Happy New Year!! I think I should
have perhaps made my new year’s resolution to make more of an effort with my
blog!! Maybe I’ll make that a late addition!
Well apologies again for my poor
performance in 2012, I find very little time to sit indoors, with my laptop
burning my legs, whilst sweat runs down to my feet! However I do have a few
tales to share from the festive period! Hopefully I will start to write shorter
more frequent blogs J
As many of you may be aware …… I
WAS BRAVE!!!! I got my first tattoo (only tattoo – sorry mum and dad) much to
my dad’s disapproval, his very words were
...’I thought you had more bloody sense’ clearly not, sorry dad. I
decided that, 1. I have been boring my whole life and never rebelled, 2. When
I’m 80 no-one will see me naked and my boobs may be down to my waist by then
anyway so even I won’t be able to see it and 3. I need to prepare myself for
child birth by indulging in painful experiences!!! I did not expect for one of
those experiences to be a full body massage!!!! Many people opt for a massage
to relax them, take away stress and leave them feeling refreshed! Apparently by
asking them to smooth our knots this signed me up for; feeling excruciating
pain whilst she massaged giant knots out of my ankles!!! Yes ANKLES people!
Followed by knots in my thighs, buttocks, lower back, upper back and shoulders.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever experienced pain quite like it! I
was nearing the point of feeling faint. I have never felt so pathetic in my
whole life; I could barely walk to the car park never mind drive! This then
made me question both having children and getting a tattoo – how could I
possibly cope with the pain. I spent the next week preparing myself and decided
to just enquire with the guy that I had been recommended – I text him stating I
wanted a tattoo, but wasn’t sure exactly what or where, as there were 2 I
liked, I stated my concern about the pain and whether or not we would need a
consultation…. 5 minutes later I had an appointment for a 1 hour tattoo the
next day at 9am!! At least this gave me minimal time to back out. I arrived for
my appointment and continued to display my concern about the pain, the guy
helped me design the tattoo I looked through 35 pages of fonts just to make
sure and checked and checked again that I had made no spelling mistakes!! Can
you imagine! My besties from back home sent me some encouraging pictures of
tattoos in the local area which filled me with ….. I’d like to say inspiration
but to be honest … dread! Many looked like a child had been let loose with a
needle. I decided this was a good time to ask the tattoo artist how he
trained-bearing in mind this is Kenya, probably not the best question to be
asking whilst he’s shaving my body (making me feel like some kind of
silverback) in preparation, particularly when his response was ‘Well you would
normally do an internship or something but this is Kenya so I bought myself a
tattooing for dummies type book created in the 70’s and taught myself!!’ I
think he saw the sheer horror in my face so attempted to reassure me. ‘I
started 8 years ago and my first tattoo was ok, I mean I’m loads better now but
the customer never complained!’ I was curious to how you learn tattooing surely
you need something to practice on and as he has just said this is Kenya,
apparently he has 7 sisters and practiced on all of them, therefore there are
probably at least 7 girls walking around Kenya with extremely dodgy tattoos.
Anyway I felt I had come too far to turn back. I lay on the couch and prepared
myself for torture, knowing that if I flinch I could end up like one of his
sisters. Fortunately I am hard as nails and managed to lie still throughout, I
must admit it was not a pleasant experience and in parts bloody painful but I
was happy with the end result! I choose the quote a year ago and researched
hundreds of others but felt this one suited my lifestyle the best and reflected
exactly how I feel about my family and friends back home.
Christmas was a bit weird this
year, my flat mate had jetted off for a 4 week holiday in South Africa and Alex
could only be here for Christmas day, so I kept myself busy playing Mother
Teresa at charity events and had the pleasure of visiting an orphanage called
New Lights to deliver some food and gift donations. It was a very humbling
experience and something I would like to continue to support. The home consisted
of 26 boys all without parents but receiving a fantastic education making them
all so ambitious and driven. The children were delighted to receive books and
games and were so grateful to have had them donated. So next time you’re
throwing anything out bear me in mind J
Christmas day was fantastic, Alex
arrived Christmas eve so we had dinner and crawled into bed to wait for Santa,
I read him the book ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ and sang Christmas songs J
(much to his disapproval). We had a champagne breakfast on Christmas morning
(another new tradition – along with the book readingJ) and then opened our
presents, I was thrilled to receive a new camera lens off Alex, and I now have
a much greater zoom range and can’t wait to try it out on safari. We were
fortunate enough to receive an invite for a group Christmas at the same place I
went last year, great people, great setting, great food and amazing weather. We
spent the whole day in the pool, drinking, eating a traditional Christmas
dinner, mince pies the lot. Then more drinking in the pool. Topped off with the
nicest bloody Marys on Boxing Day produced by a great host – thanks Tania!
Alex left on boxing day which
gave me 4 full days to do nothing but watch 24 – it is ridiculous how many episodes
I managed to get through- by the 4th day I was starting to believe I
was a special agent myself, driving like a manic, weaving through traffic – it
was time to go cold turkey!. Fortunately New Year was just around the corner
and there was a group of us travelling to Watamu for a new year’s eve/day
party. Alex arrived at 11.30pm so was promptly pushed out the door with a shot
of vodka and a beer to head to the party before midnight. I was relatively
sober when I left the house, I remember the countdown, and then very little
after that! I have a sneaky suspicion the reason for this was my tipsy Skype
session with Mrs East, who felt it appropriate to make me join in her drinking
games, bearing in mind I have no way of knowing if she is cheating … and of
course she was!!! I have never in my life been told to down 5 fingers of drink,
mainly because you only have 4 fingers to measure with, whilst holding the
glass but I was by this stage unaware and just downed it anyway – after this
the night is a blur, I do recall speaking to a Korean man who I was calling my
brother because we had similar surnames, I rocked the dance floor during
Gangnam style then at 4.15am demanded a kebab (which I have never had/found
after a night out) fortunately Alex is a legend and drove us to this place that
can only be described as food poison wrapped up in plastic bags and zebra
print! I was drunk and I quite frankly didn’t care what I ate – luckily my
insides are now like steel and survived the possible tragic illness the next
day J
which meant we could wake up and start the party again on New Year’s day!!
I am still working through my
ever growing bucket list and have managed to tick off getting a tattoo and
smoking a cigar over the Christmas holidays, my flight to Nairobi got upgraded
but I hardly think that classes as first class so that could be the next on my
list, that or owning a pair of Louboutin shoes J not much need for them in Kenya though. Travel is
definitely taking over the list, so many places I want to see in the world. I
have decided that if I stay one more year in Kenya then I need to see more of
Africa I’ve been pretty rubbish so far! Although I did have my first Nairobi
trip at the start of the hols without travelling for 10 hours on a school bus!
Alex and I decided we should try and meet in Nairobi, as for one of us to
travel for a visit for a weekend is just not feasible between Uganda and
Mombasa. So we had our first trip, I met lots of his friends, we went to
Giraffe manor, met with some old Mombasa friends for lunch, went on a game
drive and had the nicest salad I have ever had, at Karen Golf Club. We have our
next visit planned for Feb where we hope to drive up to Naivasha – another
first for me.
I have to admit I have had a few
run ins with the Law recently – I think it’s quite easy to become complacent
here especially when it comes to driving. I think at one point or another I
have quite possibly broken every driving law (although I actually only know
about 4) my first infringement came at the airport when I was kindly taxiing
Alex to the Airport, I drove in blissfully unaware of any rules, followed a car
through some bollards, which did not faze me in the slightest- apparently nor
did the zebra crossing I was driving on. Alex thought this would be a good
moment to point out my fault to which I responded in a comedy voice ‘ooh I broke
the rules, but who’s gona stop meeeee!!! Feeling very smug I hopped out of my
car to the feet of a police officer – apparently he was there to stop me, he
was all for taking me to his office and “fining” me apparently. ‘Sorry I just
followed the car in front’ is not a good enough reason. ‘Madame you were not
reading the signs of the road!’ again pointing out that there actually weren’t
any signs did not work in my favour! Luckily Alex came to my rescue and
smoothed it over with some Swahili chat. However I was convinced he would wait
for me to come back to my car, so I walked rather inconspicuously back to my
car and dashed out the car park – ensuring I did not drive through any ‘no
entry’ signs!
My second run in came in the
centre of town, where I should of known better – town is usually rife with
police officers attempting to control traffic, I was approaching the centre
from out of town having a quick chat with my house mate arranging some plans- I
had thought to myself ‘ I should probably try to end this conversation before I
reach town, but before I knew it I was in town and just as I saw the back of
one policeman in slow motion I started to drop my phone but simultaneously interlocked eye contact with another!!
NOOOOOOOOO I was still in with a chance the back police man was controlling the
traffic of the roundabout I was entering the roundabout all I needed was for
him to continue to allow the flow of traffic from my direction, but no of
course he had to stop it, as the eye clocking policeman marched over to my car,
he started to do some hand signalling which I took to mean you may drive off,
so started to proceed- apparently I read that situation wrong as he yelled at
me to stop. The conversation then went a bit like this: Policeman: Madame why
do you think it is ok to talk on your phone when driving? Me: (frantically
trying to think of a feasible excuse) Erm I don’t I’m really sorry. Policeman:
Why were you talking on your phone? Me: Erm I don’t know, I’m really sorry.
Policeman: It is not ok! Me: I know I am really sorry – AWKWARD SILENCE – Me:
(smiling sweetly) I am really sorry I won’t do it again! Policeman: Do not talk
on your phone when driving! Me: I won’t I promise – as he waves me on – Phew!
There are only 2 possible reasons for the lack of bribery required and they are,
either my smiling sweetly was HIGHLY effective or (which is more likely) he
decided that the central lane of a roundabout surrounded by people was not a
good place to practice corruption!! Either way, happy days and a lesson learnt!
I have also had my first tourist
experience in a long time, and finally visited town rather than just driving
through it, I had an educational tour of Fort Jesus, and although it was
possibly not as exciting as I had anticipated it was great to learn some
history.
Despite having many future plans
to discuss I feel this is an appropriate point to leave before it turns into a
book!
Final thought: ‘I am challenging
myself to find an activity/hobby to grasp my attention, commitment and
motivation. I have one exciting prospect lined up this week – I shall keep you
informed’
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Steph xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
During half term a group of 18
students and 2 members of staff braved high altitude, freezing temperatures and
not so pleasant toilets to try to conquer the world’s tallest free standing
mountain – Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of KESHO and KSPCA. Students and parents
had an early start meeting at school at 4am to get luggage packed and on the
road. The anticipation, excitement and apprehension were palpable. The first
few days were tougher than we had expected. From Day 2 onwards we saw students
slowly experiencing the effects of altitude- early morning wake up calls from
students who were sick in their sleeping bags, quiet walks whilst others
battled with headaches and feelings of nausea. Day 3 saw a number of students vomiting
as we reached altitudes of 4600m; definitely not our finest moment but once
against our students showed compassion towards each other, support and an
abundance of hugs were provided. As we reached each camp our story was
spreading and many others climbers were interested to pass on their words of
good luck and discover how we were all getting on. When we reached our summit
camp – Barafu Camp we met a gentleman who had heard about this crazy school
group attempting to climb to roof of Africa – he wasted no time in telling us
we had no chance of making it to the top! – A challenge our students strongly
accepted and took a “watch this space” stance on his less than kind words. That
evening, knowing we all had a tough night ahead, students were provided with
letters from home – a truly special moment, we had tears before they had even
opened them, students relished in sharing their parent’s motivational messages
with others and we laughed and cried as a group. We headed off to bed hoping to
get some sleep before our 1am wake up – sleep became more and more difficult
with altitude and this was not helped by the howling winds ripping through our
tents. At 1am we were up and dressed in what felt like 900 layers ready to face
the Baltic temperatures. The pace is slow as you make your way up to Stella
point and Uhuru Peak and tiredness really takes over your eyes, every step
causes strain on your breathing and as you are walking up, you see many people
being brought back down the mountain, having being unsuccessful in their
attempt. Braeburn kept trudging on inspired by each other, driven by the
beautiful sunrise and determined to achieve their dreams. On many occasions Mr
Read and I felt emotional watching the strength of our students. We finally
reached Stella Point and had Uhuru Peak insight, by now temperatures were way
below freezing and we had limited time before we would have to move back down
the mountain. So despite our bodies craving rest we had to continue. The last
few steps before reaching Uhuru Peak were painful and cold yet exhilarating, we
had done it!! The first group of 12 made it to the top with many more still on
their journey. Although we could not stay long due to the ever dropping
temperatures those few minutes were filled with relief, pride and amazement. We
are immensely proud of all our students; I have never witnessed such
perseverance, compassion and team spirit in a group of young people. Although
the climb back down the mountain and eventually after another tented night,
back to luxury was tough, every child bounded with the sense of achievement
they all deserved. In the end all 20 students and staff made it to Stella Point
and 19 to Uhuru Peak – an amazing feat! It was just a shame we never got to see
the man who doubted our abilities. Through sponsorship and a bake sale we
managed to raise approximately 159,000Kes for our two charities. A huge well
done to all the students who took part, remember you can achieve anything if
you have the belief in yourself! 
What more could 2013 offer .... A Proposal maybe??!?!? What a lucky girl I am following a fantastic year of setting up my own gym school, getting a promotion at work, spending an awesome summer in the UK, climbing Kilimanjaro, throwing myself out of a plane and now I am an engaged woman!!! Following the perfect proposal, dream engagement ring and fantastic future husband! It's safe to say 2013 will be a difficult year to top! Here's to wedding planning, fulfilling more of the bucket list and continued happiness, fun and love! 
.JPG)
