Stick 'em up!

So on Saturday we went out of the city and did some shooting! Shooting (like volleyball) is not my sport. Don't ask we what kind of gun it was, or what kind of bullets, or any other questions about range or speed or anything. Not a clue. The gun was loud and the recoil hurt my arm, and I hit nothing. I fired two shots, and then sat down and took out my knitting.

Bunnies, New York New York and the Blog is fixed!

Okay! so, first things first, I am waaay behind, so sorry about that, but I will try really hard to catch up right now. 

I've fixed the blog. The comments feature should work properly now. Something was set up wrong, but I think it's all corrected, so comment away!

So let's cast our minds back two weeks, just when I was casting off this little lovely. A super bunnie hat with tails that protude from the main body. The hat was for my friend Lara, who's heading back from sunny Kampala to winter in the UK later this week. I adapted it from another pattern (aged 2-4) but somehow it came out massive.

I then took a business trip to New York (never thought I'd hear myself say that!!) which was really fantastic. The weather was really strange, quite warm and humid, with torrential showers every now and then. My top priority, getting off the plane to Uganda was buying a coat and some waterproof shoes!

The picture below shows the Empire State Building, look at those clouds! I couldn't even see the top! I spent lots of time just walking around and going into shops, hanging out and relaxing.

 Oh and I checked out the hot Civil Engineering structures too. Including the Brooklyn Bridge. What a beauty.

It was a really fantastic trip, and I had a brilliant time. Lucky lucky girl.

Another one for Freddie

Poor poor Freddie! I think he is the worst victim of my hobby. Behold, another jumper just for him. Size is age 1, Mummy, and the wool is machine washable (not that you would handwash it anyway! haha!)

It's a cute jumper with a checkerboard pattern and NO FIDDLY BUTTONS! yippee!The collar is lovely, just a twisty ribbed collar to keep his neck warm...
...now, after all this hard work, won't someone PLEASE send me a picture of his teeth???

Royal Ascot Goat Races at Munyonyo Speke Resort!

On Saturday it was the annual "Royal Ascot Goat Races" at Munyonyo Speke Resort in Kampala, and organised a big group of us to go from work.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, horses... well they run because there are people sitting on them whipping them, and greyhounds... well they love to chase things so you can see how they'd be good in a race... but Goats? And quite possibly you'd be right. Enter the "Goat Push", a wheelie contraption that consists of a number of mattresses arranged perpendicular to the ground to "encourage" the goats around. Vegetarian Dan is back in the country, and as you can imagine... he was loving it!

It was a really beautiful day and the whole thing felt a bit like a school fete. I bet correctly on the first race and won 14000UGX, but the big winner was our friend Alex (the butcher, not the highways engineer) who owned a goat that won it's race, and was rewarded with 2.8mil UGX! As you can imagine, it turned into a great day!
Although the ladies all went originally wearing hats, our attire and demure deteriorated rapidly as the free booze flowed! None the less, we made it to the after-party, and danced the night (and the stench of goats' poop) away!

Basketball & A Big Fat African Wedding!

Wahoo! I am already SO behind! Okay, panting to keep up... let me update you on my weekend!

On Friday night I went to watch some basketball at the YMCA centre in Kampala. A professional side were playing the Kampala-based UCU (Uganda Christian University), and everyone was cheering for the students! There was a huge crowd and although all of my understanding and knowledge of basketball is based on playing NBA Jam on the Super Nintendo, I felt like I was just about able to follow what was going on.

It was all really exciting, so perhaps baskteball is the sport for me... only as a spectator though, I was dreading the ball coming anywhere near me after the volleyball incident a few months ago. (Okay, that was my first try at a hyperlink).

On Saturday, I attended my first African Wedding. It was incredible! Just so many people. There was no table plan or name cards, you just get ushered to a seat. There were flowers and fairy lights everywhere. I was worried that I would find the whole thing a bit OTT, but I think it was all really tasteful.

The food was delicious and the wine just kept coming. The speeches when on for hours (there were AT LEAST 15) but no-one minded, as the drinks were flowing and all of the sentiments were so sweet. Between the speechs there was Traditional Dance, performed by a professional group. I took a short video, which I will try to attach...

Okay- yep, I think that worked!

But the best dance was one with earthenware pots where girls placed stacks of them on their heads and continued to move around. It was too nail-biting to film!

Best wishes to the happy couple!

Prima Ballerina

So last week (yep, sorry I'm a bit behind!!) I finished a ballerina cardigan for my cousin's daughter, Rosemary. The wool was so lovely and soft that I knit the whole thing in just 9 days! ... and don't get me wrong, this is not 9 days of constant knitting, this is just knitting in the car to work (bad jam), knitting on the way home from work (worse jam) and then while waiting for food in restaurants.

I'm completely delighted with it, and I hope she will be too. She should recieve it anyday now, as I sent it back to the UK with one of my colleagues.

Never again... Right?

Last weekend I totally succumbed to peer pressure and went RAFTING at Jinja AGAIN! Last time we hadn't flipped and we had missed quite a few of the big rapids.

This time- not the case. I still do not enjoy this activity - and HEREBY VOW that I will never ever do this again... and especially not hungover! I kept falling out because I couldn't hang on tight enough and the helmet was giving me the worst headache ever!

Anyway, here's a picture of us taking the waterfall, the one we missed last time.