Football, islands and nomads

So Friday's match didn't go so well, although Senegal support didn't falter. My football knowledge is increasing greatly... mostly through Spearsy, but also through some observation. I am now well versed on what (in Spearsy's opinion) England need to do to win on Wednesday. So should Capello call me then I will be able to advise.

Senegal staff flying the England flag

Half time... I think Spearsy looks a bit like "The Count" (from the darts)

Saturday was fun. We went on an outing to Goree, a small Island just off the coast of Dakar. Was lovely wandering around the narrow cobbled streets and enjoying the art and views... and an ice cream too :O) Goree played a role in the slave trade... although the extent to which it did is somewhat debated (according to source of all knowledge - Wikipedia).

Fort on Goree with Dakar skyline in the background

Kids splashing around in the harbour!

Goree harbour. Slightly reminiscent of St Ives, Cornwall, UK I think (OK... perhaps not super reminiscent... )

Steps in the fort

Old mottled building

Huge canons! According to Spearsy these were built to keep the Brits off the island... but I'm not entirely sure this is an actual fact or a Spearsy fact.Atlantic art

Bougainvillea everywhere!

Old fire hydrant!

Saturday night I learnt to cook Yassa Poulet (chicken and spicy onions) and played around with these kids! I also witnessed Anna having her hair done. For a 3 year old she was super patient... sitting in a chair for several hours whilst 2 ladies plaited her hair into hundreds of very thin plaits and put little plastic multi coloured beads on the end. In the photo the kids are sporting their UK gifts: Anna is covered in Dora the Explorer stickers, Ludo has a huge bubble wand, and Babocar is wearing a Ben 10 watch type thing!
On the move... we passed literally thousands of animals (goats, sheep and cattle) making what is apparently a twice yearly 600-800km migration (on foot), to different pastures and markets.

The cattle are just beautiful, albeit skinny... and at +$200 a piece they make their owners very wealthy...Nomad support carts follow the herders carrying water (sometimes in inflatable rubber dingys - random), supplies and the women and children. Despite their families wealth (in terms of animals) these children are always on the move and are therefore rarely, if ever, in school.At Hotel Paradise Spearsy attempts to emulate the herders...

It is a slightly random place. Not quite as random as Family Kingdom in Freetown... but the walls are covered in murals... feels like we are at pre school!

Alas, despite the colourful wall paintings its not exactly a classy joint... here it seems a bird has made a nest in the bathroom window... nice.

And to finish the long blog of many photos here are 2 Senegalese mini munchkins

Strawberries

These are some of the strawberries we are growing, and that Anthony ate last night... I think we have more coming fortunately.

The slightly worrying thing is that for his diner last night he ate these 2 strawberries some raw carrots (apparently they taste better that way) and some cheese. So now I am the guilty wife, abandoning husband to fend for himself on cheese and raw carrots! Perhaps I should never leave the country again and chain myself to the kitchen to ensure that every day I can present delicious and nutritious meals for my man... But then he is more than capable of fending for himself AND I left some curry in the freezer, so hopefully I won't return home to a poor famished Geer.

post script

It would seem that generally speaking the Senegalese were pleased the French lost.

17th June

I'm still enjoying the Laguna Beach Resort. Not been in the pools tho... but the view at least makes you feel on holiday... even if the logframe fuzzy head feeling reminds you that you aren't. I'm reading "Sophie's Choice", which is compounding the feeling of surreality. It is really good... but with a fair chunk of the book set in Auschwitz is also reasonably distressing (I've had to wiki the plot and alas it doesn't look like it will get any better). On a slight diversionary note we are going to a wedding in Krakow next month and have a few days holiday either side. My husband informed me some years ago that one of the major tourist destinations in the area is... a salt mine (sounds thrilling)... but more importantly a salt mine with a salt statue of the old pope in it. The renounced Catholic that he is wants to visit... anyway... I also understand that Auschwitz is relatively close too. I wonder should we go? With my mind full of smoking crematoriums and twisted Nazis etc. I'm not particularly keen... but perhaps we should... to be reminded of mans capacity for evil... hmmm will ponder that one.Anyway lest we become too depressed here are some more of the Tesco England wrist bands on tour. Outrage as Nigeria lost to Greece today... people were seriously angry with the bloke who got the red card... and thought the Nigerian team deserve to go out of the contest due to their indiscipline. The feedback on France's match with Mexico will be interesting. Most people sort of support France, especially as half the team is West African (so they say... I of course know nothing and am mostly experiencing the world cup vicariously as I get updates on match status from one person or another)... we will see... I'm sure I will be given a detailed low down over diner!

Crabs and Coupe du Monde

Am enjoying my 2nd Senegalese mini break in the space of a month. Have managed to watch parts of 3 football matches (with French commentary) which is a world record. Can't say I'm particularly interested... although I do feel a slight pang of sadness that the north Koreans are not going to make their dear leader happy with a win over Brazil :O(

Here is Spearsy indoctrinating me into the ways of England football hooligan!He is also converting the Senegalese... here are Marthe and Khady proudly holding the flag!

Went for a mini walk on the beach and saw hundreds of large crabs... fortunately they seemed quite scared of me. This one however didn't have a hole to hide in and so I was able to get a close up snap whilst it played sleeping lions in the hope I wouldn't stamp on it!
Crab sunset
just lovely... aren't I lucky to be here!!
slightly dodgy bridge leading out to sand island
Bougainvillea... wish my plant (a donation from Al) would flourish like these... am thinking the English clime could be the problem... it is hot here, but the sea breeze makes it seem quite pleasant really.

Patriotic update

Fortunately the England flags have been removed and dispatched to south Sudan (truly), where they may well right now be flying high on Misty's landcruiser... or traded with a Dinka for something exciting (like a dinka beating stick or spear).

I leave the country this weekend for another Senegal minibreak... and to avoid the World Cup madness. However I understand from Spearsy that he is flying England flags from his landcruiser too, and that work shall pause for England matches. I guess it will be good to be in Afreeeka for the World Cup, even if Senegal didn't make the finals!

The Princess (Di) is doing well... flowering nicely.

Patriotism

Imagine our delight to discover that the clematis in our garden survived being ignored for a year and having building waste dumped on it... and is now flowering. Actually this isn't the exciting bit... the exciting bit was that we found a plant name label near its roots and it turns out it is called "Princess Diana". It's almost just too much to think that we have a part of the Princess in our garden. Needless to say, tending of "Di" has been upped.
On a mildly distressing note, having enjoyed (??) our neighbour's England car flag, extra large England flag draped out of upstairs window, and England T-shirt (worn when exiting his house on a Sunday morning), Ant decided that he did NOT want to be outdone. So on one of his regular outings to B&Q he decided that it would be a fabulous plan to purchase 2 England Car flags, and apparently they have to stay on the car until they fall off. I am sort of amused by the irony (neither of us like football, know when the world cup starts, who is in England's group, who is in the England team etc.)... however somehow I don't quite think I can drive around with the flags hanging out of the car windows. I think this makes me a snob???
Please see evidence below (and note that our car has TWO flags where as Mr England Fan over the road only has one. HA!

Mini mini break... to the beach

Am in Dakar this week for a meeting.

The hotel claim there is no internet in the rooms. This is true... but I have discovered that there is internet on the balcony. Perhaps its not such a bad think to have to be chained to my laptop every evening this week? The sea breeze is nice... I just need a G&T.

Hazy Dakar morning

The alternative balcony view. More wasteland than beach.

View from the bath... the window is one way glass (I think) but it's still slightly disconcerting

Gardening

It may not win garden of the year, but after sweeping, pressure washing, chucking out of rubbish, removing the random wooden rail that seemed to make a feature of an old electrical cable etc... it looks much better... and is less of a health hazard too after I unblocked the drains. Nice.

Evening watering at the allotment...

Time off from DIY = a chocolate making workshop. A lovely wedding gift!

We ate a lot of chocolate... and made a range of exciting creations... some more "Hotel Chocolat-esq" than others!

Our new... most fabulous origami style kitchen light... its amazing! (and not from Ikea) ... and no we didn't make it either (alas)...

The lovely light!

Santiago the tap... for Sadie's benefit x

No more nasty fireplaces out the front

The front of the house has been transformed... after at least 7 months of bringing down the tone of the road our old fireplaces have been removed from their rotting position by the front door! Hooorah! The front of the house now looks slightly less like a building site. Alas the annoying builders managed to knock a large piece out of the stone window sill... they say they will make it good... but am suspicious about their ability to do this... we will see!

We now have a working sink (oh the wonder), wall cupboards, and an oven hood that isn't quite finished... this weekend is tile shopping time. What fun! Still lots of little finishing off things to do but it looks a lot better now!

worktops in

Kitchen looks sort of almost finished... haha... the sink needs plumbing, work surfaces need sanding and oiling, wall cupboards need fitting, tiles need choosing and tiling, edges of flooring need to be done... windows need varnishing... lights under wall units need buying and installing... and everything needs cleaning...
but it is quite exciting as it actually looks like a kitchen now!
oh how wondrous the OOG is... alas the gas bit is working, but waiting for electrician to wire up the electrics, so no actual baking can take place... just use of hob!another exciting step... Hils helps remove the nasty, dusty, brown carpet in the back room... revealing the long hidden floorboards we stained back in the Autumn....

OOG is working!

Goodbye electric hobs and cardboard boxes...

Hello Oven of Glory... at last I can now attend to wifely tasks such as cooking meals for my husband...

whilst he gets on with the DIY. We are very traditional with respect to gender roles as you can see.

Progress

Ant and Mist drink tea, eat chocolate and pear muffins (baked by Judi), and ponder about cupboard fitting.

Our plasterer came and sorted out the problem wall. This however also involved putting a nail through a water pipe... which was less than pleasing... think we saved the new floor from any drastic damage.
Oven of glory (OOG?) is now in position, but still not fitted... curses for overworked plumbers. The big question now is will it be ready for The Ware Delegation on Saturday????
Work surfaces are being oiled and are looking lovely... kitchen sink and Santiago (our tap, not my god-dog) are also still in their boxes... the novelty of washing the dishes in the bathroom is somewhat wearing off.

Anthony "safety specs" Geer, cures his hangover by bodging another kitchen unit. The holes (for the mains stopcock) are intentional and not a result of excess consumption of what must be the most expensive vodka ever... which is another story. All I can say is think of the most ridiculous amount of money you would pay for a magnum (why???) of vodka and multiply that number by 50 and you might possibly be vaguely close... this all resulted in great distress on my part when hearing of such stag party antics... give me a £2.50 bottle of Chinggis any day...
[In his defence the boy didn't personally purchase a fore mentioned magnum of vodka, or consume it all himself... but still the mind boggles!]

Electrics, floor and kitchen construction

Saturday: Ant - master electrician hard at work. Result - we now have 6 shiny spotlights at one end of the kitchen. Note: As per previous observations he is always safety first with mask and goggles (electricity was of course switched off).
Monday: Rangemaster of glory waits patiently for the time to come for installation... and more importantly use... oh how it teases us sitting there in the corner. It is however at least now sitting on a new floor. Quite a bit of fiddly tidying up still to do on that front, but we have now done the bulk of the work.Tuesday: Kitchen unit construction commences.
Ant was of course the DIY mastermind... I devised various simple tasks for myself such as (a) removing old dishwasher door and installing new one (a task stalled by a scratch in the new door), (b) recycling all of the boxes the units came in, (c) putting handles on kitchen unit doors (which is actually quite tricky to get everything lined up without drilling multiple holes in shiny new doors), (d) general tidying/ hoovering type activities, (e) working out what went where (I conclude kitchen construction is like origami with wood), (f) passing Ant screw drivers/ spirit levels/ tape measures etc. etc. (g) eating biscuits...