So my boxes arrived yesterday and I have them already
unpacked and 95% of things in place.
There are no flies on me and when I put my mind to something it gets
done in record time. It was great
opening the boxes and not knowing exactly what was in each one. I did have a list that I had made as I packed
them back in November, but I didn’t record everything-I made a note of the big
stuff to leave a little mystery when they finally made it to Africa. It was unpacking that I realised that I left
my list with the customs guy at the airport-dang. It was a photocopy, but I just can’t remember
where I left the original list. I think
Shelly may have it, so I will ask her.
At the end of the day I don’t really need the list for my next set of
boxes, I had worked out what numbers were coming next and really it could have
been working against me in Customs as I was telling him the stuff I had in
there v’s next time they will (and I) just have to see what is in there as they
are opened. After giving all my stuff away
in Brisbane in December, it was nice to unpack things this time and know that
it was my stuff and that I was keeping it.
When I opened my 3 souvenir boxes it was nice to see things what had
made it from my World Odyssey and it brought back a lot of travel memories. Where I was when I bought the item and who I
was with. I also bought some of my
Nana’s things that were given to me after she passed away a few years ago that
she had collected on her travels and that was really sweet to have some
‘family’ items now in my place. Other
surprises included was a Berber Moroccan rug I purchased in July 2011 still in
its wrapper from when I bought it, certain African pieces that I bought in
Kenya and Africa that have traversed the globe and now back to where I bought
them 2 years ago, talk about well- travelled items and with the original
purchase, postage to Australia and having them couriered back again AND paying
a handicraft tax on them-that makes for some expensive souvenirs!!!! I also had a pair of African statues that I
bought on my first trip to Africa, South Africa actually back in 2000-and the
funny thing is I saw them on Friday at the Masai Markets-so they are still
being sold 13 years later, seriously-exactly the same statues!!!! I was happy to see my South American woven
bags from Peru and Ecuador also still in wrappers from 12 months ago. It was like opening a small treasure chest
and what a great feeling!
There were also 2 calendars that Shelly had bought me for
Christmas. They are the most tear
jerking quotes and the words are something that I would say to Shelly or that
she would say to me or have been said and it literally bought tears to my eyes
as it reminded me of the great friendships that I have left back in
Australia. The month of Marchs quotes
were:
Gratitude is a gift you can choose everyday
This is a time to
look forward…but also a time to look back…. To see what has bought you here and
to give thanks for all that has happened on the road of life. It is the love and the joy we attain that
warms our lives and our hearts, but it is the challenges we overcome that allow
us to truly feel the glow of accomplishment
Celebrate the
future
Hold dear the past
And live fully
today
and……….
You’ve Made Such a Difference in My Life
Each day, I think
of you and realise just how special you are.
You have made such a difference in my life. For the many kind words you have spoken, foe
the thoughtful things you have done, for the way you are always there sharing
the special person you are…thank you!
I guess they are a little like positive affirmations and
on the days that I am missing my ‘old’ home as I adjust to my ‘new’ home they
are great little reminders that I do have the support of one of the most
important people in my life and always will.
I miss you Shelly Belly AND my god-daughters every day, but I consider
that is normal and no-one will ever replace them EVER.
I also didn’t realise how many clothes I had packed. I haven’t had such a large selection of
clothes since I really started my World Odyssey in March 2011. I have pretty much been living out of a
backpack for nearly 3 years, so to have a selection of clothes, a plethora,
makes a nice change and I know I have more clothes on the way in my second set
of boxes. It does make me realise just
how many clothes we DON’T need and this is coming from a clothes horse from way
back. It made me to start to think on
the things that I did give away before I left.
Do I have any regrets? Maybe just
a few small things I am now wishing I had of kept, but I think I would have
liked to have had more time to go through all my travel documents that I had
kept from the last 15 years. I think now
I would have liked to have kept some more of the entry tickets, plane tickets
etc…… and I think I would have kept my Wii, and in hindsight some photo frames
but otherwise there are still no major regrets on letting everything go. Even thinking about my mums stuff, if I had
of kept some of her furniture, there is just no room here for it, so it was
still the best decision to let it all go-even though I panic sometimes that I
should have kept it, for what, to go where-and then I feel better again till the
next time I think about it.
The last bag I unpacked was filled with ‘Aussie’ food. I had boxes of Cheezels, BBQ Shapes, Bacon
and Cheese Arnott’s Shapes, Savoury Shapes, boxes of Cheds, packets of Tim Tams,
bags of Burger Rings and also some bags of Twisties and I remember at the last
minute throwing in a bag of Allen’s Red Frogs, Jelly Beans and Chico’s to round
off the stash and it is a fine looking stash of food I must say. Now I have to use extreme ‘moderation’ so
that I don’t consume the whole amount of yummies in a whole week. Restraint is not one of my greater
virtues-but I will give it a good crack.
This will be serious character building at its best. When I packed the food bag (back in November)
I did check the used by date of the items and it all looked okay as I was
initially getting the bags sent in January.
Well just the way everything worked out they got here the 1st
March and some of the Mint Slices and Cheezels (and some Cheds and some BBQ
Shapes) are past their expiry date by a few weeks. Well after the process we went to to get all
this stuff here, I am not going to let a few weeks of ‘used by dates’ put me
off eating the food. Initially I was
annoyed, but after paying the additional tax on the stuff, unless there were
living things on the food I was going to eat them. I was surprised that opening a packet of
Burger Rings 4 weeks passed their date and Mint Slices 5 weeks passed their
date you would not even know, they taste just as good as I remembered so the
hell with used by dates (and the cost in the end)-it all tastes like home.
Knowing that my boxes were on the way I had the hindsight
to get some book cases made in preparation for all my knick knacks to find a
new home. The great thing about Kenya is
if you can’t find something -it can generally be made. Because of the space I had in the living room
I needed a certain size of book shelves to fit in, so with a carpenter just
across the road, I decided to give the job to a local and then when they were
finished they could just be walked across the road. The bookcases were great. They were made exactly to the dimensions that
I had given them and after they left I got to play around with where they would
go. Initially when the cases were
delivered I asked if they were heavy and they said no, but heck they weighed a
ton and it is amazing the strength you have when you have to move things on
your own. They were tall-I asked them to
be made 2m high and due to the floors of my apartments not being level the
cases didn’t actually sit right or look right for that matter, dwarfing the
room a little. So after moving the
furniture around a few times, taking a step back and re-assessing the room I
had a stroke of genius and I turned both book cases on their sides to lay them
flat instead of standing up and not only did this open up the room, but it also
gave me additional shelf space (4m to be precise) and I used one for the TV to
go on at one end and the other case at the other end of the room and after
shifting the couch again, it was the PERFECT layout and I was very happy. It was now looking more like home as I looked
around and there were things from my ‘past’ around me and not just all new
stuff. I have a few boxes of ‘past’
stuff still in Brisbane and that will all eventually make it here as well, but
what I have is a start.
I also ordered a mirror for the lounge room wall from Richard
(the guy across the road). I went to
collect it and I asked how I was to hang it on the wall, playing the single
white damsel in distress-which worked as he offered to come over and do it for
me which was nice. With the mirror weighing
nearly 8kg, I had a feeling that sticky hooks were not going to cut the mustard
for this job. My walls are concrete and as
Richard didn’t have an electric drill he had a hand drill, you know the ones
that look like a manual egg beater. He
used that to make a hole on the wall, then he used a screw driver to open up
the hole more, then a piece of round dowel was hammered in the hole and then
sawn off flush with the wall. They then
used the screw to drill into the dowel to get the grooves and then they unscrewed
it, placed the mirror with the bracket over the made hole and then screwed it in
place. That’s how they do it here and at
least I know it isn’t going to fall off the wall like 2 of my masks have the
past week with the sticky hooks. The
mirror looks great and so does my place now!
As usual anything done additionally, like the delivery of the mirror and
the installation gets a tip and I just hope that I am giving them enough and
hopefully not too much.
The other highlight of the Australian delivery was the
arrival of the BBQ plate. WOO HOO. I cooked my first pork chop and steak this
week for dinner! AMAZING……. and really
made a difference from the microwave meals I have been trying to compose and
jazz up over the last 4 weeks. A trip to
the butcher was the highlight of my shopping day on Tuesday to buy meat and the
prices weren’t too bad. I guess for
Kenya it is expensive, but western terms it is well priced and I am getting
good quality meat and no the ‘supermarket’ variety. Gee am I becoming a meat snob? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo The steak was 995KSH a kilo (11.70AUD) the chicken
was 975KSH a kilo (11.47AUD), the pork chops were 995KSH a kilo (11.70AUD0 and
the Cumberland sausages were 895KSH a kilo (10.52AUD) I ended up spending 36AUD
and got enough meat for 10 meals. The upside
eating my own microwave meals the last 4 weeks is that my portion sizes has
been reduced which is the silver lining eating out of a microwave. It was tough as they don’t have ready-made
microwave meals here, so I was microwaving stuff that had to be pan cooked or
shallowed fried, which still tasted okay, well passable, but nothing beats a
steak on a BBQ plate!
Still trying to find my feet in the ‘social’ world of
Nairobi I took the step of messaging people on Facebook that are part of the
NES (Nairobi Expat Social) group that had all made a comment on a feed of a
breakfast that I had missed last month.
They all sounded like they were in the same boat as me to an
extent. They have jobs here, arrived
this year and have just been too busy to get out and see the place and meet
people. Well I don’t have the excuse of
being busy for a job but I felt the same about getting out. So I personally sent them all a message
introducing myself, in the end there were 7 messages sent and I have had a
reply back from 6 of the ladies so far.
A lot of them have left the city for elections, but all promised that
they would be in touch upon their return, so even if only half of them make the
effort, I will have a few more people to meet in the coming weeks. I also got a nice surprise back from a Ugandan
contact I emailed in early January. She
didn’t have anyone she knew here in Kenya but she gave me 6 web addresses that
advertise volunteer and paid jobs to check out and the offer to visit if I was
ever in the area. She is living in Jinja
with her Ugandan husband-so you just never know I just may take up that offer
one day. We did stop there for 2 nights
on my African overland-but it is a beautiful area that is for sure.
There was still no news on the UN job front which I was
expecting as there wasn’t actually a job available, I was just sending my CV
through on the chance that something may come about in the future and AC was on
leave until Friday. Well exactly on the
day AC was due back in the office I received an email asking if I had received
her previous email about sending through my CV.
She NEVER got my email that contained my resume 2 weeks
previously!!! OH NO. I hate the thought of anybody thinking I
didn’t care and hadn’t sent it through.
AC must have also emailed my UN friend in Italy as she sent through my
CV letting AC know that I had sent it through in the middle of February. Gosh I felt terrible that she thought I
hadn’t sent it-lucky for me I JC had received it and hopefully she could see
that I had done the right thing. So AC
and I have a tentative plan to catch up in the coming weeks, which is another
meeting and possible new friend….
Besides my boxes arriving this week the next BEST news
was accidently finding a 3G network in my bedroom on the weekend. I can only get 2G in the lounge room and
kitchen and this is where I have been trying to access the internet for the
last 2 weeks. I was trying the USB modem
option to see if that would work before I tied myself into an internet plan
that was going to cost me 40AUD a WEEK.
The 2G connection was testing my patience as the 40AUD a week was looking
more viable every time I jumped on the internet. My saving grace was the power had gone off during
the day and my bedroom has the best natural light source, so I took my computer
in there to bang out a blog and as it connected up instead of a green light
that indicates 2G I had a blue light which lets me know I am on a 3G
connection!!!!! THANK YOU INTERNET
GODS. I was back in the land of a fast
internet connection; it was like a normal speed and let me tell you it was
terribly exciting. 2G was slower than a
snail in a wheelchair and could take up to 40 minutes to load 8 photos (painful)
making it possibly the slowest in the whole world, but now I have stumbled on
this small pocket of 3G (which is like a Ferrari in a Grand Prix) and costing
me a fraction of what a ‘plan’ would have cost me. Literally I am saving around 35AUD a week,
which is 140AUD a month and when you aren’t working it is very precious money
saved indeed.
Home is where the heart is-I think I am finally here xx
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