My best Easter party in years came to pass

I find myself with all the time after my wife accompanied her younger sister to her parents’ in the village. PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC 

By Man about town

In Summary

• Though I was inwardly delighted, I kept my joy hidden and moaned how I would miss the trip.

We are back to the office after the Easter Break and once again events remind me that I need to discuss my job description with the CEO. But the only challenge is that I can never seem to gather the courage to ask.

This morning, I found myself in a meeting to discuss an important tender that we are submitting. In fact when I received the meeting invite, I asked the CEO’s PA whether my presence was needed.

She said: “The boss insisted that you must attend.” I had no choice but to be there. As I am sitting in the boardroom waiting for the meeting to begin, I look back to my Easter weekend which was simply heavenly and made me remember my bachelor days.

A fortnight ago, Shiro informed me that there would a function on her side of the family for a younger sister who is getting married.

She was clearly excited and said: “We cannot miss this since it is our baby who is getting married.” The ‘we’ in the statement was important and I had to ask: “Who is we?” She answered: “But, of course, you and I, and you said that this time round we have no plans so this works out just fine.”

Things have been nice between both of us and I promised we would go. I dared not tell Shiro at this point that I really do not like going to her side of the family because as very conservative Christians they do not allow me to have a drink.

Come Good Friday, I was all set to leave and was looking towards a leisurely drive to Shiro’s village, reading the newspaper before setting off.

At about 9am, a hysterical Shiro interrupted my reading, saying, “Babes we have a problem.” My first thought was the baby and I said, “What is the matter with the baby? Do we go to hospital?”

She said, “No, nothing is wrong with the baby but my sister is in deep trouble.” I had to calm Shiro down to narrate the story which ended up being that her sister’s car would not start at all. Since her sister lives down the road from where we stay. I offered: “I can drive down and see what is the matter and call my mechanic.”

An hour later after trying all manner of tricks and having the mechanic try fix the car, we realised that this car requires an engine overhaul. The mechanics said “Since most of the shops are closed for Easter, we can only do this on Tuesday.” Shiro’s sister was distraught as she said, “But, I cannot miss the function at home! I must go!

We figured out that the best thing to do is to have Shiro, her sister, their children and their nannies go to the village. The natural outcome was that I could not accompany them.

Though I was inwardly delighted, I kept my joy hidden and moaned about how I had been looking forward to the day. Shiro’s sister was praising me for ‘such a sacrifice for her sake.”

That is how I ended up in Nairobi with free time and with no family demands. I managed to connect with some of my ex-college friends and get thoroughly drunk. Better still, since I did not have a car I used cabs and avoided the menace of Alcoblow.

I watched all the football matches uninterrupted without having to make way for Cartoon network. I walked around the house dressed in only my T-shirt. A good time.

My reminiscing is brought to an abrupt end by the voice of the CEO saying, “I think we now have a quorum, the meeting can start. Josphat! Please take minutes.”