red cake

The food colouring is quite scary but the results were satisfactory!

hot party

Birthday parties here are not too much different from the UK. It was a busy week, we had been warned that there might be no electricity so we did a lot of the cooking beforehand and decided not to order a (very cheap) bouncy castle. The day started early with a very excited toddler who enjoyed the presents that we brought with us from the UK and the birthday cards that my sister brought out in Sept. The power stayed on so at the last minute we got a bouncy castle. Everyone (including our staff) loved it! It was an extremely hot day so the paddling pool (borrowed from a friend) was also popular and there were quite a few naked children.

waking

A good nights sleep becomes relative with two small children, but last night I slept until 4am at which point my body thought that I had had enough sleep! It’s strange the things that can wake us here. The children go through phases of good sleep and bad sleep, we have had 4 weeks of not so good sleep probably due to sick bugs, colds and teeth but once a week we all sleep worse after taking anti-malarial tablets. Then there are all sorts of other noises that wake us in the night: the neighbours dogs (in our garden); the call to prayer from the mosque (4.15am); the local nightclub (sometimes until 6am); the neighbour’s cockerel; the dawn chorus; rain hitting the metal roof (louder than you think); the water coming back on. And it’s beginning to hot up again which also hinders sleep.

flurry of activity

There is a flurry of activity on my blog as I have at last got some child free time. It has been a long few weeks of d&v bugs and colds. The youngest is still suffering so we are all lacking on the sleep front. However she has got the hang of walking and does short distances un aided, which causes lots of excitement from her big sister!

Poppy

This is Poppy the Puppy. I was hoping to have some cute photos of her with the children but they are still not entirely compatible! She is a gorgeous puppy and I am not a dog person but I may be converted! The children are getting used to her and love to know where she is and going to see her but she is quite jumpy and they are still slightly nervous.

bathroom

I thought that it was about time that you (my lovely readers) saw some pics of the fabulous interior design of our house. There are five bathrooms and these two photos show two and yes the rest are just as lovely!

cuts

I can sometimes forget that we live in a developing country, but yesterday we were reminded that there are so many things we take for granted. Yesterday there was no diesel in Blantyre, we had an almost empty tank because last week we had cash flow problems so I hadn’t filled up, then the water was off for a few hours. Temporary cuts are OK but the worry is that the water can go off for days at a time and you just never know which it will be. The lack of diesel is apparently due to the difficulty with changing money and buying goods from outside the country. I did find some fuel yesterday, I got half a tank after a long wait in a very noisy petrol station and I got another half tank at a station that had just had a delivery. I had not appreciated that most of the mini bus drivers buy fuel a gallon at a time in jerry cans because each driver puts his own fuel in the vehicle. The stations were busy with these drivers trying to fill their cans, there were less people trying to fill their cars. Anyway the water is back on and our bath filled up in case there are more cuts.