Soap Opera Birthday Bonanza

 

 

So many lovely things lately. 

 

Everyone's been having birthdays, and cupcakes are a new tradition. We're trying out every bakery in town. Jo had her birthday the other week, so we went for a meal at PiliPili. they've done the place up over lockdown and it's looking good.

 

 

 

 

The curfew has just been raised to 8 p.m. and cross-district travel is allowed again. Social distancing and masks still in effect, and Rwanda has just started its vaccination programme, the first country in the region to do so. I popped over to CasaKeza to work for a day and reacquaint myself with their yummy food. 

Pork & Rice

 

 

Next up, it was Solv's birthday. More cupcakes, and a really lovely day at Kandaka Naturals, learning how to make soap. A surprise soap-making day. Lots of fun. We learned all about how soap is made, then we made our own vegan-friendly soap. We got to choose which colour, shape and scent we wanted. I chose patchouli-scented charcoal soap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding Raw Shea Butter
(it smells like old goats)

 

 

After graduation, it was on to Soy for food and a well-earned drink - or three.

Lake of Gin

Tempura Ice-cream

I finally got my boxing rig up and bouncing, to help work off all the extra cupcake calories.

Unfortunately, I broke Trump and Dés had to send someone over to reattach it with a stronger hook. I called the next one Boris and... um... 

 

 

 

So, I think I'm getting better at this, and it's such a pleasure to be able to step onto my porch and exercise. I've learned to wrap my own hands and it's a fun ritual. I had a good workout yesterday and really felt it the next morning. It's keeping me sane whilst the swimming pools are closed.

Speaking of swimming pools... My wonderful friends know how much I've missed swimming, and as part of my birthday shenanigans, they bought me a pool day at a local hotel. You have to have a clear COVID test to go there, so I went to do that yesterday. It's really easy here, you just walk into a clinic, pay FRW 10,000 (£6/$9) and get a swab stuck up your nose. You get the results in about 15 minutes. Though the procedure is pretty uncomfortable. I was sneezing for about half an hour afterwards. Felt like I'd sniffed pepper.

It's a Boy!

 

It was totally worth the discomfort, though. I got the whole pool to myself all morning and splashed around like a fish. It was wonderful. Can't believe it's been an entire year since I was last in a pool. Truly wonderful, and followed up with a fabulous hour-long massage. I came home smelling delightful.

 

 

It's been such a great day. A mini-holiday. I really do have the loveliest friends who know me so well.

 

I'll leave you with this picture another friend took of a recent hail storm we had.