Author: John Fox
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Street names: signposts to history
‘What’s in a name?’ Juliet asked, when she was telling her Romeo not to worry about the rivalry between their clans – the Capulets and the Montagues. She was wrong, wasn’t she? Shakespeare’s plot took a more realistic and tragic account of clan conflict. For some time, I have enjoyed taking note of the history…
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At the Kilimani Organic Farmers’ Market
Last Sunday I got a nice reminder that I was born and grew up a farmer’s boy. The sun was shining, and my wife and I decided to go to the Organic Farmers’ Market at the Kilimani Primary School on Argwings Khodek Road. It was the stacks of fruit and vegetables on sale that triggered…
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The ghost at the Railway Museum
The sun was out last Sunday morning, but there was still a chill in the air. It was an indoors day. I decided to check out the Railway Museum near the old railway station; I hadn’t been there for years. As soon as I parked the car, a figure appeared from behind one of the…
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Sunday lunch at Macushla House
Last Friday afternoon I rang Macushla House to book a table for two for Sunday lunch. We hadn’t been there for many years. But we remembered it as a cared for and secluded place, tucked away in the Langata lanes carved out of an indigenous forest – in Ngurure Road and not far from the…
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Camping at the Rocky Mountain
Both mornings we woke to the calls of francolins. I used to have them as the ringtone on my mobile phone – until a friend pointed out that it sounded like someone having fun on an old spring mattress. At any time of day when at our tent – one of those luxury-style tents, with…
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Driving Kenya’s Roads
‘I think you could well be interested in this,’ a friend said, as she handed over a book. It was the AA Members Handbook for 1982-84: ‘Guide to Motoring and Touring in Kenya’. I was certainly well interested – particularly, because it was published around the time I came back to Kenya to stay. Gavin…
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Chez Sonia: A Taste of France in Peponi Road
As a teenager my first travelling venture was to cycle with my sister to France. From our home town of Boston (the original one) on the east coast of England, we pedalled down to Lydd airport on the south coast, loaded our bicycles on a smallish but wide-bodied plane, landed in Le Touquet, and made…
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Unusual Tastes of the Andes in Lavington
For years I was saying that Lavington needed a hotel. Now it has one – The Social House. And it is a very special one. My son, Jan, beat me to writing about it for our Going Places column in February – soon after it had opened and before the lockdown. But not all of…
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A Drive in the Nairobi National Park
Waking up last Saturday morning, the sun wasn’t up either. There was still a chill in the air. I pulled the duvet closer round me and began to wonder what I was going to do about Going Places. I began to wish, as I had often wished these last three lockdown months, that I could…
Going Places Africa 