Anthony sent me this photo today, entitled "My arrangement - the poppies didn't like it inside"
Love it that he is doing a bit of flower arranging in my absence
Very sad to be missing our little garden at this time of year

African Renaissance

Another Dakar outing was to the African Renaissance monument. Here are some facts according to wikipedia:

• It is 49m tall, making it the largest statue in the world outside Asia and the former Soviet Union.
• It was built by the North Koreans (random... more on that below).
• It cost over $27 million (USD)... one could very well question why money is being spent on this when there are malnourished munchkins and people dying of malaria... but I suppose that question can be asked of all governments. UK included (we don't have malaria... but there are hungry kids).
• It is located on top one of the twin hills in Dakar known as Collines Des Mamelles (or Hills of Breasts as they would be referred to in English).
  

As you can see it really is quite something.

Just in case we needed proof that the North Koreans were involved... we actually met one. This was SO exciting. We saw some Asian types operating a large crane and cleaning/ painting the statue. Hilary the brave/ mad went and spoke to one of them. He seemed not to really speak English but did confirm he was from Pyongyang. It was SO exciting we just had to take photographs to prove our 1st meeting with a real life North Korean. It would be interesting to know what he makes of Senegal... and the big statue... and the breast like hills... and whether he still loves the dear and great leaders... and whether he would rather North Korea or Senegal... oh the questions...
This is the list of Heads of State attending the (most likely lavish) opening ceremony... DRC, Zimbabwe, Cote D'Ivore, Gabon... mmm something seems a bit wrong about all of this...

Big Fish

Before Spearsy's wedding we enjoyed a trip to the big fish restaurant in Dakar.
The attached photos amuse me. Mostly because the plates were actually shared between lots of people... but the photos tell a different story!

Wedding Day!

At the hotel... all ready for the Spearsy-Sophie wedding
The best men - Pete and Arthur

The church at 4pm (official start of wedding ceremony). The people on the left hand side are the amazing choir... so as you can see very few guests were on time! Of course us pasty faces arrived far too early... I think it all got going properly around 4.45!

I didn't do a good job of photographing the bride and groom. This is coming out of the church, where they were surrounded by a fantabulous brass band... a real celebration. Spearsy was draped in traditional necklaces at this point (I think).

After the church ceremony there was obligatory attendance for the Bride, Groom and A list guests at the B list reception. The 2 tiered reception approach is an interesting one. Basically Bride and Goom show up there for about 30min and then leave the B listers to celebrate all night whilst the A listers headed for the fancy restaurant!

Pete and Misty were not quite sure what to do with themselves...
Anthony on the other hand enjoyed playing with the orange "jewel" table decorations...
Me and Marthe
Then it was off to the A-list party... Mr Geer was very pleased with himself
The MOST incredible wedding cake ever...
Deserts to end all deserts
Me and Anthony with the most lovely Habib and Habib's deuxième wife. Habib is Alex's loyal driver and is super nice, and actually I was quite distressed he had taken a 2nd wide since seeing him last. The 1st wife has 7 or 9 children... poor thing... left at home whilst wife number 2 gets to go out to the fancy parteeee.

Heathrow - Lisbon

The adventure begins at Heathrow... Ant and I travelling with more bags than ever before. Laden with sugar almonds and solar lamps for Spearsy's nuptuals...

Striking it lucky on arrival in Lisbon... as we were delayed by multiple hours we were given boarding passes... for the next day... and then vouchers for a night in Lisbon! The excitement was overwhealming.



Anthony tries to escape me... but of course failed


Hils and "Orange" enjoying Sangria in the town... how civilised

Executive Suite

Am currently residing in the "Executive Suite" at the Family Kingdom.

As you can see it is highly executive. I don't think it actually qualifies as a suite tho, as I am sure that implies there is more than one room, and unless there is a secret door somewhere to the rest of the suite... then it is just a normal bedroom + bathroom (en suite as opposed to executive suite?)

Floral sink + kids shower curtain

Large bed with mirror inset into the head board (nice touch)... and the lamps... well they are most exciting

disco/ bondage elephants????

Poor elephants... what were they thinking with these costumes???

Two of the hundreds of elephants we saw parading through Colombo this evening, along with many singers and dancers and people in an incredible range of outfits - boys with "3 legs", men with fake beards, people dressed with grannie masks, traditional looking dancers, people twirling plates on sticks high in the air, people dressed as monkeys, people dressed as bears... twas incredible. Think the festival has something to do with Shiva... much like one I went to in Nepal on this day 4 years ago (where did that time go???)... but then that doesn't necessarily make a load of sense as the elephants all belonged to a very very rich Buddhist temple and they were followed by 4 large Buddhas on trucks... wikipedia has failed me on this one... but perhaps I need to search harder.

Happy Valentines day

Happy Valentines day!

The hotel where I am (ahem) working decided to decorate the beach for Valentines day... so almost every tree has a big wooden heart nailed to it. Hopefully the non-working clientele of mostly middle aged European tourists on valentines minibreaks will enjoy it!

dum de dum

I have been bad at updating this... indeed I have a file of photos to upload at some point... but I haven't yet got around to it yet.

Instead... here are a couple from today...

First it was oven of glory... now it is PAN of glory... we got this beauty in the sales... it's built to last... and is red (for some reason this meant it was cheap... perhaps red is so last year)... looking forward to many a good stew stewed in here. mmmmm


Finally sorted out an album for our wedding photos. Was all a bit annoying with the first version having splodges on thus needing to be returned and then the 2nd version getting delivered to the wrong store, and they didn't take any contact details and so just sat on it etc. etc.
Anyway, in honour of the fact that today is Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian New Year) the photo of the page below has our Mongolian Toast written on it... and photos of the toast itself... which reminds me to get out the Chinggis tonight.
Bunting by HRH the Nadj. Toast Courtesy of Munson Whites.


Indeed perhaps Tsagaan Sar deserves a blast from the past. So here is me -8 years, sitting in my ger, wearing a del, in front of my most wondrous fire that kept me varying degrees of toastyness all winter. Those were the days!

Little House

Munson Whites and Telford Geers do Little House in the Big Woods

Pepin, Wisconsin, USA

Sadie and myself reverently paid homage, taking our much loved books with us, my copy having belonged to my mum at one point. As you can see the men did not seem to comprehend the significance of the pilgrimage, despite having been read to from the books... so sad.

Sadie and I also enjoyed pretending to be Laura at the only tourist facility that was actually open in the darkest winter. Definitely worth a repeat visit in summer (along with a visit to PEI for an Anne of Green Gables minibreak)... but the blue mongol sky and white white snow were beautifulbeautiful.