Blue Moon Cafe, Lusaka

When we started this project, it looked like this:

In our heads, we saw this:

And for coffee this morning, I see this:

Chipolopolo Club Sandwich, anyone?

(M. Keating, proud proprietor)

beauty and the beat

VIVA DADI MWANA!!

Tigerfish and tarantulas

We decided to ignore the 'friend' requests on FB. Thankfully for us, Mr. T here did not take offense. It did decide to take a swim without a life jacket -- this one is decidedly DOA in the pool. I do not have a lens long enough that I would permit me take this photo of a live spider. (Another reason you will never see a picture by yours truly of a snake)

There are no Tigers in Zambia, only Tigerfish. and....Tigerfish Tacos. This 12+lb one was pulled in on the first cast of the day. Good for us, bad for Mr. Tigerfish.

Monkey Business

It's lucky for these guys they are so darn cute b/c they are total menaces at a campsite! This was one of a dozen interested in any leftovers or crumbs we left behind...or untended....or in our hands. Monkeys like greek yogurt and cocoapops, by the way. (Even cocoapops they pick out of the hot coals while you are not standing over your cooking fire.)

"Sanitation Inspector Opposable Thumbs at your service."

Road Trip Stills

Charcoal for sale along the side of the highway. These bags are about 4 ft. tall.

For a lack of being able to string two coherent sentences together, I'm offering up a photo essay of the drive from Lusaka to Chirudu at the Zim/Zam (thank you ma'am) border we did on our way to the Lower Zambezi for O birthday fishing/camping.

Sign for one of Chiawa's two schools. (FYI turn right at the big tree with the plastic bag tied to it, after the other, blue school sign)

Banana Plantion. "How many Banana Trees are there, Mommy?" I do love that they think I may know the answer but I can't event take a guess. The plantation went on and on and on....

We each had our own "admission of guilt" forms in the car already from transgressions earlier in the week. I will bite my tongue.

This corner is especially tricky. Today there was one breakdown (the loaded down semi-trailer in the middle of the highway there? two escaped containers (one visible) and one whole truck that went over the cliff to the left....

7-11 Zambian style.

Waiting to clear customs/immigration to/from Zimbabwe

Rurn right

In the news

Friday's Post....the boy turned 8. EIGHT?!

The microscope made the long trip from Seattle and has been FUN FUN FUN FUN already although we gave it to him and then took off for the weekend down to the Lower Zambezi for fishing, camping and...sample collecting.

Now to think about FPFJ's up-coming 5th birthday. Three weeks and three days to come up with something appropriate, or, even better, something totally awesome and totally inappropriate! We have a crazy idea. We'll see what happens.

Back at the Wheel

I was not alone in the studio today....O took the above photo of FPFJ hard at work with help from Mr. Phiri.

Mr. Phiri (above with O) joined Afrikolor Batiks&Pottery recently, after 13 years at a pottery studio in Malawi.

isn't it nice

Isn't it nice

that we're

not

all the same?

Who hoos?

This owl showed up at the doorstep of the National Malaria Control Center the other morning....Did it come for a malaria test? TJ to the rescue! He brought it to Liza (our vet who is finally convinced that our dog really is supposed to be as skinny as he is); the owl will re-hab it's injured wing at Munda Wanga Wildlife Center. Never a dull moment.

They're here!

They're here...the four most lekker Mzansi flavours! Try them all and vote for your favourite:

Monray Sackanary's Masala Steak Gatsby Flavour

Aleeta Crofton's Walkie Talkie Chicken Flavour

Brendan Johnston's Snoek Fish and Atchar Flavour

Ayana'a Thabede's Vetkoek and Polony Flavour.

SMS the flavour your savour to 32313!

Personally, the vetkoek and polony sounds scrumptious, no, wait, snoek fish! I have no idea what any of this means but it was the ad on the bag of 'Simba' crisps I bought today for the kids snack and I just had to share. Does the world really need snoek-fish-flavored potato chips?

This is Lusaka

The latest poster from InHouse Design Studio,

an homage to the classic 1959 book This is London

Seabrook on my mind

Big Day

Finn, lining up for his first-day 'big school' assemby.... then off to Mrs. Mfula's class

The toddler became a big kid, just like that.

O, happy to be back -- he got a new haircut, too. More of a trim, eh?

First Day....together.

London, take two

sigh. I can only assume this is Mr. ThirteenSocks' perspective looking down on the little people while he's flying high in the London Eye. (I was back at the flat with the sick little monster) The Eye is like a ferris wheel gone mad at 135m/443ft tall that sits on the South bank of the River Thames. The Space needle is 145m/605ft and the Eiffel Tower is 324m/1063 ft) to give some perspective. It was completed about 10 years ago and over 32 million people have ridden the thing. "You should go some time." says the love of my life. Oh, really?

There are 32 pod/capsule/thingies, each weighing 10,000 tonnes/metric tons. Each capsule, representing each of London's 32 boroughs, holds about 25 people (metric or otherwise). You can see 40k/25 miles...all the way to Windsor Castle on a clear day. Are there clear days in London? A revolution takes about 30 min - slow enough that the wheel doesn't need to stop to let people on and off. Some 800 people can be carried around in one revolution. Advanced algebra was used to calcuclate that figure.

"The Eye... exists in a category of its own.... It essentially has to fulfil only one function, and what a brilliantly inessential function it is: to lift people up from the ground, take them round a giant loop in the sky, then put them back down where they started. That is all it needs to do, and thankfully, that is all it does."

It took 7 years and skilled workers from design/architecture firms in 5 countries to make this contraption. Maybe it took a few Storm Troopers to help out also? Well, who ever's bright idea that was, the Storm Troopers are still in London and they can't get back to their ship. They are just hanging around, looking for work and trying to extort money from passing tourists by holding their puppies for ransom. dZina* held her own against the forces of evil.

*dZina, whose name means "name" in Nyanja, the Chewa tribal language commonly heard in Lusaka -- spoken by some 15 million Bantu people in Southern Africa, is our friends' new puppy.

And then there were these guys: the Fanti Acrobats International. This photo is from the Seattle Times "photos of the day." O described this to me but the photo..... apparently this is not the most impressive part of their performance. yikes:

Little Monster, taking serious notes at the Imperial War Museum before he started feeling like this:

We minded the gap, just not the clock. Here we are en route to the airport an hour late. made it, sprinting and sweating and without our duty-free Bombay Sapphire. Rats.

Bye Bye, London, tah tah.

before and during

one of established our 'rose of sharon' hibiscus

our new backyard digs....still a 'during' photo but didn't the guys work wonders? we can't wait to see how it comes together and how all the plants fill in. the boys are most excited about their trees - a fruiting cherry and a vine maple. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my new hibiscus (white flowers) makes it through the summer.

the (not exactly inviting.....) "Before:"