I kid you not, there is an English country garden in the volcanic ranges of Rwanda. It's called Imbabazi. Open for afternoon tea, events, and even camping. Such a beautiful place, it was hard to leave.
Check out the book Land of a Thousand Hills, the memoir of Rosamond Carr who used to live there.
Hi guys. It's been a while since I made a blog post. I've been a little bit busy.
I've talked about CasaKeza on here many times. It was started by my friend Maia back in 2016 and has been my local ever since. I've had many a lovely (and inebriated) night there. Even slept in the garden a couple of times.
It survived COVID (just) and soldiered on bravely, but with Maia out of the country and the rising cost of utilities and repairs, it went into a bit of a decline. Maia asked if I would help her sell off the assets, and that's what I was planning to do. But CasaKeza always had a bit of a strange pull. It has a beautiful garden and a lovely vibe. It seemed worth giving it one more go.
So, on 1 April I took over the assets and reregistered the business. We had to choose a new name for tax purposes - which was a whole fiasco. I've created a playlist of everything involved, you can watch that if you're interested. We were going to keep the CasaKeza name, but it all got a bit complicated, so we've rebranded as The Cauldron.
I'm sure I'll make many more posts about it in the future. For now I'm just trying to get things up and running again. It's been hella challenging, but also a lot of fun. Creative in ways I never imagined, and frustrating in ways I suspected but was not fully prepared for (paperwork in Rwanda is on a whole other level). I am sure there are many adventures to come.
Yesterday, I uploaded a story about funeral biscuits for World Storytelling Day. Back when I was originally writing it, my mum went above and beyond with research and actually made a batch! Traditional Hookland funeral biscuits! Apparently they tasted a bit gritty.
In honour of World Storytelling Day, I have narrated my Hookland story The Black Biscuit Baker (or Skulls and Hourglasses). If you enjoy, do check out my Hookland novel Creeper's Cottage. An unsettling tale of strange happenings. Hookland is the creation of David Southwell. It's a mythical county in England where folklore lives and breathes. 'Ghost soil,' as he calls it. You can also find me talking about the inspiration for the novel here.
Hi everyone. Most of you know that I drive a motorbike in Rwanda. I have a friend, Asha, who does the same in Cameroon. It's not common to see female bikers in Africa so there's a bit of camaraderie. She just released this video and it's such a good one. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll restore your faith in humanity. Please show her some love with likes and subs.
Haven't done one of these in a while, but thought this deserved to be shared. A couple of months back I fell down a rabbit hole of songs from the 80s and 90s, and I landed on Labi Siffre's Something Inside So Strong. It made me feel very nostalgic. I saw he had a YouTube channel and fell even further down the rabbit hole, to the point where my brain melted. We all remember Madness, Must Be Love, right? Well, that's a cover of Labi Siffre, and he appears in the video as a violin player! But the one that left my jaw on the floor was Eminem, My Name Is. The whole thing is based around a 1975 sample of Labi Siffre, I Got The... I read that and I was like, 'nah... what?' Then I listened to it and was blown away. (Wait for it, the sample comes in around 2:11). It's now a regular on my road trip list. So talented. I really like the video with this upload of his song, and glad to discover more of his work through his channel.
Hi everyone. I decided to do a booktag Q&A about being a British expat in Rwanda. The tag was started by ReaDANculous. You can find his original video here.
Welcome to my Howling Halloween book tag. Let me tell you all about my faovurite horrifying and haunting reads, from short stories to terrible tomes. Tell me yours in the video comments.
In a world of AI slop, it's wonderful to get to watch something that took real time and effort to make. Go follow Felix Colgrave's channel.
Had a lovely time talking to Margaret Pinard on her YouTube channel last night. As part of Agitation August I was talking about a book that really shook me up. I chose Emergency Sex: True Stories from a War Zone which had a huge impact on me when I first moved to Rwanda. We talk about everything from the state of international development, to youth unemployment, and the meaning of life - just small things. There's a lot more laughs than I make that sound! Turn on the live chat replay for extra entertainment, and if you could lightly bother the like button, it would be much appreciated.
Just another quick post about Agitation August, discussing books that really shook you up over on Margaret Pinard's YouTube channel. This is the lineup for this week and I thought a few of you might find Tuesday's chat interesting: How to Resist Amazon, and Why. Certainly a tough one for authors and book lovers alike.
I'll be there on Friday at 10 am PDT/6 pm GMT/7 pm CAT hanging out in the chat and talking about Emergency Sex, a book that certainly shook me up when I first started working in international development. Video link here.
Look forward to seeing those who can make it.
