I received two suspicious emails at the start of the week, one with an attachment, from a man whose name meant nothing to me. After wondering whether to zap them, I took a back- door peep and discovered that the author and his wife had been fellow diners with Barbara and Maureen on the Mediterranean cruise. What’s more, they’d been kind enough to attach two pictures of their group, which you may find on my blog. (I’ve stopped attaching pictures to my letters for the moment because some correspondents are restricted to dial-up internet connections and don’t appreciate large files.)
Jones, I’m glad to say, has had a much better week. Once again, I’ll let her text messages speak for her.
(Sat) “Just coming into Mombasa at 0500 and hoping for a signal after such ages. Still dark. Big clouds. Going on a morning tour.
Sorry for silence but could not leave cabin for 3 days. Doctor’s orders. Neither could M for 2. Also am flustered by net centre although guy very helpful. Very expensive. 15 dollars each to send two (very brief) emails.
Mombasa mainly chaotic but old part interesting. Portuguese fort well preserved.
Everyone up on deck using wifi. Long 8 days for all.
(Sun) 0003 GMT. We about to leave for game park. Back late evening. All is going well.
(Mon) Tsavo excellent. Check internet for Voi Lodge. Must go there. Stunning panorama. Mombasa road worst ever. An experience. Good animal viewing. Sunrise as we enter Zanzibar harbour. Calm and warm. Tour due through old town. Feel fine.
(Thur) Seem to have signal. Trying for 2 days. Miss you and can sense the sights of home. Batteries down on camera. Missing 2 days of shots. Mayotte beautiful but tatty. Today Nosy Be with lemurs. Probably out of touch 3 days until Durban.
(Later Thur) Amazing day in Lekobe Forest.
My (Terry’s) week has managed to embrace nearly all my good deeds for the year. The first was to offer old Zeferino a bucket of fertilizer as he made his way up the steep track beside the house to tend his carob saplings in a plot at the top of the hill. (It took us some time to get to grips with his name, which comes from the Roman Zephyrinus, itself derived from the Greek Zephyros. This is a country whose copper and gold deposits were mined by the Carthaginians and then the Romans hundreds of years before the Arabs came ashore here.)
Zeferino was glad to accept my offer. He stopped for a quick chat. Did I know, he asked me, that X, another villager, had gone mad. I told him that I was aware of X’s problem. It’s a very sad story. The man concerned has gradually developed a dementia that recently resulted in an attack on his wife. They are both in their sixties; maybe early seventies. The police were called but declined to take any action, presumably because she didn’t press charges. So was an ambulance but since X refused to get in, it too went away. X has been prescribed pills that he takes reluctantly if at all. Nobody knows what to do about the situation.
As Monday was a lovely sunny day and I had long since promised a friend that I’d take my chainsaw around to trim some branches, I kept my promise. The tree concerned was a huge old pine that could easily shade a dozen cars. It must have been there long before I was born. The lower branches were drooping uncomfortably close to the ground. I spent half an hour clearing them to a height of some two metres. It’s hard work holding a chain saw at arm’s length or above one’s head. I reckoned that this good deed should safely see the year out.
On the way home I passed the odd couple pushing their ancient wheelbarrow along the road to the village. The barrow, which is pre the pneumatic age and should have been retired 50 years ago, was loaded with twigs, obviously intended for the fire. Getting the barrow up Espargal hill was a challenge that I couldn’t see them meeting. I started the tractor which, as it happened, had a load of firewood stacked in the link box and drove down the road to meet them. Together we heaved their barrow on board and I drove back up the hill to their cottage where I left the load. The only drawback of such kindness is that it always meets equal kindness from the other side, generally delivered in the shape of half a goat or worse – in the same ancient barrow.
Finally, at the request of another neighbour, I attached the extension ladder to the tractor, took the chainsaw, and went to the far end of the village to trim a large carob tree. The tree in question, like the pine, had obviously been around for a very long time and offered a welcome area of shade at the bottom of the garden. Its problem was a collapsed bough that dangled dangerously a couple of metres above the ground. This, after a bit of high altitude chain-sawing, I managed to bring down, much to the gratitude of the owners of the property.
That’s all my good deeds. I am going to check Wikipedia and any other sources I can find to determine how to grade good deeds and to establish how many “good deed points” one needs to get to heaven; that’s if Richard Dawkins is wrong and there is one. (I’ve just finished his God Delusion – interesting book!) With luck I should be in credit well into the New Year.
I nearly forgot. There’s one more to report. I went along to a workshop where Vitor the mechanic fixes cars to see what progress he was making with a car belonging to an Irish couple who commute back and forth. They’re away at the moment and their car has to go for its annual inspection by the end of the month. I’d promised them to follow its progress. The car was awaiting a new generator and then its test.
Vitor himself was a bit glum about his dad, who is in hospital with terminal cancer and not expected to survive very long. The old fellow has been a village institution for as long as most people can remember, an Andy Capp figure who, after retiring from the building trade, was most often seen passing on his moped, stompie glued to his lips, as he headed to or from the bar at Alto Fica. I hope there’s a bar in heaven, or wherever Vitor’s dad is likely to be going soon.
On the domestic front I seem to have spent most of my week caring for animals. That’s the two dogs, the two kittens, Tommie fat cat, the two black cats that arrive for food morning and evening and, since Marie and Ollie are away for a week, Nosey and her brood of four remaining kittens over at David and Sarah’s place. The hardest part has been keeping rival pairings away from each other, especially as the kittens have grown restless with the back patio and I’ve tried letting them out for short spells. Braveheart is quite reckless and hastens to meet any other animals, generally with bad results. His sister, Dearheart, is quite the opposite and very nervous. I shall be pleased to hand over kitten duties to Jones in just over a week.
Wednesday evening I joined friends David and Dagmar for a meal and a film. The meal made a welcome change from my standard evening diet of raw veges and tinned fish. Thursday brought the arrival of a “poltrona” (I wonder where that word comes from) the arm chair that I ordered from a specialist firm of chair, bed and mattress makers some weeks ago. It’s one of those chairs whose base kicks out to support the sitter’s legs and which inclines back at an angle. It’s very comfortable. I tried it out in front of the fire and last barely five minutes into a TV programme.
The chair is intended to replace a most uncomfortable “bargain” leather chair and stool that we acquired in London years ago and which we seldom sit in but have been too mean to throw out. I shall try to persuade Jones to donate it to a worthy cause. I hope that you like the new chair Jonesy, which is currently parked in the lounge while it awaits assignment to either the south patio or upstairs to the study. I’m not putting it on the patio yet as it’s very comfortable in the lounge and I fear that the kittens would not treat it kindly.
Thursday also brought the first drops of rain of a storm that is meant to rage over the Iberian Peninsula this weekend. I have loaded the wheelbarrows with firewood and parked them in a dry spot to help see us through. The wood-burning stove is a pearl of great price. I think I shall get this off early lest the power or my internet link should go down.
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