Barrier

My year long sick leave is over. I have been signed back for to work. This has meant an end to ESA (Employment Support Allowance) and a move to JSA (Job Seekers Allowance). This is something I want to be on for as short a time as possible. Being on benefits is a bit soul …

One Year

A year ago I was living in Mwanza. In fact, though I did not know it at the time, this day (April 1st) would be my last full day in Tanzania. A year ago tomorrow we would be heading off for a holiday in Kenya. However, Easter is a moveable feast and as such has …

It never rains…

It never rains but it pours. This English idiom describes the fact that just when you think it can't get worse something else comes along to make you re-evaluate your thinking. Such has been the past 48 hours or so.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Waiting (in Africa)

A contribution to this week's photo challenge on the theme of Waiting In Africa you learn to wait. Whether its food at a restaurant where you might wait at least an hour after you order (the longest was three hours!) or as in this case waiting in traffic in one of the large cities. These …

Jubilee

It is now time to share one of the longest running sagas of my Myeloma. A long running dispute which has only been partially resolved at the very end of our time in Tanzania.

Free

I'm free. I have no scheduled appointments at hospital for many weeks ahead. 😃 Today I met with my consultant who does not need to see me again until October, after my Stem Cell transplantation has taken place. That leaves only my scheduled stem cell harvesting in late August and the transplantation in early October.  …

Umbilical

It's just about a week now until the family leave Mwanza. I'm looking forward to seeing them back in the UK - it's over three months since I bid my wife and daughter farewell on that twilit Kenyan Easter Monday Morning. Yet at the same time as I am excited to see them - there …

Change

Recently in Mwanza a group of expats and Tanzanian nationals have started up a group called Mwanza Storytellers. The aim is to allow people to share their stories on a chosen theme. So approximately once a month they have  gathered at the Yacht Club. Anita was asked to talk at the most recent (and her …

Summer Holiday

As life changes for me this post reflects on the places I have visited and the memories we have I made.

Overbooked

The practice of overbooking flights and the consequences for those affected i.e. us

Mwanza

A post about the place I lived for almost three years on the day my son flies out to visit.

A Strange Father’s Day

For the first time in living memory I am a Father alone on Father's Day. I know it's a commercial thing (unlike Mothering Sunday) but even so it has amplified the absence of family. My own Father died in 2006 of Motor Nueron Disease a rapidly developing disease which took him from an active man …

Weekly Photo Challenge: Focus (Venus, Mars and a later Moon)

A submission to this week's photo challenge : Focus. Taking photos of the night sky is difficult - my Canon EOS 70D needed a lot of tweaking to get something and in truth my inexperience got less than focused shots of the sky on that occasion. It was however, too good an opportunity to miss …

Work Day

Today has been a day of work. Its been a bit strange but nice to do something purposeful. It seems strange to me at least to be enjoying the fact of doing work. I generally prefer time off to work. However, after seven weeks in which most of the time I have been doing nothing …

Missing Mwanza

It's been seven weeks since I arrived in the UK and almost nine weeks since I left Mwanza. This town in north western Tanzania was my home for the past two and a half years and my departure from the town was both unplanned and unexpected. My family are still there and will not be …