the cook and electrician

Bit of a nightmare morning. All because we have a cash flow problem, the doc gets paid at the end of the month but we have to move the money through three bank accounts and then get cash from the bank which all takes time! Anyway the electrician returned this morning to fit a new plug to the iron and a new socket to the wall (the last ones melted) and I discovered that I didn’t have enough cash to pay him. Our housekeeper wasn’t around as she had misunderstood yesterday’s errand and was doing it this morning, so I had to take the children to the bank, the easiest way to do this was to take our cook too so that he could stay with the kids in the car. We zoomed into town and found a space right outside the bank – result! Except that the machine was out of order and so were the other four that I tried. Rather hot by this point I did offer to pay the electrician next week but he (understandably) wanted paying today so we had to head out to another bank. This one was working and handed over the cash. I am not sure why there was a shortage of cash, we can only withdraw equivalent of £80 at a time as that is a huge wadge of 40 notes and the machines can’t count more than that.

a man with a sofa on his head

Our eldest and I spent last Saturday morning sat outside a petrol station waiting for a man with a sofa on his head. The sofa is our new wicker 2-seater which lives on our khondi. We had planed to meet him at 11am and after quite a lot of waiting and spotting people with things on their head but no sofa we gave him a call and set off to meet him. The confusion may have arisen as there are two Chieka roads but we didn’t find him. He eventually arrived at the petrol station and we can now enjoy sitting on the khondi.

 

We are enjoying cooler weather, the temperature has dropped from mid 30s to low 20s which is very pleasant. We keep getting a bit of rain but this isn’t The Rains yet!  

long week

It’s Friday as I start writing this although I’m not sure when I will get it finished. It has been a long week. Monday morning began with visits from the plumber, electrician and tailor all before 9 am. Then I was ill Mon night and Tues; fortunately there was lots of help around the house and the doc managed the household and children splendidly as I was flat out. There has been a bug going around for the past few weeks and I have been expecting it but I had forgotten how rotten they make you feel. The other mums here seem to all be so capable and carry on as usual when ill but I felt very un-capable. By Wed evening I managed to drag myself out for my birthday dinner, there were lots of people and we had a lovely evening; I realised just how many lovely people we have met in such a short space of time. Thursday our youngest came down with the bug and I as I continue writing this on Saturday she is still not herself. She has the delightful habit of continuing to be sick for days after a sick bug, although she is eating and drinking. By Friday I was very tired and the doc was busy with an assessment at work which involved evenings as well as meetings during the day. Anyway we made it through the week and actually Friday morning the eldest and I had time for a mammoth doll’s tea party. I expect you were all wondering what we put in a 40 foot container, now you can see – dolls, pushchairs and more toys!

blue lagoon

It sounds a bit like the name of a dodgey nightclub but is actually a beautiful spot in the middle of a tea estate at the foot of Mount Mulanje. The water took our breath away but it was spectacular. The kids dipped their toes in and enjoyed watching us swim.

tea

I am a bit behind on my blogging. These photos are from last weekend when we had trip to Mulanje – the highest mountain in this part of Africa. We drove through the tea estate, beautifully green and very different to the sugar plantation, more refined in some ways. We meandered our way through the estate on some exciting tracks then followed a path and balanced on a pipeline to find our picnic spot. Our eldest informed us that she had her mountain legs on and did much of the walking herself, except when her mountain legs got a bit tired and then she rode on Daddy’s shoulders. Our friends were disappointed with the picnic spot as the water was much lower than usual due to some maintenance work so after lunch we drove onto a beautiful spot for a swim.

hot

I think that I have said before that I had forgotten how much I dislike the heat. And it is getting hotter, there is probably about 6 weeks of more hot then the rains should begin. Anyway, we have joined the sports club which has a great paddling pool and sizeable swimming pool both are ideal places to cool down. The photo shows another good way of cooling down hot children – washing the tea set. I am becoming a little paranoid, everyone feels so hot and a bit flaky in the heat I find it difficult not to assume the worst and regularly take the children’s temperature. It doesn’t help that there are a few bugs going round too. Despite the heat our garden is blooming, everything grows so much quicker than it would in the UK, provided there is enough water. We had another water cut this week, for a couple of hours, the scary thing is we never know how long they will last and we don’t really have back up water for washing and toilets etc. We plan to buy a water tank but we’re still recovering from hearing the price quoted! Drinking water is easier as we have a large filter and lots of bottles, also having 5 toilets means that there is plenty of water in the cisterns!

culture

We went to an interesting concert this week. I didn’t know much about it beforehand except that everyone was talking about it and as there is very little cultural activity in Blantyre we thought that we should give it a go. It was a concert by Francois Francois Salque a cellist and Vincent Peirani an accordion player, both very famous in French jazz circles. Mostly they played duets which had eastern European influences, there was an accordion solo which I found more difficult to enjoy but it was a surprising evening. It took place at the French Cultural centre which has a programme of events promoting Malawi and France.