Tuesday 10th June.
One lunchtime this week, I think it was Tuesday 10th, I decided it was high time I went along to the best locals’ café, one curiously called the "Passing Show". Tourists might well have thought that "Last Resort" would have been a better name – but those bold enough to venture inside and even more daringly stayed to eat - would have found good wholesome Swahili cooking in a polite if not friendly atmosphere. This has always been popular and busy in all the years I’ve been coming here. Popular is good because you can believe the food shifts so efficiently that it isn’t hanging around too long before it’s eaten. It’s in the Malindi district, near the port and next door to the police station. As such it could be mistaken for the Police Officers’ mess. I remember having lunch there on Christmas Day once. – chicken and rice in good (local) company.

Today I was pleased to find it is going from strength to strength. Recently painted (inside) it now perhaps disappointingly seems cleaner, more upmarket. Tables are covered in easy wipe PVC fabric, it is well lit, and now the two rooms each have a TV – one with SKY News and the other with BBC World – each with their rolling news in text across the bottom of the screen bearing no relation to the video coverage… suicide bomb in Ramallah – "Blair about to hold press conference". Surreal? Yes. Relevant? Yes. Appropriate? Why not?

Passing Show never was at the end of the world – it’s just that now that’s a bit more obvious.