The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes Story 10 Marty and the Great Easter egg hunt

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

Story 10 Marty and the great Easter egg hunt

It is Easter Sunday, but instead of having a well-earned long lie in bed, Marty and Gillian the Motorcycling giraffes are up at the break of dawn, because they have promised Mrs Wanijru, who looks after the watoto (children) at the local orphanage, that they would help hide some Easter eggs before the watoto wake up and have their traditional Easter egg hunt after breakfast.

Marty and Gillian had a quick breakfast of twigs and leaves, and headed off to the orphanage, Marty leading the way on his motorcycle and Gillian following behind on her pink motor scooter.

When they arrived at the orphanage they were met by Mrs Wanijru and Mr Rono (a very important government executive who works at the Nairobi state house)

“Hujambo Marty na Gillian ni `s nzuri kuona wewe, asante kwa kuja kusaidia, watoto wote kupata msisimko sana kuhusu Pasaka yai kuwinda” (“hello Marty and Gillian it`s good to see you, thank you for coming to help, the children are all get very excited about the Easter egg hunt”) said Mrs Wanijru.

“hujambo Bw wa Wanijru, yako mnakaribishwa sana Gillian na mimi ni furaha daima msaada kutoka nje, kama inafanya watoto furaha ” (“hello Mr's Wanijru your very welcome, Gillian and I are always happy to help out, if it makes the children happy) replied Marty.

“Well let’s get to work then” said Mr Rono “your friends Peter and Gloria are already inside getting the Easter eggs out of the store cupboard.”

“Ooh” squealed Gillian “have they bright baby Martina-Jilly with them” and rushed inside.

When she got inside she found baby Martina-Jilly fast asleep in her pram.

“Ooh she is beautiful” sighed Gillian

“Yes she is” said Gloria who had stepped alongside the pram “me and Peter are so lucky to have her”

The four friends and Mr Rono then took all the Easter eggs outside and Mrs Wanijru went to wake all the children up and make them breakfast, Mrs Wanijru also took baby Martina –Jilly with, so she could look after her while Gloria helped out with hiding the Easter eggs.

Marty, Gillian, Peter, Gloria and Mr Rono ran around the orphanage yard to look for good places to hide the eggs.  They put some under the garden shrubs, a couple of eggs were hidden in low branches of the orphanage’s tree and others were hidden in some of the outside toys and in the playgrounds slide, roundabout and few others were buried in the sand pit.

After the children finished their breakfast they followed Mrs Wanijru (who was still pushing Martina-Jilly in her pram) and she lined them all up alongside the wall of the orphanage wall.

“Watoto, Mimi nataka ninyi nyote kusema kubwa thank you, kwa Mr Rono, Marty, Gillian, Peter na Gloria, ambao wote wamekuwa wakifanya kazi kwa bidii na kuanzisha Pasaka yai kuwinda kwa ajili ya wewe” (“Children, I want you all to say a big thank you, to Mr Rono, Marty, Gillian, Peter and Gloria, who have all been working hard to set up the Easter egg hunt for you”) said Mrs Wanijru

“Asante sana” shouted the children very loudly indeed.

This made everyone laugh; Mr Rono then blew on a whistle and shouted

“Tatu, mbili, moja, kuanza kuwinda” (“three, two one, start the race)

The children let out a very loud cheer and raced forward to start hunting for the eggs. As the children ran around looking under and over things to try and find the eggs, Mrs Wanijru and the five helpers sat on a bench watching the children and tracking it in turns to cuddle baby Martina-Jilly, who giggled happily enjoying all the attention.

It didn’t seem long until there was a large pile of Easter eggs piled up in the middle of the playground , the children had fund them all.

Mrs Wanijru then got the children to line up against the wall so she could tell them all to take their eggs back inside to the dining room where they could enjoy all the lovely chocolate. But Mrs Wanijru noticed that one of the boys was missing.

“Children, does anyone know where William Koshi is?” shouted Mrs Wanijru.

None of the children answered and Mrs Wanijru started to worry, in 20 years of running the orphanage she has always known where the children are at all times.

“Don’t worry, he can’t have gone far” said Gloria “you take the children and Martina-Jilly inside to enjoy their chocolate eggs, and we will look for William outside.”

Once the children were inside Marty, Gillian, Peter, Gloria and Mr Rono searched the playground calling out William’s name.

Then Gillian thought that she heard something and told everyone to be quite.  Listening really carefully she realised that she could hear a faint sobbing noise coming from the roof of the orphanage, as she got closer she realised the sound was coming from behind the chimney pot.

Gillian stretched her long neck up to the roof and peaked around the other side of the chimney pot, to find a very scared and very upset little boy.

“William what are you doing up here?” asked Gillian.

“I thought there might be an egg up here so I climbed up the drain pipe and then I couldn’t get down and I was scared I might be in trouble”.

“Well it is silly and dangerous to climb on the roof, but I am sure Mrs Wanijru will not be cross with you, if you promise not to do it again, now let’s get you down”

Gillian called Marty over and told William to climb on Marty’s big head and hold on to his little horns so Marty could gently lower him to the ground.

Gloria took William inside the orphanage where Mrs Wanijru was so pleased to see him that she gave William a big hug and told him to go and eat some chocolate.

Mrs Wanijru came out to thank everyone for their help and told them they were all heroes. This made everyone smile.

And finally it was time to go home , so Gillian gave baby Martin-Jilly one last kiss and Marty and Gillian shouted “kwahari” (goodbye) and they climbed on their motorbikes and zoomed off for home.

Back in their little house Marty said

“Well what an exciting adventure that turned out to be, I wonder what adventure will be next for

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling Giraffes.

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes Story 9 Troy the trucking moose pays a visit from Canada

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

 

Story 9 Troy the trucking moose pays a visit from Canada.

 

Its Sunday morning and Marty and Gillian are having a lie in as neither of them are working today, they were both enjoying the lie in as they have been working extra hard recently, with Gillian having to cover extra shifts at the smoothie bar as Gloria Gillian’s boss and best friend , who has just given birth to a beautiful baby girl (Martina-Jilly) is on maternity leave and Peter (Marty’s best friend and boss)  keeps leaving Marty and Victor (the trainee window cleaner) to clean all the windows in Nairobi, so that he could spend more time with his wife and  new baby daughter.

 

Suddenly their restful morning was disturbed by some loud banging on the door

 

“Someone’s at the door go and see who it is” said Gillian to Marty

 

Marty climbed out of bed and grumbled

 

“Sounds like they are trying to knock the door down banging that hard”

 

Marty opened the door to find a very large animal with big antlers, wearing a large cowboy hat and a checked lumber jack shirt with its sleeves rolled up to show the creatures large muscles.

 

“Howdy Marty, you didn’t expect me to be at your door” he exclaimed.

 

“Troy? Troy the trucking moose, what are you doing in Nairobi” spluttered a surprised Marty.

 

“I had the opportunity for a few days of from work, so I thought I would jump on a plane and come and visit my good friends in Africa” replied Troy

 

“Naam kuwakaribisha kwa Kenya, (Well welcome to Kenya), come on in and make yourself at home.” Said Marty before shouting to Gillian that they had a very special visitor, all the way from Canada.

 

Marty, Gillian and Troy then sat down to large breakfast of twigs and leafs and had a long chat about what they have been all doing since they last met (at Marty and Gillian’s wedding)

 

Troy told them all about Kevin the Kayaking monkey (from Zambia) coming to visit him in Canada and Marty and Gillian told them about their good friends Peter and Gloria’s wonderful news.

 

“Oh that’s lovely I am so pleased for them” stated Troy “I would like to go and visit them and meet baby Martina-Jilly before I go home”

 

“Well why don’t we go over to Peter’s house this afternoon” said Gillian, who never misses the chance to go and see the new baby.

 

So later that day the three headed over to Peter and Gloria’s house, Marty on his motorcycle with Troy riding pillion behind him and Gillian following on behind on her pink motor scooter.

 

It didn’t take them very long to get through the busy Nairobi streets and they son arrived at Peter and Gloria’s

 

They knocked on the door and Peter let them in

 

“Do you remember Troy form Canada, he was at mine and Gillian’s wedding”

“Yes” replied Peter “how can you forget a trucking moose, Jambo Troy kuwakaribisha kwa Kenya, (welcome to Kenya)”

“Well thank you Peter, Mary has been telling me about your new arrival”

“Yes come in and meet baby Martina-Jilly, she is in the front room with Gloria”

 

Gillian was already in front room chatting to Gloria about the baby and bending over into the crib and tickling Martina-Jilly’s tummy with her little horns. This made the baby chortle and giggle.

 

Gloria made some tea and cakes for Peter and herself and fetched some twigs and leafs for Marty, Gillian and Peter and the friends sat around all afternoon talking about the baby and the different things Troy could do and see while he was in Africa

 

Peter the told Marty that he knows that Marty has had to work extra hard on the window cleaning round   recently and that he should take a few days off  from work to show Troy around Nairobi and other places in Keyna.

 

“Yes” commented Gloria “and the same for you too Gillian, I can get Moira to do some extra shifts at the smoothies stall”

 

“Oh asante sana” replied both Marty and Gillian

                                                                                “

“I will need you to work at Mr Makushi’s transport yard on Friday afternoon though; there are too many trucks for just me and Victor to clean”

 

“I’ll be there” smiled Marty

 

Marty, Gillian and Tory then gave little baby Martina-Jilly one last cuddle and set off back to Marty and Gillian’s house to make plans for where they could take Troy and what they could show him in the next few days.

 

The next day Marty and showed Troy all around their home town of Nairobi, including going for dinner at the Stanley hotel bar, walking through Uhuru park and shopping in Tom Mboya avenue.

 

Then from Tuesday to Thursday they set off for a few days camping in the Masai Mara, where Marty and Gillian introduced Troy to their family and friends.

 

Marty’s nice, Georgina, was delighted that Marty and Gillian had come to visit them and was very excited to meet Troy the trucking moose and sat quietly for hours listening to Troy’s exciting tales of his adventures he had had while driving his truck all over North America.

 

“Ooh Canada and the USA sounds like they are very exciting countries, I would love to visit them one day” squealed Georgina in excitement

 

“They are great places to have adventures in” replied Marty who then added rather seriously

 “But you know there is no place like home and Africa is also a wonderful place full of adventures”

 

Troy also really enjoyed seeing all the other very exciting African animals, such as elephants, hippos zebra and wildebeests; he even enjoyed watching (from a safe distant) a pride of very scary lions.

 

On Friday morning Marty, Gillian and Troy said there goodbyes to the other giraffes as they had to get back to Nairobi in time for Marty to arrive at Mr MaKushi’s transport yard in time to help Peter and Victor clean all the trucks.

 

“Kwahari uncle Marty, Kwahari Gillian, kwahari Troy, kuja nyuma kuona kwangu karibuni (come back to see me soon)” shouted Georgina

 

“Yes don’t leave it too long before your next visit” added Marty’s brother Gary

 

The rest of the giraffes nodded in agreement and shouted “kwahari have a safe trip home”

 

Marty, Gillian and Troy were soon zooming along the hot dusty roads out of the Masai Mari and heading back towards Nairobi.

 

When they arrived at Nairobi, Gillian told Marty and Troy that she was going to visit Gloria and baby Martina-Jilly and Troy decided to go with Marty to help out at Mr MaKushi’s transport yard.

 

Peter was very pleased to have an extra person or in this case extra moose to help out and soon Marty, Peter , Victor and Troy were hard at work cleaning all Mr Makushi’s trucks inside and out.

 

After a while Mr Makushi came out of his office looking very glum while talking to someone on his mobile (cell) phone.  After he finished the phone call, Peter asked him if everything is ok.

 

“Not really, Michael one of my drives has broken down on an important run, the breakdown service will go and tow the truck back, but I need to get the cargo delivered and by the time Michael gets back and changes truck it will be too late  as the customer in Arusha will be closed for the night.”

 

“Cant you send someone out with another truck and swap the load over so Michael can continue on his delivery”

 

“All my other drivers have finished for the day” replied Mr Makushi shaking his head.

 

“I am a truck driver” said Troy “I could take a vehicle out to this Michael help swap the load and get a lift back with the tow truck”

 

“That would be very useful, are you sure you don’t mind”

 

“It’s no problem or as you would say hakuna matata” laughed Troy

 

Marty offered to ride his motorcycle ahead of Troy to show him the way.

 

“Yeah anything to get out of cleaning the trucks” laughed Victor

 

So Marty set off on his motorcycle with Troy following behind on his truck, as they moved through the city streets, Troy enjoyed letting off the trucks loud horn, and smiling to himself when the people of Nairobi looked in amazement to see a trucking moose.

 

Soon they left the city and were one the main Nairobi – Moshi highway, and after a short while they came along Michael’s broken down truck.

 

Marty and Troy pulled up beside the truck but could see no sign of Michael the driver, they thought this was a little strange as they walked along to the front of the truck and then Marty looked through the cab widows to see Michael lying across the seats fast asleep

                                                                                                                              

Marty knocked on the cabs windows and shouted

 

“Oi kuamka kichwa usingizi!  (Oi wake up sleepy head)”

 

Michael sat up with a shock and then saw Marty through the window, but h had to rub his eyes to ensure he wasn’t dreaming when he Troy too next to Marty, Michael ha never seen a moose before and especially not one dressed in a lumberjack shirt and cowboy hat.

 

“Oh it’s you Marty and you or what is your friend?” asked a bemused Michael.

 

“This Troy the trucking moose all the way from Canada, and he has driven a spare truck down here for you transfer you load into , so you can carry on with delivery to Arusha”

 

So Marty Michael and Troy stared to swap the load from the broken down truck to the new one, and although there were a lot of very heavy boxes, with Troy’ help it didn’t take long before they were finished

 

“It was very nice to meet you Troy and thank you for helping me” said Michael as he climbed into the cab of the new vehicle and set off to Arusha

 

“Kwahari” Marty and Troy shouted after him

 

“Your picking up the Swahili very well” laughed Marty.

By this time the tow truck arrived to take the broken down truck back to the yard, but as it was now getting late Troy decided to go back to Nairobi on the back of Marty’s motorcycle.

 

It was too late to go back to the yard so Marty and Troy went straight back to Marty and Gillian’s little house. When they arrived they found that Gillian had already arrived home from visiting Gloira and the new baby, and she had laid out a large dinner of the best twigs and leafs form the tastiest acacia trees.

 

They had a lovely dinner and stayed up long into a night talking about the days adventure.

 

The next morning it was time for Troy to catch the aeroplane home to Canada, Marty and Gillian rode their motorcycles to the airport to see Troy off.

 

“Well so long partners, thank you for letting me stay and showing me so much of Africa”

 

“It’s been great having you, kwaheri rafiki yangu, na safari salama nyumbani (goodbye my friend, have a save trip home” replied Marty.

 

“Well” said Marty to Gillian “that was an unexpected visit, that turned into another adventure, makes you wonder what other adventures lie in store for

 

Marty and Gillian the Motorcycling giraffes

Further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes, story 8 Marty and Gillian's wonderful new years adventure

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes.

Story 8 Marty and Gillian’s wonderful New Years Eve adventure

Marty and Gillian are motorcycling giraffes who live in the big Kenyan city of Nairobi. Marty has a job working for his good friend Peter Ngono as a window cleaner’s assistant, while Gillian works with Peter’s wife Gloria running a stall selling fruit smoothies.

But what Marty and Gillian really like to do is to whizz around on their motorcycles and have lots of adventures.

As it is new years even Marty had finished his work early but Gillian had not started work yet, as she and Gloria are going to set up their stall in Uhuru Park ( a big park in the centre of Nairobi) and work all night selling smoothies to the crowd that will gather there to celebrate the new year arriving.

As well as Gillian and Gloria working at Uhuru Park, Marty and Gillian other friends, Peter, Victor (the trainee window cleaner), Emmanuelle (a farmer) and Moira (Emmanuelle’s girlfriend) will all be joining them at Uhuru Park later to join in with the celebrations.

Marty had agreed to go along with Gillian to help set up the stall because Gloria and Gillian wanted to put a big banner reading

“lovely smoothies kwa ajili ya kuuza”   (“Lovely cool smoothies for sale”)

High above their stall and of course Marty and Gillian are very useful when you need something put up high, as they can reach the top of the poles to the banner up with ease.

So after Marty had a quick wash and freshen up, they set of for Uhuru Park, Marty leading the way on his very fast motorcycle and Gillian following behind on her little pink motor scooter.

It didn’t take Mary and Gillian long before they reached Uhuru Park and found Gloria standing beside Peter’s van giving Peter instructions as where to put all smoothies’ equipment and boxes of fruit that he was unloading form the van.

Gloria can't help Peter carry the heavy boxes as she is expecting their first baby and is now quite heavily pregnant.

Peter and Marty helped Gillian and Gloria set the stall up and then Gloria took one end of the banner in her teeth and Marty took the other, Peter then pulled himself up Marty’s neck and sat on his head so he could tie that end of the banner to the tall pole an them Marty leaned across to the Gillian’s side so Peter could tie that one too,

“Oooh be careful up there” shouted Gloria

“Hakuna matata” laughed Peter “I spend most of my working day sat on Marty’s head to clean the windows on the tall buildings in Nairobi and I have never fallen off yet”

Once the banner was up the four friends stood back to admire their handiwork

“The stall is looking good, this should help to attract a lot of customer, we will be busy tonight” said Gloria

“Well you be careful and don’t work too hard” replied Peter “you have to take care of yourself and our little baby, it wont be long now before he or she makes an appearance”.

“Oh don’t fuss, I’ll be fine” smiled Gloria.

Peter then told the other that he has to go back to his window cleaning yard to some work in his office and that he see them all later on that night.

Marty decided to stay in Uhuru Park and wait for the others to arrive.

“Be sure your back before midnight to see the New Year in” he said to Peter.

 

“I will be” replied Peter before giving Gloria a kiss goodbye and jumping into his van and driving off

 

It didn’t take long for quite a big crowd to start gathering in Uhuru Park for the new years festivities and Gloria and Gillian were soon very busy selling there lovely cold smoothies to the thirsty revellers.

Marty decided to leave Gloria and Gillian to get along with running their stall and went off for a wander around the park to see what other fun things were taking place.

After a little while Gillian noticed that Gloria wasn’t looking too well.

“Gloria, are you okay?” asked Gillian

“No, I don’t feel to well and I am getting some pains in my tummy” replied Gloria

“Well you had better sit down and take a rest, you have probably over done it today, leave the stall to me for a while”

“But we are too busy, you can’t run the stall on your own” replied Gloria before letting out a load groan and almost bending double in pain.

“Gillian, Gillian, I think the baby is coming early” gasped Gloria, “you need to get Peter to take to the hospital”

“I will get Marty to go for Peter, he rides that motorcycle so fast it wont take him  long to get to Peter’s yard”

Gillian looked around the park and could clearly see Marty in the distance as his head and neck was sticking out way above the crowd, but with musicians playing, people dancing and children running around, the park was very noisy and no matter how loud Gillian shouted she couldn’t make Marty hear her.

“Oooh Hurry up please Gillian” groaned Gloria.

Gillian then had an idea and she bent down and pick up a mango from the box of fruit that was waiting to be made into smoothies, and with one mighty swing of her neck she threw the mango high into the sky.

The mango flew through the air above the head of the crowd and landed with a mighty thud against the back of Marty’s head

“Ouch! Who threw that?” said Marty with a very cross look on his face.

He looked around to see Gillian frantically beckoning him to come over.

Marty realised something must be wrong so he quickly ran across to the smoothie stall, making the crowd of people scatter out of the way, as they didn’t want to be kicked by a large giraffe.

“What’s the matter?” he gasped as he arrived at the stall

“Gloria is having her baby you must go and get Peter quick” said Gillian “Oh and the go to Emmanuelle’s farm and get Moira, I am going to need some help on the stall tonight”

“Oooh please hurry Marty, I need to get to the hospital”. Groaned Gloria.

Marty jumped on to his motorcycle and weaved his way through the crowd out of the park on to road, where he pulled back his throttle and accelerated at great pace and was soon whizzing through Nairobi’s busy streets.

At the windows cleaners’ yard Marty didn’t bother to get off his motorcycle instead he just shouted as loud as he could at Peter

“You have to get back to the park and get Gloria to the hospital the baby is coming!!”

Peter stood there looking stunned

“Haya! haraka haraka” (!Come on hurry hurry!”) shouted Marty and Peter snapped himself together and grabbed! his keys and headed toward his van, Marty turned his motorcycle round and shot off to fetch Emmanuelle and Moira.

Back in the park a big queue of people wanting smoothies was gathering at the stall as Gillian was struggling to serve them all on her own and look after Gloria at the same time.

“I wish Peter and Marty would hurry up and come back” sobbed Gloria

“They will be here soon” soothed Gillian.

The all of sudden a loud beeping of a horn was heart and Gillian looked around to see Peter’s van slowly making its way through the crowd flanked by Marty on his motorcycle on one side and Emmanuelle and Moira on Emmanuelle’s  motorcycle on the other side.

“They’re here they’re here” shouted Gillian

Peter parked the van and jumped out at and ran to Gloria

“Oh my love, are you ok?” he said giving Gloria a big hug and a kiss.

“Yes but we have to get the hospital quickly” replied Gloria

Gillian and Moira helped Gloria into the van and made Peter promise to look after her and to phone them as soon as there was news”

“Bahati nzuri” (“Good luck”) they al shouted as Peter and Gloria drove away.

“Its going to be a long evening waiting to hear any news” sighed Gillian before she went back to serving the queue of thirsty party goers at the smoothies stall.

“We will soon get the queue down with two of us working together “smiled Moira.

Later in the evening Victor (the trainee window cleaner) joined the others in the park to enjoy the new years festivities, but what they al really wanted was to hear some news form Peter and Gloria.

As the time was nearing midnight the crowd fell silent as one of the announcers from one of main stages in the park started the count one down

10, 9, 8

With that a text message came through to Emmanuelle’s phone which he read out to the others excitedly

“Baby Martina Jilly Ngono born at 11:50 pm Mother and baby doing great”

“Yippee a baby girl” shouted Gillian and Moira

And with that the announcer shouted “midnight! Heri ya mwaka mpya” (“happy new year”) and with a big bang, spectacular fireworks started to fill the night sky

“Well” said Gillian to Marty “that was an exciting end to an exciting year”

“Yes” replied Marty “and I bet 2013 will bring a lot more exciting adventures for

 

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

The adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes story 7 Mary and Gillian Venitian adventure

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

 

Story 7 Marty and Gillian’s Venetian adventure

Marty has recently been working very hard and very long hours in his job as a window cleaner’s assistant, working for his boss and good friend Peter Ngono. As well as working hard on  helping to clean all the windows in Nairobi, Marty has also been cleaning lorries and trucks in Mr Makuchi’s  transport yard and helping Peter with his balloon safari business at weekends.

 

On top of this Gillian has also been working very hard on Gloria’s (Peter’s wife how is expecting their first baby) smoothie bar

 

So both Marty and Gillian were very happy when Peter and Gloria told them that the business was closing down for a week as everyone deserved a nice holiday. Victor the trainee window cleaner was also delighted with the news.

 

“You should take Gillian on one of your adventures, during your week off” Gloria told Marty.

 

“I have already thought of that” replied Marty and he turned to Gillian and said “how would you like to visit Venice in Italy” and he showed Gillian a travel magazine with pictures of Venice.

 

Gillian jumped for joy, and when a giraffe jumps they jump very high indeed this made Peter, Gloria and Victor all scatter in case she landed on them.

 

“That would be wonderful” cried Gillian “Venice looks so romantic, thank you Marty” and then she gave Marty a big kiss

 

“Oooh gross” moaned Victor which made everyone else laugh loudly.

 

Marty and Gillian then dashed off home to prepare for their great Venetian adventure.

 

The next morning as they arrived at the airport to catch their flight to Italy, Marty and Gillian were delighted to see that Peter, Gloria and Victor and also their good friends Emmanuelle (the farmer) and Moira (Emmanuelle’s girlfriend) had all turned up to wave them off.

 

“You have a wonderful time and bring me back something nice from Italy” said Gloria and she hugged Gillian’s neck

 

“And you be sure to look after yourself while I am gone, and don’t have that baby until I get back” replied Gillian

 

“Oh you don’t have to worry about that, I have still a few months to go yet” aid Gloria while rubbing her tummy with a very happy smile on her face

 

Marty and Gillian then left to catch their plane while their friends all shouted

 

“Kwaheri, kuwa na safari salama” (“Goodbye have a safe trip”) and waved them off.

 

It was a long flight to Marco Polo airport in Venice Italy, and Marty and Gillian were very pleased to get off the plane so they could stretch their long legs and necks.

 

“Mmm that’s better” mumbled Marty while Gillian squealed with excitement

 

“Oh I can’t believe I am in Italy the most romantic country in the world, this is so exciting”

 

“Yes” smiled Marty “we are sure to have an exciting adventure here”

 

After Marty and Gillian had booked into their hotel and unpacked their cases they set off to explore Venice.

 

Marty and Gillian walked down the footpath alongside the Canal Grande (Grand Canal) looking at the wonderful houses and were amazed by the small side canals where the water goes right up to the houses.

 

“Wow” exclaimed Gillian “you can only get to those houses by boat”

 

Then as some gondolas floated past Gillian got very excited, “can we go for a ride in one those?” she asked Marty.

 

“Of course we can, but first let’s go and get something to eat” replied Marty.

 

Marty and Gillian then when to a very nice restaurant in Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s square). The restaurant serves some of the most wonderful pasta dishes and pizzas but of course Marty and Gillian don’t eat this sort of food, so they just ordered two large plates of twigs and leafs.

 

After they had finished their lunch Marty and Gillian headed off to find somewhere that they could book a ride on a gondola.

 

They saw a spot on the Canal Grande where a lot of gondolas were moored and thought that this must be the pace where you can book a ride through the canals of Venice.

 

As they walked towards the gondolas Marty and Gillian watched as a lady carrying a baby climbed into a gondola when suddenly she slipped, dropped the baby into the gondola and fell into the canal, breaking the gondolas mooring as she fell.

 

As the lady splashed around in the water the gondola with the baby in it started to drift away down the canal.

 

“Aiuto! Help me! E aiutare il mio bambino” (“Help! Help me! And help my baby”) shouted the lady.

“I’ll get the baby” shouted Gillian and she ran off down the footpath to the nearest bridge across the canal.

 

While Gillian ran after the gondola, Marty stretched his long neck forward towards the canal and grabbed the ladies coat with his teeth and pulled her out of the canal.”

 

“Grazie! Grazie” (“Thank you! Thank you”) exclaimed the lady "Ma dove è il bambino? Aiutate il mio bambino” (“but where is my baby? Please help my baby”)

 

“Look” shouted a bystander “the other giraffe is going to save the baby”

 

Everyone looked where the bystander was pointing and there on the bridge stood Gillian and she was leaning right over so here head was nearly in the water and as the gondola with the baby in it passed underneath, Gillian gently grabbed the baby with her teeth and lifted her safely onto the bridge.

 

“Oh Grazie! Grazie” (“thank you thank you”) cried the lady as she ran to give hold her baby

 

Quite a crowd had gathered and they were all shouting that Marty and Gillian were heroes. But the gondolier was worried about his boat that was still drifting unmanned along the canal.

Marty knelt down and told the gondolier to jump on his back and off they ran after the gondola. With Marty’s long legs they soon got ahead of the gondola and they ran to another bridge across the canal and as the gondola passed underneath the gondolier leapt off Marty’s back into the gondola.

 

The gondoliers was so delighted with getting his gondola back that he offered to take Marty and Gillian for a free moonlight ride around Venice in his gondola, and the baby’s mother told Marty and Gillian that her husband runs the best restaurant in Venice and when they have finished their gondola trip they will be guests of honour at the restaurant and can have free food and drinks all night.

 

That evening Marty and Gillian had a wonderful gondola ride through the canals of Venice with the stars lighting up the night sky, Gillian cuddled into Marty on the boat and thought that this is the most romantic thing she has ever done.

 

Later as they were eating there dinner in the ladies husbands restaurant while being serenaded by a man playing a violin Gillian whispered into Marty’s ear

 

“Asante sana for bringing me to this most wonderful place, I do love being married too you Marty, because there always seems to be one adventure after another for

 

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes,

 

 

 

No new adventures for a while, but watch out this Saturday (08/12/2012) for the next episode in the further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes, when Marty and Gillian take a trip to Venice

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian Giraffe Story 6 Marty and Gillian and the lost giraffe

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

Story 6 Marty and Gillian and the lost giraffe

It’s a lovely sunny Saturday morning in Nairobi and Marty and Gillian are out in their garden planting some trees.

“When these grow nice and tall they will provide us lots of twigs and leafs to eat” Said Marty

“Hmm I can’t wait, home grown food, you just can’t beat it” replied Gillian

All of a sudden a large white necked raven landed in their garden, carrying and envelope in his mouth.

The white necked raven put the envelope down and squawked

“Jambo, jina langu ni Wilfred na nina ujumbe muhimu kwa Marty twiga pikipiki” (“hello, my name is Wilfred and I have an important message for Marty the Motorcycling giraffe”)

“I am Marty the motorcycling giraffe” said Marty and he bent forward and picked the envelope up.

Marty opened the envelope and started to read the letter and as he did Marty started to go quite white (which is not a good colour for a giraffe) as the colour ran out of his face with shock.

“What is it Marty? Is it bad news?” asked Gillian

“Yes” replied Marty  “it’s from Geraldine (Marty’s sister), little Georgina (Marty’s niece) was told off for being naughty and now she has run away and she has been missing all night, and there are a lot of scary lions in the Masai Mara”

“Oh no we must go to the Masai Mara as quickly as possible and help find her”

“I have to go now” squawked Wilfred the white necked raven and he flew off into the sky

“Asante sana, kwahari” (“thank you and goodbye”) shouted Marty after him

“Come on lets go” shouted Marty as he leapt onto his motorcycle, so Gillian got on her motor scooter and off they zoomed towards the Masai Mara

Because Marty and Gillian ride their motorcycles so very fast, they soon arrived at the part of the Masai Mara where Marty’s relatives live.

The giraffes all looked very worried and Geraldine was crying and George (Geraldine’s husband and Marty’s brother in law) was trying to console her.

Gary (Marty’s brother) told them that Georgina has been missing since late last night and they searched everywhere for her

“She’s only a little giraffe and she has been out all night and the Masai Mara is so big with lots of scary lions in, we might never find her” wailed Geraldine

“Don’t worry love, Georgina is my little girl and I will find and I won’t let any scary lion get near her” said George

The giraffes agreed to split up and go looking for Georgina in different direction, but after couple of hours when they still haven’t found her, the giraffes met back at their usual spot.

“What are we going to do” asked a worried George.

“I have an idea” said Marty “remember my friend Peter had an idea to run air balloon safaris, well he still has his air balloon and if I go and ask him I am sure he will bring it here and fly above the ground and he may be able to spot Georgina from here”

“Great idea, now hurry up and fetch Peter” shouted Geraldine

So Marty jumped on his motorcycle and zoomed off back towards the big city of Nairobi.

The other giraffes waited anxiously and were delighted when it wasn’t that long before they heard the roar of Marty’s motorcycle approaching, following shortly behind by Peter, Gloria and Victor in Peter’s van

As soon as they arrived Peter and Victor go the hot air balloon out of the back of the hot air balloon and started to set it up.

Soon the balloon was fully inflated and Peter climbed into the basket.

“I’ll fly the balloon and tell Victor what I can see through our walkie talkie radios” said Peter

“You be careful in that balloon, lour baby will need his or her daddy when he or she arrives” said Gloria rubbing her tummy fondly.

The balloon started to rise into the air, and soon it was way above the giraffe’s head and looked like a tiny red dot on the clear blue Kenyan sky.

Everyone on the ground gathered round Victor’s walkie talkie radio listening for messages from Peter in the balloon. But sadly each message was just Peter saying that he hasn’t seen Georgina.

The suddenly with an excited crackle Peter shouted through the walkie talkie radio

“There she is, there she is!!! I can see her!!  She is down past some trees beside a small  river, she looks sad but she looks ok”  but then he added  “Oh no there are a bunch of hungry lions nearby, I’ll give you direction and you get hear as quick as possible”

Quick as a flash  Victor jumped in the van and started to speed across the Masai Mara with George, Marty and Gary chasing on behind.  Gillian and Geraldine stayed behind to look after Gloria as the Masai Mara is no place for a pregnant lady to be left on her own.

Victor weaved through the trees with the giraffes not far behind them and they quickly arrived at the little stream.

George saw the hungry lions and raced towards them kicking out his long legs and snorting

“You keep away from my little girl” and with Marty and Gary just behind them, the lions beat a hasty retreat, they will have to look somewhere else for their dinner today.

“Daddy, uncle Marty, Uncle Gary” shouted Georgina and she ran to the other giraffes “I’m sorry I was naughty and I am sorry I ran away, I was so scared”

“That’s alight little one” said George “you’re safe and sound now, let’s get you home to your mum”

By the time they got back to the giraffes; area Peter had already landed the air balloon and was starting to pack up.

Geraldine and Georgina were delighted to see each other and gave each other a big neck rub (which is the way giraffes hug)

Once Peter was fully packed up he told the giraffes that it was time for him, Gloria and Victor to go home.

“Asante sana for helping find my little girl” shouted Geraldine as they drove.

Marty and Gillian then said that they have to go and said kwahari (goodbye) to the giraffes and Marty said to Georgina

“You behave yourself now Georgina and stay with your family”

“I will I promise Uncle Marty” said Georgina

Marty and Gillian then got on their motorcycles and rode away towards their home in Nairobi to see what other adventures lie in store for

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling Giraffes

 

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian stroy 5 Marty and Gillian's new home

The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes

Story 5.  Marty and Gillian’s’ new home.

Marty and Gillian are very busy today, as they are packing up everything they own in their little house in Nairobi as they are about to move to a new bigger house on the outskirts of town.

Marty was feeling a little sad as he loved his little house, but since he and Gillian got married, Marty had had to admit that the house just wasn’t big enough for two giraffes!!

The doorbell rang and Marty opened the door to find all their best friends, Peter and Gloria, Emmanuelle and Moira and Victor had turned up to help them move.

“I thought the move might be a little easier if we all helped” said Peter who added “and Mr Makushi is bringing a van from his yard to move all you belongings to your new house.”

The friends all worked very hard and soon all Marty and Gillian’s belongings were neatly packed into boxes and Mr Makushi arrived with a large van.

“Jambo everyone” shouted Mr Makushi “are you ready to load the van up”

Mr Makushi climbed into the back of the van and the rest, except for Gloria who is expecting baby soon and cannot lift heavy boxes, formed a line from the house to the van and passed all the boxes along to Mr Makushi who carefully loaded all the boxes into the van.

It didn’t take long to load the Mr Makushi’s van and what didn’t fit was put into Peter’s small van

So they all set off in a convoy, with Marty up front on his motorcycle followed by Emmanuelle and Moira on Emmanuelle’s motorcycle, Gillian on her lovely pink motor scooter and finally the two vans.

After a short drive they arrived at Marty and Gillian’s new house. It is a much bigger than their old house and had a lovely garden and a stream that ran through a gully on the side of the road.

Just as they arrived a thunder storm started and they had to unload all the boxes very quickly in the pouring rain, but because they were all working so hard it didn’t take them long to get everything unloaded.

Gloria made everyone some lovely smoothies to cool themselves down after working so hard.

 “Asante sana for the loan of the van” Marty said to Mr Makushi  “ when we have finished unpacking we care going to have a little house warming party with lovely smoothies and  some nice food to eat, you are more than welcome to stay and join in”

“Oh I’m too old for parties, and any way I have to get the van back to its yard” laughed Mr Makushi.

Mr Makushi climbed into the van and shouted “kwahari everyone see you at my yard next Friday” (Marty, Peter and Victor have a contract to clean Mr Makushi’s lorries and vans every Friday afternoon) and started to drive out of Marty’s garden.

But all of a sudden the van skidded on the wet surface and slipped down the gulley into the stream.

Every came running, to see if Mr Makushi was ok.

Mr Makushi climbed out of the van and shouted to everyone that he wasn’t hurt but will need a hand getting out of the gulley, so Marty go down on his front knees and leaned into the gully, Mr Makushi grabbed hold of Marty’s little horns and Marty pulled him out of the gulley.

“Now I have got to try get the van out of the gulley, I need that for a job tomorrow” said Mr Makushi with a worried look on his face, adding “Marty will you give me a lift back to the yard on your motorcycle and I will fetch a bigger van and some rope try and pull the van out”

So Marty and Mr Maksuhi headed off to the yard to get the bigger van, while the others started to unpack the boxes.

It didn’t take long to fetch the bigger vehicle ( a large truck with flatbed trailer), and Mr Makushi lined up the back of the truck up against the side of the gully and Peter tied one end of the rope to the bigger truck and Marty leaned into the gulley to tie the other end to the van. Mr Makushi turned on the engine of the big truck and slowly started to move it forward and the van started to rise up the gulley, but then there was a loud screech as the truck tyres stared to spin wildly in the muddy yard and van fell back into the gully and the truck started to slip towards the gully as well. Mr Makushi managed to stop the truck before it fell.

“This isn’t going to work” said Mr Makushi “and I can't afford to lose another vehicle down that gulley”

“I have an idea” said Marty and he whispered something in Mr Makushi’s ear,

“That might just work” replied Mr Makushi

“Come on lets go then” shouted Marty and jumped on to his motorcycle “we won’t be long” he shouted back to the others.

“You better not be just trying to get out of doing the unpacking” Gillian shouted at Marty and this made everyone laugh.

Marty rode off with Mr Makushi following behind in the flatbed truck.

The unpacking was just about finished when Marty and Mr Makushi arrived back at the house.

“Look who I have brought to help” shouted Marty pointing to the back off the flatbed truck, where a very nervous looking elephant was sat.

“Jambo Edward” shouted Gillian “I have not seen you for a long time”

“I have never been to the city before and I have never been on a truck either” trumpeted Edward “and it’s all a bit scary”

“We will make sure you’re ok” replied Marty and we are very glad that you could come and help”.

Edward the climbed down into the gully and got behind the van, he put his head down against the back of the van with his  tusks and trunk under the the bottom of the van and with a mighty trumpet he used his powerful muscles to slowly push the van out of the gulley and back onto the road”

“Hooray kwa Edward, nguvu zake mashujaa imekuokoa siku” (“hooray for Edward, his mighty strength has saved the day), shouted everyone.

This made Edward feel quite embarrassed

“I am just glad I could help” he mumbled

“Are you going to stay for the house warming part?” Gillian asked Edward

“I don’t think so” replied Edward “I don’t really like being in the city, so if Mr Makushi doesn’t mind I would like to go back home to the Masai Mara now”

“I will be happy to take you home, jump back on the truck” said Mr Makushi who added that he will be back first thing in the morning to pick up the van

Everyone shouted “kwahari” and waved Mr Makushi and Edward goodbye.

“And now it is time to start the party” shouted Moira

Marty smiled and turned to Gillian and said

“I think we are going to be very happy in our new home and we are sure to be able find lots more adventures for

Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes