Farewell Kenya

Last post from Kenya, for tomorrow I fly for Rwanda, where the lovely Ms. Jo and co. are picking me up in their swanky new car and driving me to my new digs. Can't wait to see them!

Yesterday was a fantastic day. Celia and Tracey (of chocolate samosa fame) came over for a pudding party. K made her trademark Mango Crisp, and we had a go at dishing up Welsh Cakes. I sent her the recipe back in February when visiting my friend :JR: in Cardiff. I also sent some of the ingredients, including a small packet of baking powder which, on reflection, I'm surprised customs didn't consider suspicious.

It went down a treat, and we laughed the evening away, Tracey and I over a bottle of wine, the slightly more healthy among us over herbal tea.

So glad to have met these ladies - they are wonderful. As Tracey pointed out, if I hadn't sent her an e-mail about her website over LinkedIn, they would never have met K, and none of this would ever have happened!

Percy, Welsh Cake Taster in Chief

In an equally serendipitous turn of events, my two very good friends Cathryn and Cassie, who both live in London, randomly met the other day at a tube station. I put them in touch via Facebook, as Cassie recently bought a house, and Cathryn is about to sell hers. Cathryn & Danny had just been to a Nine Inch Nails gig and were heading home,  whilst Cassie and hubby Sean had missed their train so ended up on the same platform - where Cathryn recognised her from the Facebook pics! That's impressive, even with a teacher's memory for faces!

Meanwhile, in Nairobi, my awesome moto dude, Peter, let me take this easy rider picture of him. He's such a nice guy, always based outside Oilibya Petrol Station on Peponi Road, near Spring Valley Road. If you ever need a reliable moto driver in Westlands, drop a comment and I'll give you his number. The guy made my stay so much easier, and always waves when he passes you on the road with another customer.

I might not be where I want to be; but where I am
today is not where I was yesterday.

Today was another splendid day, spent with K in Brackenhurst tea fields. We went for a wander through the sun-soaked swathes of green, the point at which our familiar brew begins life. 

Panoramics - Click to Enlarge

Hmm... National Geographic?

Houses where the pickers live.

Tea Flower

Then we took a wander back to the centre for lunch, cake, and a cup of... yup, you guessed it, tea! 

After which, we sprawled out on the beautiful lawns to stare at the sky and watch the world go by. That was until K mentioned there was a playground with swings near the car park - at which point we ran like children to play on them. 

On the drive home, we managed to snap one of K's favourite landmarks. Funny to think that shop signs would all have been hand painted in the UK back in the 30s and 40s, yet it's all plastic and laser print now. In Africa there's still room for intricate artwork in advertising.

We finished off at the Zen Garden, an extremely nommy Japanese restaurant. We ordered a range of appetisers as we were still full from lunch, but they came in huge portions. We stuffed ourselves, and had a hilarious drive home trying to avoid potholes and speed bumps lest we disturb our pregnant digestive process. 

Going to need to sleep this one off me thinks.

This may be my last post for a while. My new house doesn't have wifi, so I need to get a dongle connection set up before I can blog again, and the amount of blogging may be dependent on data limits. But I'll get back to it as soon as possible. Stay safe and happy 'til then x