Misfits Mid Life Crisis Adventures in ………….. Mozambique 

Week 11.

This week I have mainly been listening to…. Morrissey, Ladyhawk, Suede, Dido “here with me”, Beastie Boys “Intergalactic & Sabotage”, Nirvana “MTV Unplugged”, Oasis, Fleetwood Mac.

And have been watching…. Blackadder the Forth (all 6 episodes), Demolition Man, Doctor Who: ”Into the Dalek” (eps 2 season 8/34), lots of VH1 80s and 90s great music videos, Breaking Bad (season 5), Top Gear (BBC Entertainment).

Saturday started with a run, it was already very hot at 7.30 am and also quite windy. The important thing to note is I saw the pig, it looked quite happy (Here ends this edition of PIGWATCH). When I got the petrol station out of the silence I could suddenly hear singing. Three vans/lorries stopped with maybe 20 (or more) people all standing dressed smartly and singing. This was a wedding procession it such a beautiful site brought a smile to my face. I was about to leave and start the run back to Tofo when I saw a Joseph who is one of the Mozambique guys at Liquid standing dressed smartly in the back of one of the lorries we had a very quick chat. Later I went to the beach with Tank, running and walking on the beach with a puppy is so much fun. I was ready for a Skype session with Hel so that I could see episode 2 of new Doctor Who live, but in the end Skype didn’t want to play, I only managed about 25mins of the episode will try again tomorrow.

Sunday in on shop duty, sitting here watching the world go by, I have just had two very green birds fly very close, hop about picking things up and eating. The chicks that Tiger brought in last week were green, I wonder if these are the same breed of birds. When I went home during the day yesterday I was buzzed by a couple of green birds in the garden, it went through my mind that these could have been the parents having a go at me because I didn’t do more to help….. Maybe not then!!! I spent most of the day working on the long list of sci-fi shit I have in storage, it’s a 42 page handwritten list, I’m typing it up and putting things on to order. I have photos of everything as well the idea is that I might be able to get people interested in some of it and make some money. However there are sections where I can’t read my handwriting, not good. There’s a wedding in town got a picture of one of the vans/lorries stuffed with people. Retried Skype to watch new Doctor Who, the episode was good, but as with last week I can’t see detail in the picture there are times when it’s a blurred mess, also the sound drops out now and then, but I got the story and still enjoyed it. I then Skyped with my other sister SAZ and her family chatted to my lovely niece Anaia until her brother Jesse (he is only 6 months old) throw up over dad, we had to end the call….. Bless him.

Monday, and the sea is still rough went diving to a beautiful site called Sherwood Forest we had a 6 to 7 metre Giant Manta. Two members of Liquid staff have been robbed over the last 2 nights which is worrying. Tofo is a generally safe place, from what I can tell so to have people out there breaking in at night is a little concerning. After this I hung about at the dive centre and covered shop for a little. I left a little early to go running got home changed in to my running clothes and left the house, as I closed the door I heard a unusual clunk. I put the key in and turned the lock the door wouldn’t open, I tried again and again. The lock has broken on me; the windows have bars there appeared to be no way of getting in. So off to Casa Barry with Tank and hoped that Jorge was around, phew he was just coming back from Inhambane (23k away), so we made our way back home and sat on the porch. Jorge came he had to rip the mozzie net on the front door, which has a kind of barn door hatch to it. He managed to climb in and tinker away with the lock using a folk and a knife and after a lot of effort he got the door open. This means I am unable to lock the door, which is not great when you consider the recent break inns locally. There was a lot of rain this evening and to cap the night Tiger never came home, I stayed up till 11pm regularly going out calling her name. Today one year ago I arrived in Tofo for the first time; I was here for the whole of September 2013 that month changed my life.

Tuesday, when I got up during the night I checked on the door, I barricaded a few things in front of it, I also looked out of windows to see if I could see Tiger. Carla the housekeeper arrived; I showed her and explained as best I could what had happened with the door. She then went to open a sort of shed in the garden and out pop Tiger, she’s been trapped in there since yesterday, she would have heard me calling her last night, at least she was in a dry place I suppose. I stayed in all day as Jorge said he’d be back. Yes you can guess he didn’t come round, I contacted Casa Barry who came back to me and said that he would be round tomorrow morning. I had a Season 4 Breaking Bad session watched lots of episodes and have finished the season. I looked something up on IMDB and accidently read a major spoiler….. ahhhh. Quick have another cider to forget.

Wednesday, Got to the dive shop and a dive was already being kitted out, I covered for Birgit (she was on shop) so she could dive. When they came back they told of 5 or 6 Mantas and many other wonderful creatures. While they were diving I finished my reef map, as part of the course you have to map a reef. Miki and I have done shallow site Clownfish. I borrowed some coloured pencils from the boss’s children and went about colouring it in.. My beautiful 2 ½ year old niece could have done a better job of it to be honest. I was a little embarrassed to hand it in (Art is something I’m sort of good at, even if I say so myself). Handing it in is another step towards being a DM. I popped home for a while once they had returned from the dive, mainly to check the door; Jorge has fixed the mozzie net (I actually thought he was going to fix the lock as well, obviously not). As a result I have contacted the landlord who is sending his son round tomorrow. During the day to make the door appear closed I have rigged up device using an old belt. I loop the belt round the leg of a small wicker cupboard then pass the belt under the door and pull it so that the cupboard is directly behind the door giving the appearance that the door is locked. This is in African tradition of make do and mend you see it everywhere here. Use what is around you to fix or mend something, you don’t always need to rush to a shop (there aren’t really any shops here to rush to so people have to make do and mend). In the afternoon had a great staff dive to the beautiful Sherwood Forest and guess what we had 4 Mantas who were so close. Oh possibly my best Manta experience so far. As usual my camera was full so I couldn’t take film or pics, note to self, check before the dive that its battery is charged and that there is room on the SD card. Hopefully Birgit or Leo got good shots. Sissi and Miki snorkel test took place at Mozambeats this evening. I drew the map for the dive site that they would have to brief everyone on, it was called Giants Arsehole (we have a site called Giants Castle) the map was suitably nasty looking. Miki and Sissi did so well with the actual snorkel test they kept there drink down pretty much (Sissi had a faulty snorkel). There briefing was hilarious very funny, maybe that’s how all dive briefings should be……… thinking about it maybe not. I will really miss not having Sissi around (she leaves in a few days) really nice evening out.

Thursday, I stayed at home because the landlord was sending his son over to have a look at the door. He arrived about 11ish and said he’d be back later, sure enough he was back at 2ish with another man who banged and screwed the mechanism, after a few minutes the lock was working, woo hoo. Because the housekeeper was in during the morning I popped out with tank quickly to the market to get a few things I wanted to be as quick as possible but kept bumping in to people that wanted to chat. This is really nice of course, certainly back at home people don’t stop and just talk, but I suppose because I was in a hurry I wished it wasn’t happening today. I do hope that doesn’t sound ungrateful. Skyped with Hel and mum, they have better internet at their house now this should make communicating easier, and Doctor Who session better (fingers crossed). I watched lots of Breaking Bad and Top gear, I’m a TV addict. Once the door was fixed I decided to take the advantage and go for a run. PIGWATCH, the pig was spotted eating, this ends PIGWATCH… I had a small group of children run with me for a few minutes, then a little elater this girl ran in flip flops for what felt like ages. Now and then she wondered in to the road which was a worry as traffic just thunders past, so I kept indicated that she shouldn’t be in the middle of the road. She understood me well enough to move to the side, but every now and then she moved back in to the middle of the road, I’d feel so bad if a kid (or anyone) running with me got hurt because they were in the road or a driver was not taking due care. It’s been a good slightly lazy day.

Friday is shop day, normally shop means staying helping dives go out and sorting stuff out when they return. Today I went on 2 great dives. Louis (a DMT) can’t dive due to an ear prob, kindly covered for me which was very sweet. The first dive was to a new site for me called Table Top a deep dive, nothing spectacular just a nice dive. The sound of humpbacks was so loud they were really near. As I climbed back into the boat I discovered a couple of things, first, my snorkel had come off. And second, my replacement mask strap was tearing; I’ve only had the mask and snorkel a year. I will have to do some shopping when I get back to the UK. Oh i also discovered my GoPro battery is frakked, will need to buy a new one when I get home, I won’t bother trying to charge it again. After a couple of hours back at the dive shop we went out again to Sherwood Forest, I really like this site another deep dive full of beautiful green tree corals (that’s the forest part). We had 3 giant Manta’s just hanging about, they were cleaning and being very chilled it is such a privilege to watch them, to be so close to them in their environment. The rest of the day was pretty much normal shop duty. But I’ve seen Manta’s today…. Woo hoo.

End of week 11, soon I have to go to South Africa to do my first ever boarder run, have heard many stories it will be an interesting trip. Yes I’ve had another great week; sorry to say it every week and be boring, but life here is good. I really do love Tofo.