Well it is now well over the year off - 14 months in fact and I feel I need to make a closing blog entry. I must admit I wasn't quite as dedicated to making entries than at the beginning but I am glad there is a record of the year.

I guess being based in one place and although you can never call it routine in this unpredicatble country, there was less time on my own to write down what was happening and some routines were coming in - bound to happen with going to an office everyday.

My last blog entry was over three months ago when my sister visited. After that I had my very good friend Kate come out for a week. She visited 5 years ago when I was last here - what a great friend. We enjoyed a few days in Nairobi but spent most of the time in Watamu where we hired a small cottage and had a lovely relaxing time, including experiencing the Nairobi - Mombassa 14 hour train journey. It may have been first class, with dinner, turn down service and waking up in Tsavo national park but it was no Orient Express shunting, breaking hard and then stopping for long periods thoughout the night - definitely not the smoothest of journeys. On returning to Nairobi we had a classic night out with Nairobi dinner, Brew Bistro mojitos and then onto Treehouse for dancing allowing Kate to see the fun side of this city - Kate's quote to me that night was 'Nairobi really suits you'!

Work beccame extremely busy into October as I organised a two day convention in Addis Ababa at the start of Nov- I was responsible for arranging all the speakers and ended up 'MC'ing the event too. I had over 30 speakers from all over the world and about 200 delegates. Stressful but enjoyable and the good news was it was deemed a great success. That was my last piece of work for Fairtrade Africa as a volunteer.

I then headed back to the coast where I planned to go diving on my own for a few days. Unfortunately I came down with a cold for the first time in a year - a stinking one with constant sneezing and spluttering and definitely not one that I could dive with. So I ended up having three days on my own by the pool - but I guess there could be worse places to have a cold. But once the worse was over, I joined a friend of mine renting a big beautiful house with her family and other friends for a long weekend. This was great fun, amd I also managed three dives including a free one while being filmed and interviewed for Kenyan TV for a programme on extreme sports! I also tasted the best ice cream ever - made by an Italian in Watamu and also got to stay in a beautiful apartment in Mombassa with a new friend I met that weekend.

In the meantime, I had been told that I would be offered a contract for at least 6 months working for Fairtrade Africa, therefore I had arranged to lease my flat when I had had a weekend back in London after a board meeting in October. So I headed back again to the UK to pack up my flat and organise for my return to Kenya which I was certain was the right place to be for the time being.