After a busy few weeks we were all very ready for a half term break last week. Granny is visiting and the kids have been keen to show her the delights of the Indian Ocean. And the thought of a week of sun, sea, swimming and snorkelling has been very appealing through the last month. So we packed our costumes, took plenty of sun cream, charged up kindles and the underwater camera and headed to the coast. It was bliss.
By popular demand we returned to the kids favourite hotel in Watamu. it isn't a place to go for silence and time alone. It is full of children, lots who we know already, and there is a never ending supply of fizzy drinks and daily pancakes at 4pm to keep folk going after a hard day of lounging around. Our three are busy and happy from breakfast through to bed time, only occasionally to be spotted (or heard) in the pool or round a table with friends and chocolate sauce covered plates at pancake time. And that means I get some me time, reading, swimming and the occasional dive. I am pretty sure granny is a convert too.
We all read loads, spent most of the day in some form of water - the pool, a very sea weedy (which didn't put any of us off body surfing) sea and even jumping off the top of a Dhow into a creek, did plenty of snorkelling and kayaking and just had fun. Tim went for early morning runs and mum went bird watching but the rest of us pretty much stayed on site for the week, only venturing off for sundowners on a Dhow in the creek. A tough life.
And now we are back to work and school and missing our afternoon pancakes. It will be a busy couple of months in the run up to Christmas with school matches and pantomime, sales and parties with friends and lots of work with travel for both Tim and me. so it is good to have recharged our batteries. But the biggest question for us all is just how quickly can we get back to the beach.
Anne
Saturday, 26 October 2013
Friday, 11 October 2013
That was the week (or two) that was
It has been a long couple of weeks here absorbing the impact of the terrible attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. And I haven't quite known how to blog about it. I know I'm not alone with this. Having a much needed relaxing lunch with some mates a week after the attack, the three bloggers amongst us compared notes on how to begin. None of us knew. We opted instead to go back to our rose tasting and help our friend choose her party supplies. Much safer ground.
The attack itself stirred up all sorts of emotions for us all - i found a good article in The New York Times which summed it up pretty well for me. The Mall is about 10 minutes from where we live. We didn't go there every weekend - as a very good friend messaged on the day of the attack, she assumed my loathing for shopping meant we were safe. But we had been there a lot the previous saturday and it housed one of our favourite places to eat as a family. These facts were not lost on Jamie or pretty much everyone we know in Nairobi - this attack was far too close to home. But we are safe and whilst we know people who were there and who lost friends, our experience of the attack was an indirect one.
The last few weeks have also highlighted what good friends we have around the world, with loads of people getting in touch to check we were OK. I'm a late arrival to Facebook and mainly use it to post updates on our work community page or to stalk my friends and show through an occasional comment or well placed "like" that we are thinking of them. When news of the attack broke (and at that point it wasn't clear if it was a police shoot out with criminals - an almost weekly occurrence here - or something terrorist) I dropped a quick email to family to say we were safe. But my later very short timeline update reached so many people so quickly that I'm properly converted. Not convinced that will translate into a fuller timeline or more effective posting but I suspect I understand the social media angle to things like the Arab spring a tiny bit better than before. And it may take the kids a week or two more to be ahead of me in their digital footprint.
And we have benefitted from a real sense of community in Nairobi with our newer found friends here. Tim worked from home for a few days and was not the only parent spending much more time in the playground than the usual drop and dash. The kids definitely needed it alongside the usual routine of school. School was great, with lots of pre-existing emergency planning coming into play and carefully tailored sessions for each age group. And there has been plenty of coffee and popping in on neighbours and just listening to each other over the last few weeks. There's been the odd mojito and glass of wine too for the grown ups and a few treat DVD evenings for the kids, and a fundraising run at the weekend, all of which are helping life return to a more normal pace. And means next week I will be back to blogging about animals and beaches and life's little routines.
Anne
The attack itself stirred up all sorts of emotions for us all - i found a good article in The New York Times which summed it up pretty well for me. The Mall is about 10 minutes from where we live. We didn't go there every weekend - as a very good friend messaged on the day of the attack, she assumed my loathing for shopping meant we were safe. But we had been there a lot the previous saturday and it housed one of our favourite places to eat as a family. These facts were not lost on Jamie or pretty much everyone we know in Nairobi - this attack was far too close to home. But we are safe and whilst we know people who were there and who lost friends, our experience of the attack was an indirect one.
The last few weeks have also highlighted what good friends we have around the world, with loads of people getting in touch to check we were OK. I'm a late arrival to Facebook and mainly use it to post updates on our work community page or to stalk my friends and show through an occasional comment or well placed "like" that we are thinking of them. When news of the attack broke (and at that point it wasn't clear if it was a police shoot out with criminals - an almost weekly occurrence here - or something terrorist) I dropped a quick email to family to say we were safe. But my later very short timeline update reached so many people so quickly that I'm properly converted. Not convinced that will translate into a fuller timeline or more effective posting but I suspect I understand the social media angle to things like the Arab spring a tiny bit better than before. And it may take the kids a week or two more to be ahead of me in their digital footprint.
And we have benefitted from a real sense of community in Nairobi with our newer found friends here. Tim worked from home for a few days and was not the only parent spending much more time in the playground than the usual drop and dash. The kids definitely needed it alongside the usual routine of school. School was great, with lots of pre-existing emergency planning coming into play and carefully tailored sessions for each age group. And there has been plenty of coffee and popping in on neighbours and just listening to each other over the last few weeks. There's been the odd mojito and glass of wine too for the grown ups and a few treat DVD evenings for the kids, and a fundraising run at the weekend, all of which are helping life return to a more normal pace. And means next week I will be back to blogging about animals and beaches and life's little routines.
Anne
Saturday, 14 September 2013
Family challenge
The last week has been dominated by "back to school", sorting pencil cases, finding (and already losing) lunch boxes, naming sports kit and reprogramming body clocks to an earlier all family start to the day. So far so good (if you ignore the back to school bugs that the kids have succumbed to) and everyone has been happy to see friends, catch up on news and meet some new people. We marked the end of the first week with a back to school disco, where Matthew opted to swim rather than dance and Katie tried to lead the girls to move like jagger on the dance floor.
And then we packed the car and headed off for a family challenge. This is a charity fundraiser organised by friends to support Kamili, a mental health charity. Teams of up to six (only 2 of whom can be grown up) compete in a series of challenges over the weekend with points awarded for effort and being supportive to each other as much as for performance. Everyone camps in a beautiful spot full of Zebra and giraffe next to lake Naivasha and the challenges are scattered all over the place so there's plenty of walking and cycling around and general fresh air as well as some orienteering and a chance to catch up with friends around the course.
Our first challenge was getting all the camping gear, 3 bikes and one reluctant child into the car - a few basic essentials for a night away.
We are now pretty good at putting up our tents and Matthew can pretty much do his alone until it comes to getting the pegs in the ground.
And then it was time for the challenges. 15 minutes for each challenge and 15 minutes to get to the next one. The afternoon saw us picking up balls whilst staying as a human chain, matthew and me describing a miro picture to the others for them to replicate, playing a numbers based version of twister, trying to lift a pot out of a large square without it touching the ground, and building a seaplane from kinnex. Something for everyone. There was a point mid way round where chocolate biscuits and bananas were essential and I suspect when we pore over the detailed data that's due to be on line later in the week (and which the boys can't wait for) we will see the performance enhancing capacity of chocolate.
After a chilly night under canvas and a stove cooked breakfast we were ready for day 2 where we got the wet and muddy challenges with katie coming into her own stemming water flowing out of a large pipe and balancing on a slack rope over the water and Matthew came into his own in the mud.
Jamie was our able manager reading out instructions and plotting our route on the map. All three kids loved the soda tasting challenge and Tim could have done without discovering that the thing he'd tried to identify inside a closed box was a desicated mongoose - I got a coconut shell! All in all it was a great weekend, for a good cause and we even got a medal to show for it. We are now just wondering how it might translate to a park in south west London.........
And then we packed the car and headed off for a family challenge. This is a charity fundraiser organised by friends to support Kamili, a mental health charity. Teams of up to six (only 2 of whom can be grown up) compete in a series of challenges over the weekend with points awarded for effort and being supportive to each other as much as for performance. Everyone camps in a beautiful spot full of Zebra and giraffe next to lake Naivasha and the challenges are scattered all over the place so there's plenty of walking and cycling around and general fresh air as well as some orienteering and a chance to catch up with friends around the course.
Our first challenge was getting all the camping gear, 3 bikes and one reluctant child into the car - a few basic essentials for a night away.
We are now pretty good at putting up our tents and Matthew can pretty much do his alone until it comes to getting the pegs in the ground.
And then it was time for the challenges. 15 minutes for each challenge and 15 minutes to get to the next one. The afternoon saw us picking up balls whilst staying as a human chain, matthew and me describing a miro picture to the others for them to replicate, playing a numbers based version of twister, trying to lift a pot out of a large square without it touching the ground, and building a seaplane from kinnex. Something for everyone. There was a point mid way round where chocolate biscuits and bananas were essential and I suspect when we pore over the detailed data that's due to be on line later in the week (and which the boys can't wait for) we will see the performance enhancing capacity of chocolate.
After a chilly night under canvas and a stove cooked breakfast we were ready for day 2 where we got the wet and muddy challenges with katie coming into her own stemming water flowing out of a large pipe and balancing on a slack rope over the water and Matthew came into his own in the mud.
Jamie was our able manager reading out instructions and plotting our route on the map. All three kids loved the soda tasting challenge and Tim could have done without discovering that the thing he'd tried to identify inside a closed box was a desicated mongoose - I got a coconut shell! All in all it was a great weekend, for a good cause and we even got a medal to show for it. We are now just wondering how it might translate to a park in south west London.........
Monday, 2 September 2013
Full House
We have just waved goodbye to some friends who have been visiting Kenya and us for the last couple of weeks. It has been great fun and the kids have really enjoyed having a full house for the last weeks of the holiday and taking our friends and their 2 young kids to see the sights. We've seen elephants and giraffe in Nairobi, hippos and flamingos and all sorts of other birds near lake Naivasha and elephants and much more with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop in Amboseli. We've also done loads of swimming, some catching up with Nairobi friends and Matthew fitted in a 4 day cricket tournament, narrowly losing in the final (held at a very faded former international ground which was just great for him). Tim and I also managed to get on with the daily chores, go to work, complete school uniform shopping and keep the house stocked with food and drink. Its been busy!
Up until now most of our visitors have just been passing through and stay for a few nights, either as part of their work with Tim or to have a weekend break once the work is done. All our visitors provide a good excuse to go to some of our favourite places again and for the kids to talk about Kenya and make the most of having different people to read bed time stories or play sport with in the garden. We in turn make the most of our guests by stocking up on UK news and treats and asking for volunteers to detangle Katie's hair - a task she has deemed both her parents incapable of.
I grew up in a house full of visitors and enjoyed meeting new people and big, noisy mealtimes. But I also know that isn't for everyone and its important to let people have space to do their own thing. that's of course much easier here where even if we are in the cooler part of the year kids can be outside most of the day. Having a huge 8 seater landcruiser also helps with outings as everyone just bundles in. And there are always people around at home so no-one has to go if they just want to curl up at home and read. The help at home also made me brave enough to suggest our friends' kids stayed with us for a few days whilst their parents went to see the wildebeest migration in the Mara. Tim opted to go away for work and I had an insight into life as a mother of five - it was relatively straightforward all things considered but after 48 hours I knew that we were right to think 3 is enough for us.
Anne
Up until now most of our visitors have just been passing through and stay for a few nights, either as part of their work with Tim or to have a weekend break once the work is done. All our visitors provide a good excuse to go to some of our favourite places again and for the kids to talk about Kenya and make the most of having different people to read bed time stories or play sport with in the garden. We in turn make the most of our guests by stocking up on UK news and treats and asking for volunteers to detangle Katie's hair - a task she has deemed both her parents incapable of.
I grew up in a house full of visitors and enjoyed meeting new people and big, noisy mealtimes. But I also know that isn't for everyone and its important to let people have space to do their own thing. that's of course much easier here where even if we are in the cooler part of the year kids can be outside most of the day. Having a huge 8 seater landcruiser also helps with outings as everyone just bundles in. And there are always people around at home so no-one has to go if they just want to curl up at home and read. The help at home also made me brave enough to suggest our friends' kids stayed with us for a few days whilst their parents went to see the wildebeest migration in the Mara. Tim opted to go away for work and I had an insight into life as a mother of five - it was relatively straightforward all things considered but after 48 hours I knew that we were right to think 3 is enough for us.
Anne
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