Shopping hazards

13 June 2014 

There was no car queue to get into the supermarket car park this morning. Eek, I thought, what do all other drivers know that we don't. Security was tight last year but since the Westgate disaster getting into the car park let alone into the shopping centre takes much time. Glove boxes and boots have to be opened and inspected. Once through that with cars queueing half way up the street (and in the middle) it is time to open your handbag - just in case - and to go through a screen. Today was eventless I am happy to say.

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Rabbits

12 June 2014

Since I was here last year, one of the rabbits has had a name change, though why I didn't know. They were Napoleon and Cleopatra when I left. Fiona was happy, though surprised, that the pair had no progeny. The revelation came when one of the guards picked up both rabbits turned them upside down revealing they both had the same undercarriage. So the name of Cleopatra was changed to Horatio Nelson.

Below are the rabbit feeders.

Amboseli

10 June 2014

Protus drove us to and from Amboseli and Fiona drove us around inside - which had its exciting moment as you will see. I loved catching up with birds like the Hoopoe,
the Secretary Bird and Swallow-tailed Bee-Eater that I hadn't seen sinceRichard died. New birds included the Saddlebill Stork, the Crowned Crane and the Grey-headed Kingfisher. The stars of our weekend were elephants. We counted 63 including calves as they crossed the road in front of us. An exciting moment came when the road ended in a swamp which we dared not drive into and behind us on the road was a bull elephant. There was nothing for it: Fiona had to turn the car round in front of the elephant and gently move past him!

Protus drove us to and from Amboseli and Fiona drove us around inside - which had its exciting moment as you will see. I loved catching up with birds like the Hoopoe,
the Secretary Bird and Swallow-tailed Bee-Eater that I hadn't seen sinceRichard died. New birds included the Saddlebill Stork, the Crowned Crane and the Grey-headed Kingfisher. The stars of our weekend were elephants. We counted 63 including calves as they crossed the road in front of us. An exciting moment came when the road ended in a swamp which we dared not drive into and behind us on the road was a bull elephant. There was nothing for it: Fiona had to turn the car round in front of the elephant and gently move past him!

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Nairobi Day to Day

6 June 2014

Friends have asked what I do day by day in Nairobi, so: 
I wave the children off to school with Protus the driver, who then drives Fiona's bag to her MSF office (Medecine sans Frontieres). Fiona walks to work, but does not carry her bag as her computer is in it and she could be robbed. Back home, I am on my back on my floor in my room. We had to warn Judy the housekeeper that if she found me on the floor I had probably not fallen over nor was dead, but was meditating. I do this for half an hour each day to help my condition. I take daily turmeric, which is also for my condition and tastes so awful it has to work. Then come better things: Zuhura's fruit salad, yoghurt and muesli followed by much reading and writing - well really typing. Once the sun comes out I read in the garden until its time for lunch: also outside. Oh, I forgot about the rabbits, chickens and tortoises. The guards let the rabbits out of their wooden house (inside their enclosure). They have to be stroked and fed. Theodora the mother hen comes into the house if I forget to close a door so has to be shooed out. She doesn't like this and mostly leaves a very large calling card. The teenage chickens fight over the toast crumbs from breakfast, while the tortoises romp at their own pace and don't require feeding.
I go with Protus and Zuhura to the supermarket hoping it won't be bombed as Westgate was last September. At various times in the afternoon we pick up the children from school and, this week, we have been planning and plotting Maman's birthday bash. Sophia and I have laid the red carpet (ex sofa rug) for her to walk on. It is lined with the doo doos (not sure about the spelling: it's French as the children are half and therefore speak the language). A Masai warrior (statue not the real thing) stands on a table. Unable to be successfully wrapped up, he is draped in a scarf and a teeshirt with a huge painted birthday card hanging from one of his earrings to give Maman a clue as to what the present might be.
Oh, I've just been called to stippy tape a few more posters to the walls. More anon...

4 June 214

I've finished my book in record time and am starting another. As there is a housekeeper, cook, gardener, driver, one day guard and three night guards (not to mention the guard-dog at night) I am not suffering from over work.

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June 3

I have nearly finished The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad. Fiona has worked in Afghanistan so I knew something of the place but not the depth of constraints for some of the women. One town the author writes seems a town without women. 'They lead a life locked in their backyard; they never go out, shop, or even visit. The law of purdah reigns, the total segregation of men and women.'

27 May 2114

Yesterday, I flew KL to Doha and then on to Nairobi. Aboard the first flight I noticed (perhaps because I was looking for it) that Qatar gave complimentary champagne. So at 8.30, I had a large glass of same - with my breakfast.
Above Jomo Kenyatta Airport Kenyan flags abounded, as did red coated soldiers. An amazing welcome for me and later that afternoon the President was flying in, so he would have appreciated the welcome too.
Normal Nairobi traffic is nose to tail and it can take three hours to get to the airport. So Jeremy and Sophia were not expecting me to be in time to meet them at the French school. But I did. A very offhand and quiet "Hi" is all a grandmother can give when greeting a grandson in front of his school mates. Not so with granddaughters I realized as Sophia enveloped me in a wonderful bear-hug.
There are new additions in the garden since last I was here: chickens. Theodora, the hen, is breaking off motherly care of her teenage chicks, much like we do with our teenagers. There were six, but just before I arrived a hawk carried off one. Its name was Mohawk, so maybe that's why the hawk took it.

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