Thursday, June 23, 2005
come on tim
Okay, another few days to catch up on. Chipata was the first stop, the highlight being our hour long chat with a guy staying in our hotel, a refugee from neighbouring Congo. Defying your usual image of an African refugee, this guy was very well dressed and an auditor, formerly of Coopers & Lybrand. Naturally we got along like a house on fire, though I did decline the offer to come back to his office (hotel room) to look through the ledgers of a local mining company he was auditing. He was also anxious for us to take a letter back with us to Europe so we could deliver it personally. Turned out the letter was to Claude Makelele (top international footballer who plays for Chelsea), apparently from the same tribe as this guy. We broke the news gently that we aren't exactly on first name terms with the Chelsea first-team squad, but if he had any letters for Dougie Freedman, we'd be only to happy to pass them on. Seems Dougie wasn't from his tribe though.
The bus ride to Lusaka was enlived by another very friendly guy sat next to us (read: squashed in to our row). Telling him that, grateful as I was, I couldn't read when in cars and thus didn't want to borrow his bible didn't put him off as he preceeded to read large tracts of the holy book to us. He was only deflected from the path of conversion by us giving him our very own bible - the Lonely Planet. This proved much more interesting than the bible and he spent the rest of the interminable journey to Lusaka, reading how he should observe local customs, not give sweets to children and always observe the art of bargaining. And, no, we don't have giraffes in London...
2 days in Lusaka. This added to a list of world capitals - Ulan Bator, Lilongwe and Jakarta - where the only thing to do is 'walk around and take it all in'. Which we duly did, including a very pleasant afternoon at the huge city market. Courtney purchased fabrics galore, so she can dress up like a Zambian woman when we get back home. And we also bought a wooden spoon, largely because we'd chatted to the seller for so long we felt we had to.
Fast forward another 600 or so kilometres and Livingstone, the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Being a full moon gave us the opportunity to visit at night and see a lunar rainbow (much like a daytime rainbow if truth be told, just with less colour and more darkness around it, still impressive though). And another visit in the daytime as well. After the great camera debacle in the rain (on the Indonesian volcano), 90% of the time at the waterfall was devoted to avoiding getting the camera wet. The remaining 10% was spent unwrapping it (the camera) from the 48 plastic bags covering it and quickly taking that all important snap in the gaps before the wind swept over another huge shower from the falls.
Evening time and back to the Jolly Boys Backpackers (actually very nice despite what the name might suggest) to listen to hordes of Prince Harries discussing that days bungee and whether they were going to 'tandem it' the next day or not....
The bus ride to Lusaka was enlived by another very friendly guy sat next to us (read: squashed in to our row). Telling him that, grateful as I was, I couldn't read when in cars and thus didn't want to borrow his bible didn't put him off as he preceeded to read large tracts of the holy book to us. He was only deflected from the path of conversion by us giving him our very own bible - the Lonely Planet. This proved much more interesting than the bible and he spent the rest of the interminable journey to Lusaka, reading how he should observe local customs, not give sweets to children and always observe the art of bargaining. And, no, we don't have giraffes in London...
2 days in Lusaka. This added to a list of world capitals - Ulan Bator, Lilongwe and Jakarta - where the only thing to do is 'walk around and take it all in'. Which we duly did, including a very pleasant afternoon at the huge city market. Courtney purchased fabrics galore, so she can dress up like a Zambian woman when we get back home. And we also bought a wooden spoon, largely because we'd chatted to the seller for so long we felt we had to.
Fast forward another 600 or so kilometres and Livingstone, the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Being a full moon gave us the opportunity to visit at night and see a lunar rainbow (much like a daytime rainbow if truth be told, just with less colour and more darkness around it, still impressive though). And another visit in the daytime as well. After the great camera debacle in the rain (on the Indonesian volcano), 90% of the time at the waterfall was devoted to avoiding getting the camera wet. The remaining 10% was spent unwrapping it (the camera) from the 48 plastic bags covering it and quickly taking that all important snap in the gaps before the wind swept over another huge shower from the falls.
Evening time and back to the Jolly Boys Backpackers (actually very nice despite what the name might suggest) to listen to hordes of Prince Harries discussing that days bungee and whether they were going to 'tandem it' the next day or not....
// posted by courtney and pete @ 15:34 
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With perfect timing the 'come on Tim' blog arrives just at the very moment that Tim (very surprisingly!) crashes out of Wimbers for another lifetime. Cue mass hysteria amoung the menopausal brigade on henman hill producing enough hot flushes to have a direct effect on global warming.
But the big big news of the day is not even mentioned - 2005/2006 fixture list is out today and the first match of what promises to be a thrilling campaign is home to Luton - the adrenalin is pumping already at the prospect.
BTW - re night rainbows - are you absolutely sure you havn't been 'experimenting' again
Graham
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But the big big news of the day is not even mentioned - 2005/2006 fixture list is out today and the first match of what promises to be a thrilling campaign is home to Luton - the adrenalin is pumping already at the prospect.
BTW - re night rainbows - are you absolutely sure you havn't been 'experimenting' again
Graham
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: 5:02 pm
: 5:02 pm 
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