Monday 3rd April
A (mercifully?) short blog today.
Well, I survived the night without being eaten alive by monster rats and mosquitoes.
I’m proud of myself: it’s now 9.15 am, and since getting out of bed I’ve already published yesterday’s blog, had breakfast (no Chinese guavas this time!) and written my exam questions for the University of Mauritius! Unfortunately I still have to supply “model answers”, but this can be done after my return to the UK if necessary. I think I’ll try to do it before then, however.
So the bulk of today’s “work” is already behind me. Yesterday’s washing does need ironing – some of it - and I will have to amble down to the Spar for some provisions. Other than that it will be a relaxing-around-Flic-en-Flac sort of day, I imagine. Tomorrow I have my lecture, and in the afternoon I’ll be visiting the British Council. Yes, I really will be this time.
I’m still not particularly inspired to start writing papers though. So there will probably not be much to report today, one way and another.
I’ve done the shopping. Now what? Ah well, time for lunch I suppose:
A typical lunch "at home"
Lunch over, I’ve just finished reading “The Road to McCarthy”. I’m quite sorry really, as I’ll be rather at a loss now. That book has been a constant companion throughout my trip.
After a bit of a rest – well … it gets hot you know! I noticed a mosquito hovering around near me. So by way of an experiment I gave it a quick squirt of the stuff I spray on me. It dropped down dead almost immediately. So that’s a comforting thought.
About 4.00 pm I went for a swim and a sit on the beach. This very tame bird came waddling past:
It couldn't be a Pink Pigeon could it?
It did seem to have pigeon-like tendencies, but whether or not it is one of the famous pink ones I don’t know. There are supposed to be some of them in the wild again now, following a breeding programme. It was quite happy for me to get close to it for photographing purposes. That willingness to trust humankind seems to have led to the demise of much of Mauritius’s native wildlife in the past – most notably the dodo, of course. Hopefully it won’t be the case from now on though.
After a sit on the beach I take some more boring sunset photographs (yawn yawn):
It’s “Casa Pizza” again tonight – to keep them sweet. Good job I did decide to go there because there is a problem for my excursion on Wednesday – no vehicle available. So we settle for Friday instead. It’s OK with me, but I am slightly apprehensive in case something similar should happen next week when Caroline & Pete are here. They don’t have many days so the options will be limited. Anyway, we agree to discuss it nearer the time.
It’s back to the two CDs again now (there being no live “orchestra” during the week). The regular waiter is not here this evening either, and Mme is serving alone. At the next table are two young English men. One is from the NE, one from the SE, by the sound of them. It’s fairly high-powered conversation in which I get the impression that SE is being sized up by NE for a possible managerial assignment – maybe in S Africa? It’s difficult to eavesdrop effectively at this distance. It all sounds very IT-CAD-graphics-PhotoShoppy. They discuss business the whole time they are here. And, of course, don’t speak a word of French to Mme.
Apart from them, there is a European (probably) family – not French – at one table, and a local couple sitting somewhere behind me. That’s it.
Hey – I’ve just noticed the music has stopped. Ah, hang on. CD #1 is being started again from the beginning; so it’s “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” for the 93rd time since I started frequenting the joint. That one winds up, and she’s located a third CD (!) This one is a kind of knees-uppy Mauritian light-hearted Frenchy thing. Turns out it’s Séga (!) Funny, I thought I might quite like Séga. Now I’m not so sure. This number seems to be called (from the fact that the tag line is repeated over and over) “Mam’selle Telephone”. There are half a dozen or so other tracks, all in a similar vein. I dunno though; it has a certain catchiness about it. I might even consider getting a copy just to remind myself of my time here. According to Mme I should be able to get hold of it in Rose Hill, Quatre Bornes or Port Louis.
I had the fish & aubergine curry, two beers and an espresso, incidentally. And tonight my Rhum Arrangé was brought to me, unbidden, by Mme herself! By the time I was on l’addition I was the only customer left. I suppose Mondays are bound to be quieter though.
It seems to me, on the way back here, that there are more dogs about every day. Although the majority are quite docile and tend to give you a wide berth, there is one tonight that is distinctly unsettling: barking and growling at me as I walk past - as nonchalantly and intrepidly as I can muster. I do hope the authorities are addressing this problem. If they ignore it all together, then before long some little child is going to get attacked, and they could turn out to have a far more serious plague than the mosquitoes on their hands.
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