I'm hanging out in airports... again

This time en route to home sweet home in Tanzania. I'm being all grown up and have a day room (or in this case a night room) in the airport in Zürich.

I've just had a wonderful 40-ish hours in London with some of my best girl friends in this whole wide world (and it's a big one!). First time in London can definitely be rated a success. Loads of sunshine, lots of walking past historical type places, and a little wine-drinking in parks - what more could you want from a short stop over to (re) connect with friends?

Tomorrow I'm Dar bound again and am looking forward to being home with my doggy (ies?) and chilling out in the evening before starting a hectic week on Monday.

I really am lucky to do what I do and go where I go. And even luckier because next week my darling cousin in coming to spend a week with me in Tanzania. On our agenda in a trip to Kizimkazi to hang by the beach, snorkel and enjoy some dolphin watching before wandering Stone Town and then heading to a lovely tented camp for a few days in Mikumi National Park. I can't wait!

I'm hanging out in airports....

... and train stations.

This week I get a break from the tropics to enjoy a week of springtime in Europe. I jetted out of Dar es Salaam on Friday nights (only two hours delayed - due to a sick pilot and lack of replacement pilots on short notice) and arrived in Geneva on Saturday morning.

From Geneva, I caught a train, or rather four trains, to Turin, Italy. It's a mere 246-ish kilometers and should be doable in about 3 hours by road. But by train the route was some 464 kilometers and took 6 hours and 45 minutes.

So instead of doing this:
  View Larger Map

I did this (more or less just via the train tracks):
View Larger Map

But to arrive a day before the training and catch up with a family friend I hadn't seen since 1996 (we think), it was all worth it.

And I got some sweet views of the Alps along the way.

2011, here we go

It's good to be back. The sweltering heat greeted me as always when I stepped off the plane in Dar es Salaam Monday night at 11:30 pm.

My bags arrived (yay!) and Derek, my taxi driver was waiting for me. It was a quick trip through the city home to Sky Blue. I love it when the traffic sleeps and crossing the city is a breeze.

I quickly unpacked, checked the LUKU (electricity) meter to see how much power I had left (20 KwH) and headed to bed around 1 am. Unsure of how long 20 KwH could last me, I decided not to turn on the air conditioner in my room and just ran the ceiling fan. I managed to fall asleep but at 3 am I woke up, hot as hell, and fumbling for the air con remote. Three-ish hours until I have to get up for work, I thought to myself, 20 KwH must be able to handle that! I tossed and turned for about an hours after that as the room cooled off and I tried not to think about the fact that I had to get up for work soon.

6:15 came and I hopped out to bed to turn on the hot water heater before hopping in again. Of course, I fell asleep instantly. Only to be woken up again at 6:30. A trickle of lukewarm was all my shower had to offer. I guess my water tank is getting low, meaning my gardener managed to use most of the 10,000l of water I had trucked in before I left for holidays. I added calling my maji safi water tanker to my list of "administrative" things to take care of, like topping up the LUKU, transferring my car to blue plates and finding out when I can expect my shipment.

My new year's resolution is to eat at home more in 2011. In 2010, I think I ate out around 60 per cent of my meals, most of those being lunch and dinner. It's time to start home cooking again. I love cooking, but without pots, pans, utensils and other kitchen tools, cooking your own meals is somewhat of a challenge. Here's hoping I get my shipment soon! It's filled with kitchen stuff (most of my belongings are kitchen implements) and without, keeping this new year's resolution is going to be a bit of a challenge. Oh, and my running shoes are in the shipment too, speaking of resolutions, so there goes another plan out the window- at least for the time being. A marathon before I'm 31 seems more reasonable than my original goal. 31! 

Now, if only I had some great ethically produced, fair-trade, value-added in Africa, coffee to drink, I'd be happy. Like Good African. Check them out. The coffee is great and their approach greater. And it's now available in some British grocery stores. Here's to decent work, social and economic equality and all that other positive development stuff for 2011.

Happy New Year!