Off to Africa

Monday was the day when the excesses of the weekend finally caught up with me and I found myself grateful for all the hungover work I’d got through over the weekend as there was now very little left to do. Ryan was busy with work most of the day and I wasn’t in any state for anything strenuous or exciting. There was, however, one final pleasure to fulfil – meeting up with Jo and Tiff from my rafting trip the previous month.
In the evening, bags packed and loaded in the boot of the car, we drove out to the East coast, near the airport and met the girls for dinner at Jumbo’s seafood restaurant. The girls had been enticing me with thoughts of chilli crab ever since we’d exchanged e-mails after Nepal…and I was not disappointed. The food was utterly divine (if a little messy) and the five of us clobbered a huge amount of it, to the growing amazement of the staff. Even better, after our weekend of drunken delirium and mindless (although harmless) mayhem, it was a pleasure to have two such bright, intelligent companions and we made decent conversation for the first time since Friday afternoon.
Dinner was over far too quickly and I needed to get to the airport. We said our farewells to the girls and I promised to keep in touch as did the boys. It was good of them to come out on a ‘school night’ and I appreciated the effort thoroughly.
The lads got me to the airport with plenty of time to spare and took their leave of me. I’d really had a great weekend – just like old times – and it was great to see Ryan so obviously in his element. I hoped James would pass his financial exams so he too could stay and get a job. I was already looking forward to seeing them both on my next visit and I promised I’d be back soon.
I had plenty of time to kill at the airport and, this time, had no problems connecting to the wi-fi for a small fee. I got stuck into the huge backlog of e-mails that had accumulated since my time on Perhentian with Annie. The flight left at 2am and, once again, Singapore Airlines’ service was exemplary. I managed a good few hours and went to sleep, happy in the knowledge that, on waking, I’d be back in Africa for the first time in 3 years.