JICHO

Camping!

2010-07-12T14:16:00.010+03:00

After working hard last we week ,we decided to go camping over the weekend .This are kind of adventure you will always leave to remember and curse .From Nairobi to the campsite was 80 miles but four hour drive this is because of the bad roads in Kenya .We left Nairobi at around four PM thinking we will be doing 80 mile per hour later to find out we have to do 40 mile per hour .Arriving at campsite when the dark has fallen is the last thing you will need to happen to you .The beautiful ladies who had accompany us decided to go to strike and the men were doing the cooking . Below are some pictures which I took

Bogo and Ali having some of backfired break first which was cooked by me after of course after burning the eggs three times .

Boys under control after the girls refused to cook and we have a learned a lesson .Sports cars my freind call them

On the truck!

2010-05-11T17:37:00.005+03:00

Its time to supply .Our driver Daglouse,Richard ,Dorothy leaves the office to supply bags to the shops .Tell you its time to Sell

selling Time!

2010-05-11T17:28:00.001+03:00

A happy customer leaves the shop after getting his new work bag .

Mark Stephenson

2010-01-11T17:49:00.013+03:00

During Christmas i kept on receiving emails from friends asking me who is sandaman.Ok i will let them know him.First i think its a blessing lucky to have people from UK working in Kenya . Only few of them will only volunteer to risk there life and come to Africa .But the brave Mark Stephenson left his family thousands miles a way to come and live and work in Kenya! .With all bad infrastructure ,insecurity,poverty and the list goes on a long as runway Mark manages work under all that . Mark has been the best of the best boss i have ever work with .Even pastors cant be as good as him may be you say its exaggeration if its so then please check your sugar levels.
Mark Stephenson Just arrived from Safari .

Believe it or not we were on a meeting when i took this picture.Now this shows the different side of Mark .

As Our managing director he makes sure to make sandstorm is a successful company.In Kenya we have trade international shows around the country and he makes sure we participate to make sure sand storm brand is recognized globally .In Nairobi we have two major bazaar and Mark has never afford to miss this shows . Craft fair in Ngong racecourse and Biz Bazz .Below are some pictures i took during the events
Mark Stephenson at work during the last fall .

Selling selling in all kind of way .I called Edinburgh style .

He knows you have children and they will need to play and eat .Bouncing castles,face painting and all kids stuff are always at the shows we participateParking space is always available and it has a capacity to park over 15,000 cars ,

BUSY MONTH

2009-10-01T16:59:00.006+03:00

September 2009 is a month i will leave to remember.It has been busy and chaotic .We have moved our shop to a new building .It bigger loaded with lots of new products which will be posted on the website very soon .We have improved our IT system with installation of Skype softwares

in all PC i took some pictures of the activities

Above is Engineer Silvano and Engineer Paul installing new sever .In Kenya engineering work was only meant for people over 40 years ,but as time moves we have been inheriting western cultures and ICT revelation has landed in Kenya and young people are dominating in ICT like never before .You can find more about it in www.routingafrica.com

VILLAGE MARKET

2009-06-22T17:08:00.010+03:00

In 1992 two Kenyan brothers, Hamed and Mehraz Ehsani had the idea of constructing a shopping and recreation mall within Nairobi. Their objective was to provide a shopping and recreation experience for Gigiri's residents which include diplomats, expatriates and tourists living and/or working within the Nairobi's Diplomatic District and its immediate environs.Construction began in April 1992 with 10 shops. Three years later they opened The Village Market's gates to the public. Today (February 2009) the complex covers over 225,713 square feet (20,969.4 m²) of leasing space; three levels high, with more than 150 outlets.The latest addition to the mall is a 5 star hotel with a 142 guest rooms and suites.[2] In 2007 Sandstorm Kenya launched its second shop in Kenya in a african safari style at the village market ,our shop is suited above food coat .Please pay a visit in our shop when you visit village market ,lots of enduring styles travel bags, work bags, wash bags, ladies bags and outdoor accessories, in Canvas & Leather, Pull-up and Pelage Leathers, African Camel and each one hand-crafted carefully, individually and ethically. Learn more.

Here are some of the pictures i took during the launch of the shop

Masai dancers entertaining guests during the sandstorm village market shop launch,well this kind of dance it was only meant for them ,don't try this at home

dancing in all styles

safari corner inside our shop in village market

lady line small in hair on now available in black and white,also known as Pelage available in travel bags too

Ol Donyo Wuas

2009-05-29T12:28:00.002+03:00

The amazing Ol Donyo Wuas is the latest Lodge to take Sandstorm into their shop. If you're lucky enough to visit you will see us there. Ol Donyo Wuas is linked to Great Plains Conservation and you can find out more about their important work here.

Rhino Charge

2009-05-29T12:08:00.005+03:00

Rhino Charge is a 20 year old Kenyan institution organised to raise funds for the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust and it takes place this weekend. Sandstorm has supported the event in the past, and this year the extremely persuasive Elodie Sampere, Head of Conservancy Marketing at Lewa has convinced us to sponsor her team Pinks in Charge. You can donate before (and after!) the event at JustGiving here and FirstGiving here.

We in turn managed to convince our friends at Scottish ad agency Newhaven Communications to sponsor them as well. Perhaps not the most tightly targeted piece of sponsorship in history but it's all in a very good cause, and it just goes to show how nice they are.

Below is a little about the event from their website, but follow the link and take a look for yourself.

The Rhino Charge is an off-road event in which competitors are required to visit 13 points scattered over approximately 100 square kms of rough terrain within a 10 hour period. Competitors are supplied with a 1:50,000 scale map of the venue, co-ordinates of the 13 Control Points and their Start position (at one of the Controls). Each competitor must plot the Control Points on the map and decide his/her route. Navigation is by compass/GPS and the winner is the competitor who visits all controls in the shortest distance (GPS measured). The event is organised to raise funds for the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust. Competitors are required to raise the minimum sponsorship set by the organising committee. Most however raise considerably more - the record to date being Kshs 9,393,552 in 2008 from Car No. 5 Alan McKittrick, Bruce Knight, Charlie Hewitt-Stubbs, John Trundell, S. McKittrick, winners of the prestigious David Schaeffer Trophy. Long-time supporters such as Mike and Sarah Higgins have raised a total of Kshs 39,604,399 over the last 20 years.

Karibu Fair

2009-05-29T11:53:00.002+03:00

From the 5th - 7th June Joyce and Moshi will be representing Sandstorm Kenya at the Karibu Fair in Arusha, Tanzania. You can find out more at http://www.karibufair.com/ and if you're attending please pay us a visit. We'd love to see you. Moshi will take some pics and post them when he gets back.

SAMBURU

2009-05-21T08:14:00.008+03:00

Young Samburu Girl

If you thought MASAI are the only color full people in Kenya,then your tour guide must have hiden a lot from you . The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists. Cattle, as well as sheep, goats and camels, are of utmost importance to the Samburu culture and way of life. The Samburu are extremely dependent on their animals for survival. Their diet consists mostly of milk and sometimes blood from their cows. The blood is collected by making a tiny nick in the jugular of the cow, and draining the blood into a cup. The wound is then quickly sealed with hot ash. Meat is only consumed on special occasions. The Samburu diet is also supplemented with roots, vegetables and tubers dug up and made into a soup.
There is also a game park in the area, Samburu National Reserve only 4x4 vehicles are motor able in these area
Young Samburu worriers with sandstorm bags

WATAMU

2009-05-16T22:49:00.013+03:00

still at Kenyan coast here comes a strange town known as Watamu ,village essentially a Swahili (or Bajuni) fishing village that has grown into a small beach resort over the years.With traditional food coats, clean silent streets and beautiful clean beaches makes it another tourist spot. The village has several small supermarkets, grocers and the usual Kenyan style Dukas made from cooconut tress which makes the town more attractive
Traffic jam is always is always thing that you can't experience when you are in watamu

Tourist zone in watamu

Traditional fashion shows and dance in Watamu village

Malindi

2009-05-14T15:55:00.012+03:00

malindi is small town situated about 120 km north of Mombasa,just little south of equator and tourism is a thriving business in malindi .Malindi really comes into its own when we are exhausted after working through out the year ,then it should be top of anyone list who visit kenyan coast

its fun to play football near the ocean waters ,list of things to do in malindi

from the distance you can see Vasco da Gamas Pillar, on the beach in the middle of Malinidi's long coastal front, is a monument to where Vasco da Gama first set foot in modern-day Kenya in 1498.
well after working hard through out the year this is the only place i will go to relax and celebrate my Christmas with my friends and family marine marine park

Luxury lies not in how much stuff we have but in how well it's made - and how highly we value it.

2009-04-08T18:11:00.001+03:00

Great Newsweek article. Definitely worth a read.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191499

Golf bags

2009-01-29T09:54:00.000+03:00

It would appear that a lot of people who like Sandstorm also play golf, so we've built a couple of simple 'pencil' golf bags out of the same canvas, leather and brass as our other bags. They're far from super-technical and you're unlikely to see Tiger Woods playing with them on the PGA tour any time soon, but just like everything else we do they look great, feel great and they'll last forever. Once we've built up some stock we'll pop them up on the website.

Natural High in Edinburgh

2009-01-24T11:36:00.009+03:00

On Wednesday night we co-hosted an event at the Merchant's Hall in Edinburgh with leading African safari specialists, Natural High: a great company and one we're looking forward to working with closely in future. (If my blogging lately hadn't been so lax I would have posted the details before rather than after the event...will do better next time.)

On the night Mark Houldsworth and Alex Edwards from Natural High gave a fascinating illustated talk on their experiences in Tanzania, while sculptor Mark Coreth gave what I understand was a superb demonstration of his craft. A lucky person also won a Sandstorm Kenya bag but I don't have their details just yet, must find out next week.

Mark Coreth, demonstrating.

Rosanna Osborne with Crispin Kennedy and James Foster. (Great smile Rosanna.)

Clare Kennedy with Sue Osborne from Africa Venture.

Heather and Julia Stephenson

Business is booming

2009-01-22T12:16:00.005+03:00

We had a very good feature in an excellent Kenya supplement in the UK Daily Telegraph on Saturday (the bag shown is one of our most enduring styles, a Weekender in green canvas & leather). Click on the picture and you can read the page or alternatively you'll find the online equivalent here.

Inauguration celebration

2009-01-21T08:24:00.001+03:00

Kenya was an especially great place to be yesterday as the nation gathered around their television screens to watch and to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. That Kenya was the birthplace of Obama's father is well known, but perhaps less well known (certainly outside Kenya) was that his father was a Luo, the same tribe as the vast majority of our skilled craftsmen and women, so they had even greater cause for celebration. Perhaps a few sore heads this morning!

More adventure

2008-11-29T09:21:00.005+03:00

Yesterday I met up with the Adventure Family before they headed south on the final leg of their African adventure (they're aiming to be in Cape Town mid-January). It was good to see them and nice to see our Fishing Stool being used for more than fishing (or sitting).

Snake incursion

2008-11-22T09:47:00.001+03:00

Yesterday's excitement involved a large(ish) snake that wandered into the Lenana shop as we prepared for our Christmas Sale. No idea if he was there to buy or just looking but Martha wasn't at all happy with the intrusion and he was quickly despatched.

Always ethical, now audited.

2008-11-18T16:11:00.006+03:00

Today we had an independent ethical audit conducted by the extremely professional Nairobi-based Ethical Business Services team from Africa Now. Leonard Nawiri and Peris Ochieng will be pulling together the report over the next week but the initial feedback was very positive, which is gratifying but unsurprising because we've always been guided by strong ethical principles. I think the key is that it will give us a framework to guide us in future, undoubtedly helping us do a few things better, but most importantly formalising something that until now has been more of a philosophy that has grown from operating in a way that simply felt right.

Kinondo Kwetu

2008-11-11T18:39:00.005+03:00

At the weekend I embarked on a mammoth trip from Nairobi to Mombasa by train: departure 7pm Friday night, scheduled arrival 8am Saturday morning, actual arrival 4pm Saturday afternoon. The travails of the journey were more than compensated for however by my visit as a (paying) guest, and deliverer of new product, to Sandstorm customer and resort (that feels more like a great house party) Kinondo Kwetu: I get a real kick when people make doing something so well seem so completely effortless. Tell all your nice friends, this place is heaven and it was a wrench to have to leave for the return rail journey after just 24 hours. My pics don't do it justice, so take a look at the website when you get a moment.

Nyama Choma

2008-11-07T11:32:00.010+03:00

I've been rather tardy this week with posting, much going on, but last Friday we all gathered at the Africana Restaurant next to Jamhuri for nyama choma. Pretty much everyone made it and it was great to have everyone from the factory, the office and the shops together under one roof, and we're going to do it every couple of months from now on. For those of you unfamiliar with nyama choma, it is (or certainly feels like) Kenya's national dish, and translates literally as 'roasted meat' in Swahali, we had goat and on this occasion, accompanied by ugali (cooked maize meal) and sukuma-wiki (curly kale). Delicious.

Everyone gathered.

Big smiles from the sales team.

Zadock (left), our accountant, dispenses beer with natural authority.

Never get between Moshi and his nyama choma.

Lest we forget

2008-11-07T11:18:00.008+03:00

There's a small turning off Ngong Road on the right hand side as you head into town. It's just past the racecourse and almost equidistant between our office at Lenana and Jamhuri. Thousands of people pass it every day by car and on foot, but I've never seen anyone make that turn. It brings you onto a long tree-lined avenue that leads to a cemetary and memorials that commemorate the fallen of the war in East Africa, 1940-41. This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday.

My Grandfather fought in the First War and, while we're remembering, this is the transcript of a letter sent to my Great Grandmother by one of his men. I never had the chance to know him, and this letter makes me wish I had.

June 19th, 1918
France

Dear Mrs. Stephenson,

I’m sure I don’t know whether this is the proper way to address you or not, and I hope you will pardon me the great liberty which I am taking in writing to you on behalf of the men of the battery and myself, which came out with the battery two years ago. The reason why I am writing is to ask you if you would mind letting me know if Capt Stephenson is recovering alright or if he has got better and been transferred to another battery as no one seems to know anything about him here. If he has been sent to another battery, would you mind sending me his address as I would like to ask him to get me transferred as well to be along with him. I have been his servant three years now and well I think there is no one like him, and if he gets another servant I’m sure he wont look after him properly. Also, I have to tell you that the men think him one of the best Officers out in France. He was practically in charge of two brigades of artillery and he never lost either a man, horse, gun or wagon all during the retirement, and how he managed to bear up through it all was really a marvel. If you could hear the men praising him your heart would well nigh burst with pride, and I am not telling you this simply because you are Capt. Stephenson’s mother but because its every bit true. He was the last old Battery Officer that we had left and that in itself makes us doubly anxious to have him back. I have watched the various roads into the camp waiting for him until I think I know every stone in them, but he never appears. No doubt you will think me very presumptious in writing to you like this, and I don’t know what the Captain would think if he knew, but hope that you will excuse me. Hoping that the Capt’s sister, brother and yourself are enjoying the very best of health.

I have the honour to be
Your obedient servant

G. J. Taylor. 750693.

Meet Joyce

2008-10-30T13:32:00.003+03:00

Joyce Wairimu has just come on board as Sales & Marketing Manager. Previously as Head of Marketing and Procurement at KDF, Kenya's leading duty free operator, she was a Sandstorm customer and it's great that we've been able to lure her to our side of the fence. Originally from Nakuru, Joyce's passion away from work (apart from fine wine) is choral singing and she is going to be performing in Handel's Messiah (all four hours!) with the Nairobi Music Society on the 6th and 7th December at the Oshwal Auditorium in Westlands. If you're in town why not go along, I'm sure it will be amazing.

Station spotting

2008-10-27T19:12:00.001+03:00

Matathia is an abandoned railway station high above the Rift Valley floor. I watched a very long goods train out of Nairobi wind its way through here, but the trains don't stop any more and the station was much more interesting. Loved the type on the signal box, and couldn't help wondering if they had spread it out to aid legibility as you flew through at speed, or just because it looked great. The 'derailer' looked interesting too: every ad agency should have one to stop ideas that get out of control.

The Camper of Bags

2008-10-25T13:51:00.006+03:00

I like Camper as a business and as a brand, I like what they stand for but above all I love my Camper boots. They're incredibly comfortable, and the more I use them they better they get - just like our bags. In fact wanting to be the Camper of Bags wouldn't be a bad ambition. (My trusty Fishing Bag included entirely gratuitously in the background.)

What's in a name?

2008-10-25T12:57:00.005+03:00

Last week we made a trip to the aptly named Industrial Area on the other side of Nairobi. Not the prettiest part of town, and a nightmare to get to, but the only place to get many essential materials and equipment: the only way to find new suppliers seems to be either through word of mouth or luck, Euro Patools was a discovery that fell into the latter category. The proprietor, Dipak, moved here from London 18 months ago and the business is going from strength to strength. Their name caught my eye and I wondered where it had come from; it transpired that his intention had been to call the business Europa Tools, however the City Council processed the paperwork with the space in the wrong place and so Euro Patools was born: not the name he had planned but distinctive, memorable and with an interesting story attached that elevates it from clerical error to happy accident.

Adventure Family

2008-10-25T12:25:00.013+03:00

Lina, Richard, Pia and Milan and all their children together make up Adventure Family. They're doing what many of us can only dream of: driving all the way from Europe to Africa in a pair of fully kitted out Land Rovers. They stopped in to see us as they passed through Nairobi on their long journey south.

Having set out from Gothenburg in February, you can imagine that their seats had taken a bit of a hammering so Sandstorm Kenya joined an august group of sponsors that includes Pentax Cameras and Lenovo Computers, and supplied them with canvas & leather seat covers to make them more comfortable, along with some of our new canvas & webbing bags.

They'll be putting the seat covers and the bags through their paces, keeping us posted on how they perform and giving us feedback on potential improvements as they go (and of course saying very nice things about us to everyone they meet!).

You can follow their adventures on their blog.

Sparks fly

2008-10-22T08:47:00.001+03:00

We had 25mm of rain last night. I was working late and wondered why someone was setting off fireworks outside until I realised that the rain was shorting out the power lines on the main road to lethal, but quite spectacular effect.

Sunday with Robin and Nigel

2008-10-20T18:06:00.007+03:00

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to be invited to join Robin Schalch and Nigel Pavitt on a small adventure, to look at some fascinating pieces of Kenyan history.

There's nothing I can write here in under a 1000 words that would do justice to what was a very enjoyable and educational day roving the Rift Valley and Escarpment outside Nairobi (and the weather was hopeless for photography!), but Nigel, helped by Robin and others, has just produced an astonishing book called Kenya – A Country in the Making 1880-1940. Containing 720 photographs it's an essential visual record of Kenya over those years.

Here are reviews of the book in The Nation, and the Wall Street Journal, and it's available to order it at both Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com. I know it will make a superb gift either for yourself or anyone else who loves this country and its history.

Luxist

2008-10-18T08:48:00.002+03:00

And here's another from Luxist back in May.

h(y)r collective

2008-10-18T08:34:00.004+03:00

Just spotted a post on us on the h(y)r collective blog. Apparently we're semi-secret (!)... not for much longer.

Could try harder

2008-10-18T07:24:00.001+03:00

You clearly don't need to try very hard when you have an apparent monopoly on something every one of us needs, but if someone started selling clean water from clean trucks, who would clean up?

Verticle is good

2008-10-17T15:44:00.008+03:00

We're an unusual company in lots of ways but one of the things I believe makes us unusually great is the fact that, at a time when most brands sub-contract, here in Kenya we're vertically integrated from manufacture right through to retail, with shops here at our Lenana head office and across Nairobi at Village Market.

So where many businesses spend fortunes on research (often to tell them stuff they already know), I can walk three steps out of my office and talk directly to the people who love our brand and buy our product. One of the things that's come out of these conversations is a clear demand for product that has all the 'safari-grade' build quality of our current bags, but more rugged and (ideally) lower cost - the kind of thing you're more than happy to chuck in the hold of a plane, or the back of a Land Rover. And of course because we make them ourselves we can test and sample, test and sample, in low quantities until we get things just right.

And here's the result: a set of four nice, simple and tough as hell, canvas & webbing bags that will retail here in Kenya for a lot less than our canvas & leather collection.

Four sizes ranging from "popping down the gym" to "crossing the Kalahari".

Military-grade webbing shoulder strap, and front zipped pocket.

Useful push pocket between straps on reverse.

Grab handles for hurling with ease.

Sandstorm on safari

2008-10-16T13:31:00.004+03:00

Nice to see lots of our bags in their natural environment at Olkiombo airstrip in the Mara. These were taken by our Edinburgh-based Customer Services Manager and Kenya fanatic, Rosanna Osborne on her recent visit here.

Landcruiser: front seat - Explorer (green), Deluxe Adventurer (tan & green), Odyssey (tan); back seat - Pioneer (green)
Airstrip: Rosanna's Dad carries – Champagne Cooler (old style), Deluxe Adventurer (tan); Safari Guide carries Odyssey (tan) & Deluxe Adventurer (green)

Hunters Choice

2008-10-16T13:24:00.003+03:00

Spotted this wee taste of Scotland on my way back from a meeting at Jamhuri... don't think I've ever seen it on the shelves at Oddbins.

To the tannery

2008-10-15T17:12:00.006+03:00

Paul, John (Senior Cutter) and I went on a buying trip to the tannery north of Nairobi where we source all our leather. Nairobi traffic and tannery opening hours conspired to have us stop for a quick bite in Limuru (John on left, Paul on right), and then on to the tannery. Each of our hides is hand selected at source and here you can see John and Paul checking camel hides for quality and consistency.

Production Planning

2008-10-14T12:12:00.017+03:00

Had our weekly production planning meeting this morning at Jamhuri. In the picture (left to right) you can see Lavender (who looks after one-off projects and seat covers), Paul (Purchasing Manager), Kioko (Quality Control), Moshi (Stores) and Dickie (Factory Manager). Dickie is talking through some detail on a one-off adaptation of our Safari Cooler for a client: as well as our standard international range we have a reputation for producing excellent one-off bags and accessories for clients locally.>

Moshi

2008-10-13T15:14:00.004+03:00

Fierce negotiator, natural entrepreneur, profound philosopher, and passionate supporter of Chelsea F.C., Methuselah Moshi, Moshi for short, was a driver here until it became obvious that he had much more to offer, so we promoted him to look after finished goods stores here at Lenana. It's Moshi's job to keep his hawk-like eye on all our bags from the moment they leave the factory, but he also tends to get involved in all manner of problem solving. I'll post some of Moshi's words of wisdom here soon.

Down the old Ngong Road

2008-10-11T15:39:00.002+03:00

Ngong Road is the main drag that runs out of Nairobi to Karen. The office is about half way along and we're right next to a mile-long stretch of Kenya's finest entrepreneurial craft (and graft). If it's made out of metal, wood, clay, these guys can do it... it's a CDT teacher's dream. This picture cost me 200 shillings: to quote the owner/manager "come on... I'm runnng a business here..."

Action

2008-10-11T15:17:00.002+03:00

Spotted this on my Jamhuri wanderings this morning; lots more where this came from but I think it makes its point.

Jamhuri

2008-10-11T15:08:00.002+03:00

We make our bags in a place called Jamhuri just down the road from our main office at Lenana Forest Centre. Jamhuri is the Agricultural Society of Kenya Showground. The place is only really used for one week a year for the International Trade Show at the beginning of October (during this week getting anything done at all is a nightmare: Edinburgh residents imagine running a business in the middle of the Highland Showground during the Highland Show and you'll get the picture). For the rest of the year it's largely a ghost town of concrete pavilions for Government Ministries and agricultural businesses, emblazoned with slogans and painted in relentlessly optimistic colours. This is a small selection, I'll try to post a few more on Flickr when I have a better-than-dialup connection.

Compound culture

2008-10-11T08:17:00.002+03:00

Big gates, fences and guards are a way of life: your perspective is conditioned entirely by which side of the fence you're on.

Hot water

2008-10-11T08:14:00.001+03:00

They burn charcoal in the garden and then set a fire in this boiler contraption behind my cottage. Cheaper then electric but perhaps not quite as clean.

Hand painted is best

2008-10-10T18:17:00.002+03:00

The vast majority if signage is hand painted here. The brand police would have a field day, but it's full of little imperfections (some more than others): perfectly imperfect.

Soft top

2008-10-10T17:50:00.004+03:00

We do a lot of custom canvas work, mainly seat covers with the odd awning thrown in. A customer has asked us to put a new lid on this slightly forlorn 205 CTi (remember them). Looks a bit fiddly. Be interesting to see how it turns out. Watch this space.

Decisions

2008-10-10T17:44:00.001+03:00

Sometimes I have weeks that feel like this.

2008-10-10T17:43:00.002+03:00

Love the fact that you're hit by walls of brands you've never encountered before. Here's my favourite sauce selection (I should get out more).

Martha & Lavender

2008-10-10T17:37:00.004+03:00

Martha & Lavender are the acceptable face of Sandstorm (they keep me locked up through the back).

The office

2008-10-10T17:33:00.004+03:00

Office and shop are on the ground floor, custom seat cover team (Gareth yours are on their way) and central stores upstairs. Lenana Forest Centre, Ngong Road... just down the road from the racecourse on the right hand side as you drive out of town, you can't miss it.

Concours d'Elegance

2008-10-10T17:31:00.003+03:00

The Schweppes Concours d'Elegance was held a couple of weeks ago at Nairobi Racecourse, just along the road from the office. Nice motors (and bikes). Wish I'd plucked up the courage to get some stylish balloon headgear.

Home sweet home

2008-10-10T17:20:00.001+03:00

I'm staying outside Nairobi in Karen in a small guesthouse... the houses here all sit in their own compounds and many of them have small guesthouses that are rented out. As you can see it's pretty dry right now: rains expected soon. (Note the full Kenyan breakfast on the terrace table.) This is great but pretty quiet... planning on moving into town soon.

Let's see...

2008-10-10T17:15:00.002+03:00

Well, I said I'd give blogging a go, let's see how what happens. I've been here almost four weeks now and should have started earlier so there's a little catching up to do.