Graham took himself off to the Vumba for 3 days of competitive golf this past weekend and the kids and I were left to fend for ourselves. In our newfound freedom we decided to go camping on Friday night – in the front garden … we are so brave. As it turns out, our courage faded with the sun, and come bedtime we were inventing reasons to sleep indoors. Tyla won out with the most convincing argument about not being able to find the loo or the torch or the necessary daring in the middle of the night. So we shuffled sheepishly back into the house and all piled into my bed for a night of giggles and fighting for the covers.

On Saturday we ventured out to watch the fireworks display, feeling guilty about leaving the dogs home alone. We packed our picnic basket, the essential bottle of wine for me, some strawberries and cheese, and pizza for the kids. The children ran around like mad things for hours, then ate, then got a bit bored waiting for the fireworks to start. I felt no pain having anaesthetized myself sufficiently with Nederburg Baronne, the full effects of which only made themselves known, thankfully, when I got within spitting distance of my bed.

Sunday found us enjoying lunch at Aunt Jen’s with yours truly vigorously (an exaggeration) participating in animated discussion around the psychology of smell and how people will happily smell your wrist, but will balk when you hold out 2 fingers for them to sniff at – which ended in a fit of giggles. After food, and the vain exhortation to my children to eat (“I’m not going to cook anything for dinner you know” – ever hopeful) I propped my frail head against the sun lounger amongst the old folk and snoozed behind dark glasses, surreptitiously you understand.

I’m sure no-one noticed.

The Zimbabwe Market Fair 2012 held in Harare brought together women and young entrepreneurs from all over Zimbabwe. High quality locally made Zimbabwe products were on display. I managed to interact with these three talented groups of women.

1. The Zubo Trust
Zubo hails from Binga, and does Tonga basketry, which they fuse with contemporary stuff to come up with designs for handbags, cell phone cases, cosmetic bags, fruit baskets etc. Available at the Binga Craft Centre or the Craft Designer on 0713 877 949.

2. Gracious Women Institute
These women brought in a unique kind of art to the fair. The seed craft are from Bulawayo. Grace Kamanga who runs the institute also offers training in the following areas: straw art, vase making and flower arrangement. Contact them on 0772 896 798.

3. Stitch in Time Fashions
Ruth Mlambo, an entrepreneur based in Harare’s Hatcliffe Extension, is into fabric design and colouring using the Batik method. Her designs capture Zimbabwean arts and culture. Contact Ruth on 0775 643 709.

Zanu PF has helped Tsvangirai gorge on the perks of power to get him fat like a pimple ready to be squeezed. Motorcades, mansions, women, trips abroad. The Savoy Hotel, one of the most prestigious hotels in London is his most recent accommodation of choice. Tsvangirai may well, at this time, be a better choice than Mugabe. But he’s showing some serious signs that he’s learning some really bad habits, really quickly.

{Note to customs at Harare International Airport: please search Morgan and Elizabeth like you do all of us ordinary folk and make sure to charge them duty on their UK shopping}

Buy one get one for free! 40 per cent discount on all purchases! Get a free product for every purchase! This is how retailers lure customers especially towards the festive season. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is offering such unbelievable promotions to advertisers that you’d think they’ve turned into a shop ready for Christmas. They are giving massive 40% discounts and free radio slots for every TV slot purchased. This is more to do with the pressure of the competition from the launch of two new radio stations in Zimbabwe than anything else. And to try and keep existing customers and lure new ones, ZBC plays its promotional adverts more than it plays adverts by advertisers! Imagine the heat the ZBC would experience if real life independent public media got licensed in Zimbabwe.

Research has shown that the most common password used is the word ‘password’ itself and the numbers 123456. The list also has iloveyou, football, sunshine and jesus. According to the list the top ten passwords are as follows:

1. password
2, 123456
3. 12345678
4. abc123
5. qwerty
6. monkey
7. letmein
8. dragon
9. 111111
10. baseball

When I asked a colleague why Tsvangirai is in the UK, she said, gone shopping? Such faith we have in our politicians.