Where did January go?

Oh dear ! What a month January was! I’ve been knee deep in year-end but the end is finally in sight and the dreaded auditors arrive next week. The theory is that I will then be year-end free and I can let my hair down. The truth is that we will then be preparing the first budget revision and so the cycle goes on.  My new year’s resolution was to get out and about more. I’ve not been very successful but I’m working at it and have certainly been out and about more than I did before Christmas.  

January started with  a karaoke evening. Imagine approx. 25 ladies aged between 35 and 55 on a Friday evening in early January sitting in someone’s lounge with two microphones, a tv screen and five cds worth of music. Thankfully the lights were low and before very long, the evening had turned into a general sing and boogie along!  I must have been enjoying myself as when I looked at my watch it was already 11pm. A very late night in Malawi!

A new bar opened just before Christmas. The various settees and comfy chairs make its name “The Living Room” seem very appropriate. So far this year they have hosted a quiz night and there is now a film show every Monday. Sitting on a veranda, watching a film in the  dark of night in a short sleeve top is not something I expected to do when I signed up for this job.

January also saw the usual round of eating out and eating at other people’s home. I hosted my first, and last, dinner party at Joseph’s house. Thankfully the power behaved itself although I not realised just how the cooking speed slows down for each extra ring of the hob you put. I want for an old faithful Delia which those of you who were at my summer soiree enjoyed – chicken and chorizo sausage bake. Ok, I lie, not chorizo but a good substitute from one of my favourite supermarkets which underwent a facelift and extension just before Christmas.    The range and choice of foods has increased in the new layout although, as you may have guessed, most of the new foods are from …..South Africa.

The rains were here in earnest in January and   an umbrella was a must. Not much different from an English January in that respect.