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

Week 28, Saturday 27 December 2014 to Friday 2 January 2015.

This week I have mainly been listening to….. Morrissey, Lana Del Ray, Kate Bush, Jake Bugg.

And have been watching…. Twelve Monkeys, Game of Thrones (Season 1, eps 1 to 10), Game of Thrones (Season 2, eps 1)

Still reading…… Finished Morrissey’s Autobiography, Started “A Game of Thrones, A Song of ice and Fire” book 1 by George R.R. Martin.

Saturday, another very hot day you feel so slow and tired. Putting on a wetsuit and dive gear in this heat is not pleasant so any chance to get in the water (the sea before the launch or the pool after). Yesterday I spent ages working on arrangements for a kayak trip today. It didn’t happen the customers didn’t turn up that’s so annoying and rude. Went on a nice dive north today we were meant to have gone to “Reggies” but something happened on the drop and we let’s just say didn’t make it to Regs place but the reef I did see was lovely. It appears that my eyes on a dive look a little startled; I feel relaxed but when I’m working I’m concentrating. I will try to smile more behind my reg as smiling makes the eyes look more relaxed, I think. This evening we had a power cut for an hour and a half, it was mentioned to me “check the dog is not in the room”, there is a lovely black and white dog that I think comes from the lodge next door and lounges about in the garden, it was recently found in the bedroom, needless to say I checked all the corners and under the bed just to make sure. It rained a couple of times which is good let’s hope it breaks the humidity.

Sunday, The rain last night didn’t help it was just scorching all day. Went on 2 dives, the first didn’t go as planned due to strong current. The second reminded me of diving in Wraysbury in the UK in viz of maybe 1 or 2 metres. I lead my life trying my best to do the right thing, not to be a problem, to pull my weight (and yes there’s a lot of that). I do seem to spend my life tip toeing around people because I don’t want to upset anyone. The problem is I’m pretty much shit at everything, and things just seem to go wrong. Today is a prime example, I went with Mike to get petrol and we need to get money from the cash machine. Mike is dealing with the petrol so I decide I’ll help by getting money out with the company card, 3 times I try to put the pin and in the end yes you guessed it the card didn’t come back. It’s only when I’m telling Nadia that I realise what I did, how can I be so F£$&ing stupid. I am a f$”*ing liability I really feel that, I shouldn’t ever be given anything responsible to do because I’m either going to screw it up big time or it wont go to plan and will be a horrible mess resulting in me spending the rest of the day apologising to everyone and trying to be as invisible as possible. I have just received a text that said “Tomorrow is another day”, I replied “That’s what i’m worried about”…….. Its times like this I wish there wasn’t a tomorrow.

Monday, feeling better the most important news is the company cashpoint card has been retrieved from the bank, I’m never touching it again. It rained and poured so much today, there was a tiny frog in the bathroom this morning I managed to finally catch it in one end of a loo roll and managed to get him outside safely, I couldn’t leave him in the bathroom that 5 other people in the house use. At the dive shop I got soaked to the skin and didn’t have a change of clothes, I was tempted to jump in the swimming pool as I know the water was warm. I got wet from taking dive gear to and from the back of the shop collecting stuff from the boat, Mike and I looked like drowned rats. Spent a lot of today organising the kayak trip for tomorrow there is so much to arrange luckily one of our guys Mani is very good and knows the right people to talk too, the weather could be a sticking point will have to see. More power cuts during he evening but not as long as previous nights..

Tuesday, more rain, in fact it bucketed down but by 8 things were looking brighter. The kayak trip was on, we all bundled in to the bosses 4×4 and I drove us to the location. While dealing with the kayak the heavens opened again, how much rain is up there. We decided to drive to the actual location where we kayak from and discovered that you couldn’t see across to the island so it was decided by the customers to postpone and try tomorrow. This meant phone calls to canx the things that had been arranged yesterday and get things rearranged for tomorrow. During the day a few more people have expressed an interest so the group tomorrow is much bigger than planned, but because of the time of year we can’t hire anymore kayaks so some of the customers will ride on the dhow there instead of kayaking. Mike and I will decided who goes, I sort of feel it should be me as I was due to go yesterday and I have met all the clients before so I should probably go. This will mean that I won’t get another dive in 2014 which is disappointing, but I will make sure that I get plenty in 2015. I have done 130 dives since end of June which is really not bad. Tofo is very busy at the mo, there are lots of cars driving past with very load sound systems, but the worst part is the quad bikes passing all the time and the souped up ones are the worst by the end of the day my head was ready to explode.

Wednesday, and it was the second attempt at the kayak trip, I still had a slight headache from the day before but we gathered everyone together and off we went. When we go the location where we pick up the Dhow the guys who sail them wanted to suddenly charge us more coz of the time of year, we pointed out that they hadn’t said anything about this when we arranged them a few days ago. After a lot of raised voices and pointing (people here in Mozambique talk load, they still shout when next to each other) we departed (some kayaking some on the Dhow) for the island. I got to ride on the Dhow which is so much relaxing then kayaking, after a little stop on a sandbank for snacks and to wait for the kayaks to catch up we continued to the island. Once at the island we met the chief Eric who was entertaining a full island which was packed with visitors, normally were the only group there but today it felt like everyone was there. After a tour round the island we sat down for our meal, it was a feast, food just kept coming lots local tradition food along with a few chips and pasta. The Dhow ride back (for everyone this time, no one kayaks back) was so gentle just a lovely way to travel, there beautiful old boats, you ignore the small leaks and the bailing out that goes on in the back. Once back at Liquid I made sure nothing was in my pockets and ran through the shop and jumped straight in to the pool fully clothed. In the evening everyone in the house was out for New Years, I skyped with MOZ in the UK the first time, was so nice seeing and hearing her. While Skyping at about 11.30pm the front door rattled and banged then got nudged open, there was a dog. The dog had opened the door, came straight in and made its self at home. I tried to walk it out but it had other ideas. At midnight the fireworks began to upset it and she hid under mikes bed (which I thought was funny). At about 12.30 I managed to carry the heavy dog outside and quickly close the door. What a strange way to start a new year with my best friend and a stray dog. Later i skyped with my sister and mum who were watching the fireworks in London on TV. (I have since found out that the dog was probably Chicken who lives near the dive centre)

2014 has been an interesting year, what will 2015 bring……

Thursday, I didn’t go to bed last night until after 2am so this morning when I woke up after 7 I was slightly in shock as I’m so used to being up at 6am. I lounged about and in the end decided to go out, took the camera and got snaps of a very busy Tofo. Today there appeared to be a lot of hung over people everywhere I went. I ordered pizza which took 50 minutes to arrive, what made it worse was others who ordered after me go there’s first, very frustrating in this heat. I bought some fruit juice form one of my regular stalls and the woman just stood there staring in to nothing while I tried to give her the money I had to ask her to take it. Yes Tofo had a big head ache today. It was so hot during my little walk today I was glad to get home, I had to jump in the shower straight away. Spent the rest of the day watching Game of Thrones, that excites me. In the evening I skyped with my sister and her family end to a lovely day.

 Nelson, who parks and washes cars, a lovely bloke

Friday, busy day on the water, i did 2 dives and an Ocean Safari. The first dive to “Giants Castle” was a lovely drift but what made it special was a New Year Manta, it was not with us for long but I saw it. The Ocean Safari was packed all we saw were Dolphins and from what the other boats were saying to us they didn’t see anything big either. The final dive of the day was to “Simons Town” high light was a free swimming Octopus who squirted its ink, i’ve never seen that happen for real (only on TV) it was a special moment. After work Mike and I were in the market and bumped in to the Mozambique guys that work for Liquid they were all having a drink at a stall, next thing I knew was they had bought drinks for me and Mike, so sweet. Had a lovely time drinking with nice people watching the world go by. Tofo was packed there are so many 4×4 that nothing could move traffic is at a standstill, there seem to be a lot more police about but they just stand there doing nothing. Just skyped with SAZ and her family again, my little niece was shouting “Dee Dee don’t do Africa” which was so funny, there is very little about home I miss but Anaia is one of them.

This week I ended one year and started another. It’s been a good week with highs and lows but that’s to be expected, I’m over the low and feeling back on the Tofo high again. But I won’t lie and admit I’ll be glad when all the extra people that were here for Crimbum and New Year have left and Tofo can return to its normal sleepy seaside village self. Here’s to next week….