Layer upon layer upon layer.....

No, it is not about the 1970’s advertisement for Sara Lee Danish! It is about having to get dressed every morning in a house without great central heating (we have the hot water wall radiators which have a mind of their own when it comes to efficiency) and the early morning temperature is still in low single figures. Kenya is cold in the winter but our house in Nairobi was built for it and despite the chilly morning, most days the sun was shining. Here, the houses are full of cold surfaces – tiled floors - and massive rooms which take so much energy to heat. Better suited to the tradition of extended family living rather than just five girls.

My nose is my thermometer – it is so cold it is painful, and when my feet hit the freezing ceramic tiles on the floor they ‘burn’ (time and funds have prevented the purchase of carpets so far). After steaming up the bathroom getting dressed is a race against time!

Several layers of tee shirts, woolly tights; the heaviest cotton Kameez that I own (a size too large to accommodate the layers underneath!);jeans; socks; my old bright green cashmere cardigan (a bit of taking coals to Newcastle as it was purchased in France) and to top it all off the pashmina shawl that wraps around twice!

 The debate between fashionista and dowdy but warm is one we have had to face in the past few weeks. It seems that Pakistani women suffer for fashion’s sake. There is no denying the newly released Winter Collections are beautiful but they are still only cotton. Corrinne is on a mission to own the men’s heavy wool suit (trousers and tunic much the same style as women but without the embroidery and colour) and the cream or fawn shawls. However, everytime she tries to sneak one past the shop attendants they shake their heads and say ‘no, no, madam. This is only for the gentleman, not for ladies’ and they direct her to the lighter weight garments. Our suggestions that she is buying for her brother or husband are not successful, the sizing is a dead give away – she is tiny and hardly reaches 5ft!

Ajin returns home one day, having been slightly more successful. She has persisted and has found a lovely very light wool with beautiful crewel embroidery (marking it as women’s wear). We all put it on our wish list for the new year shopping!

Leaving the house is not so bad as the journey to the office is by car. However, the time of departure determines whether we arrive to  slightly heated office or an ice box! My office has 2 walls of windows – lovely in the summer I imagine but not so at this time of year. The thermostat on the gas heater tells me that the room temperature is 10°C. A the day progresses, I watch the figure slowly climb higher – I know I don’t help by having the door open but I hate sitting in a box locked away from everyone else (in Nairobi, at the Wilson Airport hanger, I shared an office and it was also used as the meeting room so I always had company). By the time I am packing up to leave in the evening, the temperature of the room has struggled to an amazing 17°C! I feel a bit mean turning off the heater knowing it is going to have to start all over again tomorrow, but we all have our job to do!

Arriving home, we test the temperature – has the heating been efficient today? We move from room to room feeling the radiators and testing the hot water taps.

The warmest room is the sitting room as it can be closed off completely from the rest of the house and has heavy curtains. I assume my usual position sitting on the radiator until my hands and feet have defrosted.