya look very tame.

The Belgians were principally raised in West Africa, Niger and have been studying in Belgium. They are now on their way to South Africa where they will spend a year furthering their studies and decided to take a trip from Brussels to Cape Town www.ridebacktoafrica.blogspot.com Check out their amazing photographs and details of their fascinating story.

I received a message from friends in Ethiopia on December 1^st 2010 asking if we could help these guys…. They had broken down in a remote part of Northern Kenya in bandit country. I was asked could we maybe let them camp in our garden for a ‘couple of nights’ as they were going to try to get the bike fixed here. I passed on my phone number so that they could call me…..

After a couple of calls they arrived at lunchtime Sunday 5^th December 2010.

The bike broke down about 120 km North of Marsabit … this being seriously far from anything. They had hitched a lift with some Somalis in a truck and managed to put the broken bike and luggage on the truck and get to Marsabit … this is not a metropolis BUT there was civilization there.’ Luck’ was on their side as they bumped into some Germans who they had met on the ferry from Europe to Egypt. They are travelling from Germany to Cape Town in a 20 year old VW camper van … and I thought these sorts of people were fictional characters!!

The Germans offer to take Julien and the broken bike (bike partially dismantled and squeezed in the bedroom area of the camper van – with Julien also sat in a cramped space – reminded me of when we left Bulawayo and squeezed Harry into the car to get him to the kennels in Harare!) to Nairobi where they can get it all fixed, with Antoine following on his bike …

So, imagine, it is Sunday lunchtime and Steve is about to leave for a trip to Rome and we are trying to fit in a quick cooked meal BEFORE he leaves … about 30 minutes before we are ready to serve the meal the 4 travelers arrive. Following whispers in the kitchen about how much food there is and preparing a few extra veggies to increase quantities we offer them lunch – talk about feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish …. They seemed grateful for a home cooked lunch- the Germans, Andy and Veronica were a little overwhelmed with the hospitality. In true Twomlow style I offered the Germans to stay for a night in their camper van on the drive – this turned into 3 nights and they gratefully thanked me with some beautiful long stemmed thorn less roses! Must have worked out I was a sucker for flowers – very perceptive! They all went up to the Great Rift Valley for the day on Monday 6^th and took the twins (Anna’s mate’s visiting from Zimbabwe) This was very useful to me and they all seemed to have thought the trip was worth it for the stunning view – VW camper van broke down 3 times while they were out though.. Is this the curse of the Twomlows? On Tuesday they were able to get new shock absorbers for the VW – highly recommended for the speed bumps of East Africa. The Germans are planning to head for Amboseli having perused some of our safari photos and then to the coast when they will eventually meander down to Tanzania. They have all used the veranda as a dining room/ lounge and the staff quarter’s kitchen for cooking, so were able to be virtually independent as are the 2 brothers … yes ARE, the best laid plans of mice and men … December 10^th 2010 and they are still here (as it is getting towards the close of year I figured I should clarify that it is still 2010!!) – bearings arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday from Belgium via DHL and were collected from the EU offices yesterday BUT unfortunately only one bearing is correct (this was not a complete surprise as they had had suspicions but was still a big blow to moral I fear) … however they had a Plan B so hopefully the RIGHT parts will arrive with some travelers from Europe on Monday. Tried to lighten the mood with a communal dinner and movie night last night – Mugabe and The White African was maybe not a feel good movie BUT was fascinating to watch . tonight we will find something lighter….

Since being here they have discovered a problem with the functioning motorbike – so Julien is stripping the gear box today in the hope that he will discover and more importantly be able to fix the problem. Antoine has mainly stayed around the house catching up with computer work on the blog, sorting out photographs etc, etc. So he has evolved from sitting on the veranda working at his laptop to using the spare desk in the study and finally sharing the study this morning while I wrote Christmas cards …. I have enjoyed using my school girl French – but with me twittering away and being a dreadful middle aged distraction I must have driven him crazy! He has gone off in the tragedy car with the twins to the local Mall where he can use the free internet to upload photos to their blog and the twins are looking round the Masai Market – big help to me that they are all sorted out and I have the house to myself for a short time! I am old enough to be Mum to both (which has made me feel exceptionally middle aged!!) and I have been trying especially hard NOT to cluck like an old mother hen!! Probably failing miserably but airing on the side of the mature concerned!! Having spent much more time in Antoine’s company, it has felt like having an older son in the house who I have not seen in a LONG time – still would not want my dear Luke to get any ideas about motorbikes though – even after all these years bikes just do not do it for me – too scary!!

Before I finish – a clarification – Hairy Bikers – the nickname has come from me, as I connected them to The British TV cooking show called the Hairy Bikers – motorbikes and beards appears to be about all they have in common …..

‘til next time ….

Greetings to friends and family – wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year 2011!!

When I start typing this annual update I often wonder how interested people really are in reading it – personally I find writing a time of reflection and maybe even a form of catharsis.

We are still in the same house – maybe by the skin of our teeth – our landlord wanted to put in a 20% rent increase with annual inflation les s than 5% - this was way over what we had anticipated and could afford. I wrote a polite e mail pointing out our good payment record and the fact that it was more a case of being unable to afford such an increase, rather than not wanting to pay … well something worked and a proposal came back which fell within our range – phew ! … for another year! (We understand that the next lot of leases, with 3 neighbours due to renew soon, will be subject to the 20% increase so sadly 2011 will probably see a movement and change in tenants)

We had new neighbours at #1 in June (previous tenants moving due to a fall out about their rent increase!) So now we have a family of 6 – Aussie Dad and Hawaiian Mum with kids ranging from aged 6 to a baby born in August. He works for Kofi Annan’s political office so keep joking that he should get his boss round for tea!! A family from Ecuador moved into #7 in August after the previous Nigerian tenants relocated to Ghana – Pedro works for the UN and they have 2 girls aged 10 and 8 who Luke enjoys playing with.

We have had lots of compound gatherings over the last 12 months including several Danish lunches hosted by #5 which should carry a health warning due to the amount of Akvavit (40% alcohol by volume) that is consumed !

In February we started a gym class 3 mornings per week in the clubhouse – we have a personal trainer visit and he runs a class – aerobics, step, weights, Swiss ball …- we pay him a monthly fee – and it works out to be very reasonable for a minimum of 12 classes per month. We reveled in the FIFA World Cup being hosted in Africa for the first time and attended an opening match event altogether and shared numerous matches at various houses until we slipped off to UK for the summer. We are once again looking forward to a Compound Christmas party – some adjustments have been made following lessons learned from last year and there have been some additions too. The compound kids are performing a nativity – patiently arranged by Angela #5…

We have also over the last few months met neighbours from nearby compounds so there is quite a decent social network locally for Braais (BBQs) and parties!

We were invited to an American household for Thanksgiving where the Brits dominated – quite ironic! We enjoyed turkey with all the trimmings. The following weekend we had Thanksgiving desserts at #1 – pumpkin, apple and pecan cappuccino pies were on offer.

Steve, as ever, continues to work hard and play hard. He turned 50 in June and enjoyed several celebrations – on the actual day we were in Amboseli (National Park in the shadow of Kilimanjaro) where a great time was had by all including seeing the best lions we have probably ever witnessed. He often cycles to work and continues to cycle with the ‘Mud and Blood’ group in the tea estates on a Sunday morning. His travelling has not been too hectic – a few trips in the first 3 months of the year ( last minute cancellation of a trip to Rome due to the Icelandic volcano ), a lull midyear and then a few trips these last 8 weeks – including Japan for 2.5 weeks which was new and different. The travelling year will end with a trip to Rome, an opportunity to replenish our parmesan supply! He is training hard to climb Mt Kenya in January – the school needed a parent chaperone on the Advanced Mt Kenya Inter Cultural trip – carry ALL their own gear including tents and food – Steve doesn’t do camping so will be interesting!

We have been richly blessed with visitors this year. Diane visited for a week in March – such a great week of catching up and discovering Nairobi’s tourist attractions together! Dad came in March and is due for Christmas and New Year. We have had various

x work colleagues passing through – from UK, Harare, x India, Australia – always great hosting such people for a dinner. My brother has just spent 10 days with us on route from Botswana - as usual he has attended to all the jobs and maintenance issues – including finally fixing my antique RESTORED Georgian corner cupboard to the wall – first time it has been on the wall since it left Grandma’s in 2003!

It looks magnificent. We also have the accompaniment of the Grandfather Clock’s dulcet tones once more, as John has tweaked it and got it going again - such a comforting sound with, for me, the reminder of many summers in Wales staying with Grandma..

The Whitehead twins are expected from Bulawayo very soon for a 2 week visit – they have just finished A levels at the Convent and will go to University in South Africa next year.

We have had several trips to the coast – with Steve in Japan during October break I was even brave enough to drive to the coast and back – took another Mum and 2 kids and met with 3 other Mums and kids down there – had a great time!

Last Christmas we went to the Masai Mara and stayed in the West of the park – negotiating our way through metres of black cotton soils and at one point broad siding down the track with Luke shouting ‘Cool’ from the back – I was not so impressed. I t rained a lot while we were there and we all worried about the drive back to Nairobi so literally put a damper on our stay! We revisited in September for the Great Migration and saw thousands of wildebeest queuing in lines across the savannah rather like ants trail through the dirt. Unfortunately we did not see a river crossing as at the point when a couple of animals started to cross there was a surge forward of some 20 or so safari vehicles which seemed to spook them and put them off. There were A LOT of angry tourists – including ourselves who had stayed back watching and waiting for several hours from a safe distance. On the plus side we were the only private vehicle and we had our own real Masai guide for the day – the Mara is not well signed and it would have been virtually impossible to find the good places had we decided to go it alone!

In June and July once the school year had come to a close we visited UK. I went to Wimbledon with Diane and had Centre Court tickets – same day as the Queen – and we saw Nadal, Murray, Wozniaki and a ladies doubles – such a great day. We saw Sister Act at the London Palladium and for the first time in my life stayed in a Youth Hostel ,in Earls Court – cheap, cheerful and functional – and conveniently on the same tube line as Wimbledon so an easy journey including the short walk to and from the station at either end…

We took Steve’s parent’s on a trip to Wales – my first time in 10 years – the weather was fairly kind and we managed a few hours on the beach, fish and chips on the prom at Criccieth along with Cadwalladers ice cream, a trip down a slate mine, a ride on the Festiniog railway and a nostalgic trip to Nefyn, taking tea with Brian and Doris Jones, Grandma’s old neighbours.

We squeezed in a trip to Scarborough to see the Lumley family (Steve only took 2 weeks leave in UK so time was short) and shared a day at their beach hut on North Bay – nobody was foolish enough to brave the North Sea though! We also went to Old Trafford to see England beat Australia in a 50 over match – Luke’s first live match in UK – a great day was had by all.

The return to school in August brought Anna into Grade 11, equivalent of Lower 6 in UK, and the first year of IB. Luke started Grade 5 – the final year of elementary – this is the same as finishing Primary school in UK. It has been a busy semester for the PTO – with 2 fundraisers including International Day celebrating the cultural diversity of the school with 85 countries represented at a parade of nations. There was a buffet with all manner of dishes from all over the world, an international program of entertainment and cultural activities and displays. We managed to borrow the hugest Union Jack flag I have ever seen, from the British High Commission. It has been a semester of networking the new parents and many planning meetings. I will be finishing at the end of the school year as secretary with the intention to take a back seat next year – yeh yeh yeh!

Anna is doing very well and is taking IB in her stride – she is taking Biology, History and Geography at Higher Level, with French, English and Math’s at Standard level. Her extended essay will related to Zimbabwe and her community service is going well so far. She took a role in the latest drama production of Once upon a Mattress as the jester – and following hours and hours of rehearsals – managed an excellent 3 nights on stage. She has joined the Jazz Band which rehearses before school 2 mornings per week and they perform quite frequently. In February she went to Zambia for a Global Issues Summit and is probably off to Mozambique in 2011 for a similar summit. In March she went snowboarding and managed a broken left wrist on the second day! She spent a week in France acting as an au pair for Belgian friends in July and this has really improved her spoken French.

Luke enjoyed Grade 4 and continued with his piano lessons – mastering a song from the Lion King. Six weeks after Anna he managed to break his right wrist following a bad fall at school. He went off to a weeks summer camp in York, UK and although did not relish the separation from me he coped well and reluctantly admitted he had enjoyed the week.

He was invited to become a Peer Helper at the beginning at Grade 5 (ISK equivalent of a prefect) He has joined the swim team and trains early 2 mornings per week and once a week after school. Other activities include basketball, gardening and yearbook club. This semester he has really taken to reading – has read the whole Percy Jackson series, 4 books within the literary circle at school and I am trying to guide him to some genres other than fantasy without discouraging the appetite! Academically the reading has had a positive impact on his work and attention to detail.

Well that just about brings you up to date with us.

Thinking of you all across the miles this Christmas and sending blessings for 2011

Love Steve, Lindsay, Anna and Luke xxxxxxxxxx

We reluctantly left Amboseli to return to Nairobi. The mountain majestically revealed itself to us for one last time. The traffic was fine until we hit the last 20 km. The first roundabout on the highway took 30+minutes to negotiate – as usual the police were making a half hearted effort to direct the traffic and were not prioritising correctly. It is so tiring being in such traffic – I suppose the people who do it every day get used to it. The ringroad is being built but cannot see completion anytime this decade!!

Last Saturday we (Steve, Luke and I) went hiking in the Rift Valley – a longstanding arrangement with #5 – Angela and Philip. We left home at 06.30hrs armed with picnic breakfast and lunch and set off to Mt Longonot approximately 1 hour away.(a dormant volcano rising700m above the Rift Valley floor) We parked up, had breakfast and prepared for the climb. There were parts that were extremely steep but after just 1 hour and 15 minutes we reached the rim of the crater, where we rested for a short while, took photos and rehydrated. We set off for the anti-clockwise hike around the crater rim (2-3 hours according to the guide book!!) The highest peak was shrouded in mist but even so looked quite tough. Luke was soon complaining – descending even the small rises was technically challenging due to erosion of the ‘paths’. We were relieved to reach the highest point – stopped, had snacks and regrouped. It was supposed to get easier from now on…. And in parts it did but some of the descents were very tricky, and some stretches of the path were treacherous with steep drops on either side. I was very afraid of falling, especially tripping so had to tread carefully which was tiring. Eventually about 2/3 of the way round the path improved, but by this time after about 10km of difficult terrain I was tiring a little. As we started the final descent my left foot started to hurt with the pressure on my toes from the downward motion. I so wish I could have changed my footwear at that point ….. Poor Steve was now carrying 3 backpacks as it was all I could do to stay on my feet without being weighed down as well! I ended up walking backwards on the steepest parts – thank goodness for my walking pole. I was so relieved to see the car and the tar road looming in front and hobbled into the parking area just more than 6 hours after we had set off. We were all covered in dust, my face was streaked with dirt – in fact I looked more like I had done a shift down a coal mine!! Luke also made it – after much ‘beep beep beep’ – don’t ask me next time Mum!! Taking my boots off was fantastic, to stretch out my toes felt SO good. We ate our lunch then were back home by just after 16.00hrs. We stripped off in the laundry as we were SO filthy. (not sure how everything came clean but it did) Anna brought tea upstairs and we showered and fell into bed! After 1 hours sleep I watched the 2^nd half of the Nigeria game, then had to get up and dressed to go out for a BBQ. We had planned to watch the England vs US match with some US embassy friends. It was a relief that someone else was doing the cooking. We actually managed to stay awake for the WHOLE game – a miracle, but what a joy when that final whistle was blown and we could go home to bed!!

So, now to prepare for our summer vacation in UK. The weather has been quite gloomy this week and it is dark by 18.30hrs, but it is the shortest day next week!! Still we will be in UK by then for their longest day! We arrive on Sunday 20^th June in the morning…..

Steve’s 50^th birthday has been looming on the horizon, really since Easter – we knew there was a UN retreat coming up and it was likely to clash and we did not know where the event was to be held. Finally they agreed on Amboseli – a National Park in the South of Kenya with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop AND families were invited to accompany since ISK was to finish on 4/6. How fabulous – birthday sorted!!

On the evening of Monday 31^st May 2010 I organized a small drinks evening at our house to celebrate the birthday with friends and neighbours – it was a public holiday the next day so worked in well. We had about 35 people over for drinks and snacks – my snacks evolved into a real feast but not quite a buffet – I was pleased with the baking and preparing I managed to pull off after a hastily sent out invitation – Steve had been ill for more than a week and I had been awaiting a recovery…

06/06 Travelled to Amboseli – not a bad journey. Lodge in delightful setting with bush to one side and Kilimanjaro to the other. I was disappointed about the cloud cover and figured that morning would be the best time to see the mountain in all its’ glory. Took a quick safari around 4PM to get our bearings.

07/06 Steve’s 50^th Birthday -Woke fairly early so Steve and I decided to pop out and see if the mountain was clear of cloud … There was a layer of cloud but the snow-capped peak was visible. We decided to go a little further around a couple of corners to get a better view of the mountain which we did, and some distance away we could see 3 safari vehicles looking at something that from where we were was not obvious. Being nosy we decided to investigate and to our delight found them watching 3 fully grown lionesses basking in the early morning sun. After a photo call we elected to hurry back to the lodge to wake the children. They hurriedly dressed and I took them back to where we had seen the spectacle some minutes earlier but alas the lions had moved on.

In the afternoon we took another drive, heading for an observation hill a few kms from the lodge. On route we came across plenty elephants bathing and playing in a swamp. The stationary beasts were lined up with their bottoms to the road almost like a picture from a kid’s story book. We finally got to the hill and parked making our way to the top to enjoy a superb panorama. On the way back via a circular route we were lucky to see a herd of zebras on the run. Initially we wondered if they were being hunted but it turned out they had been spooked by some Masai who were wandering along.

The evening at the lodge was great fun… champagne under the clear starry sky in the bush followed by a dinner and dancing with a live guitarist. There was birthday cake presented in the usual way with the hotel staff parading, banging kitchen utensils as makeshift instruments and singing ‘Jambo Bwana’, a song synonymous with tourists and/or birthday’s. Later on we attracted the attention of some real tourists who were curious as to what was happening with all the noise and music. They even joined in – I am sure the lodge had not seen such festivities in a long time. We retired to bed late – Steve was a little the worse for wear and snored ALL night!! Grrrrrrrrr !!

08/06 Left the lodge at just after 6AM with the kids and 2 of Steve’s team – Greg from NZ and Kristen from US. Steve was under the weather from previous night’s festivities so I left him in bed! We set off and I was not sure where to take them but I wanted to go a different way to the previous days. Very soon we came across hyena with babies sleeping and 2 older cubs arousing … one took off and started worrying a warthog, who was having none of it!! There was a herd of elephants in the distance with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop along with a lone balloon – a discussion about out individual thoughts about taking a balloon ride ensued – definitely not my thing I would be too scared of breaking a bone on landing!! All the time the sun was rising and the light was improving for photography. Further along we came across a lone bull elephant with a rather large appendage which caused a ripple of amusement in the car! We made it to the lake and tarried on the causeway to admire the birds, reflections and light on the water. Anna took loads of shots. Greg, a keen birder, was whooping about the diversity and sharing names of birds with us. With time pressing on towards breakfast and still a distance from the lodge we reluctantly set off aiming to return via a circular route. The road was quite corrugated so I picked up speed to smooth the ride. About 1.5km from the lodge we could see something in the distance coming out of the bush to our right and walking in a line quite a distance away. I could not work out what they were – very dark coloured but too small for wildebeest and the movement seemed feline. Not wanting to disappoint, I kept quiet - next to me Greg was having similar thoughts …. They were lions – 14 of them! The dark colour was due to them being caked in mud, presumably having just come out of the swamp. I stopped the car and we waited as they came from our right and crossed in front of the car – 2 adult females first, one lactating, followed by 10 cubs of varying ages playing and tumbling in the grass, then 2 males at the back. The whole process must have taken about 5 minutes from spotting them to them crossing in front and disappearing off to the left. There were no other vehicles around – we had the scene all to ourselves –what satisfaction and split second timing – we could so easily have missed them had we been 5 minutes earlier or later. Anna had broken her 10year jinx of never having seen a lion in the wild – yes 10 years in Africa and each time we had seen lion she had not been with us. She so nearly did not get out of bed that morning!! Later that day it was SO exciting downloading and greedily looking through the photographs… The kids made a movie blending photos on Anna’s new Mac Book Pro and using the imovie application, with ‘Circle Of Life’ as background music. It was shown to the retreat at the end of the day.

09/06 - Up early for another safari. Saw wonderful hyena – 5 of them – they obligingly stopped and put on a show of playing and grooming right next to the road. The birds on the water were once again breath taking and we were disappointed to have to break and go back for breakfast. I spent the morning sorting through photos of the birthday night and the retreat to put together another movie using the music of ‘Hard Day’s Night’ ‘Happy Birthday’ by Altered Images and finally ‘Dancing Queen’ Once again this was shown at the end of the day’s proceedings to the people on the retreat, who I might add had flown in from all over the world!! – Bangkok, Geneva, Rome, Panama, Washington, Samoa and then many nationalities from HQ in Nairobi.

Another month of making lists of what to write about but still preferring the odd sentence on Facebook instead of sitting down and applying myself to the blog. I’ll never be a writer as I have not got the discipline to sit down and write little and often. It always becomes a marathon and then I find myself putting it off and making excuses.

The last Friday in April the kids were off school in lieu of May Day which being a Saturday is counted as a working day in Africa so Saturday was the Public Holiday. We had planned to make a trip to Nairobi National Park followed by a visit to the Elephant orphanage. On my previous visit there I, for the family, had adopted a baby elephant called Tano which allows us the privilege of free visiting at 5pm any day (following an advanced phone call) and seeing the babies put to bed. Anna was not too well and the weather was foul so we decided to sideline the National Park trip and just visit the elephants later in the day. Just Luke and I had been before (this is a major tourist attraction in Nairobi and after residing here 16 months we finally made a family trip there.) To be fair the other side of the city (Karen) is tough to get to, but we have now discovered, with the help of local friends, a back route which takes just 30 minutes to Karen and then depending on traffic about another 20 minutes to the elephant place. http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org These babies are just the cutest things you have ever seen and it is hard to believe that they grow into such huge animals with aggressive tendencies. We now know 2 people who have died at the hands of an elephant charge and heard of many more. The keepers bring the orphans from their play area to the stables and they bumble along, jockeying for position not unlike school children being competitive for a position in the lunch queue. They are guided into their own stable where the keepers give them a bottle of milk before settling them down for the night. The youngest have to be fed every 3 hours so the keepers sleep in the stable with the baby. In one stable there was a grey blanket hung up and the keeper was hiding behind it offering the baby the bottle and pretending to be the mother. When the babies bed down they are then covered with a mattress which makes them feel safe and protected much like wrapping a newborn human baby in a shawl for comfort BUT this looks hilarious – the trunks and sometimes heads sticking out like they are playing peek-a-boo from under the mattress. The cutest was a baby rhino with his little horn exposed and his eyes flickering as if faking sleep. We shall make the effort to go again as it is such an experience and will be good to see how our adopted baby progresses.

As I sit at the desk working on the computer looking out to the front garden I have been reviewing our car situation. Steve has, for the most part, continued cycling to work so his little car has sat at home. I was beginning to think that this was a gross extravagance and that we should consider selling his car. How wrong was I? Yes TRAGEDY car strikes again ... and it HAD to be when I was in it although for a change not driving!! We were on the way to the fracture clinic for Anna to have her cast removed and as parking is notoriously bad our driver was taking us OR NOT – as we got out of the compound the car just died. I went back to get the little car which can squeeze into spaces that other cars cannot and left the driver to get help and push El Tragedy back into our drive. The diagnosis was not good – a belt had snapped in the engine, not the timing belt (the engine which has done 23000kms!!) They have been able to replace all the bent valves and put in new belts and head gasket – all in 5 working days which is quite miraculous. Just days after the incident we had the car back – our bank balance is worse off for it but at least the Trajet rides again!! SO coming back to the original point the ‘spare car’ was extremely useful over those few days (our driver is not insured to drive our new car – no explanation needed I hope ?) There were a few mornings when it was wet so I ran Steve to work (with bike in car) and then he cycled home. The last 2 weeks have been VERY VERY wet and he has barely been able to cycle at all. I finally found and purchased a rain gauge about 3 weeks ago. I had thought this may bring about a cessation of this rainy season – but not. Last week, in a 30 hour period, the rain gauge over flowed indicating more than 100mm of rain had fallen. I have NEVER seen rain like it – just coming down in sheets and flooding roads. There was a rumour going round that Noah was alive and well and building an ark in Nairobi!! This is on top of 7 months of rain (except for a brief 3 week period earlier in the year when it was dry) The TWO rainy seasons seem to have merged into ONE – we were desperate for rain though and the met office has forecasted another week or so of rain then dry season. It is clear from the weather maps that the ITCZ is moving west so fingers crossed, as we are all damp and fed-up!! The upshot of this is that the pool has dropped to 20 degrees – hopefully a bit of sun will do the job and raise it by a couple of degrees – 22 degrees is about my minimum limit!!

Two weeks ago I took the puppy to be spayed. She would be due to come into heat while we are away in UK and the thought of coming back to puppies was far from inspiring! I felt so guilty leaving her at the vet as she was so happy and of course had no clue as to what was coming!! In the late afternoon I collected her and she was SO tired she did not know what to do with herself. Harry was worrying her and she just wanted to be left alone. I actually felt sorry for her. The cone around her neck to stop her licking the wound lasted less than a week but she was very good and did not touch it after that. She finally had the stitches taken out yesterday and is now totally fixed.

Anna did not win the HS speech contest so next year intends to write a speech entitled ‘Always the bridesmaid....!!’ The overall winning speech was fantastic – the guy is a real gem has a wonderful delivery and won last year too. For Anna there is always next year ....

We are in the middle of a busy time at school. Lunches, Leaving Dos, concerts and parties seem to be the order of the day just lately. The HS principal’ and his family are leaving – sad for us as he was also Luke’s Cub Scout leader and Father of one of Luke’s friends – this week there is a Farewell party for HS parents organised by the PTO. Last weekend they had a private party, to which we were invited, with a live band. There were not many non ISK payroll people there so we felt a bit weird mixing with the teachers, director and other staff. Anna declined to come with us for obvious reasons!! This time of year in x-pat land is when people move on – all the embassy staff who are moving on rotation leave at the end of the school year and other organisations also use this timetable (UN is not one of them which is why we came 2^nd semester) In August there will be whole bunch of new faces around (about 30% new students throughout the whole school) along with new teachers and parents. The new HS principal was visiting last week so it was good to get a glimpse of the guy. He seems great – coming from Nigeria (Abuja) with teaching spouse and 3 boys – one Luke’s age – Anna just cannot escape a connection with her principals!! I have said we will have them round for a braai before school starts as they will be living close to us and hopefully Luke will make friend with their sons.

Last week just 15 days after Anna had her cast removed following a broken left wrist ...... Luke broke his right wrist – this is definitely a family failing – 3 of us in a little over 3 years. He is OK and coping, as am I!!

OK nearly 4 pages is more than enough for now ... until next time from sunny Nairobi – yes really, but it is sun in-between the rain!!

More than a month since I blogged and really no excuses…. I keep a list of what I want to blog about and it just gets longer and longer and then the typing is more of a mission so I put it off and the list keeps increasing …. What a ridiculous state to get into over a blog which should be a pleasure and mostly is. I may as well go back to monthly e mails – will give it a bit longer as maybe just maybe one day I will learn my lesson and see the value of blogging more regular – ie less to type !!

There have been a few events these last weeks – we celebrated 18 years of marriage last week and went for a meal at the local ‘posh’ hotel – nice ambiance but the food was a little disappointing. Took the kids for Japanese food for Dad’s last night before he headed back to UK (he squeezed home just hours before the volcanic ash caused all the chaos) and we had teppanyaki, live cooking in front of us by a real life Japanese chef (he may have been Korean actually !)– Lobster, beef, chicken, pork, and vegetables – the teriyaki sauce was delicious too. Finally the kids have discovered that there is more to life than Italian restaurants (nothing wrong with Italian food but good to have a change!!)

Anna and I went to a wonderful concert last Thursday put on by the High School including jazz, contemporary classical, choral, a cappella – hope it has inspired Anna to resume her music next school year.

She has made her selections for IB and will take Biology, History, Geography and English at Higher level with Maths and French at Standard Level (the teachers of the latter 2 subjects have said if she keeps up her current commitment then she should make a ‘7’ (top marks) which is a good chunk toward the 35-40 points she may be asked for). Thankfully we do not start the UCAS application for more than 12 months but it does seem to be creeping ever nearer.

We do not have an Easter Holiday as such but Spring break did coincide this year but by coincidence not design. Kids finished school on Friday 26^th March and were back in on Tuesday 6th April. Anna went off to Switzerland for a week of snow-boarding and broke her left wrist on the 2^nd morning…. What can I say? It should be OK as it is a straightforward impacted fracture – cast comes off in about 3 weeks. We went off to the coast to Watamu where we did the usual reading, sunbathing, swimming etc. Steve and Luke were diving each morning. The weather was a bit strange – VERY windy the first 2 days which brought in lots of seaweed (it is seasonal but it seemed to appear very quickly). After that there was barely a breath of wind and it was almost too hot. On the beach it was fine with a slight breeze off the sea but the evenings were very hot and sticky. I got badly bitten on my lower legs by sand flies with the heat really making the bites itchy and at night I felt fairly miserable. We really needed the AC this time. The high point for me was meeting up with a bunch of friends (all from Nairobi and staying at various places in the resort) and taking a boat trip. We tried to find dolphins but the choppy conditions were not ideal and we were not lucky enough to see them. We did however head to the reef and had a fabulous drift snorkel. As this is within the marine reserve we had purchased national parks tickets in advance and yes the Kenya Wildlife Service came along on a little speedboat checking tickets – yes, in the middle of the Indian Ocean – incredible!!

My reading ‘desert’ seems to be temporarily over. I finally finished the Stieg Larsson Millennium series (Swedish crime novels) – fingers crossed the supposed 4^th one will get published when the late author’s loved ones can sort out the finances. I also read ‘Say you’re one of them’- a book of African short stories. It was SO depressing with difficult challenging English that I had to make myself read so many pages a day otherwise I would not have finished it. I felt very fulfilled and self-righteous when I did complete it though!! The next book club book was chosen as an easy read … technology then came into play as I was able to buy it in e book format and download it to my new e reader (a Christmas gift that I had not had need to use until last week) I could have purchased and read the book without leaving the house!! ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls which I finished this morning! I also downloaded ‘Wolf Hall’ for a mere 5 quid (a bargain as the book costs 12.99 quid!! No sterling sign on this computer!!) The E reader is a fabulous invention for travellers, so looking forward to taking it away to UK this ‘summer’. (Finally booked and paid for trip to UK via Amsterdam – hope the ash story is history by then … arrive morning of Sunday 20^th June 2010 and leave on a day flight Thursday 29^th July 2010)

We have seen a few movies recently – The Blind Side, Shutter Island and Up in the Air – all enjoyable and recommendable.

There are two things that have not changed this last month … it has continued to rain – mainly at night with warm sunny days so not too bad. On Wednesday night we had a terrific storm which caused the power to go down at around 21.00hrs – it finally was restored around 19.00hrs the next day – thank goodness for the back-up generator meaning we barely notice the outages. It just made me think of all those hours without power in Zimbabwe – wish I had kept a diary but at the time it got so annoying that you did not need to be reminded about it – sorry Zims reading this! We have continued with our exercise classes in the clubhouse at the compound and have recently increased to 3 times per week!! Fridays are now kick-boxing and step – phew! – Great fun but exhausting. In addition to classes it is still warm enough to swim – water around 25degrees.

A couple of travelling anecdotes before I sign off….

1. Saturday 10^th April was one of those days where everyone had to be in different places almost at once. Anna had a 09.00hrs function at school so the driver took her. Steve and Luke had a Boy Scout event and went off together, with Dad and I, going shopping, then meeting up with the boy scouters. Luke was then going to go straight to Baseball at school to be dropped by Steve then the driver had been instructed to go to school for 1pm and bring both kids home. Complicated arrangements when all written together but not difficult…. The Boy Scout event finished early so we all came home… and this is where I went wrong. I called the driver (1^st mistake….should have spoken to him face to face) – I told him that Luke was actually at home and needed taking to school for 12 – he could wait and bring both kids back together at 1pm – ‘OK Madam’. I was sat at the computer and went to get a drink around 11.45hrs – car had gone but Luke was still around. Really annoying as said car has a very screechy fan belt which I had NOT heard. I call the driver ‘Where are you? And why have you not taken Luke to school? TURN ROUND AND COME BACK!!’ I bellowed down the phone. He had not understood what I had said on the phone – my accent? Or his inability to listen – who knows? (The 2^nd mistake I had made was changing the arrangements – this should be outlawed in Africa as generally something will go wrong.) He did manage to bring both kids back from school which was a redeeming feature to the whole episode!!

2. The Volcanic Ash – loads of UN people stranded here or overseas OR here at home because travel has been postponed or cancelled. Steve was flying to Rome on Ethiopian Airways yesterday via Adis Ababa… we had been unable to determine if Rome was open as seemed to be on the borderline of the ash. We called the airline – yes they are still operating in and out of Rome so the trip was on. Steve left here before 15.30hrs to catch connecting flight from NBO to Adis at 18.00hrs. I got an sms to say they had boarded …. 1 hour later – sms to say there was a problem with an engine so they were sat on the plane … 1 hour later ‘disembarking’ … 1 hour later ‘they are offloading luggage’ and finally after another 30 minutes or so ‘I’m coming home!!! Flight cancelled’. He got here around midnight… they wanted to put him on the flight they were hoping to run this morning but Steve had refused and said he wanted to be put on the 18.00hrs today followed by the Rome flight at 01.00hrs out of Adis on 20/4. This morning he gets an e mail to say that the meeting he was going to Rome for is postponed – a bit late as he should have already been there!!

He has gone into the office and starts to reschedule his travel arrangements and guess what – the flight to Rome did not leave Adis yesterday so he could possibly have been stuck there with no visa – I’m thinking Tom Hanks in ‘Terminal’!! He is now looking towards leaving here on Wednesday if the other meetings go ahead but with all the travel chaos this is looking unlikely.

Last but by no means least … tonight Anna is in the final of the High School speech competition. Every High School student writes and delivers a speech which begins at class level, then semi-finals in front of the Head of English, culminating in the finals held in the auditorium in front of students, parents and teachers. Three students are selected from each grade from which there will be a grade level winner and then an overall winner is also chosen. Last year she came a close second so fingers crossed for this year – the title is ‘How many zeroes is that?’ – It is an amusing dialogue about her take on hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe.