Pinch Me.

So, I have always felt pretty lucky. I have an amazing family, I couldn’t ask for better friends, a job that I adore and generally a damn good life. However, those who know me well understand that things haven’t always been perfect and I’ve had to take the rough with the smooth, like most people on this planet. Now, I am not religious at all but this week I have come to the conclusion that there is definitely someone watching over me. I have had a few ‘pinch me’ moments and, although I could give a list of things that aren’t perfect here, I still feel like I am dreaming. Driving to school, passing emerald green water every day hasn’t yet become ‘normal’ and I am pretty sure that, if I ever accidentally drive off the edge of a cliff (this is very possible in Seychelles! Pretend you didn’t see this, Mum!), it will be because I am still mesmerized by how beautiful this place is... or that I am being chased by all the dogs that think it’s funny to attack me on my scoot!

At the beginning of the week my immune system was attacked by germs. I felt pretty rough so I ate two grapefruits, two passion fruits and a star fruit  (thanks to my Seychelles Brother. You know who you are.) and drank two cartons of orange juice, all in one day. The intention was to overdose on vitamin C and it worked a treat. It would be fair to say that the massage I had the next day helped a bit too. 60 minutes in an open air room on the sea front being pampered was pretty incredible... until what felt like a monster-sized bug landed on my face and ate me alive! Being sprayed in the face with what I think was lavender water was a bit of a shock too, but I can’t have it all I suppose. My sunset scoot back from my massage was cute too and I stopped to take a few photos and talk to the local fishermen.

I have spent this weekend either in the water or eating. On Saturday, after my morning dive, we went up to Raffles hotel (ooh la la!) and had some lunch. The burgers were beastly! We were offered a complimentary cocktail and a bed by the pool. Now when I say ‘bed’, I mean an actual king-sized bed. We were given two towels each (yes, two) and brought complimentary drinks served in a champagne bucket. I am pretty sure that, if I wasn’t living here, I wouldn’t know this kind of place existed and even if I did, I would have never been able to afford to go there. Luckily, we know some incredibly generous people who are always bending over backwards to spoil us. We swam about for a bit, muttering a lot of ‘oh my god’ before walking about 3 meters to the beach to meet friends and Jet Ski and paddle board. I believe I am lucky to be alive after being thrown around on a Jet Ski at 90kmph. It’s a good job I had someone to hold onto as my legs and buttocks spent the majority of the time in the air, above my head. Still, it was fun. We then drove to the other side of the island to watch the sunset on the beach.

Today I tried to fly my power kite. It was unsuccessful. It took me an hour to set it up as it was so tangled, by which time the wind was nonexistent. Locals were having a BBQ and blasting out their usual Creole tunes. Some friends came down later to meet me and my sun-fried backside. Once I managed to get my scooter out from being trapped in the sand, we headed up to our local pool where we had yet more food, chatting and lazing about for a few hours. I ran over a giant crab on the way home and felt very guilty. Sorry crabby!

It’s 7 weeks today until my little Grandma friend, Liz arrives. This excites me! I am looking forward to seeing a familiar face. The internet is still very temperamental here due to someone dropping an anchor on the underwater fibre optic cable which runs from Africa. Rumour is that it’s going to take at least a few weeks to fix, so contact with home is limited.

This week I am cooking for 10 people. Please god, don’t let me poison them!

A bientot.