The Upside and the Downside

Ahhh! I can breathe a sigh of relief because the detox is over! Unfortunately, I think my stomach has shrunk to the size of a pea and I can't eat any of the stuff I want to eat like brownies and the pasta at Movenpick without feeling slightly ill.

Still, I'm going to try and have some tomorrow when Pinky, Girlfriend and I meet for lunch.

The good news is that we're now 'cheap dates' as Girlfriend puts it. The Engineer, Boss, Girlfriend and I just need a dot of alcohol in us and we all start getting happy!

Conclusion
The upside of going on a detox diet is:
You get high on alcohol really quickly and therefore cheaply

The downside of going on a detox diet is:
The detox diet

The Big D

Today is the first day of my Big Detox. The Big Detox is highly unpleasant. It consists of subsisting on fruits, raw vege, Provita and water for a week - yuck! Just like most things that are good for you, detoxifying is something that yields excellent results, health and weight wise, but also has the unfortunate side effect of making you wish you had never been born. I'm only doing it so I can jump start my failed diet and because Pinky, who started on it first, has lost weight and says she feels excellent.

There are others who are partaking in this madness namely The Engineer, Boss and Girlfriend. As a last hurrah before our self-induced 7 day torture all of us plus our friend Ed (who isn't detoxing but wanted some Sunday afternoon fun) trouped down to The George And Dragon for drinks.


The food was lovely at the pub. The Engineer and I had eaten at home but Boss, Girlfriend and Ed tucked into some lovely English stuff - spaghetti bolognaise (that's Italian actually but what the heck), baked potatoe and Chilly Corn Carne.

I had to have a dessert seeing as I won't even get sniff of sweet for the next 7 days. So I had a vanilla ice-cream with mars bar sauce - heaven! We also tanked up on beers and vodka lemon + sprite for me since the silly detox doesn't allow alcohol. That's unfortunate because I think only a hard drink will have the power of restoring my spirits when I've been deprived of sweets for more than 2 days!

Right now am feeling a bit sick coz I think I overdid it but boy am I going to be dreaming of this later today when I've eaten nothing but horrible carrots and celery for lunch!

Valentine in Dar

Valentine's Day in Dar is suprisingly popular.The Engineer and I aren't the type to buy into the commercialism of Valentine. We believe the only people who actually benefit from Valentine's Day are the restaurant owners and florists. These people have no qualms charging appalingly high prices just so that some poor sod can impress his girlfriend!

Despite our anti-Valentine attitude we found ourselves in the Calabash at Sea Cliff Hotel (pic) on the 14th. The Engineer's superiors from South Africa were in town and had decided to take us all out for dinner. Boss, his wife Girlfriend, Captain and his wife Pinky were all there. Despite the sparkling company I must say the dinner had it's ups and downs.

I arrived feeling tired (it's that annoying time of the month) but just as I was loosening up bthe electricity went out halfway through dinner. I had begun to forget we were in Africa but reality came screaming back. You'd think that no electricity and just candlelight would make the atmosphere all the more romantic but it doesn't work when the weather is as hot as it is here and the air conds are all out.

I ended up dripping sweat into my king prawns and which explained why it tasted a little too salty - yech!

I was dying to get out of there and so was The Engineer but just as we were about to make a swift exit, the entire party decided to go outside where the seabreeze made everything decidedly cooler.

I was still determined to leave but the owner of the restaurant, probably after noticing my sour puss face, decided to offer two bottles of wine and tequilas on the house.

Admittedly, the red wine tasted like the cork had fallen into the bottle (you can't expect the best when it's 'on the house' now, can you) but the tequila did it's job alright! It even had a spicy/sweet after taste which I thought was very pleasant.

Even Boss who has bad memories related to tequila (those who've gotten sick on tequila will know what I'm saying) bravely downed his shot but later looked like he wanted to scrape his tongue with something abrasive just to get rid of the taste.

A strange but nevertheless fascinating Valentine, I must say!

Tingatinga

Tingatinga art is big, big, big in Tanzania. The founder, Edward Tingatinga, was sadly killed in a police shootout in the 60s. It's not what you think - he wasn't trying to rob a bank or anything, the Tanzanian police just happened to put a bullet through him when they were aiming at actual bank robbers! Poor Edward!

This makes me think that the police here should spend more time doing target practice at the local precinct and not stand about at street corners doing a bad job at directing traffic - making it worse than it was before they got there.

But I digress.

The piece that you see in the picture is the first piece of art I have ever owned. The colours and whimsical animals on it really appeal to me ( I tend to have childish taste).

I'm planning to carry some tingatinga art back home and perhaps present them to some friends - I happen to know more people with childish taste.

Although it does look a little like a kindergarten painting, even The Engineer, who has very grownup taste, has begun to like it.

Perhaps it's the innocence of the picture that appeals....

Resuscitation

I have decided to resuscitate this blog - yesI have! Possibly an irrelevant and useless exercise but I shall try!

I'm planning to add more pictures (now that I've gotten cleverer at the technical portion of blogging).

I've done many, many things since the last entry so I shall endevour to upadate the goings on in my life - stay tuned!