Garments

I awoke midway through a very vivid dream of missing a flight to Kenya because a colleague had left with my boarding pass. I was last seen frantically searching the corridors of the airport (which was shaped like those lounges you find on ferries) looking for somewhere to reprint mine.

I did some Swahili study and vocabulary for clothing was featured in the lesson. Today was a fitting day to be reflecting on the terminology for garments in Swahili given that one could describe the coronation of Charles as ‘garment heavy’. Among very many other things, which were fascinating and wildly entertaining.

I hadn’t expected to tune into the coronation coverage, but an American friend wrote to me perplexed about the whole event (calling it ‘extra’), so I was compelled to assist with interpretation. I found it all very interesting, and mostly hilarious. I have so very many questions that may never be answered.

What is a girdler?

Why did we have Byzantine chants?

Did Lionel Richie and Katy Perry get lost on the way to filming American Idol?

Why can it not be modified to feel more appropriate for 2023 and so that the alleged ‘modernising touches’ are identifiable?

Does economy-wrecking Liz Truss possess any embarrassment or humility in receiving a lifetime pass to all grand events?

Twitter was invented for days such as this, and it’s been worth putting up with all of the Elon Musk nonsense to be able to browse the hilarity today. I think we can all be grateful that the Queen didn’t die between 2017 and early 2022 or we could have had Andrea Leadsom or Jacob Rees-Mogg hogging the screen, holding that sword (sceptre?) in the role of Lord President of the Council. Penny Mordaunt is still a Tory but presents as a more palatable one.

My American friend, agog all day at the whole thing, asked whether I felt my tax contributions had been well spent. I replied to say thank goodness I pay tax in Tanzania now as the Tanzanian government is much more fiscally responsible than the British.

In supermarkets in Dar es Salaam you can sometimes find British products mostly battered from transit and at high prices, so normally I avoid. On such an auspicious day I thought I should indulge in something patriotic, so I found some Fox Crunch Creams, from the high echelons of British snacks, and devoured them for my dessert. I hope Fox products are manufactured in Britain and are not one of the companies to have ditched trading in the UK as unworkable post-Brexit.

Back on Swahili garment vocab, someone was having a laugh when they came up with these:

Sketi = skirt
Tai = tie
Shati = shirt
Suti = suit
Skafu = scarf
Blauzi = blouse
Blanketi = blanket