Any city worth its name must have several places its inhabitants can go to pass time, quench their thirst, gossip, hide, have fun etc. It is such places that make many a people’s lives worth living. I’m not saying that, the absence of such life relegated all of them to boredom but to an extent, it does. We have got lots of different people, some go home right from work and that is how they love it, others cannot simply run home, they have got to hang out somewhere before the hour to go home comes. The other Friday, I was invited by some friends who wanted to take me to places; they were bored of my usual talk of Car Wash. One in fact demanded to know why we wanted him to go to Car Wash even when he has never owned a car, what can he go to wash? Of course that was wrong of him; lots of “carless” people go there simply to wash their throats! As the saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, why not join them?” For the sake of my friend Erikado, we decided to change base, instead, we headed straight to a joint in Nyamijos (read Nyamirambo), this pub is located just near the Merez Petrol station, slightly past the Stella Pub. Erikado came with some “flowers” and another friend of his. Since I was the guest, I did not have to worry about the contents of my pockets dwindling so fast; instead, I had to make sure there was plenty of space in my tummy! This place has two classes, “ordinary” and “executive”, don’t ask me for the difference, it’s in the mind of the revellers. I tried seeing the difference but there was none. Instead of being fleeced off some bucks, we decided to down grade from executive to ordinary and still both the booze and the eats were the same. The problem with most places in Kigali, the number of revellers begins decreasing by 10:00pm and in the hour to midnight; most of them are literary empty. We decided to relocate to the city centre’s “Fine Dine”, this has been a place to reckon with, it remains open till around02:00am. To our dismay, Fine Dine had not opened that night and one of the flowers suggested that we go to “Oxygen”. I had heard of it but had never been there; maybe I’m getting too old for such places. We headed straight for Oxygen; by this time, it was really crowded but we managed to get in and had a few drinks. I wonder why they call that place Oxygen in the first place, there isn’t ample oxygen in it, why didn’t they call it “Carbon Monoxide” or better still, “Carbon Dioxide”? This could have given the right impression of what it is. Though the beers were much more expensive than their Nyamijos counterparts, we enjoyed them. After swallowing three good Turbos, I was feeling like the “jungle King”, really lion hearted! If I did not leave this place,I would either suffocate or pounce on somebody! Don’t ask me who; I decided to call it a night and retired early. Not that I feared driving under the influence of drink but just to tame the Turbo Beer in me. After all, the “huhamus” (breathlisers) have been banned thanks to the “Swine Flu”! Mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
