The Clock Ticks Slowly

After what has been the quickest term ever it now seems the clock is determined to right itself in this the last week as the  clock ticks slowly towards the end of term and a well earned break.

The events of last year have taken their toll with the period from February to August consumed by sorting, clearing, dumping and packing as we left our old house. The period from August to now being consumed by moving and settling in to our new house our new  roles and our new country. There have been a couple of hiatuses during our weeks away in Newquay/Cheddar and Serengeti respectively and the various bank holidays at home and abroad, but otherwise it’s been full on and much as I have enjoyed the term thus far and various activities such as the camping weekend,and the Wag Hill weekend and getting to know new colleagues/friends I am sorely in need of a break. For those ex-colleagues in the UK who have an extra week more of teaching I am not gloating when I proclaim that we break up on Friday. I need it, we need it and it can’t come soon enough. As for now the next 1.5 days seem an age away and I am longing for 2:15pm on Friday afternoon, and the subsequent three weeks off, not forgetting our Zanzibar trip!

Just hoping the clock ticks slowly in the three weeks ahead as much as this week and not like the clock has ticked for the rest of the year.

Songs of Christmas: Day 10: Winter Wonderland

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of some of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 10th offering:

Day 10

Another song with a wide variety of versions from the likes of Doris Day, Eurythmics, Pentatonix, Sam Levine and a more unusual version by Steve Taylor!

Winter Wonderland: Doris Day

Winter Wonderland: Eurythmics

Winter Wonderland / Don’t Worry Be Happy: Pentatonix

Winter Wonderland: Steve Taylor

Winter Wonderland: Sam Levine

 

December Swim and a Compound Curry

Today, weirdly was a Bank Holiday in the last week of term. The weather was hot and sunny, much as it has been all week. So after a lazy morning, we went for a swim in the pool. A great way to spend an afternoon.

This evening a number of colleagues from across the compound gathered together for a Compound Curry. We each brought different dishes which we shared, including homemade Samosas, Naan and Chapattis. A great pre-Christmas evening before we all head out our separate ways in the holidays. For us it will be Zanzibar, for others Moshi and Arusha near Kilimanjaro, whilst others are travelling further afield into Rwanda. Even got to taste my first Mince Pie of the year.

 

Songs of Christmas: Day 9 – Coventry Carol

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of some of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 9th offering:

Day 9

So many different versions of this including two from my favourite artists, a more traditional version and a different version from the film “The Nativity”. Four for the price of one!

Lullay Lullay (Coventry Carol): Annie Lennox

Coventry Carol: Alison Moyet

Coventry Carol: Mediaeval Baebes

And Thou Bethlehem: Mychael Danna

Songs of Christmas: Day 8 – Carol of the Bells

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 8th offering:

Day 8

Pentatonix: Carol of the Bells

I came across this ‘band’ on Facebook the other day and was amazed by the sound. An a capella group with a rich layered sound. There are many good songs on their two Christmas Albums. This is one of my favorites

 

For another alternative version there is this dramatic version from the Film Score to the Nativity

Mychael Danna : Is There A Place For Us?

Songs of Christmas: Day 7 – Real

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 7th offering:

Day 7

Nichole Nordeman: Real

I bought this on an album last year, but for some reason I never heard it before this year. When I did I was amazed, such a hauntingly beautiful song, sung by a voice I didn’t know. Not a classic, definitely new but a firm favorite.

If you go to a Nativity this year think about this song and think!

Songs of Christmas: Day 6 – I Believe In Father Christmas

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 6th offering:

Day 6

Greg Lake : I Believe in Father Christmas

Probably my favorite secular Christmas song. A rock opera of a tune. The closing line is chilling –

Hallelujah Noël, Be It Heaven or Hell, The Christmas we get we deserve!

 

 

 

 

No hype Christmas

It’s refreshing here in the heat of Tanzania as Christmas approaches. There’s no hype here in Mwanza. No glitzy promotions, no tinsel galore, no fat red Santas, no artificial trees in artificial snow, no carolling musak piping out in the shops. It’s low-key here. It’s Christmas without commercials, no commercialism.

A Christmas Hanging produced by Tito a local artist

 

Songs of Christmas: Day 5 – Little Drummer Boy

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 5th offering:

Day 5

Bing Crosby & David Bowie: Little Drummer Boy

A surreal combination of 40’s Crooner and 70’s Glam Rock Star made for an interesting Christmas song. The kids are singing this one tonight as a duo at the Boarder’s Christmas Dinner Dance.

As with all Christmas songs there are several versions, this is one I particularly like

Whiteheart: Little Drummer Boy

 

 

 

 

Carols on the Equator

It’s hot, sunny and 28°C AS I write this blog on the 5th December. I’m sitting on the verandah overlooking the garden and listening to Christmas Music on iTunes.
It’s all very strange as I sit just 2°S of the equator. After almost 50 years of cold northern Decembers my brain finds it hard to comprehend. It’s 4:45pm and broad daylight another anachronism of this time of year. Especially strange are the news reports of sub-zero temperatures and snow on the way in the UK.
I am happy here in the heat, even with a small amount of December sunburn from yesterday’s Sport’s Day, but I will miss the snow especially after last year’s snowless winter
It’s a surreal life perched on the equator at Christmas.

You can see videos of some of the Christmas tunes in various blogs each day in December.

Songs of Christmas: Day 4 – Veni Veni Emanuel

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my 4th offering:

Day 4

Mychael Danna: Veni Veni Emmanuel

The opening titles of the 2006 film The Nativity Story has this amazing version of the familiar Christmas Carol (O Come O Come Emmanuel) by Mychael Danna part of an atmospheric Film Score.

Songs of Christmas: Day 3 – Stop the Cavalry

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my third offering:

Day 3

Jona Lewie : Stop The Cavalry

A pop song written in the ’80s about the  (First World)War is an unlikely Christmas hit but it was. Apparently it was not intended as a Christmas song at all, but the line “Wish I was at home for Christmas” made it a success! A different sort of Christmas tune with a message in this the Centenary of the outbreak of WW1.

 

Songs of Christmas: Day 2 – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of some of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my second offering:

Day 2

Annie Lennox – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

This has always been one of my favorite carols and Annie Lennox is my all time favorite singer – so a winning combination. (Sorry about the ads!)

Two other great versions

Rascal Flatts – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Jars of Clay – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Christmas Tree Close Up

Not able or wanting to get a traditional Christmas Tree we decided on a more local tree – a Palm in place of a Spruce. Simply decorated in LED lights I love the way the fronds cast shadows on the wall as the lights illuminate the branches.

I hope the tree does well in the corner of our living room – it is near two windows so I should do. After all potted palms were once all the rage in the UK

Songs of Christmas: Day 1 – O Little Town of Bethlehem

Each year I start playing Christmas Music from the start of December.

Each day until Christmas (in addition to my other posts) I will post a link to a video of one of the Christmas tunes on my iPod. Some will be carols, others pop songs. Here is my first offering:

Day 1

Jars of Clay : O Little Town of Bethlehem

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs of recent years – I like because it is such a different rendition to the usual version of the Carol.

Poinsettia

It will soon be Christmas and we will, as usual start decorating the house on Advent Sunday. This year we are restricted to our Christmas Lights from home – packed in our cases when we came over. We will need to source some Christmas Decorations locally – perhaps using foliage as a fellow resident has done to manufacture an advent wreath.

Today, however I discovered some Poinsettia growing on the compound. Not the tiny shrubs we see in the UK but a great big bush on the compound. We will need to take a sprig or too, or maybe even find a bush to plant from the local garden centre.

A Month to Go

A month to day it will be Christmas and in 5 weeks time the year will be done. Where has all the time gone?

Ex-Patriate

Today is the day of the Christmas Craft Fair which is being held at Mwanza Yatch Club (this is not a typo it is spelt that way!). As I write this I am listening to Sleigh Ride (bells and all), incongruous in the weather!
This annual event brings together the various artisans from across the town including a number we have got to know over the months we’ve been here.
In addition it brings together the ex-pat community. It’s times like this you realise how small it is. In addition to the staff from Isamilo International School there are folk from the various NGO groups from around town, many Christians we have met. There are very few faces I don’t recognise. We are very much a minority here.

Weekly Photo Challenge : Zig Zag at Christmas

A submission to this week’s photo challenge – Zig Zag.

Decorations Zig Zagging across our old Christmas Tree

 

Travel Theme: Shine

A submission to this weeks Travel Theme on the topic Shine. All taken in the period from Late December 2012 through to Mid February 2013.

Christmas Lights at Shining at Oxford Street and Shiny Baubles at Coventry Garden in London

Ice Palace shining an eerie glow at Hyde Park, London

New Year’s Fireworks shining out over Horse Guards Parade in London

Sun shining over Caldecotte Lake in MK

The shiny polished metal bottom of the Cutty Sark sailing ship and a view across to the lights shining out from Canary Wharf in Greenwich, London

The glow of candles shining from
My birthday cake 🙂

Light shining through wooden slats at Kew Gardens in London

Finally light shining through a Snowdrop at Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge.