tennis and tea

I had hoped to have a nice photo of one of our friends playing tennis in the Malawi Open Tennis Tournament, we turned up on Fri morning but his opponent didn’t show up, then it rained and his match got moved to Limbe sports club, about 20 minutes away so we didn’t see him play.

 

I am making some progress with my tennis and this week felt confident enough to go along to social tennis. There were 6 of us and we played doubles by hiring a couple of ball boys (with racquets) to make up the numbers. I still find playing tennis with ball boys a little weird, especially now that I realise that they are mostly much better players than I will ever be! After about an hour and a half I felt like I was going to collapse with heat exhaustion and explained to my 70 year old opponent that I was going to sit down and have a sugary drink, she look astonished and found someone else to finish the match in my place! Tea was provided after the match.

hot and hotter

Today is slightly cooler but the heat is really building up. It gets hotter and hotter and then a bit more and then the rains come. We have had a few “warm up” showers which is the prelude to proper rains.

 

You can tell the temperature from the noise level, when it’s really hot there is almost complete inactivity, even the dog lies still. At night when there’s a breeze there is much more noise but on a hot still night, total silence. Apart from unhappy, hot children! We have put a fan in the kids room to try and keep them cool, this helps but I am dreading the night that we have a power cut at bedtime!

expensive morning

After a luxurious weekend I was looking forward to a frugal week, this was not to be. I started with the bill for the washing machine repair, 14,000 MK (£56) this was after the doc spent many hours fixing it. Then off to get chicken food, 5,000 MK (£20) and a shop at the supermarket 8,000 MK (£32) then pay bill for the little car’s service 41,000 MK (£164) fortunately we weren’t charged for the call outs for the other car (continuing mouse damage). I have also invested in rat poison & traps but we can only use these in the garage because of the dog and children. I then topped off the morning with a haircut, this was to correct the slightly weird cut that a different hairdresser gave me 2 weeks ago!

 

 

perfect day

Photos to follow but Sat was a beautiful day. I spent Fri night with other grown-ups listening to some cool music at the Lake of Stars Festival, the beach setting was perfect, warm with a gentle breeze. On Sat we had a cruise on the lake watched the fish eagles and swam and snorkelled from the boat, a lazy lunch was followed by more festival activity with the kids this time. They played in the sand and water and took a passing interest in the music and they really enjoyed the Burundi drummers who played their drums on their heads! We chanced across a guy called Ron Nkomba and loved his gentle sound.

more hot

What else do you do on a hot day?

 

Today is the end of a really hard week. Yesterday was particularly bad but feeling better today and ready for the long weekend (tomorrow is a bank holiday for Mother’s Day) and we’re off to the “Lake of Stars Festival”.

hot

It’s really hot, everyone keeps reminding me that October is the hottest month and it’s definitely the month of sick bugs.

 

Yesterday we lazed by a friend’s pool while sipping Pimms and watching the kids play. Today it was back to real life, we were up in the night to our eldest being sick, followed by a frustrating morning for me including: a long wait at the bank to find that our money has not come through from the UK, the pharmacist didn’t have our anti-malarial drugs and then the car wouldn’t start. Oh and we still have no washing machine!

 

It turns out that the car was suffering from the soaring temperatures too and had overheated, the lack of water in the cooling system didn’t help the matter! A kindly mechanic from a friend’s company diagnosed the problem and I felt very silly especially as the car was full of a bag of wet nappies, the nappy bucket, a carrier bag of cash and two hot children!

mon feeling

Even after 3 weeks back we have not got the hang of Monday mornings. We never quite get out of the house on time and happy, if we rush we have unhappy small people! My morning (without kids) was totally unproductive partly because I had just started doing some work when a friend called to say that there was diesel at one of the petrol stations I rushed down but they had run out by the time I got there. Another 2 queues and I got diesel this evening.

 

Driving around town the in the dusk is different, it smells different and it’s quieter. I quite like being out and about at that time and the satisfaction of getting a full tank is great!!