Kenya Adventure - Day 16

A shopping day is planned and Alan needs to go back to see a doctor, his eye has been getting better day by day but waking up this morning it is very red again. He thinks he hit himself last night (I promise it was not me) - there was a mossie in the room and it probably attacked him while sleeping - a flick of the hand to hit it, a miss, and got the eye instead. Bless Alan, he is having a miserable time with his eye, especially for the couple of days when he could not use his camera. It is always so hard to watch others suffer and not be able to help isn't it?

Once Alan had been seen, some more drops to put in and continue with the antibiotic cream being the order of the day we wondered around the mall. Shopping :( - don’t like but when I get started I can spend lol. I can’t think of anything more boring in life than window shopping, I have so many other things I love to do with that time instead. Mo sorted out the bills, I found a Kenya made wallet, Mo bought some shoes, Alan bought a kikoy, I found my bowl - I love to buy a bowl from a special place oh, and a shots glass too . As a wedding present I was given a stunning bowl, pale turquoise glass, I loved my bowl, I packed my bowl when we left here to send to the UK, but with other moves etc. I have lost my bowl, not seen it for over 25 years, but never forgotten my bowl. The company that made the bowl, Kitengela Hot Glass, still exists, made from recycled glass and the lady used to make them is still alive and in her 70’s. This company has a shop in the mall, a must to visit. Excitement time - it is not a big shop, should not take me more than 10 minutes to see if I can find something and yes I did. The same colour as the bowl I lost but a different shape and then - out of the corner of my eye a shots glass too - how perfect. I would show you a picture of my beautiful new bowl but it is all wrapped up and ready to travel to Saudi so best not temp fate by unpacking it.  Now I have to work out how to carry it lol.

Enough shopping and time for the reward - coffee, always my ‘look forward to moment’ to still the head from all the hustle and bustle of crowds. The mall(s) are certainly a big change in Kenya, look much like a mall anywhere in the world, sell the same stuff as anywhere in the world, functional but nothing special, I guess the main advantage is you actually have somewhere to park the car.  No way are we venturing in Nairobi city centre, the amount of traffic on the roads is ridiculous, made worse by major new road construction going on.  I have always thought of myself as a pretty good driver having learnt in Kenya.  In Saudi, saying as I am a female I am not allowed to drive on tarmac outside the fenced camp we live on but when the rules change and if I am still in Saudi I will be one of the first on the roads.  Folks in Saudi harp on about the atrocious driving but I don't see the problem apart from in Khobar with is like any other city with people changing lanes, creating lanes where they don't exist etc.  Coming back to Kenya has only reinforced my thought, Saudi driving may be bad but it is not the worst in the world by a long shot.  When I learnt to drive it was in a greared (stick shift) car, it was not a case of just learning the rules and pointing the car in the direction you wanted to go, you had to anticipate the reaction of others, are they really turning or did they just forget to turn their indicator off, are they really going straight or do they plan to turn and just can't be bothered to used their indicators, which vehicle are safe to travel behind and which are not, always checking for items falling out of or from on top of vehicles which may land in your way (including people back then!!!!), learning to look way into the distance not just as far as the front of the car, learning how to avoid pot holes without becoming a hazzard to other, the list goes on and on.  The traffic in Kenya is the worst I have seen to date, nerves of steel needed at times.

Lunch time - I don’t cook unless I really have to, got to save Mo cooking too, so time to eat out again - a yummy curry is calling :), a proper curry, no food colouring, no thickener, no artificial flavours - totally authentic.

After lunch we headed off to the Matbronze where there is a photographic exhibition which Pete wants to see. I foresee another shopping adventure for me. If I could find a wrack with hooks on it to hang keys on that would be nice. Alas, not made, but Mo had pointed out a bronze gecko, real life size about 8 cm long to go on the wall - that would be a nice we gift for her. Mo tells me it would create nothing but havoc in the house as her cats would think it was real and want to kill it (an how I love creating mischief). I ended up buying two, one for Mo and one for me, we will both put them on our walls in our houses and when the cats (I will have a cat again in the future) play with the gecko we can remember the fun time we have had. Mo is a really lovely lady, full of fun, full of mischief and a great twinkle in her eye :)

Time for more coffee after spending some money and then we are off to see Fiona - another then and now moment. Fiona is Pete’s daughter and was flower girl at Alan and my wedding. She was five at the time and not much older when we last saw her. It turns out I am her godmother (didn't know that lol and to make matters worse Pete is Natasha’s godfather - forgotten that too).

Driving to Fiona’s in the Karen / Langata area where we used to live when first married I recognise nothing, the roads, the houses, the building, all new, gone are the trees. Then on my left, a building, looks familiar, brain into gear - is it - could it be - yes it is - the church where I got married - unchanged, still there, just like Alan and I :)

We had a lovely time with Fiona and her family, fun stories, catch up time, lots of laughs. So here is Fiona as my flower girl in 1980. She is married now with children of her own, all grown up, no longer 5. I have to change the images in my head which have been static for so many years.

Fiona than

Fiona now

It has been a busy day watching and mingling with a different type of wildlife - the human sort :) :) :)  and as night draws in tired Jane just wants her bed. Night folks xx