Masaku 7s

I won't pull any punches, I didn't like the experience & I don't think I'll attend another one in the foreseeable future. My social calendar is probably the least marked compared to Nairobi middle class folks anyway so it's not like I can say I have my weekends back. Back to unmarked it is. Masaku7s is part of Kenya Rugby Union's series of tournaments that includes, Dala in Kisumu, Prinsloo in Nakuru, Driftwood in Mombasa and Kabeberi in Nairobi all of which compose different legs of the circuit. Ratchets, beer, more testosterone than in a composite season of 24 and the Sopranos, girls in hot pants selling beer. You can imagine the ones with swollen pudenda! The men's twigs and berries must get ripe and ready, I know mine did;-). As my Marketing lecturer used to say, all advertising and promo is just over glorification of product but folks always post photos of Masaku7s that prove the promos live up to billing. What the French call a certain 'Je Ne Sais Quoi'. So I decided to show up and show out with Nairobi

 Being a Saturday, there was little traffic driving from Nairobi. New middle class car owners and kids with hires looking for death happily along Mombasa road. 1500 cc Wingroads overtaking my 1800cc fielder. Traffic jam build up stated from Machakos turn off (Makutano) moving to Machakos county office, the entire road was a parking lot. Toyotas and Subaru with blaring music, a drunk girl dancing on top of a Nissan xtrail and one jeep wrangler (upper middle class?) passed by that got cheers

.

I needed food to make my life right because we had spend probably half a day driving 15 kms. We parked by the road and decided to take in the sights and look for a place to eat. My first visit to Macha'. Notable landmarks I saw include Naivas butchery, All souls cathedral, Mulu Mutisya h/way and Tea Tots hotel where we went in. After lunch (that pilau didn't stand a chance!!) and a few bottles of summit lager we got back on the road and finally got to the stadium. Got more beers and sat to watch the games. I can only remember Oslo because it was a predominantly and the only white team and their white water girls wore hot pants too. I have to admit the crowd was great. Big crowd means big noise. There is safety in numbers so it is fun

The after party was at the golf course (Oh Yeah, another landmark). Details are fuzzy but I do recall a female singing on stage, stopping a fight and necking with a stranger. Either I had been put to sleep  or my drunken person's auto pilot facility was improving with experience because I woke up in the car which was parked some 600 meters away.

typically middle class chap from Langata

The next time I woke up at around 3 I think and we were stuck in traffic. I woke up again at 8 and we hadn't moved. We arrived in Nairobi at around 12 after traffic finally eased. Good experience but this is definitely not my shindig. Next week, back to Lumte the local

What's on my reading list:

Good news Bible

Quote of the week;

"Don't bring intellect to the bar. That's a place for drug abuse and high libido"- My friend, Cain

a dozen drinks

Mayo clinic defines alcoholism as a chronic and often progressive disease that includes problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, having to drink more to get the same effect (physical dependence), or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking.
 Mayo also describes binge drinking as a pattern of drinking where a male consumes five or more drinks in a row, or a female downs at least four drinks in a row — can lead to the same health risks and social problems associated with alcoholism. I couldn't find anything about using alcohol as a crutch. For a significant part of his life, my friend had been an alcoholic. He was one of those alcoholics who thought he was  a person of different sobriety and not the former and as long as he maintained sobriety of conduct  ("as long as situpi mbao", he would say) it was fine.


I had long ago concluded that he believed life revolved around football  and alcohol and that - especially under the influence of too much of the latter- sometimes it just revolved so I never tried matching him drinks for drinks. You don't need Mayo clinic to know that was an alcoholic or at least on the path to being one. He eventually saw the folly in denial and got into a cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT)  program three months ago. He came home today.  My other friend who is a chain smoker (this one likes his 'fwaka' like a problem) and womanizer asked him about the program and if he can recommend it. "Hiyo yako si addiction hiyo ni character defect"

So I decided to delete my bookmark to beer advocate.com and tapper off my drinking by substituting my beer with another narcotic called television and for the last one week I've been sitting comatose in front of the TV mindlessly consuming episodes of Hannibal (that chap can throw down in the kitchen though!!). On the upside, the lethargy from that is better off than from over imbibing. Whatever spurt of annoyance or stress or boredom that always leads me straight to the chilled glass pint of tusker, it turns to pixie dust (my mathee made sure my siblings and I read those castle story books of  Rumpelstilskin and snow white) and blows away the second I sip my froth. This is an upside to my tusker. The scales don't seem to tilt much for television so far

I bet my spot at the local watering hole, Lumte Bar Nyaru has been taken by now.

What's on my book shelf
Peter Taylor's Smoke ring: Tobacco and multinational politics (borrowed it from my smoker friend actually)

What's on my playlist:
They don't love you no more- Khaleed ft. Jay Z, Meek Mill and French Montana

Dumbest thing I've heard today:
"That explains why you drink a lot of tea, it's everywhere so you're trying to get rid of it" (When my cousin visited Kericho and saw the plantations)