Views of the Monkeynut

by   Peter R. Lloyd-Davies

Peter

Louise

Madeleine

Toni

New from the Monkeynut, Xmas, 2014 Both the girls returned to Austin for the holidays. Toni whizzed around visiting friends in Austin and Houston and one of her friends flew in from Boston for a couple of days. Madeleine was somewhat constrained by her job, but managed to spend the week between Christmas and the New Year in Austin. The wassail flowed freely and a good time was had by all. (Toni had requested one large Christmas present - to go skydiving - and was disappointed by bad weather which prevented them from flying. However, she will finish up her duties in the Peace Corps this summer and will try again then.) Here is a link to our Christmas letter, detailing our adventures. New from the Monkeynut, October, 2014 - ACL Two years ago, Louise, Madeleine and I went to the Austin City Limits Fest and my experience was not enough fun to justify the price of the wristband. Earlier this year, when ACL tickets went on sale, Louise in an optimistic frame of mind bought two tickets, thinking I would come to my senses and give it another try. I held firm, however, and so my ticket ended up going to Els, a neighbor and friend. Also, Louise's brother George with his partner Rick came down to go, so the four of them set off together. In the end, a good time was had by all. Here are some pics taken by Rick, who is a professional photographer. ACL Dinner at Shady Grove Boris, by Rick New from the Monkeynut, August, 2014 - our trip to Cameroon! We're back from two weeks in Cameroon, visiting Toni in her native habitat. Louise and I had planned to leave on Sunday August 24 for Istanbul to meet Madeleine who was flying there from New York, so we could continue on together to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. In the end, we left two days later for health reasons, so Madeleine got there before us. The flight was long but relatively smooth and we arrived in the evening of Wednesday August 27th to be greeted by our two daughters at the airport. After a day decompressing in Yaounde, we piled into a taxi to drive, first to Bafia, where we met Toni's host family who accomodated her when she was doing her Peace Corps training in Bafia. They were amazingly welcoming and cooked us a fine Cameroonian meal, which we wolfed down. Then we bundled into the taxi again (the same taxi - we had reserved it for the whole day) and continued on to Bafang, the small town where Toni is living. The second leg of the trip was a little more eventful; as it got darker and rainier, it became more and more difficult to see where the potholes were or how deep they were. As we crashed into one particularly treacherous one, the left rear tire blew. No problem; we all hopped out of the car, dug the spare out and put it on. But then, when we were still 12 miles from Bafang, another tire blew. Oops! Can we call a tow truck, I asked, but was told that there were probably none for 50 miles. So we ended up grinding into Bafang on the rim of the wheel. But - hey! we made it! Bafang is a small town five hours from Yaounde on a good day. Toni lives in a small house on the outskirts of town - you can walk into town in about twenty minutes, or you can grab your helmet and walk a short distance to where there are usually three or four motorcyclists who will be happy to take you into town for the equivalent of twenty cents per person. We generally took the motos and they served us very well. Toni took us and introduced us to what seemed like all of the population of Bafang, with whom she appeared to be on excellent terms. It was a treat to hear her jabbering away in French and we enjoyed meeting her Cameroonian friends as well as some fellow Peace Corps volunteers. After about ten days, we returned to Yaounde to fly home. While we were sad to leave Toni, we did look forward to having hot showers again! More on our adventures here.. Group with Toni's host family Moto transportation Visiting Karine and Leonard New from the Monkeynut, April, 2014 - Big Bend. Louise and I took the Easter weekend to drive up to the park, spend two and a half days checking it out and then drive back again. It is kind of a long way to go for a weekend, but we both had a great time. Perhaps the most fun we had was going to Mexico - there is a river crossing in the park. We had to show our passports, after which we waved to a guy on the other side of the river who rowed over to get us. Then we rented burros to convey us into Boquillas, a tiny Mexican village where we had to show our passports again and then went to a restaurant for food and beer. This river itself doesn't seem like much of an impediment to entry and perhaps it's not surprising that there are millions of illegal immigrants in the US. Politicians talk of securing the border, but I'm not sure I want to swap my views of the Rio Grande for views of machine-gun nests and mine fields You can see all of our pictures here.. Two Americans in Mexico Louise in Mexico The two of us New from the Monkeynut, April, 2014 - comiXology. Amazing news from New York. Comixology, where Madeleine works, announced that it was going to be purchased by Amazon. This is splendid news indeed, but the punch line came later, during the pre-aquisition bloodbath. Madeleine's boss left, but recommended to the powers that be that Madeleine should be her successor. And sure enough, she got the nod and is now Director of Production and reports directly to the freakin' CEO!!! How cool is that!!!

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