What a weekend!

Yesterday I just did not have the energy to write my own name never-mind a whole blog. On Saturday afternoon at about 4 pm loud music started pumping from the swimming pool area of the hotel. I didn't think it would be too much of an issue and hoped that it would be switched off at a reasonable hour. I couldn't resist the pool and I had a brief swim but there is not much relaxing to me about crude rap songs that dis everyone. I returned to my room and settled down with my book for a quiet evening. At eleven, when I decided to head to bed, the music was still going strong and I struggled to fall asleep but managed to do so at around midnight. At two am I was woken by the sound of someone trying to get into my room, rattling the door handle vigorously! Fortunately the door was locked but it stressed me out completely and I didn't fall back asleep until well after three am - the music was also still going. Then at five am I was once again woken up but this time to someone pounding on my door! I got up and asked, without opening the door, what the person wanted. He said someone's name and I told him he had the wrong room. He said sorry and I heard him walk outside and then come back in and knock on another door so I guess he really did have the wrong room but there was my sleep gone. Him and his mate proceeded to have a conversation at the top of their voices in the passageway. Sleep was impossible!

The end result of all of this was that I spent Sunday feeling like I was coming down with flu. I went for a long walk but had to cut it short because I just could not take the heat when I was feeling so grim. Here are a few photos that I took on the walk.

Mombasa skyline

 A memorial to the German missionary Dr Johann Ludwig Kraft and his wife

This is the English epitaph on the memorial

One of my favourite birds - a bee-eater

So I retired to my room and spent the day quietly reading. My intention was to have an afternoon nap and then go walking again. The music, however, started up again just after noon and a snooze was completely out of the question.

Thankfully the music was switched off at around six pm and I waited a little while longer before venturing out to have a swim. As perfectly fitting in with my weekend so far though, the hotel staff had treated the pool with loads of chlorine and of course the pool was closed! I was by then extremely grumpy and stomped off back to my room for a shower and bed.

A friend had suggested if it was still noisy I should sleep with earplugs in. I wasn't too sure that it would be possible for me to sleep like that but because of my tiredness every noise seemed really loud so I tried it. I had the best sleep in ages! Maybe the earplugs are the way to go from now on or at least until I am staying in a quieter place.

It was really good to wake up refreshed and to get back to the purpose of this trip. Today I started the WIOFish workshop with the Kenyan group at the Kenya Marine & Fisheries Research Institute. Once again it was a slow start as everyone had to get used to the system and the two new people in the group had to learn how it all worked. They really are to be commended though because they insisted on working until six pm to finish as much as possible. This is really very unusual and I was impressed with them.

A nice surprise was seeing the previous Kenya focal person who is on three year's study leave to complete a PhD at the University of Eldorat. She is in Mombasa for a little while and came by to say hello. I really enjoyed catching up with her and hearing all her news. She will come in again tomorrow to help update the ornamental fisheries profile as this is her area of research.

It was good to finish off the day and head back to the hotel. This time there was nothing wrong with the pool and I had a nice relaxing swim in the warm water. I leave you with two photos from my hotel:

 The dodgy pink passage walls!

The even dodgier shower and yes those are burn marks on the wall. Needless to say I am not switching the electricity on and I am enduring cold showers for the week!

Good night!