Eating Out Like There's No Recession

Sometimes it is hard to figure out if the U.S economy is really in a recession. Take tonight, for instance.

Like every other Saturday, we headed out to the strip mall for dinner. Before we left home, we agreed to eat out at LongHorn Steakhouse and so we drove 10 miles to the nearest location.

The first surprise was that we couldn't find any parking. No problem. That is usually the case on Saturday nights when the majority of suburbians go out to eat. However, the shocker was when we arrived at the restaurant and found that there was a one hour plus wait!

You'd think that because the U.S. economy is in a recession, families would cut back drastically on Saturday night outings especially in mid to high priced restaurants.

And it's not like this is an isolated case. I remember going out to eat on a Monday in December last year and we found a 15 minute wait at our local Chevy's. It made me wonder if people eat out more during recessions.

Fortunately for us tonight, there was no wait at a nearby Applebee's restaurant despite the fact that it costs more to eat out at LongHorn Steakhouse.

However, it is worth noting that an Applebee's and LongHorn Steakhouse restaurant close to our home were shut down sometime in the middle of last year. This also came as a surprise to me because the restaurants were always full whenever we dined at these locations.

Safaricom Blackberry Service Is Useless

Thanks to Safaricom, I returned from vacation to find 311 emails waiting for me and another 614 items on my Google reader service.

Prior to subscribing for the Blackberry service, I spoke to a Safaricom agent who re-assured me that their Blackberry service was top-notch and even offered to set it up for me. However, my troubles began as soon as he activated the service.

It turned out that I could not access my Yahoo and ATT emails from the Safaricom network. This I could live with because I could have used Yahoo! Go on my Blackberry to access my Yahoo emails. But this turned out to be the least of my worries.

Despite visiting the Safaricom customer service center several times, I never got my Blackberry to work properly. I rarely received my emails, and when I did, it was the same emails even after I had deleted them.

And because my Blackberry was constantly (and unsuccessfully) trying to pull my emails, the battery would run out of power by mid-day despite charging the phone the whole night. It's no wonder that I saw other Blackberry users constantly charging their phones in restaurants.

Trying to access the internet over my phone was also a problem. Most of the time, the internet would fail to load. And if you count the number of times I failed to make calls because of Safaricom's congested network, then you realize why almost every Safaricom customer that I talked to is dissatisfied with Safaricom's service.

Now I understand why a lot of Kenyans have shunned the Blackberry service and prefer to use Nokia phones for data services. Subscribing to Safaricom's Blackberry service was a waste of my money.

Kenya; The Making Of A Nation

I saw an advert in the dailies for the above titled DVD and headed straight to NuMetro to get myself a copy. The fact that it is co-produced by Hillary Ng'weno made it a must buy item.

Even though I also bought several other local productions, my priority is to watch the 14 part half hour documentaries that detail Kenya's political landscape from 1959 to 2007. The 2 part DVD is an invaluable resource of Kenya's political history.

For Kshs 1500, this is by far the best buy from my trip to Kenya.

Addendum; I can only hope that everything in the series is factual (and true) because it contains a lot of information that I have never heard/read before.

Arrested Development

In what has become a routine, I was 'arrested' by traffic police. As is the norm, the cop asked that we drive to the police station where I can be issued a ticket after I refused to part with a bribe.

The last time I was in similar position, I ended up spending a few hours in jail.

Once bitten, twice shy. Not wanting a repeat, I told the cop to impound the car and keep my driver's licence as I was not going to accompany him to the police station.

I was let go with a stern warning and a chuckle.

The Land Of My Children

I couldn't be more proud of the United States of America. Barack Obama's ascension to the presidency has made it cool to be American once again.

God bless America. God bless Barack Obama.

1st Trade Of The Year

Once a investor trader, always a investor trader.

Banks are on the chopping board once more thanks to a worsening U.S. economy. Foreclosures are still on the rise and account for a significant proportion of housing sales. News of Citigroup's break-up can only mean that financials are still in stormy waters.

And with that, I'm back into the market. I made my first trade today and will be buying a few more chunks of UYG which is currently retesting the previous lows.

Update; Just bought the 2nd chunk. One more trade to go for today.

Mama Mikes Featured on Kenyan TV

I had a chance of watching Sengeni Ngethe being interviewed this morning on the Power Breakfast Show of Citizen TV. The interview focused on his online shopping store and was very informative.

What struck me is that 80% of mamamikes.com customers are women living in the U.S. (or was it abroad?)

I'm not sure what this means but I would have thought the majority of the clients were men. I have not read any research on the demographics of online shopping and therefore I am interested in finding out what the trend is with other online businesses. When I get back to the U.S., finding this information will be at the top of my to do lists.

Interestingly, Segeni mentioned that the global downturn has had an effect on their business but they are diversifying their operations to mitigate this. He mentioned Hapa TV (run in matatus) which is a local venture but I didn't really understand how they make money from local content. May be they receive advertising revenues.

It's worth mentioning that I also watched Equity Bank's CEO interview on KTN's business breakfast show that was featured early this week. I must say that the chap is a very intelligent person. I only wish he could be very influential (and less controversial) in the financial markets.

Being True To Myself

For as long as I can remember, my parents always wanted me to be a doctor. I guess this must have been something common at around my high school years because I was not the only one who's parents wanted them to be a doctor. Even after making the grade, I went against my parents wishes and took on a different career.

Over time I have also seen similar situations whereby individuals end up doing things to fulfil other peoples expectation. And when they do so they not only end up unhappy because it was not their passion.

This past month my elder brother, who also lives abroad, completed building his own house at a farm that he had bought. Now the attention has been shifted to me and most of my relatives are asking when we (myself and wife) will do the same like everyone else who lives abroad.

Unlike other Kenyans in the diaspora who are busy putting up structures all over the country, it has never been our intention to do the same because it has never been my style to do what everyone else is doing. Instead I prefer to do things that I'm passionate about. Right now, most of my energies are focused in starting my own business. I want to try my hand at something different to what I do or studied in college.

A lot of the people who know me have asked me why I am doing something novel that others have not tried doing. My answer is always the same. I don't have to do what other people are doing and it doesn't have to be within my comfort zone.

Right now it feels like deja vu all over again. Doing something new and something fresh. This reminds me of when I was an undergrad. Someone recruited me to do something novel which went on to be a success and their are now many imitations out there.

I may be doing something improbable or even something that will fail but I am not worried about failing. I may lose the money that I have invested but I will still be happy that I tried despite the loss.

New Year, Same Resolutions

Happy new year it is indeed. The end of 2008 couldn't have come sooner. Other than the election of Barack Obama, 2008 was certainly a difficult year for many people.

As is the norm, the new year calls for new resolutions which in many cases are the same as the previous years.

Top on my list is the launch of my business. I spent the better part of 2008 laying down the foundations and now it is time to hit the road. So far, so good.

Other than that, my other resolutions remain the same: be a better husband, father, brother, son and friend; work harder and brighter; save more (and buy less); be a better writer (for my business blog); read more books (last year I bought more than 10 books - not novels); and learn something new.