Traffic in Nairobi is ku-rayzi this morning! It took me more than two hours to drive to town, a trip that would normally take about 45 minutes in normal morning traffic (and 14 minutes when I put the pedal to the metal, bila traffic) and driving a car without a functioning stereo for two hours is pure torture!

In such a situation, unless you’ve got good company to make conversation with, you’re screwed. I normally have a very moody mama Archer already making conference calls (this one yells into the phone) Not good, not good at all.

Anyway, my mind had wandered off into other thoughts of how to spend the rest of the week. There’s the Champions League final tomorrow night. Where am I going to watch it? K1? Sherlock’s Den? (Hopefully Milan do their job!) I’ve got a dance to go watch on Thursday evening which clashes with a dinner that I’ve been invited to for my pal’s graduation, and the graduation to attend on Friday, and a bash thereafter. I think I’ll be home alone this weekend so I’m also thinking of which clande to hola at!

My mind was brought back to the road when I noticed this fine looking thang on the lane adjacent to mine. What’s that? A Benz? No, it looks more like a Lexus. (Hapana, sio hiyo Leghisas ya jana!) Which Lexus is that? Anyway she was a pure beauty. Looks like a medium size executive saloon. It’s about the same size as a Benz E-Class.

Kasupuu sura

Kasupuu sura

Kasupuu upande 

Kasupuu upande Kasupuu Madiaba

Kasupuu madiaba!

 

Nikasoma label pale nyuma. Toyota Mark II Grande. Wow! Impressive. You all know what Toyota means. Fuel economy, affordable spares and after-market parts and generally cheap to maintain.

The one I was following was beige and had tinted windows and the guy had hooked it up with some serious chrome rims, about 19 inches, so it was quite tight.What else to do in traffic? I whipped out Mr. Nokia, did a quick Wikipedia search for Toyota Mark II Grande, not much information there. Did a google search, found out all the vital information about the car: Engine size, horsepower, interior features, price. Very good. (Note: I have not said that I can afford it!!)

Then I called up a couple of dealers in Nairobi and asked if they had the car in stock and they did. Did polite enquiries and asked if they had one that I can take for a test drive. They did. All this before I even got to the office!

So guess where I’m off to this afternoon!

(Who wants to come along? You jua it’s sijui wacky Tuesday so there’s B.O.G.O.F* on Pizza at Mobil)

*BOGOF: Buy One Get One Free 

R.I.P

Mrs. Francesca Alouch Indeche

I’ve just seen the obituary in today’s papers. Mrs. Indeche was my primary school headteacher way back in the day. It was actually 15 years ago that I left Kilimani Junior
Academy. But she still remembered me every time that we’d run into each other on the streets of Nairobi. “You’ve become such a big man! I remember you when you were a very tiny naughty boy when you first came in 1989.”

Now, Mrs Indeche was a tough African woman, about 6 feet in height. Woe unto you if you ever got sent to her office for misdemeanor. She’d grab you by the ears (back then we were tiny little kids) and lift you about a foot off the ground. Then she’d put you back on the ground, but not until she followed that up with two swift slaps to the cheeks. Now imagine a 4 foot kid who doesn’t know WTF ran into him, staring into the eyes of this beast who’s all the way up there, wondering which part of his head to rub first, the ears or the cheeks. Or whether to cry.

As class prefect I once took a couple of my classmates to her office coz of noisemaking, and after seeing what went down, I vowed never to take anyone back there again! Best believe they never spoke to me for the rest of the term! (Sorry guys, ilibidi!)

But Mrs Indeche was mostly a very fair headteacher, warm and very affectionate, and she was generally loved by the kids. By the time of her passing, she was the Principal of Compuera Academy in Nairobi.

R.I.P