Today we are moving to Malawi. This country borders onto Mozambique and Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
We had many happy years living here and this is where I also met and married Klaus.
It is many, many, many moons as they say since we lived there but hope you will enjoy a little time there with me and a little reminiscing about life.
This was a very beautiful and green fertile country as we lived there, gradually getting modern. I can remember the first large supermarket that was built. It had an escalator going up to the first floor where there was a coffee shop, this was great for meeting up with friends. We could buy proper milkshakes and frothy coffee. Also fresh gooey cakes, and ice-cream,  bliss. How you look back on these little luxuries which we take so much for granted these days. Little children would hopefully wait outside in case you bought them an ice-cream cone. The first few weeks the locals would stand on the escalators going up and down all day, they had never seen anything like it, and the fascination of moving stairs!!
Klaus was in charge of the construction site building the first part of the  new capital city government buildings up in Lilongwe. The capital moved from Blantyre to Lilongwe. This was some project. I can  imagine that after all these years we would not recognise the place anymore. We have heard that the whole place is a lot more built up now.

Don't forget to click on any picture to enlarge it

Many long hot sweaty hours were put into building this and a lot of man power as you can imagine.

My father before he retired ended up working for the president as Chief  Mechanical Supervisor on his fleet of cars, whilst Klaus  and the company he was in charge of built the presidential palace. I was allowed to have a look around it before we left and it was spectacular. No wonder I could never reach Klaus on the phone when needed,  he must have walked miles each day it was so large. If  I had to stop at a crossing when driving by the traffic police, I was usually waved on as I was known as the boss's wife, as some member of his family worked for Klaus. Sometimes I would see Klaus waiting to be signalled on, and with a cheery grin the traffic policeman would indicate for me to go first, this came to be quite a laugh amongst us all.

On our third date out together we went on a picnic to a waterfall in the forest with two friends of ours. We saw some pretty cacti growing down on a ledge next to the falls, my friend's husband climbed down to get a cutting. Klaus offered to get me some as well and started to climb down. there was a loud yell and a crash as he slipped. He landed up sitting in a cactus, and after being helped up, with my cuttings, I started the long job of removing the cactus thorns. Must have done a very good job, as Klaus turned round and proposed to me.
How romantic is that.  42 years on and he still buys me the odd cactus or two. So when ever I see a waterfall it  reminds me of this.

The Famous Waterfalls.

That's it for this week, come again next week for some more memories.

Picture of the week

'Swingtime'

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Now to catch up on the African Wild dog.

This is becoming like one of those maze puzzles you get in a magazine. Finding the right stripe!

I am gradually filling in along the body, watching that the shading to bring in the shape of the dog is not lost.

When painting from a photo it is not always easy, as not every detail is as clear as you might like it. You can only paint what you see. And is was some time since we saw this animal. So far it seems to be coming along ok.

Join me next week to see how the picture is coming on.