How can time have gone so quickly? But then again I feel pretty settled here and it helps with the sun is shining more. I am now reasonably busy at work and making some progress, but not in such a way that it is stressful. I could do with getting out the office a bit more but I think that will happen as I start to make appointments to visit potential licencees.

I now have a housemate for a few weeks, Catharine has just joined Fairtrade Africa as the new M&E (Monitoring & Evaluation for those outside the NGO world!) Manager. She is in her 20s but has lived in Rwanda the last couple of years and also grew up in different African countries so probably a bit more wordly wise than me and also knows the NGO world better than I do. The exciting thing is as of yesterday we have a fridge that works (I haven't had one before). So I can now buy milk, butter and importantly beer and diet coke! And maybe cook meat rather than just vegetarian. Not to mention I no longer will feel like I have to eat all my dinner as I can now store leftovers! Little things make a big difference.

Having had no water for several days, fortunately that is also sorted so I am no longer boiling a kettle and using a bucket for showers (I had one tap with water in). But I heard today that half of Nairobi may be out of water for 10 days while some pipes are fixed due to the heavy rains!

My social life is picking up. I have been out two nights in a row this week, ironically to the same place! The first night I met a friend of a friend in Talisman - a lovely restaurant in Karen that I had mentioned before (in the nice green expat enclave). I booked Simon, my reliable taxi man in a very old knackered car who came bang on time to pick me up. We negotiated a price for him to take me, wait and then take me home which was about £12. It took over an hour to get there due to the awful traffic but I am getting used to that but only about 20 mins to get home (its about 10km away). Isabella was lovely. She has been here 7 years and works for the UN as a consultant on communication so really interesting. She loves Kenya and lives on her own so was good to see someone doing that.

The next night, a big fancy brand new range rover picked me up and took me to the same restaurant. Same bad traffic but slightly more comfortable! I was meeting a supplier to Sainsburys who I have known for about 7 years and who helped me a lot last time I was in Kenya. He sent a driver! When I walked into the restaurant, the extremely gorgeous man I had spotted several visits before greeted me and laughed that I was there two nights in a row, I smiled and told him to keep it quiet as I didn't want my host to know, so he proceeded to say loudly how nice it was to see me after such a long break! Great to catch up with Neil, and find out all the latest in the commercial world. He has also been very useful with lots of contacts for my work here.

Last weekend, Catharine arrived so it was an opportunity for me to show her the local haunts. We also braved taking a matatu to Junction (the posh shopping mall). It cost about 10p and we were packed in the beat up mini buses with music blaring out and took off into the traffic taking the shortest available route, whether that was over payments, the other side of the road or taking short cuts through back streets ignoring the massive pot holes. But we got there in one piece and definitely a mode of transport I will frequently use in the daytime (not safe at night). We then braved getting a bus further on, for a hefty 30p up to Karen as this was a more comfortable bus, but still mad driving. Had a tasty lunch and then walked up to Talisman to have a beer - what else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon? So Talisman three times in one week, four times since I have been here! But it is no 1 on trip advisor. The bus back was fast but suddenly turned off our road, but I sort of kept track of where we were and decided to get off before we went too out of our way. We were near our much closer shopping centre that has a masi market on a Sunday. So I bought a bowl and negotiated hard for some colourful placemats but I wasn't happy with the price so walked away. Things are not that cheap in Nairobi at all and clearly the masi are not that up for negotiation certainly from mzungos!

On Friday, two of the Kenyan grils we work with Wangeci and Rachel took us for Nyama Choma - goat bbq (one of their national dishes). We walked about 10 mins from the office , through some gates and suddenly there were loads of people sitting eating with seeral stalls of sizzling BBQ meat. The stall holders come straight over and cut meat off legs of goat to give you a taste so you can select which stall you want. We selected our stall (well Wangeci and Rachel led the way), were taken to a table where the meat we selected was chopped up on a wooden board and laid in front of us. A man turned up with a jug, bowl and soap so we could wash our hands and we tucked in. Ugali (cooked maize) which is pretty bland and very stodgy but fills you up and is fine with the meat and veg, and mukimo had also be ordered with sukama Wiki (kale and tomato salsa) - all eaten with the meat by hand. So delicious. It cost about £4 each including a big fresh mango and passion fruit juice.

I have discovered a facebook page for Nairobi expats - where all handy tips can be found, so i posted a note to ask where to go on our first saturday night out. We've had a few respponses so Catharine and me are going to hit the town tonight to one of the recommended venues - there is almost too much choice here. We have also signed up to meet some others for a brand new book club tomorrow in the other side of town. Think the bookclub will be all young expats but a way in to meet people! I have also booked for a fitness weekend in Naivasha (a couple of hours away where I used to live) again to try and meet some new people I decided I needed to take the plunge. It needs at least 8 people to sign up for it to happen and when I spoke to the woman running it, she only had 6 so not sure if it will go ahead.

Other than that the weekend is all about food shopping, market shopping, and cleaning and hand washing not to mention an exercise DVD!