Monday, May 7, 2012

Of beers, beans, and bumper cars

It hasn't been all work, no play, these past few weeks...


On Easter weekend, Katrina, Gavin, Mike, Patience, Maria, Alice and I ventured out to enjoy the local club scene. We started the night at Mo's Bar at the Portuguese Club. With autumn upon us, the night was too chilly for sitting around outside, so we didn't linger there long. It looked like the most amazing place for a pool party, though…

The Portuguese Club
We then went over to Diplomats Bar, newly renovated and reopened in the centre of Old Town. When we arrived around 8-9pm it was relatively quiet, but by the time we left around midnight, it was packed with a crowd that looked evenly split between locals and expats.

The ladies at Diplomats
Drinking and dancing ensued, and at some point, a group of Chinese men sat at the other end of our booth and began chatting with us. This progressed to one of them planting himself between us and buying drinks for the "beautiful girls". Unfortunately the drinks  brought to us were gin shots (ech..), and he also would not tell us where he worked or where he was from, so we didn't have much of a conversation. One of his younger companions showed off some pretty wicked robot moves on the dance floor, though.

Random guy, Alice, me, and Maria about to "enjoy" a shot

Eventually we ventured over to "Zanzi's" for some late-night dancing, before calling it a night sometime around 1:30 or 2am. (Remember that here, "sleeping in on weekends" for me means getting up around 7 or 8am, so this is later than it sounds!)

Curious about the musical stylings of Malawian dance clubs? Well, here's one song (from Nigerian duo P-Square) that I hear constantly in bars, on the radio, and around town:


The other song I kept hearing on our night out? Party Rock.

Other recent amusements? Last weekend, we went out to the City Mall arcade with the kids (4 total between our house and the neighbours'). 300 kwacha buys you a minute and a half on the bumper cars!  

Note the fierce look on my face. Bumper cars is serious business.

I also have yet to mention the arrival of Paul and Noella Duncan, two CCA volunteers working with Fincoop. (Here's their blog.) They've been here since early April and will be around until early June. It's been nice to have other Canadians around, and I've been using the excuse to go out to Bombay Palace more often! 

I've also been learning to cook some new recipes, and yesterday, with Cinco de Mayo as a weak excuse, I cooked up some fried avocado with red beans and lime rice. (Meant to be lime-cilantro rice, but my leftover cilantro didn't look so hot.) Katrina graciously showed me how to prepare the red beans. 

Tastes better than it looks, I think.
Even breaded and fried, I'm not a huge fan of avocado. I've been trying - they are cheap and plentiful here. I do like me some guac, but unfortunately there are no tortilla chips in Malawi.  

Now what? Brook shows up this morning (fingers crossed that his flight isn't cancelled - airline schedules have been flaky the past few months, as foreign airlines struggle with the forex shortage). Once he arrives, the adventures should begin again. Another pub crawl is planned, as well as a picnic, a tour of southern Malawi, and a safari in Zambia. 

Till then... wish me luck in not getting lost on the drive out to the airport!

5 comments:

  1. I can't tell you where I'm from. I can't tell you who I work for. Here, drink this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remember, that they are just like you. The best ones are those too who have been in your shoes at on point in time.sober transport NYC

    ReplyDelete
  3. Acknowledges for penmanship such a worthy column, I stumbled beside your blog besides predict a handful advise. I want your tone of manuscript...
    cash for junk car fort lauderdale

    ReplyDelete
  4. sementara pemain lain berkeinginan menguasai taruhan tinggi. Saran saya, walapun anda cuma sekedar hobi bermain poker atau ceme online, tapi anda sepatutnya cukup memahami dasar permainan poker / ceme online.
    asikqq
    dewaqq
    sumoqq
    interqq
    pionpoker
    bandar ceme terpercaya
    hobiqq
    paito warna
    http://199.30.55.59/interqq78/
    datahk

    ReplyDelete
  5. You will not have to worry about the advertising that is required to get your vehicle noticed in the used car market. In addition this could save you the advertising costs, which can be expensive, plus all the time it may take to get an interested buyer.Car Removals

    ReplyDelete