Party!

So last weekend was a weekend of parties. Silly season is definitely here. Benedikt had his Christmas party at work... which he seemed to enjoy. Although being one of 3 white faces amongst 120 odd staff members meant the music and dancing weren’t quite up his street!
He came home and we immediately went to Eva’s party. Eva is my new Forest Friend. It was very cool of her to invite us as it really was an AMAZING party. Eva and Andrea’s house is really impressive. Its hoooge and has the most spectacular entrance ever.... Big 8m wide doors that open up onto an exquisitely lit terrace with a pool. And behind that more steps that lead down into the garden which borders a forest. And the house looked like it had 100 rooms. The catering was done by an Italian restaurant and they had the smart waiters coming round with silver trays of canapés and champagne etc! There were about 50 people there, from all walks of life and from SO many different countries. We were given a playing card and told to find our partner. And then you had to sit with him or her. So I sat at a table with my Italian partner, 1 South African, another Italian, 1 Swede and a French pilot. My partner was a very interesting guy who worked for UNEP. He’s spent 7 years on a Yemen island where there was NOTHING. His job was to create a Game Reserve while he was there.... amongst loads of other things. Benedikt sat between a Spanish lady and a Costa Rican lady, and a South African guy... whose wife was at my table. We haven’t met many South Africans while we’ve been here... so it was good to chat to them, they were a very cool couple that have been in different african countries every 3 years for the last 20 odd years. The thing that struck us about the evening was that everyone there was of such high calibre... like MDs of big corporates, or head honchos at the UN, or owners of lucrative companies... made us feel like poor small fry. And we’re not poor! I guess we were one of the youngest couples there though.
The next day we went to the German Business Association’s Christmas lunch. It was at a cool pub kinda place, The Rusty Nail. They gave away 50 prizes! So we bought loads of raffle tickets and sat through 47 prizes being giving out before it was our turn to win something. We won a 2 nights accommodation at a hotel at Bahari, about 1 hour north of Mombasa. YESSSS!! What a bonus. We will probably use it in January as it expires in 3 months time.

Then we headed off to a kiddies’ birthday party... our cycling friend, Eric’s daughter was turning 7. It was hectic! Thanks goodness we didn’t have a kid there!

On Sunday Loopy came for her last layover here. She has resigned from Qatar airlines because they suck. So her last flight was to Nairobi- very cool. We took her to Muthaiga Club in the afternoon to meet friends having a swimming party... then we took her back there in the evening for a meal. So she had to like the club!

Uh, have I mentioned that my sis is coming?!!! ONE MORE SLEEP!!! Yippee yippee yay yay.
So I most definitely wont be updating my blog for the next 2 weeks.

Hope you all get very fat over Christmas and very drunk at New Years. We’ll chat again in 2010!



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Sarah the Ninja

So last Saturday I did a ladies self defence course. It was a full day of learning how to take baddies down. Not with strength or punches or kicks in crucial areas... but rather by using really soft nudges/tugs on arms/legs/hips/heads in certain ways that throw a person off balance. Its called Triangulation and is very effective. It was a REALLY good and interesting course. I practised on Benedikt and I got him on the ground with 3 fingers and NO force whatsoever! I kinda hope I get to use my new skills one day :-)
On Sunday we went to Nairobi’s Christmas Market. It was most impressive. A huge variety of stalls with cool things. We could have gone mad buying ornaments and furniture etc but we restrained ourselves. We made a rule to not buy any clutter while we’re here as we more than likely will have to downsize when we move to the next country. (Benedikt is even more determined that we go to a first world country next! Which means no slaves and a small apartment.... but at least things will work) So we bought a Kenyan Christmas tree and some quaint xmas decorations and candles and other small things. It was a good outing! Saw lots of KCs (Kenyan Cowboys) and mazungu families.

Today after yoga all the girls stuck around and we had sushi making lessons. So now I am a professional in that too. I am learning so many news skills! We made California rolls with carrots, avo, egg, radishes and cucumber. And little maki. And once the rice was finished we made sea weed veggie wraps :-) Yoga is now finished for the year, I’m really going to miss it but have every intention of practising on my own. I will be able to put my feet behind my head by mid January!


We are now officially members of the ooh-la-la Mathaiga Club. Its an old school colonial country club where you have to go through a whole process before you can become a member. You have to be nominated firstly, then complete a detailed application, then interviewed, then introduced and then finally orientated. What a rigmarole. And to be honest I don’t see what the fuss is about... its just a normal golf clubby kinda place, nothing fancy and to me it looks like the decor needs redoing! But the mazungus here seem to love it. Think maybe they love dressing up to go there and bumping into their snooty friends while sipping on pims or a G & T :-) One of our main reasons to join there is because they have built a new gym there and they have decent squash and tennis courts. Our membership came just in time as our local crappy gym closes down this December. I will be glad to not go to that hole again! So now when you all come to visit us we will take you to the Mathaiga club for drinks or a meal and a stroll around the grounds and you shall have to act all posh and put on a la-dee-da English accent.

I’ve been taking to Mahindi to a nearby Forest 3 times a week lately. I have made 2 friends who I meet up with and all our dogs play together while we walk and chat. Mahindi is in her ELEMENT! It combines her 3 most favourite things: going berserk in a forest, playing with other dogs (well, bothering them) and messing about in all the puddles. Ah, life is good!
Von more veek till my sis comes! We're going to climb Mt Kenya as soon as she arrives too. I carrunt wait!!!





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Winner Wena!

So last weekend we did a race in Tigoni which is a little north of Nairobi, in amongst the beautiful the tea farms. We had helped mark the route the day before and I’d ridden the course a couple of times previously too... so I had a slight advantage...and I won the ladies section, yippee! I won a garmin – cool hey. It was a REALLY REALLY awesome route though, through forests and streams and up and down plenty of hills... with the real highlight being the ‘Bob sled’ run which we did a couple of times – a 3km fast windy single track along a contour line –fun fun fun. Benedikt crashed out in the first 3kms unfortunately.

So I wrote my final german exam on Monday which also meant the last german lesson for the year –yipppppeeeeeeee. It wasn’t such a hard exam... they just bloody well asked me things I hadn’t studied. Grrrr!! I cant tell you (whoever you are) how happy I am to not have german for the next 6 weeks.... its such a drag! I start again on the 11th of January for the next level – A2.

On Tuesday I got bitten by a dog while I was out running with Mahindi. There were 2 dogs in the street and as soon as they saw Mahindi they went for her. While I was trying to separate the 3 dogs the dirty little white sandton sheep bit me hard on my arm. And what a palaver that turned out to be! The very rude, uncooperative African owners of the dog wouldn’t let us see the vaccination books to check if they had had their rabies vaccination, nor would they let us see the dogs again to see if they showed signs of rabies (we took our vet with us for a look). So we sat at the local hospital for 4 hours on Tuesday night waiting for my wound to be examined and for a rabies vaccination.... anyway the dogs are being collected by the city council this week and will be put into a pound for 10days.

I cooked my first edible vegetarian lasagne last night! And even had guests over who ate it and are still alive! I’m getting better and better at cooking, I’m experimenting with all sorts of veggie dishes. Cooking is actually quite fun! I leave Benedikt to sort his meat side of things out.

Only 2 weeks till my sister comes here! YIPPEEE YIPPEEE YAY YAY. Gonna be such a fun holiday.


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