My First Trip: Day Twenty One

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Sunday 10th December 2000

Breakfast

I got up at 8:30 to go with D... for breakfast with D2..., but D... didn't show up until 9:30 which was too late for the breakfast outing. Never mind.

Sunday lunch on the beach

Afterwards we headed back to the house to change out of our sweat drenched clothes and get ready to go to the beach for lunch. By the time we got our food it was 4pm. Neither me or D... had eaten for 20 hours, longer than B2... that's for sure. Barbecued Chicken and Chips on the beach for Sunday lunch makes a change though. Especially in December.

B2... had been trying out the reconditioned Mazda truck we just bought by running it out to the beach we were at. It broke down about halfway to the beach so he had to get a taxi back to the house to get the Toyota Landcruiser to tow the Mazda back and then come to the beach in the Landcruiser. So he had a pretty tough time. A Nigerian woman with us ordered fish for lunch which made me feel a bit ill when I saw her eating the heads. M1... hadn't eaten his fish head so she ate that as well, all of it. Uurgh! I finished my chicken and all that was left was bone and gristle. A small boy called me from outside the beach house and pointed to the bones. So I handed them over and he proceeded to eat them by crunching straight through. I hope he didn't choke.

We weren't quite so pestered with beach vendors today, I didn't buy anything at all, I would have bought this nice Breitling watch (fake of course) but the guy wouldn't accept my price. So I told him to go away and think about it. He didn't come back. D... ordered his Bar that he's having made. It's solid mahogany with hand Carved elephants on the front. An amazing bargain at N45,000. He wanted to have a cheap shed built for a generator housing at the Apartment. That was going to be made of mahogany too. How much is a mahogany garden shed worth in the UK? It seems to be easiest wood to get here. There was some guy trying to sell me ivory statues, and another trying to sell me a sword. As if I'd even attempt to take those through customs.

I did see some interesting bracelets before, they were made of Cobra skin, and they felt and looked amazing. I wasn't too sure if I knew anybody that would appreciate them as much, so I didn't buy them. I think K1... bought some of them for her daughters while she was here.

The sun disappeared behind the smoggy skyline and we had 30 minutes or so to get home before dark.

For our evening meal we went to Planet 44 at about 9pm. D..., M1... and E... each had a steak after they saw the one I had last time. I had Beef Stroganoff because nobody had tried that yet. It was good, except it tasted a bit too much of cheese, which is strange because I'm sure Beef stroganoff is usually not at all cheesy.

They had rather irritating live music so we left quite quickly. and headed back to the house to watch the Matrix and then get some sleep.