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Feeling irritated

5/26/2016

Hello All
Well I have been pondering and looking for the inspiration to blog something different and have been coming up blank, until this evening when I was sitting quietly watching telly after a long day marketing and butcherying, when my creative flow was kicked into touch by some telly bloke who was talking about a family who had relocated from the city to start a ''simple farming life in the country with their 2 children'' The statement was accompanied by the family wandering down a green, sunny country lane, wellies on, and apparently without a care in the world.

Well today was obviously not the day to tell me about the simple country life I lead and in fact my gander was well and truly up and got, probably assisted by the fact that I had been up since 5am. I had to be to make sure that I arrived at the market in time to set up all my wares, which I had been preparing for the previous 2 days with some assistance from Gavin when he had time. After market I returned to the butchery at 2pmish where I immediately started to prepare for the following days market. Gavin arrived at some point and cooked some burgers (homemade of course) and we had a quick lunch of those, and bread and salad standing in the butchery. I remained at the butchery until 6.30pm then returned home to make certain that the girls had eaten. I then fed the 4 lambs in the garden, attemted to find the kitchen under the fine layer of lamb milk powder dust and in the process broke my thermos flask in the sink and spent half an hour retrieving tiny shards of glass. The girls, well girl, as Emily doesn't really need chasing, were chased through the washing and bedtime cycle. Gavin returned home after finishing feeding and checking the sheep and pigs at 9pm, then Emily reappeared downstairs to say that there was a hornets nest in the ceiling which needed dealing with tomorrow. After a bit of light entertainment on the keyboard (no I don't mean piano) bed by 11pmish I reckon.

This is a fairly standard daylength and activity level in our simple country life. So there are days when I ponder the existence of my once more complicated life when I had a job with a salary that was paid into my bank account and I went to work for about 8 hours a day unless I wanted overtime and I walked out of my door onto a clean, tarmac-covered pathway in leafy suburbia, and spent my weekends going to the cinema, or having a takeaway, or visiting some interesting heritage site.Oh yes and going on holiday at least once a year to an exciting new destination. Soooo very complicated.

I don't know if these telly people set out to be intentionaly patronising or whether I am just in a mood. But now on top of the iritating telly man, I have been reliably informed by my wonderful husband that I can't go back now to my more complicated life as I am totally unemployble. I did not ask him for a list of reasons, I suspect some of them would have started with because no-one else would be able to do their job properly anymore in your eyes..... hmmm.... Darling.
See you all soon
Helen

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Which African capital is which?

5/1/2016

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Once upon a time a very, very long time ago in the days before instant communications via cellphone and internet a young married couple set off to start a new life in Zimbabwe. Their plane left London late as there had been a fault to repair, but they were reassured that the connecting flights would be held back so there would be no problem with arriving in Harare at the correct time...
On arrival in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia to help those who may need to hunt for an atlas or google it) they discovered that they had been lied to at the flight desk in London and that the connection had already left. No problem they could get on the next flight... yes they could (ha ha) in 4 days time! There was much panicking as the family in Zimbabwe had already left for the airport and would only learn of the young couples absence when the flight did not arrive.
The airline put them all up in a hotel so about 20ish passengers clambered back onto a bus and off they set. They pull up at The Sheraton, very posh, swimming pool, 4 star accommodation and prepared to disembark. "Are you 1st class passengers" asked the group guide. "Err...no" say most of the travellers. "Please retake your seats then and we will continue the journey".
So back to the centre of Addis Ababa they went and The City Centre Hotel. Hmmm....be positive thought the young bride. The young couple timewarped back to the 1970's as they entered the foyer. Their bedroom was on the 4th floor and there was a choice of stairs or an ancient lift. They opted for the stairs, and after the first flight remembered they were at 2500m (altitude). After some time had pased they arrived exhausted at the room and were very relieved to discover that at least the sheets, though worn, were clean.
The allowance for food and drink was 3 meals a day with one drink per meal. Drinking tap water was not recommended. Only American Express and American dollars were accepted for any extras. Thank goodness for their better prepared fellow passengers who were willing to lend out precious foreign currency as daily life at 2500m was quite thirsty work.They were allowed to use the landline at the travel agency to phone Zimbabwe to inform them of their new travel plans once a day.
After day one they were allowed to have their suitcases back to change their clothes and after a few complaints from some very disgruntled, bored passengers they were taken on a guided tour of the city which at one point must have been very beautiful but was full of the destruction of war, and then up into the mountains where the views were amazing but the poverty was evident.
They were served some interesting meals (!!) one of which sent the young bridegroom running for the lift to return to his bathrom!!! Another when there were gunshots fired outside the hotel, there was instant silence as all the diners stopped eating and the waiters stopped waiting (interesting language English) then, when nothing else happened, life resumed.
After 4 character building days the young couple finally arrived in Harare much to everyones relief.

Ethiopian traditional food

Once upon a time in the less distant past a young man was returning to Harare to a family wedding and some family time on the farm. He set off from Bordeaux on a Wednesday afternoon and luckily snuck out of Europe before the french travel unions went on strike. After a dull day spent sitting in Nairobi waiting for his connection his mother phoned to find out how things were going. His Dad was busy checking flight status on the internet to confirm times with the waiting family in Harare, and said to the mother "the b......s have just cancelled his flight there must be a backlog because of the strikes in Europe". The young man went to find a person at a desk to confirm the situation whilst the mother contacted the relevant people in Harare via wattsap to let them know that the flight would not arrive and that they would be kept informed. The group of stranded passengers were eventually bused to a hotel where they were kept together until their new flight was organised for the next morning. They were fed and watered at the hotel and the following morning were delivered back to the airport where they boarded the plane bound on a rather long winded journey via Lusaka to Harare. All parties were up to date at all times via the internet, wattsap and FB.
My how times have changed in what is in fact only 23 years.
See you all soon
Helen

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Feeling irritated

Which African capital is which?

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Helen Franklin

Feeling irritated

﻿Which African capital is which?

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Helen Franklin

Which African capital is which?