Blog March 2010

OK I know I know, major neglect – my resolution did not last very long did it? Still I was very busy and then since the hectic schedule died down I really have no excuse!!

Diane came to visit for a week – she arrived on time with no hiccups- it was all the contingencies I had put in place that blessed us with on time flights and no airport closures … or strikes (poor passengers booked with BA- do not envy them the uncertainty- having travelled through 2 strikes myself !! KLM and SA – when my luggage was stuck in Jberg for 17 days and I was in UK!!)

I hope she had a good time – I had a good time – I had a great week. We visited Karen and I finally did the touristy Elephant Orphanage – it was fantastic and now I know where it is AND the quick route to that area of the city it is definitely on my ‘must do’ with visitors list. We visited the Veranda had a lovely seafood lunch and browsed the very over-priced craft shop with prices 3 or 4 times the tourist usual. A shocking rip off. We popped into the Karen Blixen museum and Diane masqueraded as Anna so she got in free with the museum pass. We pre-planned what to do if we were asked for ID and it worked very well with me ‘angry ‘that Diane had not brought her Drivers License and had made me drive for the day … worked like a charm and they of course allowed us in having scrutinized my ID which matched my museum pass! One evening we discovered Japanese food and have been back with Steve and Bruno (visiting from Ethiopia) since! Wow I have really been missing out all these years – what fantastic food and a great restaurant not too far from the house. We all went off to Nakuru NP for the Saturday night and stayed at the Sarova Lion Hill inside the park. The hotel was OK but the park was fabulous – just a 2-2.5 hour drive from here and it has good roads within the park, fabulous game and views. The lake is teaming with flamingoes- very pretty but incredibly smelly. We did 2 game drives and saw wonderful Rhino and giraffe and plenty of plains game. A baboon got into the car at a viewpoint and took a fancy to the yellow box of tissues then threw it away in disgust when he realized that it was not food! On the journey back to Nairobi we took a slight detour through the tea estates and then home just as the rain came.

We have had really mixed weather – rainy season seems to have arrived early but it generally clears up quickly leaving long, warm sunny days. The pool is still hovering around 25degrees so I continue to swim about 4 times a week on top of gym classes. Next week are going to try an aqua class in the pool!

Last week was very busy socially and we had invites on top of prior arrangements which we had to turn down. The highlight was the St Patrick’s Ball at the Hilton hotel on Saturday night with a table of 10 friends. We crawled in at 02.15AM and managed to wake the kids with our stage whispers. We danced and danced and some drank and drank but they will remain nameless. The best was 3 husbands who just do not dance, including mine, and they all danced. Us girls tried to discover what a man REALLY wears under his kilt as there were lots of kilt clad macho men in attendance, BUT we chickened out, although I have a good photo of Tracy threatening to have a peek!! We also had a DGEF party and a birthday at the neighbors’ Thursday and Friday respectively-more dancing and boozing!

OK signing off here until next time - if I am still here after all the going out!!

.. well life certainly seems to have got in the way recently, dominated by preparations for the ISK International Food Fair – the big fund raiser for this semester (see how American school I am now – semester and even quarters – I even understand twenty-five hundred …and similar numbers – at first I saw 25000 for twenty five hundred !! I think that is a hangover from the Zim hyper inflationary time when there was nothing less than 5 digits! I still fool the Americans with ‘half one’ i.e. 01.30hrs and I love saying fortnight – so many subtle differences and I thought we all spoke English – how wrong was I?!) Anyway our big event was on 27/2 and involved a lot of strategy and hours of planning meetings. It was well attended and hopefully we raised lots of money. Steve enjoyed assisting with the bar and doing the braai for the boerewors rolls. He flew off to Zurich the same night a little worse for wear – fortunately I was sober so managed to get him ready for the journey including making him put his wallet in his pocket – imagine no wallet and on a different continent!!

Our weather has been quite mixed recently but still warm and the pool has maintained a pleasant 25 degrees. It is lovely swimming early in the day when the air temperature is marginally cooler than the water – feels so silky. We have continued with our exercise class in my front yard which I so look forward too. I have enquired about starting a step class too. We are also looking at Belly Dancing classes one evening – a mum at school offers this. Steve has continued to cycle to work and has realized that it is much quicker; however the traffic in this area has been behaving the last couple of weeks.

Anna has had a busy time. She spent 4 nights in Zambia last week for the Global Issues Summit and came back having had a totally brilliant time. She brought back a bottle of Mazoe Orange (bottled in Zambia but presumably produced in Harare) and the taste has certainly evoked many memories. She was billeted by a family in Lusaka – Dad from Columbia and Mum from Lesotho – Steve and I both being the same nationality really are not the norm in this international community!

Yesterday we had a meeting with the IB co-coordinator at the school to discuss Grade 11 choices. She has done a complete about turn on her selections due to Higher Level (HL) Geography being offered for the first time. It was suggested that she take Standard Level Economics as a 7^th subject but this did not work within the timetable. She has opted for the following;

Geo, History, Biology and English at Higher Level French and Math’s at Standard Level

English is an extra HL in which she can always drop back to SL if it gets too much. Essentially they follow the same course for the Grade 11 year anyway.

She is looking at applying for a BSC Geography but that is still way in the future.

She is already thinking about her extended essay and hopes to build in some aspect of Zim be it the economy or land issue. It certainly fits with her doing 2 social sciences. I think she is sad not to be taking drama but she hopes to continue to be involved in the drama productions. It was a shame that she missed the latest play while she was in Zambia. She has been cast a good speaking part. I went to see it while she was away and thought it was excellent with a wide variety of students taking part.

We went to see Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief the weekend before last. Kids enjoyed it and the special effects were good but I feel they are trying to find the next Harry Potter and trying too hard! Afterwards we went to lunch at the Meditteraneo – much talked about in Nairobi – and understandably so – thoroughly enjoyed the food and found it difficult to choose from the extensive menu.

We are reaching the end of the school quarter and Spring Break actually coincides with Easter this year. Anna is going skiing and we are going to the coast AGAIN – not convinced I will ever tire of it!! Dad will be visiting again. We will then be on the countdown to the end of the school year. I cannot believe that we are in our 15^th month here in Kenya. It really feels like home now but I do forget where I am sometimes…. As an example – Anna’s mobile phone battery has been on its last legs for ages and
I meant to order a new one from UK and did not…. How silly was I? Down the road just 2.7km away at our local mall, Village Market, there is a Nokia shop. I walked in today and bought the right genuine Nokia battery off the shelf – that is the sort of convenience I cannot get accustomed to…. Life in Nairobi … not so tough.

It’s been a while and I feel very guilty and neglectful – but I have been thinking about blogging. Just been busy doing other things and more to the point other stuff when I have been on the computer BUT have just completed a long list of computer tasks so I am back!!

The idea was to just type a small amount and regularly – so where did that resolution go?! Shameful – I did not manage even a month!!

I have had a bit of a movie fest of late – been to the cinema TWICE during the day with girlfriends – great fun – had the cinema to ourselves – saw Avatar and Invictus (the latter was hilarious as we had the main film and a private show from my neighbor who was sat with us and clapping, joining in, singing etc – half the time I was not sure where the best bit was – actually that day there was one other women in the auditorium – she must have thought we all should be in the funny farm!!

Have also seen Julie and Julia and District 9 (thought the latter was a load of old rubbish but I’m not into that Sci-Fi stuff really) Saw the Valentines’ Day chick flick with Anna while Steve was taxi driver to Luke who was invited to a party. Lots of stars in it – but very cheesy, still it was a good mother and daughter bonding exercise.

We are having more and more communal events here at out compound and using the facilities. I am trying to swim 1km as often as I can. The pool is lovely – sitting around 25 degrees. Occasionally the water is warmer than the air (not often, mainly only of if I swim early or late). The best time but not so convenient time, is to swim leading up to lunch, then shower and eat. On Mondays and Wednesdays we have an instructor who holds a body toning/aerobics type class and Tuesday and Thursday there is Pilates (this clashes with my yoga so I do not go to that). We have had salsa dancing – trying to find a dance instructor for us to do more regular classes. We have had ‘bring and braai’ by the pool where those participating invite a couple of families to join. Seems like we have got our regular invitees so they have been allocated no’s (there are only 9 houses in the compound numbered 1-9) so if we talk of no. 10 or no. 10A the residents know who is on the list!

The weather has been gorgeous lately – full-blown summer- in a way it is a pity the next rains should be just around the corner but we do need it – even after prolonged heavy ‘short rains’ we are still on water rationing. We had 2 incidences recently where the water was cut for several days due to major burst pipes – lucky it was restored apparently – have heard of areas which get a major burst, council cut the water and the repairs are left so they never have water restored. Once again we were very grateful that we had our big 5000l storage tank which was full and acted as a back-up when we were low – when the water came back we were able to fill from council water (cheaper than buying a tanker load) A couple of weeks ago or lawn was mown – we have slow growing grass and even after all the rain it was not grossly over grown. After 2 days it was starting to burn up in the sun and due to the dryness – we almost regretted cutting as it did not look like there was any prospect of rain. The following day Steve cycled to work for the first time (we have experienced really dreadful traffic in this area due to road works elsewhere in the city and traffic being channeled through our area) as the previous day it had taken him 50 minutes to get to the office which is about 3+ km away! That afternoon I could not believe it as the clouds built up and we got a major convectional storm – in fact I chuckled to myself that Steve had brought on the rain by cycling, in the same way, if I have my hair done rain is almost guaranteed!! Anyway a colleague kindly put his bike in the car and dropped him off. The next day he cycled again, and yes you guessed it – rain once again but this time he cycled back in it. The UN is NOT the place to drive to at rush hour which is why he did not ask me to go collect him. Anyway it was all great for the lawn which greened up immediately. After 3 days the clouds cleared and we have had settled conditions ever since- highs of around 27-30 degrees but the nights are always cool – this is why they say Nairobi has a perfect climate.

Last weekend we had lunch at the neighbors (an alcohol free one for me after the Danish lunch hangover a couple of weeks back) after lunch we made Ethiopian coffee, a real experience. We roasted the beans on a tiny braai, then ground them and made the coffee in an Ethiopian pot on the same tiny braai. It was more the anticipation and the process than the coffee at the end of it which was unusual. I was laughing as only in Africa would you roast your raw coffee beans!!

I have been trying to be disciplined about keeping my computer inbox cleared of out of date e mails so earlier in the week I had a clear out. There were so many messages about going out to lunch and co-coordinating lunch arrangements with various people I found myself blushing as I hit the delete button! BUT had a good lunch last week with 4 other ladies – went into the city to the Indian Street and found cheap cloth, kikoys, t-shirts and kangas (a particular style of Kenyan cloth) we then headed for the Alliance Francaise to an exhibition of newspaper cartoonists ( Mr Mugabe had made his way in there!!) and lunch – can you believe that in the middle of Nairobi CBD I bumped into someone I knew- x Zimbo! We then headed to the Goethe-Institut (German Cultural Centre) to an exhibition titled Á Black Man’s view, A White Man’s Taboo’ I seemed to miss the point on most of the exhibits even with the explanation apart from ‘Westernized Hand Print’ which showed a European white hand and a key surrounded by Black hands with one black hand chained (this poignantly depicted Africans who turn against their own people) – not clear if that was siding with the European or reflecting the text book African politician who stuffs his pocket at the expense of the masses. We were extremely fortunate with traffic so must have timed it just right both ways so intend to visit the city and these little exhibitions more often.

OK time to take the puppy for a walk and keep up the training - she is actually starting to calm down and listen - a pity I cannot say the same for the husband and the kids !!! BYEEEEEEEE

Happy Valentines

I have rather neglected my blog lately …. Life just seems to have got in the way !!

Slowly getting used to my new lap top but it has made me realize how much I rely on information stored on my computer as I keep having to go back to my old laptop with a data stick and transferring information across. I did not want to completely transfer everything so have been doing it more piece meal.

I am trying to exercise nearly every day. I finally started using the communal pool which happens to be right outside our house! I have been extremely wimpy about it as our pool in Zim over the summer used to hit 29 degrees – we do not even get daytime highs of that here.. So for a year I have perceived the pool as cooler than I would prefer! BUT needs must and all that … it is there and free and perfectly adequate and I do enjoy swimming so I finally started almost 3 weeks ago – if I swim for about 40 minutes I can swim 1km. It actually feels quite warm now I am used to it! I also try to run on the cross trainer a bit and then swim if I have time. I am still attending yoga not always twice a week as meetings at school sometimes clash on a Tuesday. On a Monday and a Wednesday we have an instructor coming to do a low impact aerobics class in our clubhouse … the more attends, the cheaper it works out to be! We are organizing more communal events utilizing the communal facilities – Friday night braai, salsa class, Sunday braai by the pool etc. We all invite a few outside people which creates a good mix.

Anna has been on a trip away with school to an area North of Mt Kenya where she did some community service and some work towards her bronze president’s award. They were camping – no chairs, showers, toilets – yuk so she was desperate to shower when she arrived yesterday.

Luke is really enjoying school – very happy and seems to apply himself much better with maturity – thank goodness!!

Steve has settled back into the routine of work and has no trips planned in the near future which is great – he is going with Luke on Cub Scout camp next weekend – now Steve does not do camping so it will be interesting.

We have had fun and games with the dogs as the puppy came on her first heat. Harry happily went into a neighbors garden during the day but was not settled at night so we had to bring him into our garden and lock up the puppy. Her behavior improver tremendously while she was alone (presumably due to lack of competition) and now he is back as the heat is over she has gone stupid again. I need to try and take her on the lead everyday to instill some greater discipline.

Well that is about all for now – no philosophy – need to apply my thoughts to next time I blog!!

Been trying to sort out my new laptop… takes such a long time to transfer the necessary data … the address book was a disaster as it copied 4 times – no wonder it took so long !! Now I have to go through and delete BUT not complaining as it is better than no addresses at all! I am now up and running with a version of Office 2007 that will not expire!! That helps…

Will work on moving more data this week in the hope I can officially hand over old laptop to Anna by next weekend! Printers is installed and have finally after 1 year in Kenya set up a wireless network which is better for us all to access the WWW!! – Instead of fighting over the 3G dongle. Only problem now is that this keyboard is really different and I was used to American placing and as much as I try to change the settings for the time being it does not want to know.

Sounds’ exciting getting a new computer, but it is like ditching an old friend. I have been using XP for years and years and now I have been promoted to Windows 7 … very different but seems logical I suppose! I imagine I will be raving about it soon enough once I have made the switch over good and proper.

Busy week ahead with lots going on at school.

No rain for more than a week and I have even been n the pool. It has taken a year for me to make that leap but seemed ridiculous to sit at the desk looking at the pool area thinking I really should brave it! I enjoy swimming so have incorporated swimming into my new exercise regime

Kids seem settled into flow of school and I enjoyed having my space back…

... back in Nairobi after a drive slightly longer than 7 hours ... not too bad as it is slower driving back as it is uphill all the way back to altitude of 1700m ! We lost 20 minutes on the first advised GPS time ...

... so has it stopped raining in Nairobi? We arrived back to find a jacaranda tree had fallen over in the neighbours garden and had missed the house by millimeters!! Inside our house there had been quite a major roof leak which has caused damage in the hall. The workmen had been in while we were away and re-varnished the parquet but it is still not up to standard.... so it will be redone next time we are away ... which leads me nicely on to travelling....Once again I have said ‘never again’. My family need to take responsibility for there own stuff.... Luke lost his necklace-guess what? – my fault.... Luke’s new (3 weeks old) UV swim suit which cost a fortune gets left on their balcony where it was drying- and yes that was my fault because I did not check... ‘Have you checked everywhere kids?’ was my question the night before and my memory must be very very poor as I thought I’d heard them say ‘Yes’!! Fortunately there is a happy ending as I called the hotel and it had been found and we still had friends in the resort until the next day so they kindly called and collected it. Phew!

Monday was Anna’s birthday-needed it that day like I needed a hole in the head-just back from coast and tired after the drive, first day in school for kids etc. Luckily I had slept for 10 hours in the cool of Nairobi and our own bed which helped immensely.

Dad went with the driver and did the fruit and veggie shopping for me at the market which was a huge help and freed me up to catch up and go to the supermarket. We had managed to bring white snapper, huge prawns and calamari from the coast so along with a Sicilian pesto pasta starter, fish on the braai and salad it was a fairly simple celebration-shared with our Italian neighbours, Angela and Philip from #4 and Anna’s friend Mara and her Mum Wendy. There was of course birthday cake-as usual expertly prepared by yours truly and being dished out in lunch boxes for the rest of this week!!

Next stop Steve’s 50^th in June!! It is not good planning to have offspring with birthdays 23 days apart with Christmas and New Year in-between!!!

OK time to sign off and go to bookclub....

Blog January 2010

... and it even rains in paradise, so decided to drag myself from under the sunshade which was acting as an umbrella to return ‘to the digs’ as Dad calls it, in order to blog.

It‘s been a great few days ... such a contrast to our tip to Masai Mara for safari and yet both holidays wonderful in their own way.

The setting of the camp in the Mara on the river was stunning and the luxury tents were something to behold. The problem was the weather – now I do not wish to compare it to anything like there has been in UK with tons of snow and -18deg C BUT the prolonged rains had created very muddy off road conditions and I was extremely concerned for our drive home. While we were there the river rose about 2 metres and the mud got muddier and more slippery. On our arrival at the first fuel station on the tar road we looked like we had been doing some serious rally driving and at times when we broadsided into a 180deg spin it certainly felt like it – Luke broke the tension with ‘COOL!!” shouted from the rear of the car!

We saw wonderful animals – we had a 360deg (why is there no degree button on my computer?!) panorama of plains game – literally 100s of animals – wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, topi, thomson gazelle, impala, jackal. The 2^nd trip out in the rain brought 3 lionesses and a stunning male – such a majestic and handsome creature.

Back to reality we were brought horrific news of a school staff member and young daughter being charged by an elephant and killed over the break near Mt Kenya. Just days earlier Steve and Anna had been on a walking safari in the Mara – I have decided that no longer is it worth the risk – this is the 2^nd person known to us in our decade living in Africa who has died at the hands of an elephant – vehicles only from now on.

... and so back to the beach where it is still raining! It’s been a lovely holiday. The hotel is located on a palm fringed beach, with azure blue sea and white tropical sand. There is something for all ages here from babies to pensioners.

Luke has taken a basic SCUBA qualification and will upgrade to PADI at a later date. They have all been off diving together. I went snorkeling on the reef with a friend and saw stunning coral and fish. I swam over a shoal of zebra fish and watched a crustacean peeping out of its hole in the reef.

.... time to finish and pack up ready to head back to Nairobi in the morning. Hoping to take fresh fish to eat at Anna’s birthday dinner on Monday.....