WanderInspo…A Second Quarter Round Up

Howdy readers of my lil corner of the interwebs! I know I have been missing in action yet again, guilty as charged…this seems to be becoming a little bit of an annoying habit that I really need to break, and believe me when I say that I am trying to find that magic potion that helps me to do it all without having to physically split myself into two but there’s no luck on that front as yet! Anyhoo, I thought I would post a little bit of a ramble to let you all know what I have been up to since I last posted…errrm a while ago!

First off, I am well and would like to thank those sweet sweet readers (you know yourselves) that have reached out to me personally on various social media platforms and on email and messaged asking where I have been since I last posted when Wanderlustmate M and I were travelling in Lesotho. The honest truth is that my cup runneth over at the moment and between lawyering (which has taken the lion’s share of my time recently), wanderlusting, planning wanderlust and life in general, the days have literally flown past and I find that we have blinked and slid straight into the third quarter of 2018! Shock horror! Anyone else feel that way?

The second quarter of 2018, much like the first has been full of balancing being a full time lawyer by day with adventures both at home in Kenya and wanderlusting abroad, revisiting old favourites and exploring new frontiers. Add in a smattering of socials, big fat Indian weddings of close family and friends and all sorts of other engagements and you have yourself a pretty punchy cocktail of life! Here’s a snapshot of the last few months:

Being a tourist in London

1. London baby!

London is an old favourite and I am always up for a trip to this fabulous city – I do not need to be told twice to book a ticket out here! May brought with it an impromptu opportunity for a trip to London and I grabbed it with both hands: I couldn’t think of a better way to break the humdrum of lawyering with a city break in Londres! What an amazing time to be out here – summer had just about started and so long, sunny days were in order. Without boring you too with minutae, in a nutshell – shopping, fine dining, being a tourist and exploring hidden nooks and crannies, visits to my favourite travel book stores, meeting up with old school friends, fellow bloggers and fun days in the park with my adorable twin niece and nephew were the order of this trip. A few days in London was just what the soul needed to recharge for the weeks ahead at work!

Quintessentially British

2. Ras-al-Khaimah

Emirates being our airline of choice meant that we could add on a layover over in the UAE and visit the Emirate of Ras-al-Khaimah for a few days of R&R in the desert after our city break in London. I honestly felt like a celebrity checking in to the Ritz Carlton out in the desert and into our tented pool villa overlooking the dunes of the desert, where oryx have right of way, wandering around a desert studded with ancient watchtowers. If this is how the other half lives, then count me in! I will have a separate post about our time at this fabulous property but for now, I will leave you with postcards of Ras-al-Khaimah to give you some idea of our escapades out here!

The fabulous lobby at the Ritz Carlton, RAK

Sundowners in the Desert

Pool at the Tented Villa, Ritz Carlton, Ras al Khaimah

3. Jo’Burg

Barely 2 weeks after our trip to London and Ras-al-Khaimah, we were jetting off yet again to Southern Africa. I met Wanderlustmate M in Johannesburg at the tail end of a business trip for him, and my mission in the mother city was one and one only: to indulge in a super fancy dinner of sirloin Wagyu steak at the Butcher Shop and Grill in Sandton. I have been dreaming of this deliciousness even after being here! I could have tried somewhere new in fabulous Sandton City but my taste buds craved the taste of marbled wagyu crusted with salt and pepper and cooked to perfection and that is exactly what I did after a day of retail therapy. Jo’Burg was but a pit stop: a whirlwind 24 hours in an old favourite before setting Footsteps in new frontiers…

4. Lesotho

A small(ish) country ensconced by South Africa, aptly named “The Kingdom in the Sky” was the new frontier explored in the second quarter of 2018. And what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! Completely different from its neighbour, the Kingdom of Lesotho (pronounced leh-soo-tu) literally touches the sky! Talk about phenomenal landscapes where the mountain peaks kiss the clouds and cold glacial rivers flow between green valleys. The most amazing thing? It is so cold in Lesotho that it snows during the winter and there is a proper ski resort which makes it feel like mini Switzerland! More coming on Lesotho soon, but for now, here’s a peek into some of what we got up to…

Stunning landscapes in Lesotho

Snow-in-Africa!

Stunning sunsets

5. Fun Stuff in Nairobi

In between the adulting (lawyering), wanderlust, planning wanderlust and socials, we also found some super fun things to do in Nairobi.

Exploring my creative side

I am sure I have mentioned this in my ramblings somewhere on the blog that I have a passion for watercolours. In an attempt to live a somewhat balanced life, I decided it was about time to explore my creative side to see if the notions in my head matched any actual talent, hidden or not. One cold Nairobi morning, I rocked up for a watercolours art class with a fabulous lady called Kamal Kaur at her beautiful studio. I am pretty excited to share with you all that not only did I thoroughly enjoy the class, but I also found that that indeed, there is a smidgen of talent there! I am no Picasso and 5 year olds probably paint better than I do, but thanks to Kamal’s encouragement, watercolour paintings have now started to become a thing for me on the odd lazy Sunday afternoon (which have been few and far between these last few months) and I have recently sketched a couple of pictures that I cannot wait to embellish with watercolours!

Exploring my creative side

Local Theatre Productions

I thoroughly enjoy theatre and whenever we are in London, Wanderlustmate M and I make it a point to watch a production in the West End. We watched Aladdin last year and sadly didn’t have time to catch a show on our most recent trip, but Kenyan theatre more than made up for it. We watched a local production of “Sarafina” at the Kenya Cultural Centre, which had me moved to the point of tears at the brilliant telling of this very sad but true story, and then, as if the cultural scene couldn’t get any better, we watched “My Brilliant Divorce” which had us doubling up in laughter at the actress’ fabulous performance.

Nairobi has so much talent and I felt myself watching these performances with a tinge of pride. Being in the moment and all, I didn’t take any pictures but thought it apt to let my fellow Nairobians know that our local theatre is a must do whenever there is a production!

Meeting up with fellow Bloggers

Now this is something that I really enjoyed and hope to do more of. I spent a deliciously cold Nairobi morning catching up with the lovely Jaini of Jaini’s Diaries and her sister Diva. We caught up about all things blogging, food, travel and much more and spent an enjoyable few hours together over brunch and cappuccinos…I left feeling super inspired by both Jaini and Diva and hope to meet these lovely ladies again soon! Do check out Jaini’s blog and her adventures on https://jainisdiaries.com/.

Meeting the beautiful Jaini

Bloggers and Wanderlusters

I hope that this post has given you all a lil insight into what I’ve been up to last quarter and redeemed my tardiness and absence from the blog somewhat. With all this “living” and only 24 hours in a day, my passion for writing and consequently this blog had to take somewhat of a backseat. I am not complaining in any way, please don’t think I am: as I mentioned at the start of this post, my cup runneth over and I am overjoyed with everything that has been taking up my time. But I do admit that I miss creating content for you guys and I hope that as things start to calm down for the summer holidays (yes, all you clients that have travelled, thank you) I will have a little more time to dedicate to Harpreet’s Wanderlust and start to post somewhat regularly about my Footsteps Across The Globe, until I fall off the bandwagon again (hopefully not) and have to write yet another apologetic post…

Until next time…Happy Wanderlusting! xoxo