So Laura and I decided to have a sleep over on Wednesday
and this was perfect as her boyfriend has ‘Play Station night’ with the boys,
so he could go there and we were going to have dinner and a few bottles of
wine, hence me sleeping over and then I would head home on Thursday. It is great at the moment as Laura is in
between jobs and has 4 weeks off before starting the new one, so this is great
for me, as I have someone I can see during the day. As I was heading to that side of town I
arranged to have lunch with Joshua again and he was going to bring an expat
friend that has lived here for 22 years for me to meet and if I had any
questions that I could ask him. So I had
yet another busy day ahead and I was looking forward to it. The down side was I had to take an overnight
bag with me to lunch and it weighed a ton as I had 2 bottles of wine in there
for dinner tonight. The bag I carried
was a Peruvian gym style bag that I used as my ‘clothes day bag’ while camping
in South America and it bought a smile to my face of the memories of camping
for 5 months on the continent. As usual
Driver Steven was at hand and I got him to pick me up at 11.15am. With the election now finished and things
getting back to normal I wanted to make sure I gave myself plenty of travel
time to journey through the unpredictable Nairobi traffic and point made when
we made it over the other side of town in in 40 minutes!! I always prefer to be early any day rather
than late and I have now learnt to carry a book/kindle with me to help kill
time if I do wind up early somewhere. So
I was 30 minutes early, so I text Joshua to let him know I was here and I sat
at the café downstairs with a fresh lemonade under the shade of one of their
umbrellas and waited.
Joshua came and collected me and we drove 10 minutes down
the road to Upperhill and to a coffee shop that is found all over Nairobi-Java
House. Alex was already there, the expat
from the UK that has lived here for over 20 years and we spent the next 2 hours
over lunch talking about visas, politics and Josh and he also catching up. I think my next ‘big’ job when I get back
from Ethiopia will be to work on my working visa. It seems like there are a few options open to
me and Alex gave me a number of a lawyer that he has heard good reports from
that will be able to help me and streamline what is already a lengthy
process. Apparently his fees are high,
but he gets the job done with the least amount of fuss. Alex said he knows of a lot of people that have
paid so called ‘lawyers’ and it has taken more time that it should have and
some of them after paying all the fees and cash that didn’t get their visa at
all! Alex also mentioned an orphanage
that his family supports in Machakos, which is about an hours’ drive from
Nairobi and if I was interested in going out there he could tee me up with the
next visit they have planned. I think
the travel time without the car would be difficult and I would like to check
out The Nest, which is just down the road for now. I had a chicken Caesar salad for lunch and it
was one of the best things I have eaten since I arrived-it was delicious.
After lunch Joshua was nice enough to drop me to Junction
Mall, 15 minutes away, after lunch saving me a 600KSH taxi fare. I felt a little bad as we sat in traffic for
a little while, and he was going out of his way, sorry Josh. He has been an amazing friend and so helpful
to me since I arrived. We have a lot of
things on the go that I have to send him an email, to make sure that we are
both on the same page and know what we are doing. He is to chase things from his end for me,
which is super nice which includes medical insurance, a contact in Ethiopia in
case I get stuck, booking the Masai Mara for me in July, visa information and
the list continues! I hit the jackpot
with that referral!!!
So with a thanks to Josh and a promise to catch up when I
get back from Ethiopia I made my way back into Junction Mall. I phoned Laura to let her know I had arrived and
she was on her way down to get me. While
I waited I had a look at the Kazuri shop again, which is basically hand crafted
beads of all colours and made by Kenyan women.
Laura arrived before I had time to have a good look around, so I would
come back, and she had her cousin Jesal in tow so we decided to go and have a
drink at the Art Café, which is like a Mzungu café that is in most of the
larger shopping centres in the city and while we were paying for drinks when
leaving, I bought 4 pieces of tricolade (fancy mousse, chocolate cake) for our dessert
after dinner tonight. We decided to get
moving so we would miss the school traffic.
While Laura and Jesal went to the supermarket I headed back to the
Kasuri shop and bought some beautiful pieces, a few necklaces and some earrings
to boot. That stuff is so addictive!! I
also had time to have a quick bo peep at the bookshop and bought a Lonely
Planet ‘Africa’ book (in preparation of West Africa). I am not a Lonely Planet person, but with my
proposed trip to West Africa at the end of the year, I thought it would be nice
to read up on a condensed history, what to see and general information that
Lonely Planet have in their books. I
also bought a coffee table book titled ‘Faces of Africa’. The pictures in the book are just stunning
and there are a lot of Ethiopian tribes featured as well as some of the West
Africa countries that I will be visiting on my trip and looking at the pictures
just makes me more excited about the fact that I may get to see some of them at
the end of the year.
We semi-missed the traffic and got to Laura’s place,
which is located on the 5th floor.
Talk about a work out at any of these apartment buildings, as 95% of
them don’t have elevators. Only the real
‘posh’ apartments have lifts which rules our immediate circle out of that
picture. I met the ‘kids’ which are 2 x six
month old kittens Tiger and Simba. I am generally
not a cat person, I am a dog person through and through, but in saying that I
am not allergic to them or scared by them, I just prefer dogs, but these cats
were super cute I have to say. The power
was off at their place, which was fine as it was only 4pm-it just meant that we
were going to be drinking warmish white wine until it came back on. Claire arrived at 6pm and the power was still
off, so we cracked a bottle of wine anyway and the candles were produced as the
night closed in. 7pm Laura rang Kenyan
Power and she asked how much longer the power would be off as she had to start
dinner, and the lady on the other end had a sense of humour and told her that
she couldn’t help with dinner but they were winding up now. One of Laura’s friends, Lakota, arrived to a very dark
apartment now at 7.30pm, and I am sure it was a very romantic welcome, what can
be better than 4 ladies by candlelight!!!
8pm came and we rang back Kenya Power and the operator said it was going
to be longer than expected and on that note we decided to go out and have a
drink at a restaurant down the road and then head to the local Chinese place
for dinner. Poor Laura had prepared all
the veggies and food for dinner in the afternoon and now it was all to go back
into the off fridge and hope that it all didn’t spoil. We also discussed the NES Trivia Night that
is coming up next month. It is going to
be a fortnightly event and we already have 2 teams of 6 organised and ready to
go. There seems to be a big interest in
the event by the expat community, so it will be great to meet some more people
and add it as a constant to my social calendar every 2 weeks. We have also decided to make the ‘ladies
night’ a fortnightly event as well so I I’m really starting to get busy
socially, finally, and it really is a great feeling.
On our way to drinks, Claire rang her friend Amelia to
meet us and the ‘ladies group’ grew from our initial 2 to now 5. We arrived at Moniko’s (which is where the
Trivia night will also be held), found an outdoor table and the restaurant was
really sweet with little lights around the place and cushioned cover bench
seats with pillows etc…. What a nice place
to have a drink and we could have been anywhere in the world and not in a small
shopping mall in Nairobi. Laura asked me
if I had tried a Dawa, which is a very typical Kenyan cocktail. I hadn’t, so it was ordered and I have to say
it was delicious considering that Dawa means "medicine" or
"magic potion" in Swahili. In other words, a dawa is said to be so
potent that it will cure whatever ails you!!!
I wonder what happens if you have too many of them? The recipe is based on a famous Brazilian
drink that was introduced to Kenya. It is now one of the most widely consumed
cocktails in Kenya. There are 3 main ingredients of vodka, lime
and honey and when you get your drink it comes with a spoon and you have to
spend 5-10 minutes mixing in the honey and sugar that has settle in the bottom
of your glass-but it is certainly worth the wait and may fast become my
favourite cocktail! We had consumed half of our drinks when Amelia
arrived. Another expat who has been here
for a few years, heralding from Bolivia in South America we now had a great
group for dinner.
After 2 bottles of white at home, a drink at Moniko’s
before we knew it was 9.45pm and we thought we better get to the Chinese
restaurant before it closed. So after
paying for the parking, which is always generally 50KSH per hour and just a 5
minute drive down the road and we got there just before the kitchen
closed. Another drink all round and we
ordered 3 dishes to share with rice and vegetables and we were able to watch the
new Pope revealed which was pretty cool and especially exciting for Amelia,
being South American, she was ecstatic that he was Argentinian. He is the first Latin
American pope and the
first Jesuit pope in modern times, which is like 1,000 years and will take on
the job of the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. No pressure!!
After a wonderful feed we left the Chinese restaurant at
11.15pm (maybe we were pushed a little) and what a great night. We have decided to definitely make it a
fortnightly event and all get together which is GREAT news for me as all 4
ladies were just AMAZING. After we had
paid the bill and left the tip there was still 500KSH left over, so I relegated
myself as the kitty holder (just to make sure they don’t forget to invite me
next time) and that will go towards our next outing. We were all a little tipsy when we left, but not
too much for the 5 minute drive back to Laura’s and with goodbyes to Claire and
Lakota and home for the night. It was
good to see there was power when we got home (for Laura-I couldn’t have really
cared) and we watched TV until Laura’s boyfriend, Bhavo, came home and we stayed up chatting till
1.30am when it was time for this little black duck to get to bed.
I am pretty sure I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
WHAT A GREAT DAY AND WHAT A GREAT NIGHT.
We just need to come up with a name for the ladies club
now.
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