Brrring! Brrring!
Confused and still asleep I turn over on the ‘harder than rock’ mattress and pick up the phone on my bedside table.
‘Hello?’ I rasp in a voice that within the last 24 hours suffered of the dry plane air, the dust of the Entebbe-Kampala road and the noisier than noisy tennis bar.
‘Good morning! What do you want for breakfast?’
‘What?’ I don’t understand. It’s eight o’clock. The breakfast is served until ten if I remember rightly. ‘We will have breakfast downstairs, thank you,’ I growl and put the phone down.

Half an hour later, bleary eyed we both stumble into the restaurant just to find that breakfast consists of a selection of Chinese food and no visible drinks on offer.
I have never liked the idea of having leftover takeaway for breakfast. Not even at home, let alone in a hotel. However, too tired to argue, I sprinkle my plate with a bit of rice, sautéed vegetables and sit down.
We order tea and juice and look for the cutlery. Oh hang on, did I mention that our hotel is run by a Chinese company?
Chopstick! We are in the middle of Africa eating our breakfast with chopsticks! It takes us quite a long time (I wish I hadn’t chosen rice now).

That adventure over, we take on the city.
Kampala is noisy, smelly, busy, crowded and colourful. The motorbike taxis (boda boda) are weaving in and out of traffic at relentless speed. They are a cheap means of transport but they are also very dangerous. Apparently 70% of all casualties in local hospitals are either the boda boda drivers or their passengers. It’s a known fact (and well observed) that they don’t like to stop, they just keep going until someone lets them through. We take a risk and soon we are squeezed through the throngs of vehicles, keeping our arms close and our knee caps even closer.

Today is all about cricket. We have made a few arrangements and we are meeting friends who work for the Uganda Cricket Association. One is managing a game at Kyambogo Oval (Uganda Select IX against Zimbabwe), the other is working at another match at Lugogo Oval (Uganda against Kenya). We manage to see a little bit of both games and both friends.
The Lugogo Oval has a curry restaurant that used to be a large, open thatched building. It has been completely rebuilt and has been turned into a fairly posh establishment. We decide to have a drink and a lunch, for old times sake.

Oh my goodness! My ears have only just popped back into the default setting and my face has regained its original colour. All I can say is, when asked whether mild, medium or hot, at The Oasis you should ALWAYS reply ‘mild please’.

Back at the hotel now (have I told you that we remarked on the firmness of our mattress and the receptionist organised a different room for us? We had a look and yes, it’s the same story. However she offered to put an extra duvet on top of the bed and deciding that the view was better from this room, she told us to bring our luggage over.).
In other news: our missing suitcase is apparently in the country (not sure which) albeit not in the hotel. Apparently it will arrive soon.
So will Christmas.
We are struggling to switch off the air conditioning….