it is always nice, dear readers, to feel one is missed. I admit the feeling is a touch egocentric, but in all honesty it is better to missed than to be able to vanish from this pleasant abode we call earth without anybody actually caring. I have not been deported to mars in the last two weeks, of course, but I have been having serious trouble accessing the web and that might be taken for disappearing form the face of the earth in this age where the failing of the Blackberry system makes the headlines of CNN.

Just to make it absolutely clear: I have not been eaten by a hungry member of the Big Five, kidnapped by Somali pirates and neither have I been bitten by the Tse-tse fly (thank God I am not in Tanzania).

In the time my internet was down, I had a lovely time with my mother, especially when we went on a game drive in Nairobi National Park. We saw an amazing array of animals, amongst which was the King of Beasts, the lion. It turns out that my chauffeur Peter had loads of experience as a game-driver. he apparently drove four-wheel drives in the Mara and in Amboseli. It is completely to his credit that we must ascribe seeing a beautiful male lion and an eland buck in all its glory.

The weekend that followed was filled by a trip to Lake Baringo with the DAS (my dept within KPMG) staff. The drive to Baringo can only be described as spectacular. The highpoint was overlooking the Rift Valley at Limuru. The panorma is pectacular, as one is able to see all the way up to lake Naivasha and beyond. Unfortunately we drove at such a speed that the only pictures I took were of the mental category. We stayed at an island on lake Baringo in the aptly named island camp. We stayed in luxurious. tents that had no curtains. As a consequence, I woke up at six and was witness to the most stunning sunrise I ever saw from the confort of my bed. Activities varied during the weekend and I was given the task to be quizmaster of the Pool Quiz ( a pub quiz held a the poolside). Next time I will volunteer as lion tamer, since I believe that a more peceful job. KPMG people, as it turns out, are extremely competative even in relaxation. I had to hammer the bar repeatedly crying for order in much the sme way as the Lord Speaker of the House of Commons. The highpoint however, was the sundowner at a nearby island( called Gibraltar, much to the annoyance of my Spanish boss and to the general delight of my English and Anglophile colleagues who broke into 'Rule Britania' as soon as we made landfall) where we were treated to Pimm's while watching a spectacular sunset over the lake. The food that evening was nyama choma, the Kenyan version of a barbeque. I overindulged a bit ( no lunch or tea had been served) and my stomach did not take kindly on that. The rest of the night was spent at the washrooms ( Kenyan English for toilet). The drive back to Nairobi was hellish, mitigated only by the fact that one of my superiors was an inveterate outdoors man and carried with him a packet of immodium. Seldom have I greated the filthy air of nairobi with more enthusiasm. A bath and 14 hours of sleep restored me completely by the next morning, but I ahve written of nyama choma as suitable food for the remainder of my stay here.

The week that followed was not altogether exciting. By Wedenesday I had finished all my work and on Thursday the office was hit by an internet down time of no less than 3.5 hours. Irrtitated to no end I decided to log all company downtime form that date and present my findings at the next Mandazi Monday meeting next month. My intitative was greeted to general approval, both by my colleagues (even by a Scottish colleague not generally given to bouts of overt enthusiasm) and my superiors.

In the mean time I fought a valliant battle with my internet connection and it finally seams to be restored, although Sundays remain a trying day for the network of Zuku.

Now that you are fully up to date, I will retreat to have a bath and read another chapter of my book.

Cheers,

Daan