Stuck in da jam!

The only way to describe the traffic in Kampala at the moment is ridiculous.

Yesterday, a 4km journey to a restaurant took nearly an hour. I could have walked it more quickly. In the end, I honked the horn for the entirety of Acacia Avenue, drove on the pavement and tried to breathe in so my car could pass through the tiniest of gaps.

Tonight was meant to be book club, hosted by a friend who, quite literally, lives over the hills and far away. We crawled through the traffic at a glacial pace feeling quite miserable and sorry for ourselves (not helped by the dismal Leonard Cohen music emitting from ipod). As hunger and temporary insanity gradually kicked in, we had the realisation that we had plenty of food and drink to keep us going. Moments later, the cork was popped on a bottle of sparkling wine, narrowly missing a passing boda driver! The ipod was hijacked and after a few bursts of S Club 7 and other cheesy classics later, spirits were somewhat lifted.

Unfortunately, we never made our final destination. There were too many anecdotes along the way about people being stuck in traffic until 11pm the day before. Instead we turned back and went to the nearest member's house for a mini book club on our side of town.

Ten out of ten for effort though. Better luck next time I hope ...

Why I won't be going digital yet

No-one could accuse me of being a gadget-girl. My ‘classic’ i-pod is a bit of a brick compared to newer models and it’s a near miracle that my laptop works considering the amount of cereal lodged between the keys. Until recently, when I was forced to upgrade my phone as I left it behind in Uganda, my low-tech mobile phone was the source of much amusement and derision from friends. While my mates tapped away on Blackberries and popped cyber bubble-wrap on I-phones I insisted that my phone with a built in torch was THE phone to have in Uganda. Sadly, it was nigh on impossible to actually hear people talking on the phone and I probably doubled my air-time costs by having to ask people to repeat themselves, but you can’t have everything in life!
Of late, I have noticed that more and more people are buying these fancy I-readers or Kindles. I’m not convinced. One of my favourite haunts in Kampala is the book exchange (honestly, dear reader, although I know that a few of you would rather suspect my favourite place to be a licensed premises – perhaps it should be amended to favourite daytime haunt). There’s never a shortage of titles to choose from and I like the fact that the selection is quite random. All too often in the UK we are faced with shelves of the top bestsellers and the latest critically acclaimed prize winning novels that we buy books without a thought. In fact you don’t even need to go in a bookshop to witness this, if you take a trip on the tube you are bound to spot several commuters all with their heads buried in copies of exactly the same book.
Gadget lovers tell me that they love that they can carry around hundreds of books for the size of one. I don’t feel I have such a need – I’m not an Oxford professor of literature and I am unlikely to have enough spare time on any given day to read more than one book. They also argue that you will never be stuck for a book. Well call me cynical, but I have travelled a fair amount across South America and Africa and generally find that it is much easier to track down a book exchange than a decent wi-fi connection. Apparently you can download the latest magazines, but isn’t the sheer pleasure of a magazine in the flicking through the glossy pages and cooing over the unattainably expensive items with a friend? I have a terrible habit of accidentally leaving books on trains and plane so if I had a Kindle I’d be bankrupt by now. I like to read a book whilst floating on a lilo in the pool without fear of damaging such a precious and expensive item. I love pass my favourite books on to a friend or to nosy through their shelves. I’m not a technophobe, but until anyone offers me a convincing argument I will continue to read my books in book form!