22nd – 23rd Can’t remember anything specific about those days. They probably incorporated doing some laundry and cleaning my room. Every morning involves buying milk and having tea and a chat with Mercy.
Sun 24th. I treated Mercy to a Birthday dinner at Market View…chicken and chips!!…well, there’s not that much choice on the menu.
Mon 25th..Good view of Kili early in the morning. Mercy and I were invited to Xmas lunch at Njoki’s in California. Meat stew, peas in sauce, chapatis, chips and a coke. Tasty.
A bicycle was borrowed on a permanent basis as long as I fixed it up.
Tues 26th. A couple of visits to the cycle repair guy to start fixing up the bike.
Wed 27th.. Thought to put the bike to the test cycle towards Chala. Got as far as the start of the road to Chala before I gave up. The nut on one pedal had worked its way loose and got lost on the road. No amount of using a rock as a hammer could keep the pedal from falling off every few seconds. Accepted offer of a lift on a motorbike to Darajani, only to find there was no bike fundi around, so I limped back to Taveta. I had to buy a new set of front gear cogs costing 700bob…about £3.50
Thurs 28th. I did a nice half hour cycle to The Place; a proper little oasis now with lots of vegetation, and a nice secluded place to go for a quiet drink.
Dec 31st. Cloudy, fresher morning so I decided to cycle to Kasokoni…basically the junction to the road up the rim of L Chala. No Martina at her curio shop so I cycled straight back to Taveta. Hour and a quarter going and an hour going back.
No sign of Mercy after church, so I decided to cycle up to Holili. I went to Dubai Village first then Dubai Grocery. Still no Mamka but the kiti moto was a little better this time.
Always a pleasure returning to Taveta from Holili as its downhill all the way. I got back to Taveta by 5pm , in time to meet Joseph at Matumu to hopefully watch the Spurs game. Unfortunately they were showing Arsenal, but it was still a fun evening. I wasn’t out late.
So, New Years Eve I was in bed by about 10:30. I was awake just after midnight, in time to hear about 6 to 8 fireworks going off in all of about 15 seconds. So that was my introduction to the New Year. A nice end to 2023 with two cycle rides, including one across the border for some kiti moto.
Well, what a year. All but 4 months in Kenya and Tanzania and Rwanda. Experiencing Rwanda was amazing. 3 times to Zanzibar was amazing. My trip across Europe to see Tor, and then back via Switzerland was amazing. I’ve had quite a year.