I spent 5 hours driving around on Saturday, getting groceries but also ordering a frame to be custom made for a piece of Congolese cloth that I bought the previous weekend, and going furniture shopping. The framers was downtown, and I spent over an hour trying to get there (it’s only a few miles away), and then get parking. Interesting being downtown as I so rarely go there. Certainly a hive of activity. It always strikes me that it's very odd to be in a city, where you hardly ever go into the centre. And that of course is the part that has more history (or at least as much as a 100 year old city can have!), as it's where things started. Going by the number of people there that day, there must be quite a lot there! I keep meaning to go down on a Sunday afternoon when it's quieter and just have a wander around. Reasons for not going downtown are that I generally don’t need to, with various shopping malls in other parts of town, and it’s also fairly notorious for its security, or rather, lack thereof! As I walked along the broken up pavement amidst the mass of humanity, with vehicles passing by, I wondered how it would have been in the days of the early settlers when the ci
ty was just developing.
I then went up Ngong Road to look at some of the furniture being sold (and made) at the side of the road. I needed to replace some bedroom furniture due to some rearrangements in my 2nd bedroom after the arrival of a keyboard (on loan from some friends who’re away now for 18months). The furniture ‘showrooms’ aren’t exactly salubrious, being out in the open (they’re called ‘jua kali’, literally meaning ‘hot sun’ as that’s where they’re made). You rather wonder sometimes what state it’s all in having been exposed to the elements, plus the dust and pollution (it’s the 3-piece upholstered suites that would be decidedly the worse for wear, I’d think). Along that stretch of Ngong, there are umpteen places making and selling essentially the same thing. I wound up ordering a chest of drawers and a bedside table from one place, and will go back at the weekend to pick them up. So, something else custom made (albeit following a very common pattern)!
ty was just developing.I then went up Ngong Road to look at some of the furniture being sold (and made) at the side of the road. I needed to replace some bedroom furniture due to some rearrangements in my 2nd bedroom after the arrival of a keyboard (on loan from some friends who’re away now for 18months). The furniture ‘showrooms’ aren’t exactly salubrious, being out in the open (they’re called ‘jua kali’, literally meaning ‘hot sun’ as that’s where they’re made). You rather wonder sometimes what state it’s all in having been exposed to the elements, plus the dust and pollution (it’s the 3-piece upholstered suites that would be decidedly the worse for wear, I’d think). Along that stretch of Ngong, there are umpteen places making and selling essentially the same thing. I wound up ordering a chest of drawers and a bedside table from one place, and will go back at the weekend to pick them up. So, something else custom made (albeit following a very common pattern)!
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