Had a busy weekend accompanied by lots of rugby watching…England’s unexpected win cheered us up no end and it was great to gloat over their success with our South African friends with whom we’d had to sit through a humiliating evening of SA/Brit defeat a couple of weeks earlier. Most of our English compatriots actually sloped off home early that night as they couldn’t bear to watch while the SA lot gleefully partied on ‘til dawn.
Then there was a very pleasant ‘evening of classical music’ where a Kenyan lady opera singer did a sort of beginners introduction to classical music by performing ten pieces by various composers accompanied by a deft Kenyan pianist. She prefaced each piece of solo singing with a short explanation about the story behind the opera she was singing from and the characters involved. She really brought it all to life for a philistine like me. Plus it was a corporate evening out and we had a fun table, so another surprising success.
The classical evening was staged for A New Dawn Trust (ANDT), founded and run a group of young professionals who raise money for the education of young people in Kenya and make a point of donating useful gifts in the form of books, scholarships, desks, chairs and building projects, rather than just handing over cash.
Then our eldest daughter took part in a local swimming competition and surprisingly won her 25 metre breaststroke heat, in spite of diving straight to the bottom of the pool and then confusingly surfacing in someone else’s lane.
That was followed swiftly by a visit to the 2007 Nairobi Airshow at Wilson Airport (see: www.nairobiairshow.com) which was a huge event (thousands of people) the highlight of which for me was the aerobatic displays by a pair of South African pilots doing loop the loops and death defying feats in Pitts Special biplanes, whilst flying close together in tandem. I was almost convinced they would crash into one another and wouldn’t have like to be one of those pilots’ wives, who we spotted looking surprisingly relaxed watching from the ground from within the safe confines of the aero club.
So, in conclusion, just another weekend of surprises from the buzzing, bustling capital of Kenya, where all sorts of exciting things are happening all the time.
Then there was a very pleasant ‘evening of classical music’ where a Kenyan lady opera singer did a sort of beginners introduction to classical music by performing ten pieces by various composers accompanied by a deft Kenyan pianist. She prefaced each piece of solo singing with a short explanation about the story behind the opera she was singing from and the characters involved. She really brought it all to life for a philistine like me. Plus it was a corporate evening out and we had a fun table, so another surprising success.
The classical evening was staged for A New Dawn Trust (ANDT), founded and run a group of young professionals who raise money for the education of young people in Kenya and make a point of donating useful gifts in the form of books, scholarships, desks, chairs and building projects, rather than just handing over cash.
Then our eldest daughter took part in a local swimming competition and surprisingly won her 25 metre breaststroke heat, in spite of diving straight to the bottom of the pool and then confusingly surfacing in someone else’s lane.
That was followed swiftly by a visit to the 2007 Nairobi Airshow at Wilson Airport (see: www.nairobiairshow.com) which was a huge event (thousands of people) the highlight of which for me was the aerobatic displays by a pair of South African pilots doing loop the loops and death defying feats in Pitts Special biplanes, whilst flying close together in tandem. I was almost convinced they would crash into one another and wouldn’t have like to be one of those pilots’ wives, who we spotted looking surprisingly relaxed watching from the ground from within the safe confines of the aero club.
So, in conclusion, just another weekend of surprises from the buzzing, bustling capital of Kenya, where all sorts of exciting things are happening all the time.
I really enjoy your blog its really facinating since I mever left The USA , its on my list of favorites now.Just curious though are your meals British or do you tend to eat mor African now? Do you plan your menus out w/ your cook or do they just follow their own plan? Sheila
ReplyDeleteHi Sheila,
ReplyDeletethanks so much for your comment, I'm so glad that my blog is in your list of favourites.
(Note to other readers - I don't write these comments to myself, honest!)
Re; our cook - he has now gone off to pastures new sadly, so I am in the process of teaching one of the ladies who works in the house to cook some of our family favourites (bolognaise, fishcakes, soups etc.)
Very organised employers might plan the weeks meals with their cook (or have a kind of routine) and may even have a driver to go and fetch the necessary ingredients for them. For most of us though it's done on an ad hoc basis of what is available in the shops and in the fridge at the time.
The cooks here are usually trained in western cooking, or indian cooking, depending on their previous employment and experience.
I love indian food, so was very spoiled when our old cook knocked up a curry with a few basic ingredients and no detailed instructions. The swahili (east african) meals that some of us expats have grown accustomed to are sukuma (a kind of fried/chopped spinach with onion and tomato) ugali (a starchy maize dish), alos beans slow cooked with tomatoes and onions -
but honestly most cooks prepare western type food, or you can teach him or her to cook whatever you like to eat.
A friend of mine runs an informal cookery school for house staff and she includes things like banoffi pie and wild rice salad - so the sky is the limit!