Roving Eye

Eye likes a flutter as much as any blue-stockinged racehorse owner. Eye in fact once owned a horse that induced heartstopping moments of joy and anguish, as often in the winner’s enclosure as not. Winnings outweighed costs and all was well. Horseracing truly can be the sport of kings.

days… a ludicrous extravagance while children are uneducated and hungry… a brilliant idea for Members to enjoy… absurd to own an asset that has no impact on the operations of the Club, etc etc. The level of portentousness seems directly proportional to the degree of hostility expressed, while a frivolous few clearly see the fun it might bring to a syndicate in thrall to Neptunus Equester.

Eye feels those with less sense than money can enjoy frittering – let them throw good money after nags, why not. The stakes in Nairobi are low and the frisson will be high.

Bring it on, Eye says, and let curmudgeons go mutter.

One nag led to another and Eye learned a lesson. The winner’s enclosure was sometimes glimpsed in the distance, never in person, the costs of ownership weighed heavy, and Eye’s hot jockey’s excuses became lame and filled with ever more blarney.

Eye muttered ‘lasagna’ whenever passing the nag’s stable, but its pace never quickened and Eye was glad to pat a rippling rump for the last time when it was sold for a song.

The point of all this is that Eye learns the Club is planning to buy a horse, and a wall-fly hears an eye-swivelling range of views from Members great and small. A frivolous expense in these straitened times… a heart-warming excitement to brighten dull

Competition

Thinking of moaning, Eye despairs to see Spare, a ghosted memoir, adding to the Library’s shelves, already groaning under the weight of an exceptional selection of worthy books. This is not one of them. Eye reads the reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and can summarise the book simply and succinctly: spare yourselves. Whatever one’s views of the Monarchy, of ambitious actresses, of public emoting, of varying recollections, of the media, there is no reason to endure the drone of more than 400 pages of self-indulgent, aggrieved victimhood. The ‘ghost’ also wrote Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open. Now that’s worth reading.

Answer to our January - March 2023 Competition

QUESTION: Who is this guest and in which year did she visit Kenya?

ANSWER: Princess Anne on the Blue Peter Royal Safari to Kenya in 1971. She is pictured here at Treetops with Bill Woodley (left) Warden Mountain Parks and Jack Block.

Question:

Name this building and the year the photo was taken?

Prize:

The first correct entry that we receive will win dinner for two with a bottle of House Wine in either Pinks or the Club Dining Room. Please send your answers to communications@mcc.co.ke

WINNER: Susie Church & Bongo Woodley

DID YOU KNOW? The Blue Peter Royal Safari was shown on Easter Sunday 1971, when Princess Anne visited Kenya as President of the Save the Children Fund. During the course of her visit Princess Anne visited Treetops, where her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was staying when she became Queen.

MCC Member Bongo Woodley recounts that his mother, Ruth Woodley, was the hostess at Treetops when Princess Anne visited.

“After dark there were many elephant at the waterhole so my father Bill took Anne down the ladder to ground level to view them up close. Meanwhile an anxious Lady-in-Waiting was searching for Anne throughout the Lodge and couldn’t find her anywhere. Finally she approached my mother and asked, “Where is your husband?” to which Mum replied, “With your Princess!”

Greetings to you all, Hope your year has started off well.

From our end at Balloting all is ticking along smoothly with a continuous flow of new Members and the continued demand for our Membership.

There is a significant backlog of Young Members (18-29 years) who have yet to meet the Balloting Committee while transitioning from Family Membership (below 18 years) to Young Membership - mainly due to them being overseas.

We kindly appeal to those coming home for their holidays to contact Diana, who handles Membership administration in the Secretariat, to complete the transition process.

Please continue to keep an eye on the e-shots of the lists of Candidates applying for Membership.

A polite reminder again that no new application for Membership will be accepted without the advance payment of a minimum of one third of the entrance fees.

Wishing you and your families Holidays! Best regards,

Kush Bhardwaj Chairman Balloting Committee

Dear Members,

As we enter the last quarter of our financial year, I take this opportunity to thank you for your contribution to the Club’s finances.

The economic environment remains challenging with inflationary pressures building up persistently. It is therefore encouraging to report, that with your support, the Club’s financial performance has remained resilient. Our continued focus on improving Members’ experience and delivering cost efficiencies, have borne fruit and the Club is generating cash flows. The outlook for the long-term financial sustainability of the Club is therefore positive.

As we continue allocating adequate funds to maintain and renew Club facilities to enable us to deliver great value to Members in terms of quality and service, we are also seeking opportunities to invest our cash reserves in order to secure long-term financial sustainability for the Club.

We have automated our payment processes for improved efficiency and Members’ accounts are now being updated on a real time basis, with M-Pesa and online card payments. This has, however, only been possible when Members provide their Membership account numbers in full. We once again appeal to the Members who are used to the shortened format of their account numbers, to always remember to provide their Membership account in full when making payments, because the automation only works with the full eightcharacter alpha-numeric number.

On the administration front, we have a large balance of unidentified credits and therefore remind Members to please indicate their account numbers in full when making direct payments to the Club’s bank accounts. And we request those Members, who may have deposited money in the Club’s bank accounts and not informed us, to send an email to accounts@mcc.co.ke or call +254 (0)111190221, to alert the Accounts department

In the meantime, I thank you again for your unwavering support of the Club, and wish you Happy Holidays.

Daniel Ndonye

At the Staff Christmas Party - which all agreed, was “the best ever social event” provided for the Staff – Head of ICT Eunice Mulwa made a heart-warming welcome speech for the new Club Secretary, Michael Flint.

This is what she said on behalf of all the MCC staff.

"I would like to welcome our new Club Secretary on behalf of the MCC team, and I would like to inform you that you have one of the best teams in the world. I have seen this team moving great mountains for the last two years and I am sure they are ready to support you to take the Club to new heights and be the most sought after Members’ Club, not only in Africa, but in the whole world.

Before I sit down am just thinking what else we need to do, Mr Secretary. After three very difficult years, I would kindly ask each one of us to embrace love in our day-to-day work, whether you are engaging your fellow team member or a Club Member, as long as is a person, because with love you will be able to empathise with that person, you will be able to put yourself in that person’s shoes, get their views and understand them.

With love you can make the right decisions that will make everyone’s stay at the Club far much better. If we have love for one another, we can make Muthaiga Country Club a better place to work and stay.