Saxy

Oh my goodness me. What a weekend. 

In honour of Harris and Chris being back in town, we headed to PiliPili, a beautiful bar with a swimming pool overlooking the city. We were joined by my friends Maja and Vincent and my housemates Dana and Sasha. Rwanda recently banned shisha, but something entertaining that's just arrived at PiliPili are these pitchers you can tap yourself. Pull a pint from your chair. Vincent demonstrates how it's done.

 

We started out as seven, but by the end of the night we were reduced to three - Maja, Vincent and myself, decamped to Ogopogo, which is not only a cool name for a bar, but also the Canadian equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster. Quite how it swam all the way to Rwanda is a mystery, but hey ho. 

There used to be a saying that 'nothing good ever happens after 4 a.m.' When you pass your mid-thirties, that gets revised down to 2 a.m. That's about the time my tequila-neck-lick friend found me and tapped me on the shoulder. We're just friends, but after drinking for six hours, my greeting was way, way too intimate. Like, smack your face against the wall in the shower next day, intimate. Yeash. My ability to adult just disintegrated. 

I eventually untangled myself and ran away on a moto. The next morning my whole head felt like shattered glass. I had the hangover from hell - worst in a very long time.

Which was a problem, as my friend Sameer had extended an offer to go up to see a very ancient forest in the north this weekend. We had a group all set to go, but then things happened - someone left the country, someone's family was arriving, someone injured themselves. It sort of fell apart, so me and Harris invited Sameer down to Kigali instead. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry, but that wasn't an option. 

Thing is, one of my closest friends is a doctor, and it's a medical fact that hair of the dog actually does work. Who am I to refuse doctor's orders? 

Turned out to be one of the best nights ever. 

We started off joining my housemate Dana, and soon-to-be housemate Adrien, at a club in town where there was a live band, but the band weren't that good so Adrien suggested we head to Metallica where he knew of another band playing. 

Me and Sameer first met at rock night, and we'd always been curious about Metallica. We'd been hoping for a metal bar, but they were always advertising jazz nights, so we never went.

We arrived around 10:30 and it was a little subdued, so we took a table and ordered beer. It definitely wasn't a metal bar, but by the time we'd finished our first beer, an absolutely incredible Nigerian saxophonist had taken the stage. I've never seen anyone play the saxophone in Rwanda before. He started out slowly but then brought the house down with an incredible rendition of Despacito. We were all on our feet by that point, and it just got better and better. There was a five-minute guitar solo at the end of Hotel California, and the night wound down with La Bamba and a medley of all things Bob Marley. We danced until we couldn't stand. Hands-down, the best live music I've heard in Kigali for a very long time.

It was just one of those weird nights where you drag yourself out, not expecting much, and it turns out to be utterly fantastic. The lead vocalist kept addressing the crowd as 'you beautiful people', so we played Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People on the way home in tribute. It was a really eclectic night. Best part - I woke up feeling excellent this morning, with a big smile on my face. Amazing what a night of dancing can do.

 

I say, I like your hat sir!