September 2008
8 posts
July 2008
2 posts
Berlusconi politics →
Tumbling
Although I’m very busy coordinating and doing coordination activities as a project coordinator…ahem…I might as well keep the tumblr going. Having got embroiled in traffic congestion issues in Dakar and ranting on about those, I can now do it at my heart’s content in Rome.
Bus drivers go through red lights!
Bus drivers read the newspaper whilst driving!
Bus drivers break...
June 2008
2 posts
Cobbles and mad traffic
Could be the name of this tumblr from now on. I am just recovering from a ghastly inslaught from Danish liquorice. It is liquorice, but it tastes salty. After about 15 seconds in your mouth (I managed to keep it for that long) a strong smell of petrol overpowers your cynuses…I dare anyone to NOT spit it out. I am now desperately chewing on a piece of gum to attempt to get rid of the flavour....
When I leave, tumbl updates are put aside....
And yet. Senegal is all around me (it sounds like a wishy washy song of some kind huh)! Obviously, at the Orchestra Baobab concert. Greasy sandwiches and shouts of “Dieureudieuf-wayy!” give me la nostalgie, as does the jazzman’s amazing mbalax moves (in spite of his 70+ years).
And today at the chemist, chatty old Senegalese men react with tears in their eyes to a word of Wolof...
May 2008
1 post
Last days...
After much popular demand (thank you Follower number 1), I think it’s time for me to update. I’m leaving after tomorrow anyway, so these will be the last entries…argh. The sand and flatness of Nouakchott wasn’t conducive to tumbling, and now the busy-ness of the last few days isn’t much either, I find. Although I have been thinking I could start a new one in Paris....
April 2008
16 posts
A day out of the office
And of course, as usual, I forget to set up the out of office message, but never mind, a whole day with no banging and dust and plaster! And no people walking in and out of the place where I work, checking electric cables with their tongue, and sanding down the scrapes they made on the wooden doors when manoeuvring a table through the door, by the simple expedient of “if we push enough, it...
March 2008
29 posts
Supermarché Atlantique - let's hang out there and...
In order to take our mind off things we went to the new supermarket yesterday. Oooooh. We were both actually gawping as we walked in. So much choice! Several types of deodorants. So many different anti-cockroach and anti-mosquito sprays… Lots of space! No dust! Lindt milk chocolate with a sophisticated name. Wow. We tried not to pick up all the different shower gels and sniff them, or...
Dollars against euros
I’m not obssessed. No, no, really, I mean it. At least, not nearly as much as I was with the Islamic conference summit! But…it worries me. I get PAID in dollars, dammit. My 4 month “consultant” salary is getting lower every day… Help. Anyway. This explains my reading the BBC’s business and economy section.
The dollar attempts a come back... →
Powdered milk problems. I knew it!! →
The girl, the tree, and the newspaper →
Hurrah for Sonatel
My colleague has had internet installed, and just as suddenly and without explanation, removed from her new flat. She was on the phone for 25 minutes yesterday trying to figure it all out and get it sorted (fat chance). It’s rather like a sketch: she constantly has her phone on her JUST IN CASE Sonatel (the Senegalese phone and internet providers, supposedly…) phones. And when she...
